THE world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers:
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
The Sea that bares her bosom to the moon;
The winds that will be howling at all hours,
And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers;
For this, for everything, we are out of tune;
It moves us not.--Great God! I'd rather be
A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn;
So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,
Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;
Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn.
-William Wordsworth
I am not depressed or sad...well, a little sad, but mostly because of how wasteful I feel. Maybe I only feel wasteful because that's how I see the world's population take on life, convenience, and the stake for the Almighty dollar.
We live in a time where what one has, or at least portrays as being one's own, determines one's worth. Having money seems to be more important than good sense and peaceful state of mind. Cars, clothes, sex, and the quest for bodily perfection has replaced intelligence, wit, and determination in the grand scheme of personal attributes of friends and, more importantly, significant others. Of course, that's only when thinking of what's on the surface, because once all fakeness is scratched away or, more often in occurrence, one finally realizes that shallow attributes do not lead to long-term happiness, one will look for more substantial personalities and characteristics in others. At least, that is what will occur—hopefully. There are exceptions to every rule, which is really very sad, as there are people in existence that are just as superficial and vain as my brain fears them to be.
But, what about the wastes which the world sees? Everywhere one looks, even in the still-developing land of Tallahassee, there are buildings blocking views, which once perfectly contained only blue sky and power white clouds. Trucks, vans, cars, and sport utility vehicles crowd the roadways, pollute the air, and give yet another false sense of status to their owners. Why is having bold, shiny rims on one’s vehicle are more important than the fumes it releases into the already polluted air one uses as oxygen? What is the point of agonizing over the appearance of one's car when doing so will not change other's opinions; improve financial status; or present companionship in its truest form? Where have the personal values of Earth's inhabitants gone?
Paper or plastic? For here or to go? Would you like to Super Size that? How about shopping from the comforts of home via the Internet or QVC? Convenience has spoiled the population's senses. Instead of walking one mile into town, one can now run across the street or drive a few blocks down the road. No longer, is food home grown; buying it from the supermarket is the only way to go—that is if one even cooks. One complains of getting fat, but doesn't think twice about the McDonald's Egg McMuffin for breakfast; Burger King Whopper for lunch; three Starbucks cups of coffee, $6 bucks a piece, scattered throughout the day; and take-out Chinese food for dinner. Food pyramids are now required because consuming balanced meals are practically unheard of; dietitians are consulted because there are mass amounts of people battling their bulge. Exercising is now a forced activity, required to last at least thirty minutes, three times a week.
Before fast food joints, coffee houses, and Walmart Super Centers there was this thing called 'Hard Labor.' Grandparents, and some parents, have vivid a memory of what “real work” was, the kind that did not have the convenience of electricity. Staying fit was easy because the cruel, hot sun, manual labor, and hard times kept people busy. Running to the market was nonexistent; tending to the vegetable garden was not. Working from sun up to sun down was the only way for many people to make enough money to just get by. Home cooked meals where almost the only kind one would consume. So is it the hard work and 'good eating,' without the help of a Food Pyramid that kept the people of yesterday healthy looking? Were those same values part of the more environmentally appreciative population that once was? The answers are partially yes; there are rarely solid yes or no answers when thinking of solutions to such questions.
We forget about how precious this place called Earth really is.
Instead of tending to smog, our focus is more on better gas mileage. Millions of dollars are poured into books, weight-loss programs, doctors, psychics, McDonald's lawsuits, and other gimmicks because of laziness; being too busy to watch what enters our mouths, we're suddenly appalled by the extra rolls of fat that suddenly appear on our bodies. Quick fix solutions seem to be the rout to follow, but they are not; maintaining a healthy diet, meaning that some work and effort will have to be put forth, and regularly exercising is the best way to stay fit. Being perfect isn't achievable, being happy with our own bodies is.
There are no complete and perfect answers to any of the problems on Earth. And that's how this will end: with imperfection.
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