I was in a meeting one day and this lady used the term ‘gold mine’ to refer to an idea that was set to make her company alot of money. Before i knew it I was not laughing with her but thinking of an alternative way to refer to good ideas. So I told her, lets think of it as renewable energy. Her laugh faded, but she got the point. Since this experience I have become increasingly aware that some of the language used around me and my own in regards to the environment, is made up of a belief system about the world which is dated and must change. Listening to Triple J some weeks later and Harold Bishop (not his real name) from Neighbours was on with Jay and the Doctor, informing them they should not be calling clear days “fine” as this labels days without rain as ok. He was campaigning to call a clear day “dry” to take away the positive affirmation that a day without rain is a good day. It seemed I was not alone on this one. I began to think that perhaps as a society we could start to substitute language and reference terms with new words that have new, more relevant meanings.
So suddenly talking about a good weekend could be “mate I had the most carbon neutral weekend, I didn’t pollute a single cubic centimetre. Drank so much on Saturday night I could have made the Murray flow again and saw this girl who had to be from Gaia herself she was so natural and earth bound…” I know this a stretch, but as knowledge spreads and our awareness grows even more I would hope to think that one part of us that is to change could be the use of language and the meaning our words imply. We all grow through school systems, tertiary and work environments. But it’s not until you step back from it all and actually challenge what is being taught and how things are done that you can realise it’s all just made up. Life as we know it is the result of ideas and assumptions made by man. And hence the reason why we can start to change them. I now challenge many assumptions that exist today, the value of gold being one. It isn’t worth anything. We created a market for it which drove the price up as it is a scarce resource. The same thing will happen to water and other natural resources if we dont learn quickly how to interact with them and treat them. As soon as the last nugget is dug up, who cares? The next most valuable item in the world will be elected. Remeber one day we thought the Earth was flat? The most important rule I can tell any child is to challenge all rules and assumptions.
