Sunday, December 6, 2009

Steward?

I was watching TV with some of the boys that I teach drum lessons to and this map of the world came on the screen and they shouted, "Look there's Sri Lanka!" demonstrating the innate pride in their country that bursts forth out of every pore of each Sri Lankan that occupies this little island. I pointed Canada out to them, and realized, "Dang, I'm a long ways from home!"
So I was interested today to see how far I am from home, so I headed over to google and was gloriously sidetreacked by a website that informed me that during my journey from Lethbridge to Kandy, I created approximately 1.43 tonnes (3, 152 lbs) of carbon dioxide equivalents. Wowzas! This should probably alarm me, but it doesn't. Does it make me a bad person if I say that I'm not too worried about it?
It would be very easy for me to become all super concerned about the environment as I am over here: every day my nostrils are overwhelmed with pungent odor of the small fires in front of people's homes in which they burn plastics and household garbage. The shores of picturesque rivers are littered with myriad plastic bags and other refuse. Garbage cans are scarce, just throw it on the street instead.
Yet, I don't seem to care. I didn't care in Canada either. I think I would be foolish to think that the pollution ocurring here is on a greater scale than that of North America, it is likely just more visible.
Maybe my apathy towards this stems from the seemingly unassailable level of pollution and creation-rape. We pollute at an alarming rate. In light of how much garbage our world produces, does it even matter if I recycle my Fanta Soda bottle rather than burn it on the side of the road?

Maybe my apathy is appeased by my false perception that I "save the earth" by planting trees every summer.
Or maybe my lack of concern is indicative of a lack of understanding of God's love. Do I see this earth as a gift from God? A gift born not of compulsion or of obligation but of love. He gave us a sweet world just because He loves us and wanted us to have a good gift. Hmm.

But I don't care.

I can't seem to wrap my head around my apathy. Maybe apathy is the wrong word. I am concerned; but my concern lacks the potency to compel me to do anything about it. Concern and conviction isn't something you can just muster up, or fake, it has to grip you/take hold of you with such force that you can't NOT be concerned. I don't seem to possess this conviction...which frustrates me.

Frustration quite often motivates me to try and accomplish things/conquer things/change. I would love it if the frustration over my evident lack of concern for the environment would affect some sort of change.