Tiny Choices Survey: Megan!
By tinychoices | May 15, 2009
Vital statistics (name, age, location, link to website/blog)?
Megan Dietz, 36, Brooklyn, NY/Pittsburgh, PA, http://www.thesunnyway.com
How do you reside (apartment or house, roommates)?
In Brooklyn, I live by myself in a 1.5 bedroom apartment, the ground floor of a gorgeous old brownstone. In Pittsburgh, I stay with my boyfriend in his house.
Are your housing decisions dictated by choice or necessity? Please explain.
By choice, for the most part. After facing bedbugs, leaky ceilings, and evil landlords, I finally found an amazing place in New York — I have a yard!!! So I stay there about half of the time. The other half, I spend in Pittsburgh to help out my 86-year-old grandma. She’s in great health, but needs some assistance getting around these days.
How do you travel (transit, car, etc)? Are your travel decisions dictated by choice or necessity?
In New York, I’m on the subway with occasional taxis. In Pittsburgh, I drive my fella’s car.
Tell us about a Tiny Choice you’ve made in your life.
Changing my diet drastically — I eat about 95% vegan now, and feel great both physically and ethically.
What is the one environmental dilemma you personally struggle the most with?
All the travel back and forth to Pittsburgh means I fly a lot more than I’d like to. I do catch rides when I can, and sometimes take the train, but it’s a 10 hour train ride, and I usually don’t have a whole day to spend on a train. Hopefully Obama’s proposal for high-speed trains will come into reality soon!
What is one Tiny Choice you can make in that direction?
I can definitely plan ahead better, so I can ride with people who are already going between Pittsburgh and New York.
What is the one environmental Tiny Choice you make that people question (in either a positive educational or a negative hassle way) you the most about?
The one thing I get the most feedback on is my relentless optimism! Some people think I’m crazy when I start talking about how the future has yet to be written, and how we have to take responsibility for making it awesome. And I admit that a positive attitude can be a hard sell in the current landscape. But I feel like we absolutely have to be optimistic about our ability to solve the problems we’re facing, or else how will we motivate to solve them? Depression is seriously not sustainable.
What is the one environmental Tiny Choice you would like every single person to adopt?
Look for small ways to increase the net goodness in the world in everyday life. Notice how we are all connected. Develop integrity. OK, so these are not exactly Tiny Choices, but they are necessary. We need to change ourselves if we are serious about changing the world.
Do you feel like you make sacrifices for environmentalism? Please explain.
Not at all. We have a unique opportunity to create new, clean, just, and elegant ways to live, and I’m grateful to be alive and able to contribute.
Are you generally: optimistic, pessimistic, neutral about environmentalism and the future?
Cross pessimism of the list, because it’s a cop-out. And why be neutral? I am determinedly optimistic. However, without a sense of responsibility, optimism means nothing. I think the only sane response to the way things are right now is a deep recognition that we all created this and it’s up to all of us to create something new to take its place. We create the world with every choice we make, no matter how tiny. Looking around, I see more and more of us letting this truth in and taking responsibility. That is why I am optimistic.
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Topics: Surveys |
What an awesome and fruitful survey Megan! I especially agree with optimism classified as an environmental choice. Sometimes I am very optimistic and other times I’m not, I have lots more to learn about consistently being positive no matter what. But when I am positive, I can see how it rubs off on those around me. I am particularly thinking about elementary students that I work with. When I am completely positive and faithful in their ability to succeed, they show me their very best side and make their very best efforts. When they succeed, i can see their attitude change and I hope this positively affects their loved ones. When I see them succeed, I have more confidence in my abilities to help them and in the teaching process itself. When I embrace life positively, I accomplish more, complain less, and have more hope for the future.
Megan, I love your blog! Thanks for being a force of positive energy in the world… we all need more of it!
Thanks Victoria and Jenn! We have a lot of work to do and doing it together, cheerfully, is its own reward!