Restored to Sanity: Week two of of the Green Bodhisattva’s Twelve Steps

Last week, we announced that Clark Strand’s “Green Bodhisattva” column has moved online. We’re going to post each of the Twelve Steps toward ecological sanity on tricycle.com, one every week. If you have questions and comments about any of the steps, please share them. Strand enjoys the online exchange of ideas and inspiration, so there’s a good chance that he’ll respond to those who are interested. Today we’re reviewing the second step. From “Restored to Sanity“:

The second [step] is to admit that we can’t think our way out of the problem, no matter how hard we try. In fact, just the opposite is true. Our best, most innovative, most inventive thinking brought us here. That is the hard truth every addict discovers for himself. It is the nature of addiction that our best efforts to cure it on our own only make it worse.

That is the reason why programs for environmental activism so often end in despair. It is easy to blame governments and corporations when our efforts come to nothing. But what do we expect when we insist on treating the symptoms of others, rather than getting to the bottom of our own disease? We have lost our sanity and don’t know where to find it. If we’re honest, we don’t even know where to look.

Read the rest here.