Go Green by Blacking Out.

It's Earth Hour at 8pm tonight.

Turn your lights out, or I'll punch 'em out.

The earth thanks you, and I thank you.

Of Fences, Nomads And 3 Year-Olds

"Settle down."
"Sit still for a minute."
"You don't need that. "

These are phrases I repeat, ad nauseum, to my perpetually spastic 3 year old. But I'm starting to realize that perhaps I should be offering such sentiments to my neighbours as well.

We moved into our new house a little over 2 years ago in order to accommodate the growing family. Since then, of the 11 houses I can see over the 180-degree span out my front door, 8 have been or are currently for sale. And this doesn't include the 6 additional For Sale signs I pass everyday on my 400-yard drive out to the main road.

I'm starting to wonder if my house is giving off an odour or something, causing everyone around me to leave. If that's not the case, then what is it? What is the matter with people?

I believe that this is a world-wide phenomenon that has somehow become entrenched into our culture. And not only is it sad, but it's also frustrating, expensive and self-perpetuating.

Everyone is forever in a rush for something more. Something bigger. Something better. Always something else. And the flipping of a house is just one of a multitude of today's 'disposables'.

How did we get to such a state whereby you have to have the biggest and the best of everything lest you be branded a bump in the road to be flattened by society's steamroller of consumption and progress?

Don't like something? Get rid of it. Get something new! You deserve it! New clothes. New toys. A new car. A new job. A new spouse.

And why do we blindly accept the justifications we tell ourselves for doing so? For example, one neighbour claims he has to sell their house in order to help pay off the debts they incurred while adopting a baby. Great idea, except when you step back and notice that he just bought a brand new SUV, and will be putting in a PVC fence before moving to a temporary house while his new "permanent" house is being constructed -- most likely bigger and farther from the city than his current house. Oh yeah. Makes PERFECT sense to me.

I want to get to know my neighbours. I want to have them over for BBQs, or to play cards. But why bother? They're just going to move away soon, never to be heard from again. So instead of having that friendly sense of community, I withdraw to my own backyard, to hide behind the over-priced and divisive fenceline (literal and metaphorical) that everyone rushed to put up as soon as the moving van pulled away.

I once thought that nomadic cultures had long been relegated to the depths of Africa or the farthest reaches of the Arctic regions, but I now know that that lifestyle is alive and thriving -- right here in good ol' suburbia.

Let me tell you something...You can spend your life continually fence-hopping, chasing rainbows and greener pastures -- only to succeed in exhausting and alienating yourself. Or you can stay put and patiently wait for the greener grass to come to you.

Settle down.

Sit still for a minute.

You don't need that.