No Impact Man

I picked up the audiobook of No Impact Man at the library yesterday. I vaguely remember a friend recommending it on facebook. I began it today with a bit of trepidation because my youthful idealism has been slowly replaced by middle aged cynicism. My cynicism is due to the fact that I did try to be No Impact Mom when my kids were younger. We bought a Wonder Wash for cryin' out loud and tried to do the laundry of a family of three whe one of those three was in diapers. What a joke...ahh the beginning of my cynical despair at such a tender age of 29yrs or so.

Back to the No Impact Man. I was a bit worried it would be on the preachy side. I'm hard enough on myself so I really don't need to have someone tell me how much I have failed. I'm pleased to say I really enjoy Colin Beavan's insight and struggles and I'm only on disc one. His own inner dialogue on our impact on the planet so far mirrors mine quite a bit. So I'm thinking again what to do, what do to do to save the world so to speak because I'm not going to buy another wonder wash. But maybe, just maybe we shouldn't replace our broken microwave.

So today I feel like sharing a bit what's coming up for me while listening to this book. This quote really stands out for me:

"What's so great about trying to be right if it makes you separate. What's so great about trying to be right if it makes you lonely?"

I found this to be so true when I was a strict vegetarian. This separated me from others and made it more difficult to sit down and just enjoy a meal with others. My feeling at the time of vegetarian rightness also separated me from others.

I'll be back later to share what other bits of wisdom from the book or not because my track record on the blog kind of sucks.