A life of luxury

I don’t think that all hope is lost.  I don’t think that wrongs can’t be righted.  I don’t know if this “human experiment” will end in catastrophe for the species. I do think that things will get worse before they get better. And I’m not really sure that a small group of dedicated individuals has the power to change this course.  The ship is too big, and the trajectory too ridged. So what does this mean for how I live my life?

The collective and individual pulls are constantly a war within me. I know that more space and nicer “things” aren’t good for the whole, but I still want things.  This very simplistic description is a problem that few have the privilege of wrestling with. I am highly educated, well traveled, and lead a life of relative privilege. Privilege compared to the majority of the worlds population.  For most this struggle is nothing but a luxury of one of the greatest consumers and producers of environmental harm the earth has every seen. The problem is that the rest of the world struggles to be just like me. Well, not me per se, but like the life I am able to afford.  A life of comfort. And why shouldn’t they? I live a great life, all my needs are met. I have great housing with reliable water, heating, and electricity. I can afford to eat great food that is fresh and/or exotic. I can get around the place that I live without too much inconvenience. The air is clean. The water is relatively clean. Garbage is not in plain sight. Green space is abundant and available. And I take it all for granted most of the time.  What’s not to love?


For starters, it comes at a price. Not for me, but rather, for those in some of the places I have been fortunate enough to visit on my exotic holidays. It’s not like I am directly contributing to the heating not working during the wintertime in Nepal, but I have had an effect. It’s not like I polluted those rivers in Vietnam that children swam in, but my presence has been felt. And I know this. So again, I come back to the question; what does this mean for me? I know that those right here in this country that have not been as fortunate as me don’t know these things. So how can I fault them for their individual choices? I can’t. But all of those individual choices add up. As do those billions of choices in places like China, India, Indonesia, Brazil, Chile, South Africa, and…. the list goes on. So can we right the ship? I don’t know.  Presently it doesn’t look like it. It would take huge technological breakthroughs, and the amount of time that it will take to change perspectives are a luxury we no longer have. 

 

So I come to the conclusion that I must live my life in the best most responsible way I can think of. Even if it does nothing in the short term, hopefully it will amount to something, anything in the long term. Knowing what I know, having seen what I have seen, it would immoral and unethical for me to live in any other way. This isn’t going to be easy. But I am willing to “sacrifice.”

I said it weeks back, we must reframe and rethink this idea of sacrifice. I do not feel like I have sacrificed anything to live the life I live. By taking an honest and objective view of my own footprint on this earth, I can say without any prejudice that I live a much more “European” existence than an “American” one. As a result I feel as if I have gained so much for the choices that I have made and feel sorry for those that don’t get to experience the simple joys that I feel on a day-to-day basis. Much of this has to do with the choice or riding a bike and public transportation. And I recognize that this isn’t possible for every person everywhere, but I do think that this simple solution has the ability to be a game changer here in the United States. This is what I think Wapner talks about his article “Sacrifice in the Age of Comfort.”  We need to rebrand and reframe this idea of giving something up. I didn’t give up a car, I gained fresh air, exercise, more money, less time spent sitting in traffic, easy exploration of the world around me, and a sense that I am living in a more sustainable way. A richer, more complete life if you will.