Today is the second day of a company retreat at my new work. It's been really interesting and inspiring to see where the founders started, how they grew their dreams and how the other people in the organization have come here from higher paying but less fulfilling jobs. I felt lucky. I'm in good company. It was nice to get to talk soil a little bit to a plant biologist who is having a problem with an invasive grass on a protected hillside.

Listening to my boss talk about the values and goals of the company, I got a couple of gems to think about and pass on. He said that it's so strange that people think that pro environment means anti people, but that most of the conservationists he know are just as passionate about people as they are about all of the other species. That's the point! All species are interconnected. People are ruining the planet not just for other species, but for themselves. The massive extinctions we're seeing are an indication of what we're doing to our own survivability on the planet. It's so hard to get people to understand or care. Why?

The other thing he said that I'm thinking about a lot is "It's one thing to pretend to be sustainable and another to be truly striving for sustainability." Corvallis came to my mind. Sometimes I feel like there's a touchy-feely, "let's act like we're pushing green technology and building and no growth, while we're really expanding, tearing up soil and selling out like crazy" thing going on in Corvallis. I know a lot of individuals who are amazing at conserving/recycling resources, growing their own food, using alternative fuels etc, but the city itself seems to be talking out of one side of its mouth and then doing something else entirely.

The plastic bag issue is case and point. Why are people so attached to a little thing that is so obviously bad for everyone? Last night, my husband offered to carry a woman's three tiny items to her car for her if she would forgo the plastic bag she was taking from the cashier. She said, "Oh no, but don't worry, I use it to clean up my dog poop. It won't go to waste." The cashier promptly came up with another great use for the plastic bag at his house - using it to line his garbage. I said, "Wow. Both great ways to ensure that biodegradable wastes never degrade." They laughed and said, "Yeah!" Like I had made a joke.

This sounds kind of depressing, but never fear. The fun, wacky thing I'm going to do to make myself and hopefully others feel better is to buy a bunch of reusable bags from each local grocery store and walk around passing them out to the shoppers. There's nothing like a whimsical random act of kindness to make a girl feel better about the world. I highly recommend trying it.