Living Small is Beautiful: My Introduction

I am a very strong willed, very passionate, very opinionated, and very determined individual. I tend to accomplish what I set out to accomplish. I can debate my way out of anything with valid, educated points. I have strong convictions and very strong beliefs, although I am not an extremely religious person (at least in the traditional sense). Now, I don't mean to make it sound like I am a total bitch (although I definitely can be). I am actually a very kind person, who believes that everyone should be treated equally and fairly. When I accomplish something, I accomplish it based on my own abilities and under my own terms. I do not step on anyone else to accomplish my goal. I have a lot of firmly held beliefs that I will not back down from. I don't adhere to any one, specific religion, but I have my own religious beliefs. My beliefs most closely resemble those of Buddhism, but I believe in a multitude of ideas from numerous religions. I was raised Catholic, with some influence of Serbian Orthodox (from my dad's side of the family). I took multiple religious studies classes in college, and discovered that almost all religions share the same core ideas. And those core ideas are what I believe to be the most important.

So, who am I? I am proud. I am proud of who I am, and what I stand for. I seek to heal. I seek to love. I seek beauty. I seek to live in harmony with my surroundings. I feel strongly about peace, environmentalism, equality, human rights, child and animal welfare, etc. And I will defend my beliefs until the end.

I don't mean to say that I'm perfect. I am sarcastic, and argumentative, and I have no patience for ignorance, hatred, and greed. In general, I don't really like the human race as a whole. I think humans have potential for greatness, but fall so short. Most humans are ignorant and greedy, which leads to nothing but hatred and destruction. When I see, hear, or read something that goes against my beliefs, I tend to rant. And while I believe that everyone is entitled to their own opinions, I am firmly against any opinions that are destructive. And I also firmly believe in the importance of fighting those things/ideas that are destructive. Albert Einstein stated that "The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it". I will always fight for what I believe in, and against what I believe to be wrong. 

The title of my blog, "Living Small", is in reference to EF Schumacher's collection of essays titled Small is Beautiful. "Small is beautiful" is in direct contrast to the idea that "bigger is better". Bigger is not better, in fact bigger is usually destructive. As humans, we need to get back to the basics. We need to recognize each other as individuals, and we need to accept each other's differences as endearing qualities. We need to stop killing the planet, and start living in harmony with it. We need to preserve our environment. We need to save our wildlife. We need to start thinking outside of the box. We can enrich our lives by doing all of these things. So I strive to live small, because living small is beautiful.