ShaneLabs

Below is a piece I wrote for my Unitarian Universalist group

Tldr: We have an abundance of time, if we are intentional about how we spend it. Let’s explore how to ensure our lives are filled with meaningful moments, and avoid wasting one of our most precious resources: time.

It may seem hard to believe, but back in my college years, I was one of the COOLEST computer science students on campus (surprised?). This was back in the day when desktop computers were the size of a desk, and those large tv-tube monitors were the norm. One semester I took my hard-earned summer cash and got a brand new, state-of-the-art 18” flat screen monitor. These were the bees knees back then, and I was so proud to have one. But also that’s why I was distraught one afternoon, when my cool status was challenged.

That pivotal afternoon, I came back from class to find my roommate a little frazzled. He explained that someone came by, asking if he had seen any thefts around our place. Little did we know, that that person was actually THE thief (trying to steal some more), and that they had come through my window and stolen my *delightful* flat screen monitor. To a computer science student, that was the end of me! I mean, I still had my old CRT behemoth I could use, but my revolutionary code looked soooooo good on that slick, flat screen. I was ruined.

I was also young, and this was the first time in my life that I felt violated. I was DETERMINED to find the culprit. I spoke with our apartment security guards. With campus police. With city police. How DARE someone steal from ME?! It wasn’t about the property. It was about the principle…of taking something that was MINE.

I received suggestions to go to the local flea market, to see if my stuff was being resold there. To scour craigslist, to look for it listed there. I spent several Saturdays going to the swap meet to see if I could identify my precious monitor. MY MONITOR. I had no idea what I would do if I did find it. 

I interviewed neighbors to see if they had any insight. Called my parents, and talked to their insurance agents to see if they had any recourse. But long story short – I never saw it again

I must have spent about 30 hours, over several weeks, trying to hunt down my prized possession. And looking back, I now realize how foolish that was.

Those hours….were during the peak of my college years. I finally had friends, the professors knew me by name, and my field of study was finally clicking. Those hours…were hours I could have spent diving deeper with genius professors, hours I could have spent strengthening relationships with classmates and friends that I wouldn’t have near me for long, hours that I could have spent partying (responsibly) without a care in the world before my adult life kicked in.

In retrospect, I realize that what was really stolen from me that semester, was my time.

Time, which I’ll argue today, is the most precious resource we have.

When we normally think of precious resources we think of physical materials that are in short supply. Gold and silver. Rainforests. Natural minerals. Money. But with each of those physical resources, you might have an opportunity to get it back even after you’ve spent it, it usually has only changed hands. It may require a huge investment to do so, but it’s possible.

But time – time is the only resource, where once we spend it, it’s gone. Forever. This second right here. This moment has now passed, and I’ll never get it back. Same with THIS one. Kinda crazy to think about, right?

There’s a stoic philosopher known as Seneca, who spent a lot of time thinking about just that. He had an interesting life that was filled with crazy highs and lows. He was born into a noble family, wrote some influential plays, got exiled to an island for eight years, became the chief advisor to the Roman emperor, and then got sentenced to death by forced suicide.

In between all of that, he did a ton of philosophy, and gathered some of his thoughts in an essay called “On The Shortness Of Life”, which he wrote around 2000 years ago. I was lucky enough to come across an analysis of it by Dmitri Brereton, a self described ‘practical optimist’ who explores philosophy in his spare time.

Dmitri postulates that if Seneca were around today, he would have the following to say:

Everyone complains about how short life is, but that perspective is broken. Life is not short. The real issue is that we waste so much of it.

In fact, life is long enough for you to achieve your wildest dreams. You’re just so busy wasting it that you get to the end without living much of it.

In regards to my precious computer monitor getting stolen, he’d reply:

It’s surprising that most people wouldn’t let anyone steal their property, but they consistently let people steal their time, which is infinitely more valuable

No one is willing to hand out their money randomly, but that’s exactly what you do with your time. You’re very frugal with your physical possessions, but when it comes to your time, you’re wasteful of the only thing in the world that you should actually be frugal with

You can’t touch or feel time, so it’s hard for you to really grasp it. But if your doctor told you that you had a deadly illness, you’d spend every cent you have to try to stay alive. That’s how much your time is actually worth to you. But on a day to day basis, you treat it like it’s completely worthless, just because you can’t see it.

Now I have a strategy for this, because he’s right…time is hard to see. But check out this poster I got last year that I have hanging up in my office.

It’s a bit of an eyesore, so if it’s hard to make out what’s going on let me explain – each of those  circles represents a week of my life. Every row is 52 of them, representing each year. The goal here is to have an obvious representation of my life lived, and how much I have left to live. And let me tell you, every week when I cross off another week, it gives me a little kick in my butt, as I question – did I spend that week wisely? Especially, a few months ago when I crossed off that last circle in the year 40 – I could tangibly feel the mid-life-crisis coming on.

Dmitri as Seneca continues:

It’s even worse when people come up with deferred life plans. They’ll say something like “When I’m forty, I’m going to retire and write a book” or “I’ll do this thing I hate right now so I can make money, then in ten years I’ll do what I really love”.

Seriously? You think that the universe is going to let your life proceed the way you want it to? What guarantee do you have of even making it to that age?

When he says that I’m immediately reminded of my father in law, who worked long hours, for 45 years straight, only to retire, and in the first year of retirement had a major stroke, and was left paralyzed and unable to speak, for the rest of his life. Breaks my heart.

Putting things off for the future is the biggest waste of a life. You deny yourself the present by promising the future. You’re relying on the future, which is outside of your control, and abandoning the present, which is the only thing you can control.

The whole future lies in uncertainty – so live immediately.

Now, to me, that sounds great. I’d love to go to the beach everyday and not stress about reality, work, bills, health, but that’s simply not practical.

But I think what we need to take away from this, is that our time is finite, and we need to be careful if we’re spending it on a path where we only care about the end result and not the journey.

We should live our lives intentionally, and be aware when our time is stolen from us little by little. We should avoid spending time on things that don’t really matter to us.

On a personal note, this year has been a tough one for my family. We’ve suffered a lot of loss. 

Back in April, Kelly’s dad (who I mentioned earlier), was placed on hospice and she held his hand as he struggled to take his last breath.

A month later we learned that our family dog Zelda had an aggressive form of bone cancer, and had to say goodbye to her shortly after.

And while we were trying to escape that double dose of grief by spending time at my grandparent’s lake cabin, we learned it was to be sold and we wouldn’t be able to continue our annual family vacations there.

This was some heavy stuff for us. 

In this time of mourning, I recalled all the good times I had with what I was losing. I cried, a lot. It sucked. It still sucks. But I did realize that what I was grieving was the memories, and that those weren’t going anywhere. 

I’d still always have the moment I asked Terry for his blessing to marry his daughter.

I’d still always be able to recall the comical time when we brought our first baby home from the hospital and Zelda refused to come inside because she was outside barfing, as she was no longer the top priority and couldn’t handle that.

I’d still have the memory of my grandpa shouting ‘Atta boy!’ after I got up on a single ski behind his speed boat at the lake.

And I can’t help but think of the quote that is popularly attributed to winnie the pooh, though upon research shows that might not be the case – but the quote “How lucky am I to have had something that makes saying goodbye so hard.”

Yes, I am lucky to have had so many meaningful moments with that which I’ve lost. Could it be that I’m so emotional with these memories because they were such meaningful moments? That I spent the time with Kelly’s dad, with my first dog, with my childhood vacation spot so purposely and so intentionally…and that’s what made them so impactful? And if so, then I don’t have a solution to grief (that’s still hard), but instead a confirmation that I spent my time wisely with those that I’m mourning.

There was something special about that lake house that I lost. It was in the middle of nowhere, and you couldn’t get cell phone reception, a good TV signal, and for a long time no internet. So whenever I was there, I was spending quality time with those around me. Playing cards. Time in the water. Watching sunsets. Being retrospective on life. I have SO many memories of those vacations.

And it makes me realize, we live in an age of countless digital distractions, always begging for our attention. Emails. Likes. Alarms. Text messages. Tweets. Infinite scrolling.

Tom Johnson, a technical writer from Seattle talks about when he was asked to join a book club, and documents his journey starting a new book:

Sometimes, I’d occasionally pull out my phone without any particular reason, unlock the screen, and just stare at it dumbly, not sure which app to open. When I caught myself doing this, I was kind of shocked, but also too desensitized to act. In every spare moment of inattention, I occupied my focus with my phone’s information. Something was wrong.

Cal Newport, an author in the digital minimalist movement reiterates “The urge to check Twitter or refresh Reddit becomes a nervous twitch that shatters uninterrupted time into shards too small to support the presence necessary for an intentional life.” 

Has anyone else noticed this? You’re trying to focus on something, yet for some reason instead of the task, you decide to distract yourself with a social media feed? It makes being productive pretty difficult.

It’s not entirely our fault…I recall a conversation with my wife where she was distracted with her phone after we had put the kids to bed and it was finally ‘our time’. When I challenged her why she was glued to her phone, she responded that she had a million emails to respond to. And if she didn’t respond to them now, then she’d have 2 million by tomorrow morning. Can I blame her for wanting to get ahead of that queue?

Seneca would say:

In your mind, you genuinely think you’re going to live forever. You think you have an infinite supply of time, and you keep spending it on the first thing that pops up without giving it much thought.

We live in a world that requires so much of our precious time. How do we manage that?

To be honest, I don’t have a simple solution for that. There’s been countless books and methods on time management, because everyone works differently and no single approach will work for you. But they typically have one thing in common, and that’s logging your time.

Now you don’t have to do this every day, but I challenge you to just take 1 day, perhaps next week, and log where you spend it. How long did breakfast take? What about that ‘quick’ phone call you had to make? Where did the time go, and were there moments where you were ‘killing’ time before the next thing?

At the end of the day look back at that log, and reflect on it. Seeing how you spent your time, are there any changes you’d want to make tomorrow?

And I want to be clear that not every moment has to be ‘productive.’ It’s 100% okay to do nothing. To take a nap if you need it. If you do get joy out of checking facebook to catch up with friends that’s fine. The key is to be *intentional* about doing it. Think to yourself “I’m choosing to do this because I want to. Not because it’s the routine. Not because I’m bored or distracted. Not because someone else is asking me to do it. But instead, I know that I’m choosing to spend my precious time on this activity.”

When I take that perspective, and a solicitor comes to the door asking for a moment of my time, I’m okay saying ‘No thanks,’ and then returning to my kids. When someone asks me to volunteer, I’m not going to, unless it’s an activity that I’m happy to be a part of. I’m definitely going to think twice before taking a new job that requires extra commuting in traffic. And (I’m still working on this part), but when I have a few minutes to ‘kill’ before I head to work, perhaps instead of bringing out my phone to check the latest news, instead I’ll sit and listen to the birds, or take a moment of reflection.

I know I titled this “The Secret to a Long Life”, and if anyone else is as literal as I am, they might be looking for an exact formula for living longer….and…I’m not going to let you down… I actually do have one. For in my research I came across something known as the Blue Zones Power 9. 

Blue zones are geographic areas where people consistently live longer than the world average. Areas like Ikaria (uh-car-ia), Greece, and Okinawa, Japan. What could it be about them or these zones that increase their longevity? Some researchers got together and studied them and their environments, and came up with the following 9 habits:

1. Move Naturally

People who live the longest engage in regular, everyday activity rather than specific exercise routines. They maintain active lifestyles through tasks like gardening and manual housework.

2. Purpose

Having a clear sense of purpose, or a strong reason for waking up each day, can extend life expectancy by up to seven years.

3. Downshift

People in the Blue Zones still have stress, but they manage it with daily rituals like ancestor remembrance, prayer, napping, and happy hour.

4. 80% Rule

This practice involves stopping eating when 80% full, which can aid in weight management.

5. Plant Slant

The diets of people in these regions are mostly plant-based, with beans being a major component. Meat is consumed sparingly—about five times per month and in small serving sizes.

6. Wine @ 5

All but one of these regions consume alcohol moderately and regularly. They typically drink one to two glasses of wine per day, often with friends or food. Unfortunately, you can’t save up all week and have 14 drinks on Saturday.

7. Belong

Nearly all the people who live the longest participate in some form of religious community, regardless of the specific faith. Regular participation in religious services can add several years to life expectancy. – hey – you all are doing that right now!

8. Loved Ones First

Those who live the longest tend to prioritize their family. They keep aging parents and grandparents close or in their homes, commit to a life partner, and devote time and love to their children.

9. Right Tribe

Long-lived individuals are part of social circles that encourage healthy behaviors. Studies show that smoking, obesity, happiness, and even loneliness are contagious – being around those that have healthy habits helps you tremendously.

I can’t make any promises, but according to the researchers of that study they predict the average person’s life expectancy could increase by 10-12 years by adopting a Blue Zones lifestyle. Kinda cool.

I’ve spoken a lot today on our personal time, but before I close I want to examine the inverse of that. Other people’s time. If we know how valuable time is to us, how should we be treating other people’s time? If you agree that time is our most precious resource, then perhaps there’s no better gift you can give to someone than time. 

Spending focused time with them. 

Ensuring we don’t waste their time. 

Thinking twice before we cancel plans, and ensuring we’re not late or making them wait for us.

Perhaps even giving them time by taking something off of their plate.

Pretty powerful gift.

Has anyone here heard of the 5 Love Languages? You know where I’m going with this… it’s no surprise that ‘Quality Time’ is one of them. For some people, nothing says “I love you” more than your full, undivided attention. To be honest, Quality Time isn’t even MY love language, but I can vouch that when my wife gives me uninterrupted focus with phones down. Eye contact. And really shows an interest in how I’m spending my time, I feel her love so deeply.

I think dying is scary. It freaks me out that I’ll no longer have any more time on this earth. But something tells me that if I’m on my deathbed and I’m filled with memories of time well spent with my kids, my wife, family, this earth, this loving community, then I might be more at peace with it. Because I think what I’m scared of is not death, but waste, taking my life for granted. And even if I don’t live a long life, if I live a fulfilling life, that may be enough.

In closing, I’d like to express my deepest gratitude to each of you. Time, is our most invaluable resource—never to be regained once it has passed. That you have chosen to spend some of your precious time here with us today, is an honor I do not take lightly.

I hope our reflections inspire you to treasure each moment, living fully, loving profoundly, building a life filled with meaning and connection. 

As you go forth, I wish you a chance to view each second as a unique opportunity, a chance to craft an intentional life. 

May each tick of the clock echo with purpose, joy, and of course, abundant love.

Thank you for your time. May it be so.

Below is a piece I wrote for my Unitarian Universalist group

The observable universe is 93 billion light years across. It’s estimated to have around 2 trillion galaxies, with each galaxy a home to 100 trillion stars and planets. And of all those planets we’ve been searching for signs of life since we first looked up at the skies – only to find that so far, our humble earth is the only planet with Goldilocks-perfect conditions to sustain biology.

The only planet that has the rare distance from a star to allow for liquid water – yet also has plentiful reserves of the basic elements of life  – and – a magnetic core and atmosphere that repels life-destroying cosmic radiation that is constantly thrown our way.

How lucky are we??? Seriously – we’ve won the cosmic lottery!

And we don’t just have ‘life’ here. It’s not just some bacteria or amoebas floating around in some soup. No, our earth is home to 8.7 million species of life. Incredible life ranging from colorful peacocks to electric eels. Metamorphosing butterflies to humongous humpback whales. Fragrant roses to giant sequoias. The earth is beautiful, right?

In fact, I’d love to hear what some of you are most impressed by. What do you find most beautiful on this earth – go ahead, shout it out….

(calla lilies, rainbows, horses…I agree)

This life has learned to carefully balance itself with all of earth’s resources, ensuring that the food chain, the water cycle, the seasons – all work together to ensure generation after generation of life for over 3 billion years.

This is a gift. An awesome gift that we receive from the earth every single day. Today I’m going to challenge us to examine our relationship with the earth. She is always giving, always providing. Are we returning the favor? Are we thanking her, and giving back to her? Or is this a one-sided relationship?

Here are a few points to consider.

In the last 100 years 64% of our wetlands have been lost.

Since 1970 our forests have been decreasing in size, at a rate of over 2000 trees per minute.

In the last 15 years the number of species listed as ‘threatened with extinction’ has tripled.

David Attenbourough, who many of you may recognize as the voice on almost all nature documentaries, sums it up by saying, “1 million species on earth is threatened by 1 species”. Who is that 1 species?  (us!)

We’re a species that too commonly makes short-sighted decisions, not caring about the impact on our future. We’re living in a world of instant gratification, of towering debt, of me vs you. And it has a real cost.

Let’s ponder the argument that we are the only species that makes trash. Every other animal on this earth has a cycle for its waste – it eventually becomes something else.  Sometimes it even becomes something beneficial to other species, such as the dung beetle, or mushrooms. But our waste – our take-out containers that don’t decompose, our diapers that fill up landfills, our discarded furniture or mattresses that no one wants. These are things we create that still stick around possibly forever. Our modern trash hauling system is both a blessing and a curse – it conveniently takes these items away from our focus as if they magically no longer exist, but it removes us from the impact of our trash.

Our annual greenhouse gas emissions – the exhaust from our cars, the methane from factory farming, the byproduct of burning natural gas – has reached 51 billion tons. Let me pause right there, because it’s hard to comprehend that a gas (something as light as air) has weight, but it does. If you were to take a balloon of CO2 about the size of a refrigerator, that weighs 1 pound. Every year we are emitting 112 trillion refrigerators of greenhouse gas.

Many scientists argue that with all this waste we’re making drastic changes to our planet. Some even say the damage we’ve done is irreversible – we’ve crossed a tipping point and we better buckle up. Environmental activist Greta Thunberg refers to this not as climate change, but as a “climate emergency”, and that if we don’t treat this as an immediate crisis then we’ll have no way to avoid a climate- and ecological disaster​.

Back in December Netflix released a movie called “Don’t Look Up” – anyone see it? Raise your hand if you saw it…Did you like it?

In this movie, two astronomers – played by Leonardo Dicaprio and Jennifer Lawrence go on a giant media tour to warn the planet of an approaching comet that will destroy all life on Earth. They have the telescopic photos and the orbital calculations and all the scientific evidence to prove that the earth will be demolished at an exact time – but almost everyone ignores them. They go on TV, they go to the white house, they try to get anyone’s attention, and they’re always met with resistance. In fact there’s even an opposition group that forms called “Don’t look up” – the name of the movie – persuading people to ignore these astronomers because they’re spreading ‘fake news’ – yet as the comet gets closer all anyone has to do is “just look up” and they’ll see it.

While this is an entertaining film, it’s also a wake-up call – an analogy to the current issues we’re facing on earth that no one is acting seriously enough on.

As UU’s we already have enough on our plate to care about – do we really need to be concerned about the earth too?! Let’s take a look at our 7 principles that guide Unitarian Universalism. 

Our 1st principle – remembering the inherent worth and dignity of every person. Every person that lives on this earth deserves to enjoy this earth. To me, this means people of fortune should not be able to trash the earth at the expense of those less fortunate. The reality is that those that are most affected by a degraded earth are usually people without privilege. Areas in developing countries are going to be the first to experience heat waves, droughts, lack of food, way before it reaches developed nations. The un-housed will feel its effects harder than those living in multi-million dollar homes.

Our 6th principle – The goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all. Unfortunately many scholars predict that a changing, unstable climate will result in more famine, more conflict over natural resources, more wars. Dr. Sean Anderson, an ecologist and chair of environmental science at CSUCI was a speaker at a recent community forum where he stated that the Syrian Civil War was 100% caused by climate change – that with massive drought and crops failing people started to rise up and protest and eventually conflict led to war. The better we treat our earth, the less we compete for limited resources, the more peaceful this world will be.

And most relevant, our 7th principle – Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part. Our relationship with all species is to be considered. Are we sharing the earth with them? Or are we taking more than our fair share? The earth is so vast that it’s easy to think of it as infinite. But the opposite is true. There’s a limited set of resources on earth, and in time they will run out. Earth is finite. Are we using its resources wisely and well? Are we considering the interdependent web and how individual actions can affect entire ecosystems?

With all that in mind, I feel like as UU’s it’s our responsibility to act, to thank this earth, to appreciate it and take care of it.

I think this starts with a specific mindset. One that views the earth and all its fragile parts as equals with ourselves. One that honors the connection we have with the earth. How do we do that?

We could begin the day with an intention to respect the earth. We could go on more hikes. We could name the plants in our garden. Take a moment every day to admire the sunset. Stop and listen to the birds. Dig your bare feet into the grass and soak up the soil. Smell the flowers. Native Americans looked up to animals as teachers, and they had no word for owning land. They had an earthly relationship that is hard to find today. Let’s find that lost relationship and rekindle it. I propose if we awaken this connection we will naturally perform actions that thank our earth.

For those of you (like myself) that need some concrete instructions on how to thank the earth-  I have 3 ideas I’d like us to consider.

Number 1: Reduce Consumption. Whatever you can do to use less is a step in the right direction. Shave 5 minutes off your morning shower to use less water. Put on a jacket instead of turning on the heater to use less energy. Think twice about buying that new TV when your current one works just fine. The less resources you consume, the happier the earth will be.

Less is more.

I recently read a book called “101 ways to go zero waste,” and in the opening chapter it said “By the end of this book if you follow my advice you’ll be recycling less.” What? I thought recycling is good for the environment? Well, it’s better than the landfill, but what the author was trying to convey is that it’s best to not consume in the first place. Kathryn Kellog writes, “Consider all the resources that go into producing the products we buy and all of the packaging and transportation that comes with them. When we truly think about all of the stuff we interact with, it becomes clear that some of the best things we can do are buy less, buy consciously, and produce as little waste as possible.”

Remember ‘recycle’ is only 1 of the 3 R’s in the iconic green triangle, the others are: Reduce and Reuse. Ask yourself if you can fix something instead of getting another. Can you buy used instead of new? Craigslist and Ebay are your friends! If you receive a product with a cosmetic blemish can you live with that, or must you return it where it will most likely be thrown in the garbage? I know this sounds silly but I’ve started to pick where I eat out based on the materials they serve their food on – do they have dishes that they wash and reuse, or will I have to throw out the plastic container it came in?

In fact one of the arguments for eating plants over meat stems from this reasoning. Raising animals for food is an incredibly inefficient use of resources. Growing crops to feed animals introduces a major extra step of waste relative to just eating the plant foods directly. If you just eat the plants, you cut out the middleman. For example, it takes 39 gallons of water to grow a pound of vegetables, yet that same pound of beef takes 1,847 gallons.

So – overall, the less you use, the better for the earth. And – as an added bonus, the less you consume, the more money you save! That’s a win-win situation!

The 2nd way you can thank the earth, is to utilize green technology, but carefully. Over the last decade we’ve had a boom in solar panels, electric cars, and energy efficient appliances. Rooftop solar has allowed the average homeowner to produce their own clean energy, and if you pair that with charging your new electric vehicle, then you’re essentially saving the world, right? 

Well, it’s tricky. We need to be careful here to make sure that we’re really upgrading our stuff for the right reasons. Believe it or not, but there are cases where your old gas-car is better than buying a brand new Tesla. Think about all the resources that go into building a new car – from the factory energy to mining the raw materials themselves. Its cost to the environment is considerable. So when you do upgrade your car, make sure that it’s because your current car has no more life in it. Same with appliances – it’s rarely helpful to switch out your functioning fridge for a new energy-efficient model if your old fridge was working fine and it’s just going to end up in the landfill. 

Some of this new green tech is incredibly expensive, so consider that being green is a privilege. If you have the means and your clunker is falling apart then awesome! But there’s no shame in not being able to afford it. The good news is that some of these green solutions don’t require upfront investment. For example, did you know that your home can be powered by renewable sources without installing expensive rooftop solar? Give your electricity provider a call and ask to be put on their ‘green rate’. It does cost about 10-15% more than your current rate, but they’ll be sure to buy your energy expenditure from local solar or wind farms, without you having to front the cost at all.

I have to be careful of “greenwashing,” where a company promotes a new product of theirs that they claim is green, but really isn’t deep down. I just recently heard an ad for a “Green” credit card that promises to plant trees correlated with your spending. Sounds great, right? But doesn’t that just promote/rationalize more consumption? A true ‘green’ credit card would reward you when you don’t buy anything new. But that’s not profitable…so I don’t expect to see that anytime soon.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not discouraging new green tech. There’s been a ton of progress in making typical consumer products more efficient and green, and I’m very excited about them – We just replaced our dying water heater with a tankless one, and I know my wife is sick of hearing me talk about the energy savings. What I am saying is that when we purchase new green tech we need to look at the whole picture from a resource lifecycle point of view.

I saved the most important point for last, even though it’s the most boring. The 3rd thing we can do to thank the earth is to support regulations. This means voting for carbon pricing, higher efficiency standards, recycling laws, and democratic power grids. I know this is getting political and increasing the government’s hand which I admit can be scary. But the truth is that while individual actions are helpful, they’re not going to solve the crisis alone. Most of the biggest offenders are companies who are just looking at their profits and aren’t going to change unless they’re mandated to. We could all go get solar panels, switch to induction heating, grow our own gardens, become vegan, and live within our means, but if corporations are not doing the same it’s barely going to move the needle.

We must vote. We must talk to others about this. We must get involved in collective action. Our very own Clint Fultz, reminded me of the many groups we can participate in. From national organizations such as 350.org (named after the safe amount of CO2 in the atmosphere – we’re currently at 419 btw) to local groups such as the Ventura County chapter of Citizens Climate Lobby. These groups stand up to the fossil fuel industry aiming to build a clean energy future for all. Even more local than that is our Chalice Climate Action Team, who meet monthly and according to their mission statement “educates and connects with others to advocate for a just and sustainable future for life on Earth.” They’re a very welcoming bunch and would be thrilled to see some new faces.

I know I’ve dumped a lot of dread on you here today…but I want to emphasize how important it is to not give up. It’s easy to say “If the world is ruined then I might as well enjoy it while it lasts.” – and if you think that way you’re actually doing exactly what the fossil fuel industry wants you to do. They thrive on hopelessness and apathy. 

Some think “It’s fine, we have plans to colonize Mars so we have a backup planet.” But let me tell you what it would be like to live on mars, where the average temperature is -80 degrees, the atmosphere is not breathable, and dust storms are commonly shrouding the entire planet from the sun. You won’t ever be sunbathing on a beach on Mars. There is no planet B. Planet A is amazing and we’d be in a world of hurt trying to start over on a new planet.

I want to remind us about the ozone layer crisis back in the 90’s. Scientists had discovered that a critical part of our atmosphere was being destroyed by our actions and we needed to change. Countries got together, they collectively researched, decided to ban CFCs, and fast forward to now the ozone hole has stopped progressing and there’s evidence it’s starting to shrink.

We do have hope.

Back when climate change was first discovered we were on track to warm the earth by 4-8 degrees. Based on our current projections we’re now at 3 degrees. That’s still scary, but it’s no longer an apocalyptic human extinction event. The coal industry is dying because it’s now cheaper to get electricity from sun and wind. Climate awareness is at an all-time high – I can’t look at the news without seeing a climate-related headline. There are a lot of things trending in the right direction.

We can take better care of the earth. We’ve done it before and we can do it again. It starts by reducing our consumption, using green tech (carefully!), and supporting climate regulations.

[Media – https://content.thriveglobal.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Blue-Dot.png]

I close with words by astronomer Carl Sagan, who when looking at a photo of a distant earth taking up a single pixel in a sea of black, remarked: 

Look again at that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, … every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, … every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there–on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

He continues:

…this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.

In the last scene of “Don’t Look Up,” the characters get together for one last feast, to enjoy each other, and indulge in their favorite food. As the Earth’s doom approaches, Leonardo DiCaprio’s character turns to his loved ones around the room and says: “We really did have everything, didn’t we?”

My friends, we really do have everything. Right? We’ve won the lottery. This pale blue dot is our fortune. Let’s cherish it. Let’s thank it. Let’s connect with it, honor it. Let’s awaken our relationship with the earth and ensure it can be cherished by others, for many, many generations to come.

It can start with you. And it can start today.

May it be so.