My dream is to make the planet a safe and beautiful place for my children and their children to live. Creating such a place will require ecologists, but it will also require mechanics, farmers, musicians, teachers, painters...and yes, even accountants.
Nearly every day I walk past the student union at the university where I see the same group of rather unique students gathered around an ash tray. They wear almost exclusively black, smoke profusely, and speak loudly to each other as if on stage. Being the curious sort, I once made my way over to introduce myself just to see if I could discover the key to how to become quite so cool (it helped that a student from one of my classes was among them). I learned that they were all theater majors, that they all smoked the same brand of cigarettes, and that they all shared roughly the same taste in music.
In reflecting on my conversation with them it occurred to me that they weren't just pretending to be on stage as they stood around chatting, they were in fact on stage. Each of them plays to an audience (the others around the ash tray) and each has to play his or her part. The actors are...creative, independent, deviant, thoughtful, knowledgeable of all things theatrical, and they must be sure everyone in the audience believes they are who they say they are. It is called dramaturgical theory, and it suggests that each of us act our way through life hoping that those around us will believe we are who we say we are.
So how do you play the part of "environmentalist"? Let me give it a shot. Wardrobe...layers, colors, organic cotton or maybe hemp. Setting...outdoors, overseas, some place rugged or at least designed to look so. Script...angry, concerned, passionate, distrustful. Educational background...ecology, environmental studies, biology, conservation biology maybe? Interests...travel, poetry, backpacking, kayaking. Religion...undefined..."still on my spiritual journey."
Have I offended you (or maybe described you)? I don't really mean to do either, but rather to suggest that it need not be this way. Caring about the future doesn't require a climbing gym membership or a pair of hemp sandals (I'd like both for fathers day if you're wondering what to get me). Each of us, regardless of how we look or where we grew up have a role to play.
I was once asked to sit on a hiring committee for an educational organic farm. We were looking for an accountant. The woman we ultimately hired came to the interview (which was on a picnic table in a field) wearing a power suit and high heels. After her interview the committee tore into her. I just listened for a while until someone finally said something like, "she seems too much like the business type." I very impatiently asked if they were looking for an accountant or a new member for their country club. They got the point. We hired her and she was amazing!
My dream is to make the planet a safe and beautiful place for my children and their children to live. Creating such a place will require ecologists, but it will also require mechanics, farmers, musicians, teachers, painters...and yes, even accountants.
So here's an idea, how about we recognize that we don't get to decide on the cast for this play. We are all going to play our part (regardless of what that part might look like; rich, poor, democrat, republican). What we do get to decide is what the play is about and perhaps even how it will all turn out. I think if we just stop arguing about who gets to perform, we'll find we have all the actors we need to do something really remarkable.
Vincent M. Smith
