Hello. I am Maggie, and I am a "deLiberal." (Well, for at least one week).
What exactly is a deLiberal? I coined the term as nickname for someone who, as you may have guessed, lives deliberately. But what does that mean? In my definition, living deliberately is making conscious choices about the way you live your life. These choices can be for any reason that you choose, and they are not necessarily humanitarian or commendable choices either (think hermits). However, for the sake of this experiment, the reasoning behind my choices will be to better the environment, society, and myself. This entails things like being conscious of my environmental impact, contributing to society, and taking care of my own well-being.
How did I get inspired to do this? It's a good mix of "I'm-doing-this-for-a-class" and "this-is-a-chance-to-do-something-I've-always-thought-about-doing." I like to equate the latter inspiration to the infamous New Year's resolution; for some reason, January 1st has the special magic to motivate us to drop those 10 pounds or stop smoking, even though we could easily have done it on December 31st or a sunny day in July. I'm thinking of this class assignment as that little push to make myself a more ethical human.
The college course that has generously behoved me this opportunity is appropriately called "Living Deliberately." In fact, my decision to take this course was heavily based on my secret excitement to carry out the mysterious and enticing task of "a living experiment." And now the moment has finally arrived.
I'll be changing my daily habits in a total of six different categories; I'll be reconsidering how I eat, how I travel, what I buy, how much technology I use, my political activism, and the amount of attention I give to my own happiness. You could say that I'll be shaken out of my routine a little. But hey, aren't there a bunch of quotes saying how routines just waste your life and breed discontent?
Plus, thinking about this experiment has brought me to a jarring realization: The majority of America, including me, is outrageously privileged. My realization is beyond the obvious privileges that we have. I already knew that we were rich, in more danger of gorging ourselves to death than starving to death, and more than comfortable in our heated homes, no matter how "humble" they may be. My realization instead centers on the fact that we have the privilege to "ignore the ugly." What I mean is, our actions and choices about how we live our lives do not have any immediate effects on us (at least for the time being), so it is convenient and normal for us to ignore any negative or ugly effects that we initiate. Also contributing to our great ability to ignore things is our mentality that we can fix any problem or find any solution. There is no crisis that our technology can't deal with.
So I'm excited "face the ugly" and make decisions that have less negative impact. Here are those exact decisions:
1) Food- I'm going to eat vegetarian. This is something I've truly always wanted to try, but could never justify. Now that I know about the grotesque factory farm business, I have that justification. I'd rather not eat bleached-alive chickens or munch on pork that once was a sore-ridden sow. And considering that 99% of our meat comes from factory farms, this is nearly impossible unless I go totally veg.
2) Transportation- Honestly, I'm already quite an ethical traveler. Living in a city and enjoying the perks of living on a college campus, I am a faithful walker and taker of public transportation. However, I will make myself a low-impact transport goddess and restrict myself to ONLY stairs at all times of the night and only allowing myself to use the metro if I'll be riding for at least two stops. Usually, I allow myself to take the elevator after 11 pm and I enjoy a quick jaunt to the next stop on the metro.
3) Consumerism- Unfortunately, the "perks" of being a college student also include running from place to place, starved and tired and desperate for just a little source of academic salvation. Most often, this salvation comes in the form of an iced coffee or a bagel with cream cheese and avocado. I became disheartened to realize that my quick sources of energy meant tons of useless trash. I can't believe I'm saying this, but the dining hall actually does offer a better alternative. Washable plates, cups, and utensils save a lot of waste. If I'm on the go, so does buying bulk food from the local grocery store and using my own washable utensils to eat it. It'll take a little more planning, but it will do me and the planet good to avoid food package waste for a week.
4) Political Action- I live on one of the most politically active campuses in the country. I don't know a thing about politics nor do I even have a clue about what is going on in the news. Alright, it's about time I read the daily newspaper.
5) Health & Happiness- While our current way of living is harmful to the outside world, it is also harmful to ourselves as beings of nature. For this reason, I'm going to take the time to nourish myself as a person, a person that has inherent psychological needs. Basically, I'm going to take a bit of time each day to focus on making myself happy. I felt like a surefire way to do that was to allot at least half an hour each day to just relaxing, reading a magazine, painting my nails, etc. outside in the sun. If this is not possible, a lamp and comfy bed will suffice.
6) Technology- Like any good American youth, I am an avid consumer and user of technology, namely my cell-phone and the Internet. For my own sanity, I'm going to restrict myself to one Facebook check a day (gasp!) and only using my cellphone for necessary communication purposes and for music at the gym. Sadly, these changes will probably free up at least 2 hours of my time.
There it is. Now let's do this!
Hi Maggie,
ReplyDeleteYour introduction to this experiment is excellent. From a strictly writing style perspective, you come across as smooth and well-reasoned. I particularly liked your second paragraph and using the dashes in quoting the subjects you were discussing. Then you expanded on it by giving the irony of New Years resolutions--a solid point!
Also, from a strictly "content" perspective, your fifth paragraph was equally outstanding. I agree with your claim that we Americans not only are privileged in a general sense, but also have the privilege to "ignore the ugly" as a result of unprecedented wealth. I imagine Singer and Rand's readings have impacted your experiment in some ways. I'm interested to hear your thoughts on the Dalai Lama readings and how our privileges can be reconciled to contribute to our individual and global happiness. Good work!