On complaining

It was rather unsettling, that meal.

"They should be doing something.

Those environmentalists.

They write and strut and

argue. Quarrel. 

They're warring tribes.

Ecofeminists. Anthropocentrists.
Biocentrists.

With ink and paper,

they spear and strike and
stab. It was all black and white,

proper and prim,

just a little grey and bloody in between.

They use up papers,

stacks by stacks. 

Environmentalists?

How
ironic."

"Huh?'

"What about the environment?

The trees and rhinos and rivers?

They seem to care more for their ideas,

their pride. They should be doing 

something. Really, it's-"

"Huh. What about you?"

Therein lies the irony. While we're expecting others to do something, in our passively expectant states, we aren't doing anything as well! It is the same with hoping for better transport, examinations that are easier and a greener society.  It is easy to be myopic, to lapse into a state of laziness. Into a belief that problems belong to everybody but us.

This, however, divests individual empowerment. We are, ourselves, responsible for what we care about. It'll be wise to consider this whenever the urge to complain arise.