Excuses are like A$$holes

I had a basketball coach in high school that had many lines that have stuck with me to this day. But none have resonated more than his line of "NO EXCUSES." Whether we lost because of a crappy ref, or poor free throw percentages, there were no excuses made; we lost.

He once went as far as to tell me, "McNally, excuses are like assholes. Everyone's got one, and they stink." (This after I tried to explain some poor performance.)

The past two years, I worked for a school district with the same motto - when our students had less-than-desirable pass rates, it didn't matter our reasoning. There were no excuses.

And that's my approach to Green living. Why do we keep making excuses? Why do we keep saying things like, "oh, but we HAVE to put the heat on 70 or our house will be FREEZING!"?

We are a society of excuses. "If we don't drill the oil, someone else will" (credit for that one goes to a friend's comment on an earlier post). "I save more money if I buy cheap produce at Walmart rather than the farmers' market." "I can't grow a garden, I don't have the time."

EXCUSES

Get rid of the excuses in your life. I'm slowly, but surely, getting rid of mine.

And from this day forward, my posts will not only include the little things we are doing to save our Earth, but also the big things. I've made a promise to myself to TRULY educate my own self, as well as my family, on the un-green ways of life we all engage in.

Recycling doesn't cut it, folks. Sorry. Composting is awesome, but are you still driving a car to work? Turning the lights off in rooms you aren't in is not good enough.

I pledge to stop living by "Green tips" and start living purely Green.

I've said in an earlier blog that we don't have to radically change our lives to help the Earth. Yes, we do. I recant my earlier statement. YOUR life needs to change drastically, as does mine. We can't keep using up so much energy and resources, and cover our asses by saying things like, "oh, but I donate to the World Wildlife Federation."

You're busted, as am I - Time to get real. Just like Obama said tonight in his address to the nation, for decades we've known what we're heading towards, and for decades all we've done is talk about it.

So when are you going to act, friends? Why not NOW?