No Impact Man

Last night I saw the documentary No Impact Man. It's about a New York family who decided to take a year and be radically "sustainable" and have zero impact on the environment. The family cut things out of their life in phases. They did things like: using only bikes for transportation, not eating at restaurants, only eating local, getting rid of their tv, composting leftovers, having no garbage, not buying anything new (only used), and eventually even turning off their electricity. The family admitted what they were doing was radical and said that they never expected people to try to do everything that they did, but they took it on as an experiment and I think it really changed their lives.

I'm no environmentalist so I was a bit skeptical going into this movie... but I loved it. Yeah, I was challenged that the way that I'm living my life isn't as great for the environment as it could be. And I do want to do what I can to be a little better. I feel like being "green" is looked at as this liberal, tree hugging thing and that only one side of the political spectrum should worry about the environment. But as Christians we are called to be stewards of what God has given us and I think being a little more intentional about the way I live my life would be a good thing.

More importantly than the sustainability lesson that I got from this movie was a lesson on sacrifice. This family gave up so much. They inconvenienced themselves immensely. And I was incredibly challenged because I rarely do anything that is less than comfortable. I give up little and I don't think that's ok. It just really challenged me...

Anyway, this movie was great! I would recommend it (but it had a few f-words so beware!) It is playing at the Ragtag, our indie film theater in town, but if you see that it is playing near you, you should see it.