A Quest for Ethical (introduction)

Ethical ('eTH.i.kel)
adjective
Avoiding activities or organizations 
that do harm to people or the environment.


As a culture, we have been becoming increasingly aware of how our actions affect the world around us.  Our comfort and convenience come at a cost far above what we pay out of our own pockets.  However, as we talk about sweatshops, child labour, deforestation, sex slavery, climate change, poverty, etc. it becomes very easy to be overwhelmed and paralyzed.  The problems seem too big!  What on earth could we do to make any difference?  Even if we step away from the big picture problems and simply look at our own lives, we can still feel helpless.  Is it even possible to live a completely ethical life?

I have been finding it helpful to tackle one thing in my life at a time, instead of getting overwhelmed by everything that I wish I could change.  I pick one aspect of my life that I would like to improve and make one small change that moves my life towards being more ethical.  Once I've adapted to that one change, I look for another small thing that I can change.  While it might seem like these small steps aren't doing much, they are certainly getting me farther than I get when I just let myself feel overwhelmed. 

This new blog series, A Quest for Ethical, is going to be about sharing some of those small changes with you, and inviting you to join me in making small changes - and maybe together our small changes can make a big difference in the world!

Perhaps you are the kind of person who prefers to make large, drastic changes instead of small ones.  That is perfectly fine!  Sometimes I make big changes too.  But the important thing is to seek continual improvement, moving towards an increasingly ethical life.