Dear future love,

I would like to begin this letter with the closing words of Johnathan Kozol in his book Savage Inequalities. He writes, “Standing here by the Ohio River, watching it drift west into the edge of the horizon, picturing it as it flows onward to the place three hundred miles from here where it will poor into the Mississippi, one is struck by the sheer beauty of this country, of it’s goodness and unrealized goodness, of the limitless potential that it holds to render life rewarding and the spirit clean.” Today as I write this the world is facing what President Jimmy Carter could only describe as a “crisis of confidence”. The beauty and vitality of the world depicted by Kozol, today is threatened by an ever-increasing environmental threat. The way of life that I am experiencing in the past is one that prioritizes monetary reward over the value of the services provided by nature. The system of yesterday, which for me is the system of today, is that of the technological mindset that Martin Heidegger wrote about in the years leading his death. Nature is nothing more than a resource that we can force to our will and manipulate for our gain. Thus, we are faced with rising and acidic sea levels, warming global temperatures, mass biodiversity extinction, and consumption induced pollution never before seen in human history. This mindset is most unsustainable, and action must be taken to preserve the natural world. For it is nature that inspires, it is nature that heals, and it is nature the creates the breath of mental and physical life.

Thus, today I promise to take action. I promise to reduce my own consumption and to embrace a better mindset. You deserve a future that is brighter than the one I can conceive. Hence it is only appropriate that I now vow to engage in those practices that are as ecologically sustainable as possible (reusable water bottles, less meat consumption, and more composting). Finally, one man does not make an Island, the problems that I face today are much bigger than simply changing my habits. Much of the world has now aligned politically and socially toward a culture of consumption. Given that, a culture of consumption is the reason that my world faces such an ecological crisis, it is both necessary and proper to address the fundamental mindsets that have created such a destructive culture. Thus, as My final promise to you I promise to, whenever possible, help change this mindset through education and environmental mindfulness. I deeply hope that the future that you now enjoy is not the environmental apocalypse that I can only imagine for myself. I sincerely hope that these actions help improve the future. If I am unsuccessful in my endeavors, I deeply apologize for the future that you now live in.

With Love Always,
Eddie