'We've always done it.  It's our tradition.  We shall continue doing it.'
   This, in the face of change, makes no sense.  But tradition is a bastion of life for people, the glue of a community, a long-established habit, the place of return that feels like a homecoming.
   It's only when we see the starkness of a statement like: 'It's the cannibal's argument,' we might pause long enough to consider whether it's a good enough reason to go on doing it in the future.
   All life is change.  Adaptability, flexibility, is the hallmark of survival and survival strategies.  Even an animal, (and we might, in our darkest moments, consider cannibals as animals,) knows to change its behaviour when the circumstances of its life change.
    Not so very long ago, slavery was a huge issue. Though not totally resolved, especially in violent domestic situations, it has mophed into sustainability as a key modern concern.  Survivability will come next if we do not adapt with the felicity of the wise creatures who live 'closer to nature'.  They are in direct contact with it, night and day.  So are naturally more attuned to its cycles and rhythms.  We could still adopt 'Nature as our teacher' as did a First People, the native Americans.  If we can find the humility in our hearts to do so.
   Change the context, reframe it.  Change the way you see it.
   You can destroy the Cannibal's Argument by saying:  'It's a matter of degree.'
   Equally, you can find the mid-point, the point of balance.  Where the best of the old and the great new meet.  But youth do need the rain-check on reinventing the wheel too many times.  What is fresh and exciting to youngsters can actually be quite an old idea dressed up newly.  This is what reinvention and makeovers are about - putting a new shine on life!
   More pedantically, and realistically for most of us, a headteacher I know justified her community's habit of leaving rubbish 'just outside their property' in the same time-honoured fashion. 'They've always done it.  It's the tradition in life here.'  Her comment implied I was wrong, and foolish, to question this behaviour.
   Tradition, it seems, needs a makeover too!    

Do you believe in a fragmented or whole-istic worldview?  This is actually a more fundamental question than debating deities or their disappearance from our secularised commercial societies.

Think what mindstates a fragmented worldview encourages.  All those fragments, tiny insignificant bits.   At the feeling level, it's a short hop from there - that holding pattern - to loneliness, alienation, isolation.

The remedy is simple.  Think of fragments as part of a gorgeous mosaic, building a big interconnected picture of life as knowledge and understanding grows.  And grow it does, all the time.  This is REAL growth, what human growth and evolution is all about.  It knocks economic growth off its hubristic pedestal.

Now you're talking!

So many debates start from a biased position, asking questions so heavily loaded with agendas, so bit-focused, they put you wrong, like the one about economic growth.

Growth is the life imperative.  For the human being it translates many different ways.  Obesity, getting rich quick, a bigger car... that mobile shell is the turtle's equivalent, in animal-speak. 

If we are brave enough to ask different question of our lives, new ways of seeing come into our minds.

Whether you see the glass as half-empty or half-full is not the right question! We are already tweaked into a duality - where it is this or that and it can't be both.

The essential point is you've got a glass!  Meaning life, energy, choice, in the first place.  If it's empty right now, fill it at the tap or go to the infinite well that is nature.

In the 2020's we have all the knowledge we need to solve our collective problems.  Many of which are self-species created.  Such as having a large family when the Earth is overpopulated with our species to the tune of 7.7 billion, as Chris Packham graphically pointed out on t.v.

Look to the pattern, the underlying pattern, for enlightenment.  The pattern is fragmented and getting more so.  Become a hunter-gatherer at heart and build a (w)holistic worldview in tune with the one the Earth offers us.  Through how the ecosystem works.

A fragmented worldview is a choice!  Diversity-in-Unity is the model the Earth constantly offers us. The Earth's reality is the biggie, not our tiny human perspective.  Is it time, yet, to embrace Earth's models as the greatest informer?  To gain immediate access to the BIG ANSWERS to the BIG QUESTIONS?

In January Ecologisers launched their two 2020 competitions.  They are part of our ten year project to turn the image of Santa Claus from a commercial icon into an all-year-round environmental champion.

Anyone interested in popularising, promoting or publicising EcoSanta to help educate the youngest generation into the importance of looking after Planet Earth is invited to enter one or both of these competitions.

​Design an EcoSanta Outfit
The popularity of Christmas clothing around the month of December is very obvious.  By designing a gorgeous EcoSanta outfit, this is an opportunity for anyone of any age with a creative design-flair to have the chance to display their talents and even win £100 if theirs is chosen winner.

The deadline for submissions of designs is May 30th, which gives plenty of time to come up with something that has all the 'ah' and 'wow' factors embedded in it.  

Write an EcoSanta-themed Short Story
(under 1,000 words)
This competition has a closing date of September 30th and offers a great chance for writers - unknown, or seasoned and professional - to enter the unexplored land of EcoSanta and his potential, as a celebrity, to make a big impact on the global cultural climate.  Particularly this applies to the western world, who in general are not very good at waste disposal. 

Remember the pen is mightier than sword.  Many great ideas, that later find their way into the culture, are seeded through story.  Whether your story is fiction or fantasy doesn't matter. 

Many people ask:  What can one person do?
I was one of those people.
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Yes, I did a lot of litter-picking, and still do, on a daily basis.  But the BIG QUESTION took me longer to 'get my head round'.  It was only with the idea of EcoSanta did I feel that here was a celebrity that everyone loved - particularly young children!   As Ecologisers run a Young People's International Anti-litter Charity, we are in a wonderful position to start Santa's new career off, AND make him relevant the whole year round.

The EcoSanta posters all carry the same message - HELP ECOSANTA!

If you personally, would like to see the EcoSanta Concept grow and blossom in the next decade, here is an opportunity to do so.  And, if your heart is in it, you might well be one of the winners!  

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