I've thought about this phrase quite a few times recently. I like it. I generally think of poker when I think of "all in", it's that point when you have a hand that you want to put everything that you have on the line. The beauty of it in poker is that it doesn't matter whether you have a good hand or not, you can bluff or you could have a royal flush. Going all in simply means that you are putting everything on the line.
So I'm interested in helping the environment, but am I "all in"? Unfortunately I don't think that I am. My family still owns a car (and we will own it until I can convince my wife to sell it). We don't recycle grey water. We don't produce any of our own electricity, and depend completely on incoming electricity and gas for our home. I sometimes take longer showers than I need to since I usually take them at school and I don't have to pay for it.
What does it take to go all in? I want to, but why haven't I if I'm really that interested? First off, it takes a lot of work to recycle grey water and finding alternative means of producing electricity is expensive or requires a lot of work. And we do still use our car occasionally, so it may not be the time to sell it yet.
Oh, but I have plans. The next time we move, we're building a house with solar panels and excellent insulation and grey water recycling and everything else green that you can think of. Did I think I was going to do that the last time we moved? Probably. But last time we didn't have a whole lot of money to work with. Next time will be different.
Why do I put off the major changes that I want to make? This stuff is really important to me, but I just don't do anything except plan. That is one thing that I really admire about No Impact Man, he did it. He turned off the electricity to his Manhattan apartment and lived for a year with no electricity. That's admirable. Why don't I do it? Oh, I'm in a different situation. Local food is hard to find. our house would get REALLY COLD. Our pipes would likely freeze. I'm not home enough and it would be more of a burden on my wife than on my ( I sit in a heated office and work on the computer all day).
All I have are excuses, how do I get rid of excuses and start making a difference with my life?
"I want only to live in accord with the promptings of my true inner self. Why is that so very difficult?" --Hermann Hesse
3 comments:
line by line and precept by precept
there is a time and season for everything
patience
persistance
you'll get there
It's great to think about having a nice new house built for you with all of these green concepts. But the fact is that's probably the least green thing you can do. There exist perfectly good houses out there that already have had a lot of energy and materials used to create them. Frankly, I think you're much greener just buying an existing home and doing what you can afford to do when you can afford to do it.
Nice blog.
Btw .."all in" works only in poker..
Life is usually about small/big adjustments we make everyday until we get as close as possible to what we want to achieve. There are excuses and then there are legitimate reasons. Seems like you have legit reasons
That being said, its good for you to work towards "all in". Am sure you will get a lot accomplished.
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