Protest Earth Day Today!

Earth Day is a nice idea and all, but I have a huge bone to pick with it. I remember one very nice Earth Day when I decided to - for the first time - turn off all my lights and electricity for one hour after dark in honor of Earth Day. Commonly, this is called Earth Hour.

During my first dark Earth Hour I lit candles all over the house, got some books ready, had food handy that didn't need electricity to cook, and so on. The thing that surprised me is that I really, honestly enjoyed my hour of solace. Having all the computers, TV's, radios, and stereos off immediately plunged my house into silence.

Silence? Unless I was sleeping, silence was a rarity in the house. Silence when I was awake was almost scary. But the warm glow of the candles drove away the darkness and I have to admit, made me smile more than once.

Oddly, I didn't read. Instead, I went out on the porch in the cool evening and just enjoyed the night air. I thought. I thought about the Earth and what all this tokenism of going dark for one hour meant. I thought about all the Earth has given to me and what little I've given back. All of a sudden one hour of darkness, free of electricity and noise, seemed so small next to what nature and Mama Earth freely gives.

So I looked forward to my Earth Hour today on Earth Day - a refreshing of the spirit, a time to contemplate.

To my horror, I discovered I missed Earth Hour altogether! What? They scheduled Earth Hour on March 26, 2011? Then they scheduled Earth Day for today, April 22, 2011? What's the sense in this? My entire private celebration paying homage to the Earth centered around Earth Hour - on Earth Day, please. What's the point in separating the two? Are "they" trying to divide Earth celebrations and therefore weaken them? What's going on here?

So I call upon all of you, my fellow Earth-lovers, to protest this separation of Earth Hour from Earth Day, and tonight bring Earth Hour back to where it belongs. Just after dark on Earth Day turn off all sources of energy in your house and light multiple candles as a celebration, an honoring, a time for family, and a time for contemplation unlike anything you will get any other time of the year.