You are a fortunate woman - certainly to have surviving friends and family - but, more crucially, to have sufficient income to fund those eighteen flights. Not all of us do. Especially those of us scraping by on Social Security. And, you are lucky to have a rationale for the environmental damage your travels cause. "I had to say yes to anything I could reasonably accommodate." Therein lies the rub.
The earth and the air cannot reasonably accommodate that many flights. And, from the tone of this piece, you know that. So, your charming rationale ends up sending a contemporary message that is being repeated everywhere by too many privileged people, "I know I really shouldn't XXX, but I want to." The little three-year old girl pulls a sorrowful face and says to her mommy, "I know I shouldn't have eaten all the cookies, but I wanted to." Our beleaguered planet is being devoured by you and all the other nice privileged grown-up children. And, before your defenders write to say that I am just jealous, quite the opposite is true. I am content to walk out to my porch, sit and watch the miraculous mountain light cycle through its always surprising changes. That is priceless. It costs the planet nothing.
You are a fortunate woman - certainly to have surviving friends and family - but, more crucially, to have sufficient income to fund those eighteen flights. Not all of us do. Especially those of us scraping by on Social Security. And, you are lucky to have a rationale for the environmental damage your travels cause. "I had to say yes to anything I could reasonably accommodate." Therein lies the rub.
The earth and the air cannot reasonably accommodate that many flights. And, from the tone of this piece, you know that. So, your charming rationale ends up sending a contemporary message that is being repeated everywhere by too many privileged people, "I know I really shouldn't XXX, but I want to." The little three-year old girl pulls a sorrowful face and says to her mommy, "I know I shouldn't have eaten all the cookies, but I wanted to." Our beleaguered planet is being devoured by you and all the other nice privileged grown-up children. And, before your defenders write to say that I am just jealous, quite the opposite is true. I am content to walk out to my porch, sit and watch the miraculous mountain light cycle through its always surprising changes. That is priceless. It costs the planet nothing.