Sometimes You Want To Forget What You Know, And Just Stop Thinking About It

Sometimes you wish you could forget what you know. Sometimes you just want to live the way people live in movies, the way you grew up thinking you’d live. Carefree, not worrying about the state of the planet but just worrying about which dress you’ll wear.

It was nice, wasn’t it? Easier in a way. Sometimes. Sometimes you wish you could just do what everyone else does, eat what everyone else does, and be who everyone else wants to be.

It’s not fair, is it? That you and I have been opened to this world where our actions have consequences, where the things we do have a long lasting effect on our children’s lives? That we pay more for food and basic things because we care? That it takes us longer to get to work than other people who drive? That we have to answer more questions from our children about why we do things differently? That we have a disconnect where sometimes we don’t quite fit into society?

It’s the same with everything we learn, though, isn’t it? When you learn a knew language, suddenly you can understand what people are saying next to you on the bus. And you can never go back to not understanding. When you learn a new skill, or take on a new job, or begin a new hobby, the world looks differently. Your knowledge changes and your world opens up and you can’t go back.

When I first stepped onto a film set, I learned how movies were made in such detail, that I have never watched movies the same way again. Whatever it is, when you find an Oz behind the curtain, good or bad, it’s always with you - you can’t un-know this fact.

We can’t go back. We can’t un-know that our actions mean something now, to our families – and later, to their families. But there is something beautiful about knowing, too, isn’t there? Knowing that we are connected to each other, to the world around us, to each species on the planet. And knowing that we can do something. Knowing that we are doing something. We’re changing the way we do things, and by example, we’re changing the way others do things. And so we show more people what is behind the curtain. And so we change the world.

Slowly, steadily, we move onward, enlightened. Even just a little more enlightened than the day before.

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” - Margaret Mead

“You are not here merely to make a living. You are here in order to enable the world to live more amply, with greater vision, with a finer spirit of hope and achievement. You are here to enrich the world, and you impoverish yourself if you forget the errand.” – Woodrow Wilson

While at times it is difficult, we press on. And we are not alone, we are living this life together.

Original: http://1greengeneration.elementsintime.com/?p=1250