Don’t get nervous. I’m not talking about capital punishment here. I’m talking about doing something, as in, executing a plan, taking executive action. I was half-listening to a show on NPR a few days ago (half-listening because I was also making lunch and talking to my toddler) when a comment from the guest caught my attention. I wish I could credit who said it, but I didn’t catch the name of the guest and I don’t even remember which day I heard it. (If anyone recognizes this and knows the source, please let me know.) Here’s the comment:
He wasn’t pushing mediocrity as a way of life, but this man was making a great point: it doesn’t matter how perfect your plans are if you don’t carry them out. Complete action on a lower quality plan is going to produce more than little action on a flawless plan. It’s in the execution of the idea that the change is accomplished.
Let’s take that to our sustainable efforts and changes. How many of us feel overwhelmed when we hear all the problems? (Insert a chorus of raised hands and “I do’s” here.) How many of us feel like we aren’t doing enough, changing enough, affecting enough? (Repeat above chorus.) It’s tempting to just feel like we can’t make a difference and wait until someone comes up with a perfect solution. We’ll jump on board when we know it’s going to work.
That’s the wrong idea. Nobody is ever going to find the perfect solution for any problem, environmental or economic or personal or international. So we need to trust our small solutions, our little changes, our wee efforts, to be the execution of a lot of ideas that might not be perfect, but that are real and effective if we allow them to be.
So we keep recycling our little crate of plastic jugs and old newspapers. We find ways to make our homes more efficient, and we save money in the process. We reuse items that we used to throw away. We search out local produce and feed our children peaches and tomatoes and squash from farms only a few miles away. We ride the bus, or a bike. We carpool. We meet people. We stretch our lives a little bit, and the little bit matters.
Image Credit: Steven Fernandez.
