But I'm not hurting anyone but myself....

I came across this article, thanks to a link on Marry’s blog, and it’s stayed with me ever since so I decided to share an excerpt with you. Viewing our consumer-based culture through the lens of addiction hits the nail right on the head. What better way to celebrate Earth Day than to boil our environmental situation down to its root cause.

Industrial civilization -- and its end product, consumerism -- has disconnected us from nature, the cycle of life, our communities, our families and, ultimately, ourselves. This unnatural, inorganic, materialistic way of living, coupled with a marked decline in society's moral and ethical standards -- what the French call anomie -- has created a kind of pathology that produces pain and emptiness, for which addictive behavior becomes the primary symptom and consumption the preferred drug of choice.
What most of us experience when it comes to addiction," says Erickson, "is a pattern of continually seeking more of what it is we don't really want and, therefore, never being fully satisfied. And as long as we are never satisfied, we continue to seek more, while our real needs are never being met."
“Addiction in one form or another characterizes every aspect of industrial society,” wrote the social philosopher Morris Berman, and dependence on substances or corporeal pleasures is no different from dependence on "prestige, career achievement, world influence, wealth, the need to build more ingenious bombs or the need to exercise control over everything."
“The patterns of behavior endemic to consumer society are so much more dangerous than substance abuse, because they are perpetuating a culture that is literally eating itself out of house and home.”

We can all go out and buy hybrid cars and take re-usable bags to the grocery store and I applaud every green effort. Yet even the "greening" of products and practices all around the world is coming close to propaganda in itself. To truly solve environmental problems, we must stage a cultural intervention, get to the root of the issues, and recognize that virtually everything must change. Overwhelming is an understatement. But we won't care for the Earth until we learn to care for ourselves and each other.

So here's where you start. Spend your daily energies connecting with yourself, your family, your community, and the place you live. If you’re a parent, it is absolutely paramount that you take your kids outside to play. Teach them how to connect with who they are and how great it is to truly connect with another person. I promise that they will show you how to embrace the beauty in your own backyard.