I’ve spent a lot of time over the past few weeks on a personal treasure hunt, trying to uncover the core value of moregreenmoms. As I have joked many times, there is very little “there there.” If you pull back the curtain, you will find just me, surrounded by books and clippings, fingers tapping and brain clicking in a determined effort to help turn the tide of consumer awareness as it relates to our health and the environment.
But as I reflect on the many conversations and emails that now fill my days, this notion of working as an individual has suddenly evaporated. Although my payroll may not reflect growth, my company has burst wide open and is now teeming with innovative thinkers, political advocates, marketing experts and effective leaders.
Collectively, we have a task, and that is to take greater initiative to protect our earth, our families and ourselves. But individually, we all bring to the virtual Board Room a unique set of skills, experiences and connections that enable effective parallel operations. Our coalition does not exist under a formal umbrella, but we are united in focus and spirit.
For example, during the Q&A after a recent presentation I gave, a woman in the audience expressed a particular interest in learning more about composting and waste management. We explored some resources as a group and later THAT DAY I received an email inquiring whether I would be game for a visit to the San Francisco Recycling Center, which our Mayor, Gavin Newsom, proclaims to be a more worthwhile tourist attraction that the Golden Gate Bridge! So, thanks to her initiative, we are hosting an outing to our city dump later this month. Imagine the knowledge that will spread outward from our soon-to-be-enlightened group!
And just this morning, I met with five other moms to better align our opposition tactics against the impending aerial pesticide spray planned for Northern California, http://www.moregreenmoms.com/advocacy/index.html. The majority of us have never before taken a leadership role in any politically charged controversy. Yet, in an effort to safeguard our community, all of these women have halted the normal flow of their lives to organize Town Hall meetings, consult with attorneys, develop communications platforms, interview medical experts, befriend entomologists, raise money and tirelessly lobby our legislators to protect us. They have become reluctant, but extraordinarily effective players in the ever-expanding stage of global chemical warfare. Without question, a hornet’s next has been knocked from the rafters!
So what encourages me to no end is to tally a collection of similarly action-oriented and positive stories that I could share not only from people I’ve met in San Francisco, but from across our country, and even Europe. There are More Green Moms every day. And they are blazing new paths to revamp the menus at their schools, develop healthier consumer products, champion sustainability and raise the growing green whisper into a forceful shout.
Like me, many of the people I hear from are fairly new subscribers to a greater environmental sensitivity. Some are piecing the puzzle together perhaps for the first time. I know this might be a major slap in the face to the MANY dedicated scientists, activists, legislators, writers and educators who have been professing these truths for decades. But I think we have now tumbled over Malcolm Gladwell’s tipping point. We are ready to listen, but more importantly, we are ready to take action. Mama bear has awoken.
So if I were to define moregreenmoms’ core value, I would say that it has become an effective translation service. Not only can I tune into an empathetic audience who shares a history of mistakes and a keen desire to avoid them in the future, but I can help distill the myriad of resources into bite size portions that can catalyze rather than paralyze our powerful audience. I am trying to find anyone and everyone, Mother or other, who will make the commitment to simply stop the madness, think about the greater equation and take action to promote change.
While my base of contacts is nascent, author Michael Pollan, has earned the respect of a vast collection of readers who, like me, have gained invaluable insights relating to the complexity of our American environmental landscape. I have read many books on these topics, but no one can transport you from the cornstalk to the drive-through like he can. That is why I was particularly intrigued to read his essay in the April 20th New York Times green-themed Sunday magazine. While the conclusion of his piece focused specifically on food, the body of his message explored why we must “all bother” to partake in the effort to safeguard our planet. Please excuse the long quote as you can read his entire article yourself, but he’s brilliant,
“If you do bother, you will set an example for other people. If enough other people bother, each one influencing yet another in a chain reaction of behavioral change, markets for all manner of green products and alternative technologies will prosper and expand. (Just look at the market for hybrid cars.) Consciousness will be raised, perhaps even changed: new moral imperatives and new taboos might take root in the culture. Driving an S.U.V. or eating a 24-ounce steak or illuminating your McMansion like an airport runway at night might come to be regarded as outrages to human conscience. Not having things might become cooler than having them. And those who did change the way they live would acquire the moral standing to demand changes in behavior from others.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/20/magazine/20wwln-lede-t.html?_r=2&ref=world&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
I obviously agree with him. I agree to the extent that I can’t stop “bothering” now that I’ve started. And I know that many of you feel the same way.
In closing, I received an email this morning from a teacher at my daughter’s school, and it read, “The third graders are doing a project about someone who is working towards protecting and conserving the environment. A number of teachers recommended you and your work with your website. A student in my class selected you as her EcoHero. Would it be possible for her to email you a few questions or give you a short interview?”
As I sit here alone, again, at my dining room table, I bear no fantasy that I deserve to be grouped with the true EcoHeros of our time. But I do know that I have helped coalesce some thinking, jumpstart some action and build some excitement around how we can live differently in our community.
And the beauty of it is that I have never met resistance, but rather encountered unbridled desire to own the solutions we are capable of delivering to our society.
I will passionately keep recruiting More Green Moms, because I have the data to prove that whatever we can accomplish will make us heroes to our children. And that clearly the day has arrived for us all to “bother.”
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