I just came back from watching a screening of No Impact Man tonight, which left me with a thought: it is important to have a sense of community.  One of the last things talked about was what Mr. NIM would recommend for people if they were to do just one thing to change their lives to be more environmentally-friendly.  His advice?  Volunteer for an environmental group because with that comes the community connection.

Typical Chinese meal: lots of dishes shared between everyone.

I find that to be a really good point – we’re not on this planet alone and we shouldn’t live and act like it (though oftentimes we do, especially in the American culture).  Much of the poor behavior that we’ve learned is because of this mentality.  Everyone wants a house to themselves, a car or two for their family, and their own share of everything.  The concept of sharing even extends to how our meals are eaten, with individual portions given out rather than some of everything that is shared amongst a group.  When we’re all too busy thinking about me, me, me, we do a lot of things that benefit us, but harm those around us, humans, animals/plants, and environment.  Plus, having that sense of community bond keeps us grounded and centered so we don’t lose sight of ourselves and fall into the throes of negative behavior (assuming your “community” is not a gang or drug cartel).

This point seemed particularly relevant for a poster I saw on the walk back.  It was advertising a young man who was struck by leukemia and was in the Intensive Care Unit at our local hospital.  He desperately needs a bone marrow match and as the poster said, he needs your help.  I thought of how when we as a population share our resources (which sometimes means donating blood or cells or the like), we are so much better off as a whole.  There are so many lives that could be saved if the healthy people in the world were willing to share some of that health with those less fortunate.

Typical American meal: individual portions of each dish.

I actually just made a friend with a young lady in a similar situation (she just doesn’t need to be in an ICU).  In her last video update, she said something that I feel is something more people should think about: if the person who got leukemia was your mother, father, sister, brother, cousin, aunt, uncle, etc., then how would you react?  Would you still be so reluctant to donate cells that your body easily reproduces to save a life?  We’re not even talking about organs that can’t be replaced or something that drastic.  Sometime it’s blood, bone marrow, or plasma, but it’s all things that you can make more of in the coming days, weeks, and months.

I really think that this wouldn’t be so much an issue if we were more connected to our communities and had a better sense of those around us.  Honestly, how could you continue to not offer what you can if you cared for the people around you?  Once people start realizing that they won’t need to undergo the scary spinal tap procedure they thought was what you need to donate bone marrow, I think they have no excuses.  It’s either just like giving blood or you’ll be under anesthesia anyway.  In this case, sharing is caring!

Similarly for the environment, if we just cared more about others, we’d be able to move away from the individual cars per household mentality to the public transportation mentality.  One reason people tout buying local so much is because it supports others’ businesses and prevents you from getting outrageous out-of-season foods that are harder to find during certain times of year.  (Local produce may not actually be better for the environment though, but that’s an issue for another day.)  Other ways to be environmental and help your “neighbors” (including those in other cities, countries, and continents) is to reuse things rather than creating more trash that will end up in somebody’s backyard.  Too many people are living in dumps and all because of our irresponsible consumerism.

So moral of the story?  Care more about your neighbors, local and global.  It’ll make things so much better for everyone.