Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Back In the Land Of The Living


I took a few days to go on a family trip and am happy to say I made it through unscathed and am back in action. I went with my father to Mid-Ohio Raceway. He is a member of the Porsche Club and he gets together with other Porsche owners and they go ripping around the track at 100+ miles-per-hour.

Now before you grab the torches and pitchforks and scream hypocrite, the main reason I go to these races is to spend time with my father. It is not really my thing. On the flip side, it is good to be around people who are passionate about something. And yes I did get out on the track and drove a bit myself (how many other times in your life can you drive over 100 mph without risk of going to jail). And don’t forget that Porsche has 3 hybrid models at the moment.

Mid-Ohio is a weird place. It is Bible belt and heartland of America. There are no recycling bins anywhere in sight and I had a very difficult time finding vegetarian food anywhere. Global warming and climate change is laughed off as hippy nonsense. And there are very few hybrids on the road.

So did I preach to the unbelievers? No. Only true believers tolerate being preached to about anything. But I did the best I could. And I was honest and unafraid to say that I compost, recycle, and eat vegetarian.

If we are going to change the world we have to do it by showing that we are normal and nice people that aren’t trying to force anything on anyone. We shouldn’t be stopping people from doing the things they enjoy but we can show them a few alternatives to the humdrum of life: like changing to CFLs or recycling when we can. We’ll reach so many more people with this approach.

I’m glad to be back at home base where I can continue making larger and faster changes. But it was a good reminder that there are lots of different interests and hobbies out there that need respected.

And the view wasn’t bad:



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