We’re a part of the environment. We are one aspect of the environment. We’re not separate from it or better than it. What can one person do?
My focus, my belief is that if people clean up their own act spiritually, for want of a better term, you automatically have a profound effect on the world around you. I think it’s a natural by product of working on yourself, finding out who you are, what your real needs are (as opposed to the things you just want)—and when you are giving according to your real needs, it automatically translates into your cleaning up the environment.
It’s not about just policing your own area, because that can just be about assuaging your guilt, or allowing yourself to get off the hook. “Look at me, I’m doing something for the environment, I threw out things…” It’s not something to be prideful about. Rather, it’s something to have to do because it’s a bedrock necessary. It’s necessary for the world and my own growth, my own simplicity. We’ve got to stop being so prideful about the fact that we’re doing something that the world needs. It’s not a matter of pride, it’s a matter of dire necessity, internally and externally. ⎯ Alan Arkin
