Audacity in a Box of Tissues

I went to the store today to purchase some everyday necessities: cat food, cat litter, toilet paper, tissues (because I’m sick). Normally, I don’t even buy tissues on a regular basis, knowing how particular I am about a number of things, this surprises even me. But typically, I just grab some toilet paper when the need arises to blow my nose and typically, I don’t have to blow my nose, because I hardly ever get sick. Then of course, I spoke those words out loud the other day and boom, two days later, so sick I was praying for death. Since my nose is so sore from blowing, I stood for a few moments considering exactly which tissues to purchase. I don’t particularly like the lotion filled ones, so I moseyed over to the Kleenex brand and ignorantly picked a box and chucked it in my basket. (I say ignorantly because I’ve been making a ridiculous effort lately to be more green, checking labels, doing my homework, but somehow the tissues didn’t dawn on me. I’d say I’ve been doing a pretty good job, but of course there’s always more to think about. It’s so overwhelming as a matter of fact there’s another blog in the works dedicated to the subject.)

So, the whole point here is, I get home and unpack my things, sneeze a couple hundred times and, naturally go for the tissues I just bought. As I tear off the perforated piece of oval cardboard to get to the tissues, a piece of green paper folded like an accordion is revealed underneath. For a split second, I thought it was a coupon, but something was different about this slip of paper. It looked like someone snuck it in there by the way it was folded, it wasn’t printed on fancy, shiny paper the way you imagine a well marketed and designed coupon would be. Very curiously, I unfolded each crease and began to read the message:

"Here’s a little secret that Kimberly-Clark, the largest tissue maker in the world and parent company of Kleenex, doesn’t want you to know:

Kimberly-Clark makes Kleenex from 100% virgin fiber, which has a devastating impact on ancient forests. When we asked company officials to improve their environmental practices, they refused to change their ways. Kleenex has told us that you the customer, are not interested in buying products good for the Earth."

The message goes on to urge us to act now and communicate with the makers of Kleenex to urge them to make a difference and if they continue to refuse, simply stop buying their products.

This surreptitiously placed note was signed:

GREENPEACE

Immediately, my mind speculated as to how Greenpeace pulled this off. At what point did they infiltrate the Kimberly-Clark corporation? Was it an inside job? Did they pay someone? Or did they get a Greenpeacer hired undercover just to have him or her clandestinely slide these messages into the Kleenex boxes? I can only imagine mine wasn’t the only box with this hidden message…how many could they possibly have gotten to?

This may sound corny as hell, but I got a little charge from this. Knowing that people not only didn’t take No for an answer up against a big corporation, but went about orchestrating a way to get to people individually AFTER they’d already made their purchase was pretty exciting. They went the traditional route and asked nicely, when they were met with resistance, or flat out refusal, they continued to fight. I respect that.

This of course is not the first of an act such as this, and it certainly won’t be the last…especially in this time of great divide and shift and chaos and desperate need for change, environmentally, governmentally and everything in between. We have been pretty fortunate (or unfortunate, depending on how you look at it) as a country for quite some time. Not that there hasn’t been a need to fight for righteousness or fairness, but things haven’t been quite as tilted, let’s say, as they have been in other nations around the world. When things aren’t too unfair, most people don’t feel compelled to get up and speak out. It’s when things get really crazy and unfair and preposterous that the uprising and coming-together-as-one-for-the-cause really begins to happen. In a way, it’s almost good that this shit is alarming. It’s actually kind of good that Bush wasn’t just a little bit of a fuck up, but a HUGE one, so that people are pissed enough to do something and become informed (maybe for the first time in their voting career), instead of just muttering about how shitty everything is lately. Now people are irritated and getting really antsy…so much so that they are seeking out others who share their vision and expectations and hopes. Not only locally, but nationally and even globally. I like it, it’s giving me a charge of adrenalin pretty regularly. It’s reminding me not to be complacent with mediocre, or worse than mediocre, downright unfair, callous or selfish behavior of any sort. I like that we are realizing that we can’t keep putting things off or simply placing blame on someone or something else, because that’s not going to solve the problem. If they keep doing whatever it is that’s ’wrong’, we all continue to be affected.

Reading that note in the tissue box today reminded me a little bit of the way I felt a few years ago when I heard the story of Natalia Dmytruk. In November 2004, Natalia was just another ordinary Ukrainian citizen, doing her job like she did any other day, interpreting the news for the deaf and hearing impaired on state-run television [they don’t have closed-captioning like we do here, they still go the old-fashioned route with a tiny image in the corner of the screen visually signing the spoken information). If you think our elections in the last 8 years were pretty crazy or unjust, imagine if our candidates were being slowly poisoned during their campaigns! (Not that some Americans weren’t hoping, I’m sure.) But, seriously, how ridiculously medieval is that? In the midst of all the craziness, Ukrainians too were dealing with what seemed to be a completely unfair outcome in the polls. Just as we were all shocked, they were too. Well, here’s where Natalia took the problem into her own hands, literally. While the newscaster was announcing the ’winner’ of the election, Natalia began to silently speak out to the deaf community, saying that the election results were false, that everyone was being lied to and they shouldn’t accept it. She also told them in utter fear, that they might not see her again, because she knew she had just done something so defiant, in a country where poisoning a presidential hopeful is apparently a common occurrence, that God only knew what her fate was going to be. Mere hours later word began to spread and people literally took to the streets to contest the vote. If you get a chance, look her up online, her story might give you a goose bump or two: Natalia Dmytruk

People find courage in times of turmoil. People find strength when hope seems to be lost. Whatever it is, a greener planet for ALL of us to enjoy, or ways to keep an empire from crumbling, we all have to fight the fight for what’s right. I don’t claim to know even nearly enough about politics or government or the world – I try to learn and stay informed at the very least, but I can see some huge changes happening and as scary and shitty as everything is going to be for quite some time, I look forward to the huge change for good that is going to come of it. People will almost be forced to learn how to bond together and be more supportive of one another, and learn that "you" is not so different from "me" when the greater cause is going to affect "both of us". As tough times approach, people are going to have to learn to have compassion for one another or things are only going to get tougher. Things have gotten so easy, so to speak, for so long, that I think people have forgotten that we are indeed, as they say - a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts.

So basically, turn off some lights, recycle, stay informed, be prudent, be compassionate and be green. Be kind, make love, not war, okay..even if it’s just sex, whatever.

And vote.

This blog, opinion, ramble, whatever you want to call it, brought to you by a box of tissues.