The Beautiful Positive
I watched Outrageous Fortune on Tuesday night. It’s one of my all-time favourite TV shows. It deals with serious issues, but it’s also seriously funny in the best ‘taking the piss’ Kiwi tradition. At this point in the series there’s lots of drama, loss and even tragedy, but Pascalle West isn’t going to let it get her down.
Pascalle is the blond bimbo of the programme, but also cast as the girl with the big heart who understands what really matters in life even if her nonsensical remarks often make her family and friends smirk into their hands.
She’s been into the Beautiful Positive for a while now, and in the last episode when her brother and mother light into a major argument she cries out, ‘Look, we can’t be fighting now! We have to focus on the Beautiful Positive!’
Pascalle has just lost her partner, her wealth, and her business, but she’s putting a cheerful face on it. She WILL be positive and upbeat, no matter what.
I want to be like Pascalle, even though there are serious risks involved. The risk of being thought a pollyanna. The risk of BEING a pollyanna. Words like denial, delusion, and just plain simple-mindedness come to mind too.
But if Pascalle is willing to take the risk, so am I.
Beautiful Positive About What?
A genuinely sustainable world. Seriously.
Most of what most of us (especially in the West) have been doing since the start of the Industrial Revolution is the direct opposite of ’sustainable.’ We are stunning resource hogs, and as we ‘eat’ our way through the world’s bounty and leave our waste behind, we are making our only home exponentially more crowded, more dangerous, dirtier, and louder. And let’s not forget, way UGLIER. We’re also wiping out other species at a mind-boggling rate, currently around 50,000 per year . Planet Earth hasn’t been visited by this kind of devastation for about 65 million years, when the dinosaurs went extinct and it could all be blamed on a bloomin’ meteorite.
It’s very important to notice those things, and to hold ourselves, our governments, and corporations accountable for what we/they are doing to ourselves and the planet. Whistle-blowing, political activism, conducting research, and bearing witness are all part of the mix of trying fend off the big train wreck of . . . unsustainability.
But not here.
This blog will focus on what we’re doing now that IS sustainable and how we can improve on the rest, rather than focusing on what we’re doing wrong and the barriers to change.
I will be writing about things that seem even a little bit constructive, seeking out creative solutions to intractable problems wherever I can find them, and trying to make links to parts of our lives that we don’t normally associate with the word sustainability.
Holy Rose Tint, Batman – Why??
Because even I, a die-hard and sometimes sanctimonious greenie from way back, am finding it all a bit much. I listen to the latest on climate change, and all I can do is utter ‘we’re stuffed.’ Ditto for water crises, the new boom in nuclear reactors, and GM contamination. It’s paralyzing, and I’m confident it’s not just affecting me.
This isn’t a call for inaction, apathy or fatalism. I’m active in politics and in my community and I try to live as sustainably as I can. Me and the thousands (millions?) of others are finding ways to do the best we can in a myriad of different ways.
But still. It’s depressing. And I have a wee niggly doubt about it all in the form of the phrase, ‘What you resist persists.’ As in, if we spend all our time thinking about climate change, that’s exactly what we’re going to get. And if we obsess over the sins of multinational corporations, we’re just feeding them with our energy. It’s new-agey, it’s officially called the Law of Attraction, and I’m not sure I believe in it. But still. I think it might be time to just DO SOMETHING DIFFERENT.
Bonjour, to Beautiful Positive and to you. And thank you Pascalle West.
welcome
She's not Pascalle, but she's got the right 'tude
I watched Outrageous Fortune on Tuesday night. It’s one of my all-time favourite TV shows. It deals with serious issues, but it’s also seriously funny in the best ‘taking the piss’ Kiwi tradition. At this point in the series there’s lots of drama, loss and even tragedy, but Pascalle West isn’t going to let it get her down.
Pascalle is the blond bimbo of the programme, but also cast as the girl with the big heart who understands what really matters in life even if her nonsensical remarks often make her family and friends smirk into their hands.
She’s been into the Beautiful Positive for a while now, and in the last episode when her brother and mother light into a major argument she cries out, ‘Look, we can’t be fighting now! We have to focus on the Beautiful Positive!’
Pascalle has just lost her partner, her wealth, and her business, but she’s putting a cheerful face on it. She WILL be positive and upbeat, no matter what.
I want to be like Pascalle, even though there are serious risks involved. The risk of being thought a pollyanna. The risk of BEING a pollyanna. Words like denial, delusion, and just plain simple-mindedness come to mind too.
But if Pascalle is willing to take the risk, so am I.
beautiful positive about what?
A genuinely sustainable world. Seriously.
Most of what most of us (especially in the West) have been doing since the start of the Industrial Revolution is the direct opposite of ’sustainable.’ We are stunning resource hogs, and as we ‘eat’ our way through the world’s bounty and leave our waste behind, we are making our only home exponentially more crowded, more dangerous, dirtier, and louder. And let’s not forget, way UGLIER. We’re also wiping out other species at a mind-boggling rate, currently around 50,000 per year . Planet Earth hasn’t been visited by this kind of devastation for about 65 million years, when the dinosaurs went extinct and it could all be blamed on a meteorite.
It’s very important to notice those things, and to hold ourselves, our governments, and corporations accountable for what we/they are doing to ourselves and the planet. Whistle-blowing, political activism, conducting research, and bearing witness are all part of the mix of trying fend off the big train wreck of . . . unsustainability.
But not here.
This blog will focus on what we’re doing now that IS sustainable and how we can improve on the rest, rather than focusing on what we’re doing wrong and the barriers to change.
I will be writing about things that seem even a little bit constructive, and seeking out creative solutions to intractable problems, especially in the world of sustainable and green business. The economic machine got us into this mess; a new and improved way of feeding, clothing and entertaining ourselves will have to be a big part of getting us out of it.
Bonjour, to Beautiful Positive and to you. And thank you Pascalle West.
