In this blog, my posts seem to take a gradation of tones.
There are the encouraging, nurturing posts. I might call those “sweet.” They are designed to soothe people’s anxieties; ease burnout; let you all know you have love and company, and that your presence makes a difference however you choose to show up.
Then there are the posts that have a slightly curmudgeonly tone. I might call those “salty.” The mood is like, “Yeah, we are all on the same team, and I’m not trying to shame anyone, but we really have to do better, and here are some tips and resources.”
And then, there are the way-amped-up, super-cranky posts. I might call these “spicy.” These are mostly venting my frustration with industry, politicians, and “my demographic tribe”: my fellow white Boomers of the privileged classes who identify as environmentalist. The tone is like, come ON people! We call ourselves eco activists and this is the best we can do??? SHAME ON US!!! We need to do a LOT better.
Although a gradation of tones might be necessary, and sometimes entertaining, I sometimes find myself going back and toning down the super spicy posts. I love my fellow human beings. And shame doesn’t tend to help anyone. And besides, anything I am railing against is something I myself do or have done in some form. I certainly make impulse purchases. And I sometimes buy in more quantity than I need. And in my days of flying, I sometimes took an impulsive weekend flight, feeling very glamorous at the time and not thinking at all about the planet or any of my fellow beings.
The spicy posts are mainly motivated by my own fear and panic. It’s when I allow myself to go down a doomy rabbit-hole. But as much as I have sometimes gotten off on being snarky, I think that in the future I am going to tend to reserve my snarkiness more for characters in my fiction books, and keep the content of this blog holding steady at a sweet to salty range. Well OK there might be some spice sometimes still! And always, I appreciate your feedback on how the tone of some post has helped you, impeded you in your efforts.
And I think you ALL for caring enough to be on a path of reducing our footprint on the beautiful planet that is our only home.
And: If you run across a cranky post when you need a sweet nurturing post, please feel free to skip the cranky post! And, conversely, if the sweet posts aren’t quite getting you motivated, keep reading — you are sure to run into a salty or spicy post before very long! It’s like that joke about the weather, that everybody in every place seems to think is unique to their place: If you don’t like the weather here, wait five minutes!
Added an hour later: with typical beautiful synchronicity, one of my teachers posted this quote about compassion. It definitely fits in with my ego activism including this blog. Nurturing my fellow humans, as opposed to othering them and calling them out, is really the direction I want to move in more and more.
“The practice of seeing clearly is what finally moves us toward kindness. Seeing, again and again, the infinite variety of traps we create for seducing the mind into struggle, we feel compassion for ourselves. And then, quite naturally, we feel compassion for everyone else.” — Sylvia Boorstein, “The Wisdom of Discomfort”