This I Believe

Masticate, eliminate and procreate – this I believe is why we exist. The challenge then becomes figuring out what to eat, where to eliminate the waste from consuming and how to participate in perpetuating the human race.

I am an overachiever in a family of overachievers, and I had always felt as though I had to do something about the awful state the world was in. You know, eliminate poverty; bring equality and justice to all the people of the world…it felt like an overwhelming responsibility and I knew I was ill-equipped for it.

I attempted to put my self-assigned task into perspective when I also started to feel as though I was running out of time to save the world. I thought about how many people there are in my state, Florida – 15 million of ‘em. Then I looked at the population of the whole world – 6.4 billion people. Out of all 6.4 billion of us – how did I become the one that had to fix everything?

After spending lots of time try to answer the question, “well then, why am I here?” — the answer came as I looked outside my window at the trees, squirrels, butterflies and birds. The answer is simply to do as they do – they eat, defecate and continue their species so that there are consuming/waste-making creatures to replace them when they’re gone. The creatures outside my window consume different things and make different kinds of waste that’s used by other creatures – think about where we would be if plants didn’t create a waste called “oxygen”!

Masticate, eliminate and procreate – those three words help me focus on each and every action. They help me forgive myself and those around me who are also simply living; not trying to save the human race from itself. It’s more manageable to focus on how much and why I consume; to manage the waste I create; and to figure out if and how I will participate in creating more people to consume and make waste. Taking responsible action in these areas lets me contribute my portion – my one part out of 6.4 billion parts – to the outcome of the human race.

But when we’re side-tracked to try to locate a greater purpose, to pursue success or achieve more than is necessary – well, that’s when I believe we overstep our purpose and consume too much and create unnecessary waste.

I believe that if we all were more conscious of the choices we make, and how those choices affect the other creatures on spaceship Earth – that the planet would be just fine.