Earth day.

April 22, Spencer.

I remember this town well from last year because we found a recycling center here that took everything, not just soda cans and plastic bottles, and in the middle of rural Indiana that was surprising.
On the route slip this morning Tavana wrote: Happy Earth Day! How green are you?
Since this day last year I've been thinking about asking the Kelly Miller Circus to take a relatively small step that could have big consequences, that of arranging with the sponsors or the towns to have recycling bins brought on the lot in addition to dumpsters. This would in effect mean a small village takes up recycling at the same time.
Small steps.
We are already pretty green without knowing it in the traveling circus business. Living in a trailer uses more than three times less water than conventional house living, at least in the U.S., thanks to toilets that don't flush and small water tank capacity. You turn the tap off when your water is counted (as you should whether or not it is.) A reduced living space also means lower electricity use, not to mention there is no light at night. Of course all this is counteracted by our driving diesel-belching trucks, and is probably more than unwelcome for many of us. Still it gives a glimpse of a lifestyle that carries a much smaller footprint, to use the current buzz word, with little sacrifice.
Small steps.
It will require a lot more than small steps to heal our planet and promote a sustainable lifestyle. In an interesting piece in The New Yorker a couple of weeks ago David Owen also pointed out that to get the economy going again will mean turning the clock on efforts to do just that: "(Obama's) commitments to economic recovery and carbon reduction - to bringing the country out of recession while also reducing U.S. greenhouse emissions (...) - don't pull in the same direction."
In other words the freedom to live in McMansions out in the suburbs, drive to your heart's content, take extra long showers and light up the house like a Christmas tree while you go shopping for stuff you could have bought used although really you don't need them at all will be difficult, and immoral, to maintain if we want future generations to enjoy our world as much as we do, albeit not as unconsciously.
The small steps may require big jumps.