Oddly, I have written before about the Conch Republic's Independence day, but I have never before written about Earth Day.
I think that's because Earth Day can be such a bummer. It can devolve pretty quickly into moral finger-pointing. "What do you mean you don't recycle used aluminum foil! You can just rinse it off!" Sort of thing that is right, but can teeter on righteous.
Its not that I don't need a shot of guilt to remind me to more conscious of my actions, but I have trouble considering it a "celebration", and I do think that the earth needs to be celebrated.
Celebrating the earth seems a little off though, right? It's a lot like celebrating a baby's first birthday. The baby itself has no idea what in the hell is going on, but it likes the cupcake and being surrounded by people. Earth is probably unaware that we celebrate it by keeping a day in which we hold up ecological awareness.
So this year, I've decided to let a little bit of Conch Republic Independence Day slip on into Earth Day. A little bit of the absurd slide into the serious. There wasn't nothing unserious about the events that led to the Conch Republic seceding from the union on that fateful day of April 23, 1982. The people recognized that something had to be done. The same is true for the first Earth Day, first celebrated just 12 years earlier on April 22, 1970.
So, I guess this year, I have chosen to celebrate Earth Day in the spirit of Independence Day. Some people will rightly find this bothersome. Hell, even I find it somewhat bothersome. But on this day, I have decided that both Earth and I need a little break. Not self-righteous failure to be a good steward to the earth, but celebrating the
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