The Green Family: The Marathon

I meant to write and post this over a month ago; but then, well, I couldn't quite figure out how to end this. I know what a marathon is in environmental-metaphor speak, but it fell flat. Here goes:

A marathon is when it stops being someone else's thing and becomes your thing. When you find a cause or an issue that you care passionately about and work on it not because someone else told you you should, and not because someone else told you what to do, but because it's yours. I am not there myself and I don't know if I ever will be. The closest I come to it is in my writing here, hoping that by sharing the immense love I have for my own environment, that maybe you will love yours a little bit more too. (The ultra-marathoners, for those of you who are wondering, which I know is all of you because doesn't everyone find this fascinating?, are the people like David Suzuki who take their thing and make it everyone else's thing too--the leaders and organizers.)

But, enh, who cares? The number of environmental marathoners in the world is quite slight, and we don't all need to be at that level. We just need our lifestyles, politics and activism to be in reasonably good shape.

Here's a recap of the Green Family How To Train for an Environmental Marathon Guide:

1. The Introduction, wherein I introduce the ecological footpring calculator and break down the basics of what level of environmental action corresponds to what level of physical effort.

2. The Slow Walk, some very easy and basic lifestyle changes to knock a few hectares off of your footprint.

3. Walk Fast, being slightly more challenging lifestyle actions.

4. Walk/Run, more challenging lifestyle actions plus a little self-education on local environmental issues and resources.

5. Run a 5k, the last of the lifestyle changes plus some online resources on environmental news for your edification.

6. Run a 10k by reading a book. A whole book on an environmental issue.

7. Run a Half-Marathon: activism for beginners!

8. Rest and Regroup, including environmentally-themed fun for the whole family.

9. Run 20 Miles: more challenging and time-consuming forms of environmental activism.

10. The Marathon: Ta-da! You're here.

I'm not going to quiz you on what you personally have taken from it or done (though if you'd like to tell me that would be great). But I would like to keep this going as an occasional series on environmental lifestyle changes, fun stuff, and activism for families. Activities in the run/walk to rest-and-regroup stages, maybe once per month or so. (Unless any of you would like to make strong pleas either for more or less frequency.)

If any of you would like to participate, that would be fun too (whether by contributing ideas, posts here, posts on your own blog that I'd link to, or whatever you can think of). Let me know in the comments or by email (andrea AT andreamcdowell DOT com). So long as it has nothing to do with either boycotts or stuff you can buy, which not only rubs me the wrong way but is more than adequately covered in far more popular venues than mine.

Posted by Andrea at August 11, 2008 8:05 AM under The Green Family

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