Watching & Listening

There is a saying I heard for the first time a while back that I really liked:

'You have two eyes, two ears and just one mouth - use them that way'

Basically do twice as much watching and listening as you do talking.  I'm not at all sure I manage it, although I consider myself hungry for knowledge and thirsty for learning I'm sure I talk and write far too much to have the ratio right. I do a lot of reading, which is like listening with your eyes though, hopefully that counts.  

I've just started reading and so far it's proving an interesting and enjoyable read. I'm not far in and will do another review when I've finished it but so far my overwhelming feeling from what I've read is that our on-grid reliance - water, electricity, gas supplies are not remotely joined up, sustainable or even make much sense. I had no real idea just  how many people are living 'off grid' and doing just fine. I know when camping part of the fun is rationing light, heat, power, water and planning into our days how to go about gathering resources and using them wisely. I have plenty of friends who already live without one or more of their services supplied by expensive corporate organisations and they have adapted accordingly and don't miss them at all.

In other news this week I have been shocked and saddened by things I learnt by way of TV and computer. We are avid watchers of Countryfile each Sunday and a while ago we watched with shock when they visited one of the massive cattle holdings in the US, where thousands of cows are kept inside, never seeing sky or eating grass for the purpose of cheap, mass volumes of milk. There is an online petition and plenty of opposition to a planned version of this in the UK. I am hoping there are enough numbers of objectors to prevent this style of farming happening here although I fear there is a larger majority who want cheap produce whatever the cost to animals or the environment. Ady and I have also been very disturbed watching Hugh's Big Fish Fight and learning of the dreadful waste of fish that goes on thanks to EU rules about quotas and discard, along with the terrible loss of marine life (dolphins, turtles, sharks) with mass fishing styles.

All of these learnings give gravity to another famous saying 'ignorance is bliss'. I think a lot of us would really rather not be enlightened and educated. Far better to eat your cheap chicken, drink your cheap milk, wear your cheap clothes from the supermarkets and marvel at the low price you are paying without giving a thought to who is picking up the real cost, because someone or something somewhere will be. Once your conscience has been pricked you then have to decide what to do with that knowledge. Do you bury it away, choose to ignore it? Do you make a decision to change your ways and habits, knowing that even if it's still going on at least it's not in your name anymore or do you go the whole hog and spread the word, become an activist, try and change things?

We're beginning with the 'not in my name' approach. We're learning more, changing our ways, lightening our footprints. We're hopefully spreading the word in a gentle way too. Maybe hearing our story will inspire others to make small (or large) changes themselves, maybe it will give them curiosity to learn a bit more themselves. I know I can get a bit preachy sometimes, passionate about stuff to the point of being boring, I guess we all can on at least one topic. I don't have answers for lots of the questions, so until I do and maybe even after that I'll try to remind myself  ...'two eyes, two ears, one mouth'.