Conscious Choice: In Pursuit of a Grander Ideal

May 2007 | From the Editor

In Pursuit of a Grander Ideal

It’s the wee hours of the morning, and by all accounts I should be sleeping — it’s been many hours and days since I last really slept — but I find myself unable to, spurred on to write these notes despite exhaustion, that I might capture just a tiny vibration of the immense energy that just rolled through Chicago this Earth Day weekend.

You see, today is April 23rd, 2007, and the Green Festival has now come and gone, but not without leaving in its wake the most extraordinary and transformative experience. Because it was not just some convention or trade show, it was truly a festival, as in an occasion for feasting or celebration, cultural performances, exhibitions, or competitions. All day, all night, all weekend, we met new people and discussed worldchanging concepts. We shared and we danced, and we laughed and we loved. And all of it in pursuit of a grander ideal, that of justice, balance and sustainability made simple and attractive, endearing and enduring.

How serious was anyone about the “greenest city in America” moniker until this weekend? We’ll never really know. But one thing is for certain: Chicago’s green consciousness was just wildly expanded. The Festival definitely exceeded expectations, and let me say this with all confidence — Chicago really showed the Coasts we ain’t playin’ ’round here. When we talk about transformation, we mean business.

So, take a moment to reflect on the 37 years since the first Earth Day and how far this movement has come. And while you are at it, reflect on how far Chicago has come in that time. Yes, there are still some coal-fired plants. Yes, there are still nuclear reactors, too much carbon output from air traffic at O’Hare, gentrification in our neighborhoods and a police force whose brutality and lack of respect for the law seems more appropriate for the Dark Ages than the 21st Century. So goes life in a metropolis of 10 million people. It can still get better, you know.

Did you ever think “green” would go from crunchy to sexy, from fringe to mainstream, from naive idealism to economic reality? More importantly, did you ever think you’d see tens of thousands of Chicagoans in hemp clothes, eating vegan corn dogs and soul vegetarian food, listening to John Perkins talk about Economic Hit Men for the Empire, or David Korten talk about navigating the great collapse, or David Wolfe (this month’s “Conversations”) jumping on a table proclaiming far and wide that chocolate can save the environment and end corporate globalization, or Van Jones offering positive solutions about how to open up the green wave to everyone, regardless of color or economic background, to bring us all towards greater peace and prosperity?

Sitting there at the closing ceremony listening to Michael Kang and the New Millennium Orchestra, watching members of our Burning Man community dance in front of kids and grandmas and union hands, I realized that the cultural blender in which we live here in the Big City on the Lake has finally been packed full and turned to puree, and the end product is kind of like a big hemp and superfood shake: really green, strange looking but not altogether unpleasant tasting and ultimately very good for you.

Note on our last issue: In our April “Green Festival” issue we were deeply honored to have Van Jones write our cover story, which he originally titled “Beyond Eco-Apartheid.” For various reasons, we made a decision to drop the word “beyond” from the title in the final version, but now acknowledge that was a mistake. Van has expressed to us that by dropping the word “beyond” we did not honor the hopeful spirit or intention of the piece, which was meant as an invitation, not an accusation. We agree.

— Charles Shaw

Recommend this page to a friend

Top Ten pages recommended to friends: