You can do better

I buy local and organic food whenever I can, I use my car as little as possible, I recycle most rubbish, make my own bread, drink tap water to reduce plastic pollution and I write a blog to raise awareness. Enough contribution for a better world? Far from it!

Here’s a little story that happened to me recently: I live in a shared house, in a nice little room with pool and garden view. A couple of months ago I quit smoking and so I got rid of my ashtray. Not long after, I went back to having the occasional spliff at nighttime. Hanging stoned by the side of the window, I threw the leftovers outside – right onto the terrace, under a big table that was surrounded by all sorts of junk. ‘Tomorrow I’ll pick it up’, I tried to convince myself. But of course this never happened. Instead, the number of dirty buds increased gradually. Then, a few weeks ago, we had a big party at the house and James, my landlord, started to clear the space outside my room. While I was inside working on the computer, he suddenly appeared at the window.

“Claus, I noticed quite a few cigarette buds lying around…”, he commented with a friendly voice.
“Oh”, I answered, quickly looking for some excuse, “it’s because…”
But James didn’t even let me finish my stupid attempt of defending myself. Very calmly he looked me in the eyes and smiled at me: “You can do better”, was all he said. Then he turned around and continued sweeping the terrace. Needless to say, I sat there feeling embarrassed and disappointed with myself. I could go on now about how much of a hypocrite I am, telling others to recycle their rubbish and not even keeping my own backyard clean. I won’t, because it’s obvious. I’m a dickhead!

Instead, I’d like to draw attention to James’ words, because they are so true – 'you can do better!' No matter what you are doing and how much you are doing to improve the world – in many different ways, every single day,  
WE ALL CAN DO BETTER!