Am I A Hypocrite?

In life, we must compromise from time to time. Even the principles that we hold so dear sometimes come under pressure when the situation becomes grave.

And for an environmentalist the concern about compromising arises on a regular basis. If you get in the car to drive somewhere are you junking your principles? If you buy food that is not locally sourced, are you a traitor to the planet?

If you let a glass jar fall into the wrong garbage bin, are you sticking your tongue out at Mother Nature?

Think about your other principles if you have a problem with the above questions. We all have principles and we cannot always live perfectly by those principles.

We may always want to help the needy, but we may not be able to in every case. We may always want to think before judging, but anger can override that principle.

We are human, and if you never slip in your principles then you should take a large bow, because you have managed something that hardly anyone ever does.

If you sometimes let your environmental principles slip, it is not because you are a charlatan. Sometimes we have to let one go because there is a reason we cannot live up to it.

Sometimes we make mistakes and we cannot just repair them. As long as you live your life by sound general principles, a mistake can be forgotten and forgiven – but breaking them when it suits you is another matter, and one that is harder to justify.