Choosing a Future
Photo by Chuck Hoffman © Genesis+Art
Hudson, Wisconsin
Peg and I have spent a good portion of our life looking for beauty and revealing what we have found. From the splendor of the earth to tender relationships between cultures we have looked for those connections and let them influence our spirit and sharing our findings with the world through our art. It can seem idyllic to seek beauty when so much seems contradictory to this journey. Today however I reflect on my experience with the underbelly of our world, and it couldn’t be further from my comfort zone. But it’s a reality that I feel I need to express and that I can’t ignore anymore.
My trip to the county landfill that day was not my first. This experience made me think about my consumption and waste. We were in the process of moving to Wisconsin from Florida. We had made several trips with our old paint and strange metal objects that may have served a purpose at some point, although we were not sure of their function. That day was different. It was for the disposal of a pricey fine art printer. It was in perfect working order and had produced many fine prints for us, but the manufacturer decided not to make the ink cartridges for this model any longer. It had become useless, so we had to give it a new home in the industrial graveyard.
As we drove to the county waste disposal site, we had NPR on in the car. The storyline was on how the industrial revolution defined the number of hours (40) that most people work. It was created by Henry Ford to have three shifts work continuously throughout the day to maximize the product output. More stuff for more people. Lots of thoughts ran through my head like the amount of energy it took to create and manufacture the printer and the company decision to make it obsolete to create more and different printers that ultimately find a resting place in a wasteland of other spent materials. Maybe I was more disturbed on this trip because the weather was gloomy, it had rained for days and everything was a muddy mess, maybe because there was an extraordinary number of vultures waiting in the slop to see what was arriving or maybe it was the wretched smell. Hard to find beauty here. A man in an earth mover suddenly appeared near my car and said I shouldn’t try to drive any further as the plowed over garbage had become mud and didn’t want me to bury my car along with the other junk. I put my expensive color printer, a pile of corrugated boxes and old carpet in his enormous bucket. He then drove it into the heap of mattresses and non-discernable items, and much to the scavengers’ disappointment nothing to eat.
I think it is good to see a place like this as it grounds me in the reality of what we are doing to our planet. It’s so much cleaner to put my waste management container at the curb without thinking about where it goes. I’m working towards changing my mindset on what I consume and ask if this is good for the earth, is it good for humanity or if profit is made or not. And this is coming from a former advertising executive. It’s almost too late for a change in mindset, but anything and everything helps now. I can’t unknow what I now know. I don’t want to leave our excessive lifestyle for my grand children or anyone else for that matter.
Letting go of the old world is a challenge and I believe a big part of the divisiveness we are experiencing within our culture and our world. New paths are never certain and that breeds fear and contempt for those trying to lead us into an unknown reality. Fear drives us back into what we think we know rather than be open to possibilities that benefits the earth and creation. Perhaps the beauty of this experience is to point me in a new direction. So, I’m taking a deep breath while I’m writing and am deciding to do my part, not to despair but continue to bring a hopeful, bright vision for the earth and all its inhabitants. I am committing to reducing my impact on the planet. I will continue to look for beauty and wonder and express that in our art, to learn and grow and try to do the right thing, by deciding to do my part politically. I will vote for and support candidates who believe that the earth is in crisis and champions the changing of our planets’ environmental and economic trajectory to a healthier world as their number one political priority.
I’m thinking when I wonder, I’m learning.
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