While at the movies recently, I sat beside a man who was an acquaintance. Before the movie began we made small talk and he began discussing the “deplorable current state of affairs the world is in right now” and especially “the horrible lack of protection for the environment”. He became angry just talking about the lack of care people have for our natural resources. His voice became so loud that some people were staring at us, but he was completely unaware. I said very little not wanting to escalate his agitation. Thankfully the movie started and he had to stop talking. After the movie ended he began complaining about how inconsiderate the people behind us were because they were speaking too loudly. I didn’t say anything. We walked out of the theater on a bright Summer day. He pulled out his sunglasses and showed them to me. He said he went into the ocean wearing his “good sunglasses” and a wave came and knocked them off his face. He implied it was the wave’s fault. He told me he bought “this new cheap pair of sunglasses just to have something”. He explained that he planned on buying another pair later because these were “too cheap” and he wasn’t sure they had any protection for his eyes.
I mentioned that the pair he lost may find their way to the giant garbage dump floating in the middle of the ocean. He stopped walking. He looked shocked and upset. He said he was hoping they washed ashore and a little boy would find them. What a delightful imagination! I realized at that moment how we create stories that fit what we want to believe. We don’t see that we are all part of the problem. He was spewing popcorn kernels over the people who didn’t care about the environment, yet he was willing to purchase not one, but 2 pairs of glasses, and pretend that it wasn’t even a possibility that his glasses were going to join all the other junk polluting the ocean. No. Not his glasses. His glasses would be found by little Timmy who would be thrilled! “Gee look what I found! Boy Oh Boy am I lucky! I will take good care of these sunglasses and keep them safe until I get old and then I’ll pass them on to my kids.” Riiiight.. Look, I’m not condemning sunglasses man. He believes he is trying his best to make the world better. I’m just making an observation about how much of what we believe is an illusion. We see the world often through cheap tinted glasses. We convince ourselves that we are the good guys opposing all those other thoughtless people. We don’t consider that we are in any way contributing to the very problems we complain about. If we could all see reality just a tad more clearly, perhaps there would be less finger pointing and more accountability, such as, I will go without sunglasses for a day or two rather than just buying a cheap pair that I will throw away or no longer use when I get a nicer pair. Maybe he could consider leaving his sunglasses on the shore next time if there’s a possibility they could be swept off his face by an inconsiderate wave. In order to gain more clarity, we must have some degree of self awareness. If he made a conscious decision not to contribute to landfills overflowing and ocean debris accumulating, then his own actions would be in alignment with what he expected from others. However like most of us, there is a lack of consistency in his words and deeds. He is not even aware of his own hypocrisy. We are often part of the problem that we spend time and energy trying to fix or at least say we want to fix. I include myself as not always being as genuine as I believe myself to be. I recycle a lot, don’t run my car or water unless I need them and carpool when I can. I expect others to pitch in and help the environment too. However, after the conversation with sunglasses man, I realized I have thrown away many items that could have been fixed and given 
to Goodwill if couldn’t use them. We can’t separate ourselves from the issues as though the issues have nothing to do with us. We aren’t entirely innocent. No matter how much we try to do the right things, if we look closely, we may see that we are harming someone or something. Let’s just be honest about it and try to do better. Being honest is already the start of doing better.