How do we all care for our common home? How much time does each of us spend even considering that question?
For more than 10 years since the encyclical “Laudato Si’ ” was published, this question has been given greater importance. Catholics are viewing the need to care for creation in a new light. And gladly so!
But how can each of us actually DO something that will make any difference?
Our world in America has grown increasingly complex, both sociologically and technologically. We are surrounded by our things and by endless streams of advertising, always encouraging us to buy more. In our consumer culture, many products we purchase are designed to be disposable for the sake of convenience.
Gone are the days when the lonely, bored Maytag repairman sat all day, hoping in vain for an appliance to break down. Gone are the holiday lights, oscillating fans, stereo systems, fountain pens and other items that lasted for years of use and reuse.
Now items are used and then discarded. If trash collections stopped for even a week, many of us would be up to our armpits in our waste.
Is there something better that can be done with items that aren’t recyclable in our curbside bins? Finding solutions would be an overwhelming task for one person, but it becomes manageable when divided among more than 30 grade-motivated, mostly college-bound students that I teach in an advanced placement environmental science course. Some of the results that they have come up with are not just encouraging, but downright wonderful.
Students discovered programs at home improvement stores to collect and properly recycle heavy-element batteries and burned C.F.L. bulbs. They found grocery store chains with entryway bins to collect plastic bags. They also discovered a New Albany business that collects packing Styrofoam to use in their remanufacturing process.
There really is a lot of progress being made to help the world we continue to create by how we live our lives.
But why is it so hard to find answers here? Student researchers spent time and effort making phone calls, sending e-mails and contacting businesses to track down legitimate programs. Does it have to be this difficult to do better than just throw things away? And what are these difficulties saying about us as people?
Pope Francis spoke very clearly in telling us not to let the things in our lives become our primary motivation for living or the standard by which we judge ourselves and our worth.
He warned us that our “throwaway culture” has created a mindset in which human beings are also treated like the consumer goods that we use and discard. The pope called us to counteract the “throwaway culture” by building a culture of encounter and care, based on connections of thought and touch.
Perhaps in this wonderful season of celebrating life and birth, we can take a few extra seconds in our days to think about ways to consume and throw away less. Perhaps we can give out a little more of the divine intangibles of love and concern for each other instead of buying more. We can choose to shift our focus away from Black Friday consumerism to the true celebration of Christmas.
I firmly believe that the best solutions to problems come when enough people collectively decide to do something different. The care for creation starts, continues and ultimately ends with each one of us every day.
Michael Budniak is a biology and environmental science teacher at Trinity High School.
