green is universal

Rubber Band Ball

Posted at 09:50 AM on January 25, 2008 comments (0)

By Mara Schiavocampo, NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams

Right now, on my desk, is something I'm pretty proud of. It's a rubber band ball. Why would a sphere of entangled rubber inspire pride? Let me explain.

I've always been a pretty wasteful person. Not intentionally, or even consciously. But for most of my life, I have thought of resources as being endless, and with no purpose other than to serve me. I would leave the kitchen sink running as I wiped down countertops, I'd walk out the door and leave all of the lights on, I'd print pages and pages of material and then re-print for trivial reasons, I never took the time to recycle. I didn't consciously rationalize it, but as much as I can remember, I couldn't imagine the world running out of anything. It's a huge planet and I figured we'd always have enough.

About a year ago, I started noticing a connection between my actions and the well-being of others. For me, that connection is key, because I care most about people and animals, not things (in my mind at least), like the ocean or the atmosphere. It was the height of summer and New York city was having a power crisis. City officials urged residents to use as little power as possible, fearing another blackout. If that happened, they said, old people could die because of the unrelenting heat. So I started turning the air-conditioner off once my place got cool. I'd make sure lights were off when I wasn't using them. My husband and I started to playfully remind each other to save energy. "Turn off that light," my husband would say. "We have to take care of the elderly." It was playful but not a joke. For the first time we saw our actions as benefiting others.

Then came the Discovery Channel documentary Planet Earth. I watched the entire series. It was appointment viewing. At one point they showed a polar bear swimming a remarkable distance looking for food. By the time he found some animals, he was too weak to attack them. He laid down and died, right in front of the camera. It broke my heart. And that's when it really sunk in that my actions were hurting people and animals. And I started to care.

Which brings us to the rubber band ball. Every morning my newspaper comes wrapped in two or three rubber bands. Initially, I threw them away. But then I wondered why. "There's nothing wrong with these," I thought. "And I always need rubber bands at the office." And so I started the ball.

Now I see stray rubber bands everywhere. I collect them and bring them into the office and add them to my ball. A few rubber bands won't save the world. But the ball represents so much more to me. It reminds me that I've turned away from wastefulness as part of my decision to care. As the ball grows, so does my commitment to the people and animals we share this beautiful world with.

Mara Schiavocampo
Digital Correspondent
NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams