17 December 2006
The power of a T-shirt
One of the joys of being onboard are the different stories you hear. It's almost one week since we left Puerto Vallarta and, where Christian had a interesting adventure. I thought we'd share it with you on this quiet Sunday.
Seemingly small things, like e.g. the t-shirt you choose to wear, can have enormous consequences. The Greenpeace t-shirt I chose to wear on our last day in Mexico in Puerto Vallarta led to this uncanny chain of events.
An artist called Philippo stopped me on the street and asked about Greenpeace.
We became friends, which led to him taking me to the cathedral where he had
made a painting in the sacristy. He then showed me where Elisabeth Taylor and
Richard Burton used to live, introduced me to a rock star from the sixties
group called the Animals, and to a Texan friend who lived in a very cool
hacienda where we hung out for a while. Then I was shown around an art
gallery that was homage to angels. Finally, all of this led to me missing my
ship!
It’s a very sinking feeling to miss your ship. I stood on the dock. I blinked
and I shook myself, but the view remained the same, with no Esperanza in it.
It’s a feeling of utter disbelief. It doesn’t matter how many times, or how
hard you rub your eyes. The ship is gone! All that is there is palm trees and
water. It feels like drowning.
Luckily Esperanza had only gone to anchor out in the Banderas Bay, and not gone
ahead on the South Pacific crossing without me.
Others small things that have great consequences and lead to whole chains of
events is becoming an Ocean Defender, supporting Greenpeace, getting involved
in the issues that matter, signing petitions, walking, bicycling or taking the
bus or train instead of driving, buying green, ecological and fair trade
products, steering away from companies that unsustainably exploit natural
resources, recycling, repairing, and using clean energy. If we all did this,
the world would very quickly become a much better place to be.
It was a close call for me. I almost missed my ship. The question is, how close
a call are we going to make for us? If we miss our ship we will all be drowning
in the real. We don’t need jaw-dropping experiences like man-made climate
change, raising sea levels, hotter oceans, wars for resources, weather and
ecosystems run amok. With just a little concentration on our part it can all be
avoided and we can instead create wonderful conditions for ourselves and the
generations that follow. That’s what I think we should do. That would be really
nice. I mean, why create hell on Earth when we can create heaven?
Comments
Great story Christian, takk!
Shame we can't see these things in advance, my dad would have loved an autograph from one of the Animals :)
Posted by: Adele at December 18, 2006 10:00 AM
So that's what happen??? Thought there had to be a story..Amazing chain of events. See, you never know what's going to happen next...
Posted by: Rose at December 18, 2006 11:25 PM
Yow, Christian -- GREAT story. But there's also a story to the T-shirt itself, if it was the same one you're wearing in the photo.
It comes from our online store:
http://www.cafepress.com/greenpeace
(plug, plug)
But the design originated in one of our national offices. Which one wasn't clear after it had been borrowed and repurposed and recycled a few dozen times. I grabbed it from some website (we have open-source policies about stealing from one another here in Greenpeace world) and slapped it on a T-shirt in the days before we had a professional graphic designer on staff to look after these things.
When we hired one about a year ago, she was looking through the CafePress merch and saw the RW design. I told her it was a solid seller, but I had no idea where it came from.
"I do!" said Elaine. "I designed it when I was freelancing for Greenpeace Australia!"
--b
Posted by: Brianfit![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://weblog.greenpeace.org/oceandefenders/nav-commenters.gif)
at December 19, 2006 9:57 AM
"The question is, how close a call are we going to make for us? If we miss our ship we will all be drowning in the real. We don’t need jaw-dropping experiences like man-made climate change, raising sea levels, hotter oceans, wars for resources, weather and ecosystems run amok. With just a little concentration on our part it can all be avoided and we can instead create wonderful conditions for ourselves and the generations that follow. That’s what I think we should do. That would be really nice. I mean, why create hell on Earth when we can create heaven?"
Well stated, Christian! Read in news today that people are increasingly concerned with climate change, but are still standing in line for hours to purchase the newest techno gadgets for Christmas. We want "easy" solutions to the world's problems but have to learn to put in some effort, make a few sacrifices.
Best wishes on your ocean voyage.
Echo
Posted by: echo at December 19, 2006 5:43 PM
Meanwhile we were imagining all sorts of horrible things that could have happened to you! And I didn't even get the chance to give you a goodbye hug… but am happy to see you had a good time, and that you made it back in time before the ship left! :D Great story, take care Christian.
Posted by: Irene at December 20, 2006 1:55 PM
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