chill or be chilled

Humbled.

Everyone is.

I am humbled when clients surprise me. I make snap judgements of people, though less and less as I get older because I have realized I’m often wrong. Barbering is cool that way, you get to know many different types of people, and they prove you wrong all the time.

If you’re thinking no one surprises you anymore, it’s time to see just how far your head is up your ass, searching for more of your own bullshit to choke on. The only reason humans have not surprised you in a while, if you’re like me… is because you’ve convinced yourself that your perception is reality. And it is, but it’s also not. It’s definitely not the only reality and there is a good chance that in many circumstances someone else’s perception might be quite a bit more objective than your own.

As we get older and have scraped our proverbial knees down to the bone it gets harder and harder to trust that people are speaking truth to us. It gets harder to slow down. Think to ourselves “you know what, I might not know best here.” This can only last so long though. Eventually life will tap you on the shoulder with something more than just uncomfortable, and you’ll be forced to deal with your closed mindedness head on. The world is experiencing one of these humbling moments right now . So many things I’ve realized I was wrong about. How much I thought I had to grind, how much I have to spend on groceries, how because of my grind I need and deserve to spend the amount of money I was on take out and convenience. It’s been humbling to realize that all those and more have changed. I was wrong, and I am so happy with how I am spending my time now. These times have shown me what is really important to me.

Have we been humbled enough as a society to look at our consumption patterns and realize that something needs to change? The next pandemic could be dangerous for a much larger chunk of the population. Regulation for what to do in these scenarios is helpful for sure, but possibly not quite as helpful as corporations finding a way to reduce their consumption and impact on our shared finite resources, finding ways to carry capitalism with a conscience. One that recognizes that the cost of doing business also includes the cost to the planet. You can go for anything you want in life , as long as you don’t get in the way of anyone else going for what they want.

Tim Hortans!! Your transaction does not end when you hand people their goods and change. The transaction ends when your cups make it to the side of the trail of one of our favorite parks. It ends in the landfill because you can not recycle the cups because of how much wax is in them. So you can’t really say a cup of coffee only costs blank plus tax. A cup of coffee costs more. We can pay for it monetarily, or we can pay for it how we are now.

Being forced to slow down, because the earth just couldn’t handle us taking more from it than we give to it a second longer. What do we call organisms that take more than they give? Our host is stronger than we are, we only have so long to figure this out. It’s only a matter of time before the earth taps us on the shoulder with something that makes Covid-19 look like a sneeze.

Let’s stop pretending we are not mammals who are part of our local and global ecosystems. Let’s make sure to cast our vote for corporations that count the full cost of their products. It’s not really a cheaper cup of coffee, ride to work, or packet of quinoa if it costs us our home.