We all want to change the world. Walking into an engineering company and expressing my enthusiasm for working on environmental remediation projects as opposed to building new oil platforms was met with a somewhat expected response: “You’re not going to change the world here.” I loved the honesty of these people though. They basically said, we are still employed by, and therefore are controlled by industry. You do the amount of remediation that makes economic sense for the companies, not what’s always perfect by the planet. “I want to be part of the solution, rather than part of the problem.” I know, I’m green in more ways than one.

So I felt a twinge of naivete come upon me, and the need to agree that, yes, I realize I’m not joining this company to save the world. But I still think it’s a step up. We are ALL hypocrites to our ideals in life. We say we want one thing, but over and over we fail to exemplify that in our lives. We all want to be perfectly loving, caring, compassionate, helpful, and do the right thing by everyone all the time. But we are not. To err is human. BUT, I still feel like I am making small steps in the right direction. I KNOW that my automobile spews toxins into the air, but I still drive one. We all make these decisions everyday. But I chose to trade in my beloved SUV for a hybrid, so that’s a small step toward my ideal. I KNOW that my choice to use birth control is harming the ecosystem, but I do it anyway. I’m still working my way out of that trap. I became a vegetarian in small part because I don’t NEED to kill animals to live, so why not eliminate that additional pain & suffering in the world?

So we all want to change the world, and that can make others nervous. It can make others feel judged or convicted of their hypocrisies. All we can do is lead by our own example, and continue to look for little ways to be true, and to merge ever closer our ideals with our reality.