The Important, The Urgent, and Planet Earth

Today is Earth Day.  Perhaps you forgot midst all the news from Boston and Texas and China.  Perhaps it just slipped your mind.  I heard no mention of it this morning on the news.  But maybe I wasn't listening carefully enough.  That happens.

It's easy to see why.  The unfolding drama in Massachusetts is filled with details to take in and comprehend.  The tragedy in Texas is hard to imagine.  The earthquake in China, which has resulted in thousand and thousands of injuries seems so far away, yet so very real.  It is easy to get caught up in those stories and forget that it's Earth Day.

Or, maybe, for you, there are important personal issues that have you preoccupied.  Maybe you are preparing for a wedding.  Maybe you have a very sick family member.  Maybe you are coping with a rebellious teenager.  Maybe someone you love has just passed away.  Whatever the nature of the concern, you have really been out of the public loop, and so you've missed lots of things, not just Earth Day.

All of that is very, very understandable.  The trouble is that just as Earth Day may have slipped your attention this year, so, very often, have environmental concerns.  We seem to constantly be finding reasons to put environmental issues on the back burner.  Something always seems more pressing, more immediate.  And so we say, "We'll deal with the environment  tomorrow."

I was once told that there is a significant difference between something being urgent and something being important.  That which is urgent is in your face, it presses you to act right now.  It may or may not be truly important in the long run.  The pushy waiter to asks you to order and makes you feel rushed creates a sense of urgency--but is your choice of fish or chicken really important?  Some things are both urgent and important--certainly all the things mentioned above probably fall into that category.  But all too often we allow the urgent to replace the important.

Caring for the earth is important.  I worry that we'll not make it a true priority until we realize that in the grand scheme of things it is also urgent.