equilibrio

i have been thinking a lot about seeking balance. it started when i flipped to a talk radio show the other day. they were interviewing an author - steve milloy - & asking questions regarding his new book -titled green hell. i only listened to a segment of the show but it triggered a whole heap of thoughts.

so this book was intended to shed light on the environmental movement that is so trendy right now. one point that steve brought out was that those energy efficient compact fluorescent that are being marketed to conserve electricity usage & save greenhouse gases from entering the atmosphere are actually killing people in china- where they are constructed - due to a lack of safety-in-the-workplace- laws, an astounding 90% of the chinese workers that assemble these bulbs are poisoned with mercury. which is kind of ironic right? it's ok to kill people to save the planet?

so i brought this all up to zane- my educator who keeps much more 'up' on current events than i do. & he added another point - electric cars. zane said he would love to own a car that consumed less oil- or if they discovered something clean - like how to run cars on corn oil or something along these lines. but the truth of the matter is (he said) is that electric cars are a beautiful idea -but only in theory. he told me that if every single person replaced their gasoline running vehicles with electric ones today the power grids we have now are outdated & couldn't handle the overload. plus it would significantly raise the need for fossil-fueled power plants which release toxic gasses into our atmosphere- (supposedly the cause of global warming- but thats a whole other topic.) so really these contrived schemes being labeled as 'planet-savers' are kind of just creating new problems.

but nobody (or very few) people are speaking out against the information being projected by the media because there is so much money to be made from this trend. i mean i see both sides. maybe because i'm a gemini. but where is the balance? & more importantly where is the balance in my own life? i take a jog & then i go chow down at mcdonalds. those totally just cancelled each other out - where is the sense in that?

i see this in the fitness world too - people who exercise so religiously it's more of a lifestyle because it completely consumes them & their every waking moment. & then there is that scary individual who wakes up & realizes they can't get out of bed because they weigh 800+ pounds. doesn't a line need to be drawn at some point?

food too. of course i don't mean to downplay anybody who has special dietary needs. diabetics, celiacs, food allergies & the list goes on - those aren't to be taken lightly. but there is the person who consumes anything & everything without inhibitions - like my grandpa who puts a half-of-stick of butter on his pancakes & has poor heart health as a result or that person on the opposite end of the spectrum who won't put anything in their mouth unless it's organic - which is all fine & dandy but pardon the cynic that lives within me- but who is regulating what organic means? am i paying a few dollars more for just a label? where is the balance?

conservatism & liberalism. east coast vs. west coast. believers & non-believers. homosexuals & anti-gays. it splits people & families into two opposing teams - both of whom are equally convicted that they are on the right side. there are certainly black & white issues but life presents so many grey areas & situations where i have to lean toward one side & choose. how do i perceive what is good & weed out the misleading - a path that will only lead to deception?

a thought comes to mind from sunday. someone said, "it's one thing to have satan set things before our eyes to tempt us - but it's much harder when it's our own hearts that are decieved - to get that thing out which is deceiving us. i want to be searched by God - so that i can choose wisely & with careful balance.