Day: April 3, 2006

So how are we going to save the world¹?

When I was younger, I was going to do it by becoming a famous singer and waking people up with my songs; now I’m doing it by not running the tap while I brush my teeth.

I think my original plan was more realistic. As my uncle says, it doesn’t make much difference how much energy-saving and recycling a bunch of middle-class first-worlders do when you bring China and the rest of the developing world into consideration. But then, he’s a terrible cynic² — if no one makes the effort things certainly won’t improve.

Some might say we’re not worth saving, but I can’t agree. We do some beautiful stuff, and have the capacity for getting an awful lot out of what’s plonked around us. (I always was a bit of a tree-starer.)

[1] — Of course, calling the human race “the world” is a typical arrogance indicative of the mess we create. It’s not likely we’d succeed in completely wiping out life on the planet; I think even taking it down to the single-celled creature level might be more than we can manage. Which is some comfort.

[2] — Actually, he’s a very good cynic.

Ah, Sunday: a day of rest and…

Bzzzzt! Wrong! Today we initiated project rip-up-half-the-carpet-and-crawl-around-on-your-knees-pulling nails (a sub-project of the higher-level make-the-living-room-nice project).

We’d imagined all kinds of possible nightmare under the carpet but, actually, it looks pretty good. Some of those gaps are pretty big, though.

As a break in the middle of carpet hell, we went down to the Hornsey Vale community centre (where Isa does her Stitch ‘N Bitch). They were holding a (poorly attended) “Wisdom and Wellbeing” event. Cuppa tea and home made raw berry flan; cranial masage; Help the Aged. The best bit was a demo of Tai Chi by an impressive young guy who runs a Tuesday class there. I think we’re going to go; I never realised that it has so such a strong self-defence aspect.

Anyway: home; made ragu; pulled more nails and Hoovered while Isa decorated some tiles for the fireplace; ate; wrote this. And goodnight.