The Fight for the Earth

When I walked into Mixed Martial Arts classes for the first time back in 2014, I was scared. I wanted to run, to hide, to turn around and run back to the car as fast as I could, which, at the time wasn’t fast because I was so out of shape.

I was at a low point in my life. I had lost my will to fight, my will to care, and my will to do anything other than show up for the bare minimum of my responsibilities. I was miserable. I had somehow talked someone into bringing me along to their MMA class, in hopes that maybe this would somehow be the key to getting me back into shape.

Though I didn’t know it at the time, maybe some glimmer of hope in me had also talked me into going. Maybe there was more going on in my subconscious than I thought.

All I know is that on a warm late summer evening, we pulled into the parking lot of a strip mall and my feet dragged across the pavement slower than usual. The door creaked swung open as I squeezed my way through the narrow entranceway behind someone else, hoping I could hide.

That night, on those dingy blue, faded wrestling mats, with borrowed boxing gloves a size too big, and an instructor teaching faster than I had a chance to catch up with, I was physically miserable. I was sweaty after five minutes, and I could barely make it through the warm-up. I wanted to hide, I was so embarrassed.

However, I felt alive. Something about the smack of those cheap borrowed gloves against the practice pads held up by a partner who encouraged me, despite having never met me before (they made me split up from my friend), something about the cramp in my side, something about pushing through the misery and somehow completing the class—not only was physically demanding, but with each smack of the glove against the pad, with each lap around the gym, with each inch I pushed myself, I felt the walls of the sorrow I had built around myself for over a year begin to crack, and I could feel anger rushing through like a flood against a dam. The levees were breaking, and I realized something that I have never forgotten, and never will forget, whether I am actively training MMA or not:

I am a fighter.

Since  that day I have sorted through a lot of emotions and I am no longer an unrecognizable mess of anger, depression, sorrow, and despair. I consider myself a fairly well-adjusted, fulfilled, and responsible young woman with meaningful relationships and more passions than I know what to do with.

Yet I have carried that spirit of fight with me throughout the time since that first day of MMA. I keep it central, when I face trouble. My fight is tempered with a bit more wisdom, but it remains there.

Perhaps that’s why I choose to fight for the environment. I love nature. I cannot imagine life without it. I cannot imagine a world without livable green spaces, without a wealth of wildlife, and without the abundance that we are blessed to have living on this spinning ball of rock hurtling through space. So, I fight for it. I’ve arrived at the point where I realize it’s actually not a choice, it’s who I am. Why deny who I am, and create misery for myself? I’ve been there and done that!

Without a reason to fight, (or, if the word fight is too strong for you, then use the term advocate, or say, “without a recognition of our purpose”  we become complacent, we become lost, we become shadows of who we once were.

Humanity was not meant to sit on its thumbs and accept injustice. Look at our history books—the civil rights movement. The civil war. World War II. World War I. The revolutionary war. The feminist movement. The gay rights movement. Now, the environmental movement and many, many more. We must fight, and we must never accept injustice.

Though beads of sweat dot our brow, thought we breathe hard in fear and anxiety—for the opposition is strong and refuses to play fair—though our backs strain with the heavy burden of oppression—we must soldier on for what we know in our souls to be true, right, and just.

For me, that is the preservation and conservation of our home, the beautiful planet earth.

This earth day, I stand in solidarity for those who march for science—though I cannot be there due to the death of a family friend, I am there in spirit. We are the foot soldiers of mother earth, and we will not let her lie in squalor while the demons of industry and capitalism and right wing pundits ignore her screams for help.  Will you fight however you can, wherever you are, in whatever way is available to you?

Do not let your fire be silenced. I believe that you are a fighter, too.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

“Reduce, Reuse, Recycle…” sings Jack Johnson to us in his catchy, albeit brief tune about how we can help the planet. It’s an earworm, and I highly recommend it for listening, if for no other reason than it is almost guaranteed to make me smile, so I assume it will also make you smile! Give it a listen.

So, today, I’m going to give you a little bit more direct action steps that you can take in your everyday life to help take better care of this beautiful planet we live on. I recently asked a reader what they’d like to see me talk about on the blog- something that they would like to know more about. (Yes, I do take requests! Comment below or send me a private message on whatever your preferred social media platform.) I was shocked that their answer was so simple: recycling! Recycling can indeed be a thorny topic, and it made me really take stock of the assumptions I make about my readers. Not everybody has the same level of sustainability knowledge, and sometimes we do need to talk about the basics.

However, I’m going to also talk about the two things that you should try to do first, that good ole’ Jack Johnson knows all too well about. Reduce and Reuse! So, what do those two things mean, and what do they entail? Why are they better than recycling?

Reduce:

The best thing we can do is to reduce that amount of waste we have to figure out how to get rid of in the first place. Reducing our impact means living only within our means, and only meeting our needs. For example, to reduce waste, you may invest in cloth diapers. This reduces the demand for regular diapers, and in the end, reduces the amount of diapers made, bought, and sold, and in landfills.

Ok, so not everyone needs diapers. What about containers and bags? If you invest in reusables, you are reducing the amount of waste that you need to deal with as a result of all those annoying plastic bags we all have floating around our homes. Another option is purchasing a reusable water bottle, and filling it over and over again.

When it comes to grocery shopping, look for options that have no packaging. Buy fresh fruits and vegetables that have no packaging, and try to shop from the bulk bins wherever possible.

These are just some basics- comment below how you reduce waste in your daily life!

Reuse:

Reusing is actually one of the most fun things. Reusing is so easy and fun! Perhaps the most fun is in regards to…shopping! Well, in this case, swapping. Shop at second hand stores to make sure those articles of clothing are getting reused, rather than ending up in a landfill. If you think the article of clothing is unusable, you can still donate it to Goodwill and mark it “textile donation,” they will shred it, and use it to stuff mattresses.

You can also swap items with friends, if you want new-to-you items and you’re squeamish about used. With your friends, at least you know the clothes have been cared for. The same goes for baby or kid’s items- anyone who has had a child probably has boxes and boxes of their old clothes and toys waiting to go to a good home. The amount of waste created by outgrown toys and clothes…can you imagine?

You can also upcycle, which is a form of reusing where you take something old and make it new again. This is when, for example, you take an old torn shirt, and you make it into a reusable shopping bag! This is where your creativity can really shine!

Recycle:

And here we are! Right at the topic requested. If all else fails, YES, you should absolutely recycle. The problem with recycling is that it vastly varies depending on the city or location where you are recycling, and it does take energy (often dirty energy) to transport the recycling to a recycling plant and put it through the process to make something new from it.

Check your municipality to see what they will accept as far as recyclables. It varies depending on where you live! Beyond that however, there are some universal basics of what can and CANNOT be recycled, and I’ll list a few here.

Cannot be recycled:

Pizza boxes: Yes. They’re paper, but they’re also covered in nasty old grease and cheese. You can cut up the parts that aren’t covered in that stuff and then put them in the recycling- that’s fine. The same goes for any other plastic food containers- make sure they’re scraped and rinsed before throwing those in the recycling.

Styrofoam: STYROFOAM IS THE SCUM OF THE EARTH. It can’t be recycled. Burning it releases toxic chemicals, and so does eating out of it- heat leaches chemicals into any food served on it. The only way to get rid of it other than the trash is finding a specialized facility to take it. Reduce how much Styrofoam you use.

Juice Boxes– There is a plastic coating on these that makes them unrecyclable. Check the label of some juice box makers actually make sure that the juice boxes are recyclable.

 

These are just a few examples, but really the key is to call your city. You don’t even need to call per say. Many city websites have pages that will tell you everything you need to know.

Protip!!! Just because your item has a recycling symbol on it doesn’t mean it’s recyclable. A recycling triangle with a number in it is only indicating the kind of plastic used in this item. HOWEVER, you can check the web to see if your city’s recycling provider accepts that kind of plastic. It’s a tiny clue! Check out the photo below, from veganology.com.

 

I hope this empowers you to find out more from your city, and gives you some ideas that unfortunately, recycling is a bit more complicated than it should be, and there are a few things you should definitely try first! Any effort is good though, so don’t get discouraged. Go out there and get empowered!