Our adventures today took us to the movies and to our local forest preserve. When I decided last night that today would be a good day for both, I had no idea the connection they would have.
I love a movie with a good moral story, and The Lorax has a fantastic message that I think us grown-ups can appreciate more than young children. It is a cautionary story about living in an entirely manufactured and man-made world with no sign of nature. Danny DeVito, Zac Efron, Taylor Swift and THE it-girl, who else other than Betty White, lend their voices to this moving and much-needed environmental tale. Pride, greed and a basic disregard for the world around us are core themes addressed.
While The Lorax paints a bleak picture of a world without real trees because the almighty dollar rules and all decisions are justified based on "stimulating the economy" (sound familiar anyone?), our local ecology preserve tells the story of what happens if man does not make an effort to eliminate some trees. As we walked the trails, the preserve director explained how chopping down dying trees and using controlled burning methods is a way to actually help our forests thrive. Without these measures, many healthy trees and plant species would be "choked out" by a forest that runs too wild for anything to prosper.
Both the movie and the preserve pose this question to us: UNLESS?
It's not just a question about trees. It's a question about everything in this world that is noble and true and right.
I'll end the same way the movie did with this quote from Dr. Seuss.
"Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot,
nothing is going to get better.
nothing is going to get better.
It's not."
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