Am I a treehugger?
Posted angrily earlier. Had to delete it.
Here's my question. I've spent almost all my life in the city, I run on gasoline, I don't eat organic, I am surrounded by technology and often feel dependent on it, I don't recycle except paper, and I have no interest in being an active environmentalist, or a green leftist, only because I think it is a futile quest in a system programmed to eventually self-destruct.
Yet I love nature, I love the way it makes me feel and how it rids me of my daily insignificant worries and pains, and how it brings me closer to my roots and to myself, I love the sight and touch of a tree, a flower, a rock, I love the song of a bird (or a cricket) in the morning and at night, and if I had both the courage and the strength to live alone in a cabin at the edge of a forest, far from civilization, maybe with something to draw with and write on, and just enough food to survive, I'd be the happiest man on earth.
So is it wrong if I call myself a treehugger? how about a treelover? If it is, then I take back what I said on my previous post. And if anyone assumed I was more than what I just described, well, I'm not.
Someone is reading this and chuckling with satisfaction...
Anyway, always happy to set things straight.
Good night.
posted by Fouad at 9:11 PM
11 Comments:
it would have been more honest if the anonymous commenters would introduce themselves. tc doesn't bite. neither do we, the other commenters on this blog.
anyway,
tc, i understand your point of view and i totally respect it.
but i am strongly against the principle: "I have no interest in being an active environmentalist, or a green leftist, only because I think it is a futile quest in a system programmed to eventually self-destruct."
i wouldn't want to explain my point of view because it would take me hours. i will just say that every:
- tree you preserve,
- penny you donate for an environmental organization (if you don't have the time or the energy to be a active volunteer),
- minute you spend in a sit-in,
- commercial ad you sabotage (with paint spray, with moral action against it or with your nails),
- 4X4 (especially in cities like beirut) you preach against,
- bit of waste you sort or recycle,
- mile you go on bike or on foot,
- item you buy because it has less packaging and more respect to your intelligence as a human being and a consumer,
- time you take to try and convince someone to build an environmentally sound building, save energy, consume less resources...
every single action mentioned above nomatter how small or meaningless it is a positive affirmation that you are an intelligent human being who gives a damn about living in a world in which development "meets the needs of the present, without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own need" (Sustainable development as it has been described in the Brundtland Report on the environment for the United Nations in 1980).
when it comes to my activities and principles regarding the subject of environment, i can affirm that you and i are opposites.
www.bap.propagande.org
www.antibagnole.com
www.piecesetmaindoeuvre.com
www.greenpeace.org/med
www.un.org/esa/sustdev/documents/agenda21/index.htm
Well, I have to say - this second drawing is happier than the first (not to say the first one was sad ...), but the smile changes everything :D
Even though now I am basically surounded with trees and gardens, there is one memory that constantly comes back - after all the times I had read about "webs glistening with dew", I only really saw it 2 years ago, walking down the street 8 am on the way to a bakery in the MIDDLE of a Geneva, and there it was, soldered onto a stop sign ... literally shining.
Oh well, I think I'll just go back and listen to some more "street spirit".
i am a nature lover myself & trees are my faborite intity they are so alive, i adore water & the sky is daily painted just for me to admire.. & no one can imagine what green pastures do to me!!.. God must be a painter & He created all this beauty around us to inspire us coz He cares in a wonderful loving way..
dont mind other people's opinion if it was not constructive.. & forgive them coz they dont have your eyes to see what you are enjoying..
God Bless
I say bring back the first one!
Both are nice, but this one is a little.... iRobot.
You draw beautifully Thermo. Are these scanned or done on PC firsthand?
Jimmy, I admire people like you who can go the extra mile to help promote environmental awareness and preservation. My problem is a growing disenchantment with humanity and the human project. We will keep eating up our planet one cubic meter at a time, until there won't be any place for us to go. And I don't see how anything can stop (slow down maybe but not stop) the growing tide of urbanization, industrialization and all its waste, from eventually wiping us out of existence. The one thing I would do without thinking twice about it, is to help people in pain and need, wherever they are in the world. No one deserves to live a life of preventable suffering. This, to me, is a practical, at least partially achievable goal. It lies on a much smaller scale of global intervention, but it's definitely something I identify with to a much greater extent than saving the planet from chemical degradation, which, I believe, is never going to be achieved. Still, thank God for people like you have the faith and the resolve to keep fighting for a better world.
Thanks Petra :)
Where do you live Lazarus?
Ramzi, the drawings are scanned in. I am not a digital artist. Although I do enhance my scanned drawings with some basic Photoshop touch ups.
You should check annisnaeem.blogspot.com
That's one talented (YOUNG) digital artist.
I still love u....
and Hisham you can mimic me again if you want...
Lovely sketch Thermo, it explains a lot on its own.
Oh, btw.. I don't know if you know this website already but it's worth checking..
www.deviantart.com
HAHAHA! Hisham and I shribna kesak il yom btw.
oh and I nicked a copy of your now-deleted 'rant'.
The rest of y'all won't see it... except those who fork over the right price ;) Here's a teaser:
"I can't handle very well being at the receiving end of accusations, so I had to get this off my chest."
mouuuwahahahaha
actually i read it online, it was quite strange. i was thinking: this can't be TC. why all the anger? :)
HA! Hisham and Firas, the merry company :)
I see you find amusement in my discomfort.
How refreshing.
Anyway, always happy to bring a smile to yall's faces, and rid you of some of your bitterness ;)
Cheers!
since everyone is 'fessing up... I read your angry rant too...as well as the anonymous comment ;)
IMHO you shouldn't have removed it.
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