Activism

I am so out of the loop sometimes.

My 15 year old informed me that May 15, 2007 is a DO NOT PUMP GAS Day. My initial thought was one of tenderness that there would be enough teenagers in the area to try something like this in an attempt to sock it to the mega giant gas corporations. Then I followed his instructions, did a bit of research this morning, and what do I know? This is looking to be quite big. It is all over MySpace (not a place I frequent) and the word has spread.

PLEASE PASS THE WORD AS QUICKLY AS YOU CAN!!!! DO NOT PUMP GAS MAY 15, 2007

something like this was done in the '90's to with a degree of success, and even if it wasn't/couldn't be successful, I will participate anyways. I am very aware of how uber monster large these corps are. I also know they could take a sock in the gut of a couple of million dollars for a day without anything more than a small cough, but damn it! I must have a voice.

I consider myself a realistic idealist. (yea, it does look like an oxymoron doesn't it?) this means that in my heart of hearts, I am an environmentalist, a feminist, and a spiritual rebel, but I know that I will never change the world and its doings. I aspire to only affect positive change among those I know and love and cherish and commune with. I think globally and I act locally. The idealist within me has the perfect vision of the perfect world (and like a good Virgo, I am telling you that it would be clean!:)and the realist knows that these actions are like the salmon swimming upstream to spawn.

I remember seeing salmon swim upstream when I was young. I could not wrap my head around the fact that they were giving their entire lives to swim upstream to a place they had never been to in order to reproduce and die. I just didn't get it. I thought how futile! How silly to be wasting an entire life swimming against a current. How did they have the strength? What keeps them going? How can they actually jump out of the water like that?

As I have gotten older (really older) I have come to understand that there are some things that can not be explained. I have been called tenacious, strong willed, amazingly strong and a bunch of other adjectives that describe my will and ability to overcome numerous obstacles in my path over the years. I can't describe to anyone where the steel in my mind and in my spine come from, it is just there; just like the salmon. There are no alternatives for me; I have this inner radar that keeps me going against the current, against the mainstream. I am focused on a destination that I am familiar with internally, but not necessary on a conscious level. This radar sounds an alarm when I loose myself, and the nice thing is that I have learned how to listen to the warnings on most days.

I am much more mellow within my own skin, without compromising my intensity and determination.