It took some time. More than I’d like to admit. But after a 15-month pandemic break, I’ve become a consistent composter again. Laziness sneaks in every once in a while. The kitchen food scrap container full amid the morning rush when stopping to take everything outside feels like it would throw off the entire day. A banana peel ends up in the rubbish instead of the compost. Does it matter? Not really. That one banana peel is not going to doom us or save us. Later, I’ll feel a bit guilty over it, though.
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the process of change. Of how we fall into habits and then out of them and into them again. But also the steps it takes to create bigger cultural and systems shifts and the role of individuals in making them.
I was a political science major. I spent my college years on the Hill interning for members of congress, at nonprofits and a political action community. I understand how the system works, how the game is played. When I’m not weepy over the horror unfolding in Ukraine, which is most of the time, I can picture the debates college classes will have over the war in the future. Should sanctions have been imposed earlier? A no-fly zone? Did the West do enough? Were war crimes committed? (As if the war in itself isn’t a crime).
I can take a step back and understand the rationale behind some of the decisions. I was trained to. I’m not very good at it, though. Wasn’t very good at it in school, either. To do it, you have to agree to put the interests and lives of the people in your country first at all times, no matter what. I could never get comfortable with it. The idea that something as random as the place of your birth should determine how valuable your life is. It has always seemed absurd that I should care less about what happens to someone else far away from me simply because they aren’t the same nationality as me.
There’s an underlying tension to the process of change these days. Understandably, so many people want to know what they can do about the problems we’re facing while others keep talking about systematic change. When did we decide that it had to be one or the other? I’m all for companies and governments taking responsibility for their actions. Coca-Cola, Nestlé and the like should stop, for instance, putting beverages in plastic bottles when there are other options. They should not be telling consumers just to recycle. But telling individuals that the most significant actions they can take are to call their congress members is dangerous and not very good policy. It results in many people looking around at the problems we’re facing and thinking, 'well there’s no way my reusable straw or banana peel is going to make a difference when airlines fly thousands of empty planes simply to keep their take-off and landing rights so if nothing I do matters I won’t try.'
We know that’s not true. Individuals create, drive and can therefore undo systems. What’s happening in Ukraine is a tale as old as time, and yet it’s different not because we’re seeing it play out on TikTok or Instagram, although that’s part of it sure, but it’s different because of how connected the world has become and more importantly because of the people alive right now, in this moment.
Seeing the images on the news, my daughter wants to know why the people, especially the kids, are sad. I tell her a mean man far away from here took away their homes and everything in it; their beds, stuffed animals, and toys. She wants to know his name and then this “they can have my dinosaurs, I’ll share, it’s nice to share.” These dinosaurs, by the way, are her most prized possessions of late. They are nothing extraordinary, simple dinosaur figurines, a gift from her nana, yet they are everything to her. She wants to help in whatever way she can, and isn’t that what we need; a whole generation of individuals that will look at the resources available to them and use them however they can to maybe not solve the problem at hand but at least make it better? Creating a better system while they do it.
Look at all of the people who have done something, anything over the past two weeks. Donations are being poured into traditional relief systems, like the Red Cross, UNICEF and more. But we’re also seeing people find other processes to make a difference. The people booking AirBnBs in Ukraine to get money into people’s hands right away. My incredible friend Jane and her next-door neighbor raised thousands of dollars that they wired directly to the National Bank of Ukraine. Even the support for divesting from Russian oil and gas, even if it means higher gas prices. (And yes, there are a lot of issues with how that is being done—trading fossil fuels from one petro-dictatorship for another, politicians who are using energy independence as a way to gather support to drill more at home instead of moving us towards clean energy, but that could be a whole other newsletter). Still, individual actions become part of something larger, systematic change. They’re not mutually exclusive.
What happens next? I don’t know. I’m still weepy when I watch the news. All those lives. But it’ll be individuals that decide how far we go from here.
~ Bridget
Published: Going Organic for The Day Magazine. Why Bat Houses Are Becoming A Thing for Architectural Digest.
Reading: Clean Air by Sarah Blake, whom I’ll have an interview out with soon. Mamushka: Recipes from Ukraine and Eastern Europe by Olia Hercules. ( I can’t decide what I want to make first. And this New York Times piece on the toll climate change is taking on mental health.
Working: A story on seed storage for Modern Farmer, the history behind one-pot dishes for Martha Stewart, a few tweaks to this online story on children’s gardens which will run in the May issue of Good Housekeeping. And a climate workshop with Michele Bigley! You don’t have to be a writer to join, although we will be writing, but it will be a chance to express how you’re feeling about climate and how to take action through words with a group of other like-minded people. The first one is on March 23 at 8 pm ET. If you’re interested, even if you can’t make that date, email Michelle michelebigleywriter@gmail.com. It’s free!