After watching An Inconvenient Truth last Friday, I couldn’t sit still.  Two very disparate thoughts were coursing through me. 

First - rarely does the public witness such a positive reboot of a public figure (Gore).  Michael Ray’s wonderful book, The Highest Goal, came to mind.  In it, Ray describes a binary life branching:
1) “Do what you don’t like, but should -> Get experience doing this -> Become great at doing what you dislike -> Gain opportunity to do more -> Live life empty of meaning,” and
2) “Do what you love and find meaningful -> Get experience doing what you love -> Become extra good at you doing what you love -> Gain more opportunity to do what you love -> Live life full of purpose and meaning” (pg 24 in case you’re curious).
Now, the above seems very trite and obvious, but it’s not.  So many go through life doing what they don’t like, but “should” for any number of reasons.  Often, we’re taking the “life deferred” approach that I’ve argued against before.  Digressions aside, Gore is living a life full of purpose and meaning, and his newfound success in doing so is so obvious that he’s a walking Michael Ray lesson in living.  Al, I salute you.

Second - Gore’s mandate to the viewer, a pledge to turn the tide of one’s personal impact on global warming, is so clear that one can’t help but take action.  So I’m doing my part.  First, by posting this very belated response to a movie that aired many months ago.  But more importantly, by (1) buying offsets to neutralize my own carbon emissions - something I did this morning at NativeEnergy.com, and (2) by partnering up with the Painting Journalist to publish a “call to action” blog widget which will hopefully encourage others to reduce and/or offset their own carbon emissions.  Ashley has done an amazing job with the design.  You’ll see it in my sidebar, and I’m including it in this post along with source code if you’re interested in putting it up on your own web real estate.  Please do.

Here’s the source code:

1) for the large version (230 x 331 pixels), which is included here and in my sidebar:

<a href=”http://www.nativeenergy.com/climatecrisis/”>
<img src=”http://punctuative.com/wp-content/images/CallToAction_230×331.gif” alt=”Fight Global Warming!”></img></a>
<font size=”1″><a href=”http://punctuative.com/2007/01/02/a-touch-of-ecocentrism/”>Want this badge?</a> <br> Design courtesy of <a href=”http://www.ashleycecil.com”>Ashley Cecil</a></font>

2) for the sidebar standard, 160 pixel width version, use the following:

<a href=”http://www.nativeenergy.com/climatecrisis/”>
<img src=”http://punctuative.com/wp-content/images/CallToAction_160×231.gif” alt=”Fight Global Warming!”></img></a>
<font size=”1″><a href=”http://punctuative.com/2007/01/02/a-touch-of-ecocentrism/”>Want this badge?</a> <br> Design courtesy of <a href=”http://www.ashleycecil.com”>Ashley Cecil</a></font>