How to use un-new mailing supplies

(Except for the stamps, come to think of it... I did generate new trash with the stamps, darnit!)

Look, we all want to believe that we do "more for sustainability in one day than most people do in a lifetime,"* but the truth is... we don't. What we DO do (haha...) is tell ourselves soothing stories about why we don't.

And yet! Unlike most other work in the sustainability space, I am not here to be a bummerfest. Last year, I attended a climate conference I attended where the keynote speaker said something like "we must give up the things we love now so that the things we love in the future have a chance!" Spit take. What? No, sir. That is wrong. You have it all wrong. You're being a bummerfest.

My main take-away was that the keynote speaker clearly hadn't visited the sunny side of living more sustainably. He still thought of it as some sort of hairshirt sacrifice you do because you love your unborn progeny. What I would say to that fellow now, if I had the chance, is:

I'm so sorry my friend, but you've been duped! If you think living more sustainably makes your life worse... there's no other way to say it. You've been duped. Ask me how I know.

Of course we know that guy is not alone. We've all been duped, to some degree. The work we do here at Circle Game is designed to be an exploration of un-learning such duping. A joyful, voluntary exploration of un-learning.

The other day I had some mail to send and it seemed as an apt an opportunity as any to share the fun, silly, un-learning skills I've been building up. This two-minute video is a snapshot of how wrong that keynote speaker was about giving up the things we love. And how you CAN do more for sustainability than most people do in a lifetime with some joyful un-learning of your own.

*(This message was sent to me from a rejected online dating prospect as he sat in an airport awaiting his flight)