Every Day Is Earth Day

I suppose, to most people, Earth Day is sort of like Valentine's Day, or Christmas; you either love it or you rant against it being commercialised, losing the "message", or just don't "believe" in doing it. That approach seems to stem from the whole concept of it being a "day" rather than a full life choice. We don't do Christmas in July, for example - as a matter of fact (and sad to say) it's the furthest thing from people's minds at the moment. We don't talk about Burns Night in June, we don't play at Halloween in January.
But I've never been one for keeping these sentiments just for one specific day. At Stealth-House, we have un-birthday parties; we have first Christmas and Second Christmas (Yule and Christmas respectively). As a old-skool goth, every day is Halloween. And Earth Day is every day for me.
Earth Day is a great idea as an idea - not merely as a day. It brings awareness to people, gets them involved in causes they may not have ever known about - I've just been turned on to Survival International recently and, having grown up with AmerIndians in the US, indigenous rights are something I feel very strongly about, and I believe I'll start donating proceeds to the cause from my business. If people actually are willing to enter into the spirit of the thing, rather than knee-jerk out of their own sense of guilt, it has the potential to do a lot of good, provided people don't treat it as a one-day thing.
Earth Day at home here is every day; growing fruit and veg, cooking home-cooked meals, cleaning with homemade products, keeping things in as good nick as I can possibly manage to do. Making do, and more importantly, enjoying it, is what this sort of thing is all about to me. It isn't difficult, inconvenient, or time consuming, and even if you do only one thing for the benefit of the planet and your fellow creatures, it's one thing more than you were doing before.
So for me, today is just another day...and yet, at the same time, it isn't.

Labels: Good Life