Learning from the Blog Action Day story

I’d been wondering how much we could learn in just one day – last Monday, the 15th October.  Blog Action Day.

Now with over 23,000 blog posts written there was clearly a lot of learning going on – and just a bit more than I could hope to digest.  But I did try and get round as many blogsites as I could (divided it by 1,000 – seemed to work!) – because I’m interested in how we talk, share and learn about this issue, and because I wanted to come back here and share some of what I’d learned.

As people started to write their posts I found…

We’re still finding our way to tell this story with confidence

Many people wrote that they weren’t sure if they should or could write – who were they to contribute to this debate?  Some felt the need to make it clear they weren’t active campaigners – environmentalists, tree huggers – just citizen bloggers, expressing an opinion, a feeling or an idea.  Some wrote that they feared a reaction, a loss in readership, by joining in this debate.  And some experienced the direct effect.

That made me feel a little saddened and frustrated at the way the bigger story is going.  Because the environment isn’t an issue that should belong to any one person or group or point of view.  It’s the air that we breathe and the land that we stand on.  It’s part of all of us. 

But fortunately…

We’re finding different ways to tell it

We don’t just use words.  We use pictures, poems, sherkus, humour, cartoons, personal histories to humanise dull subjects, month long campaigns, photographs of our own amazing corner of this planet we call home.

The environment is a pretty big concept. We all find our own way of linking it back to our own experience, our work, our passion, the things that concern us the most. 

Which means…

We tell stories about people and places that inspire us

We tell stories about the source of our inspiration: about business leaders who are learning to make a big difference, about places that develop our emotional intelligence, about places that make us feel grateful, about wild places that fire up our hearts, about what we can see outside our kitchen window, or the feeling of peace and stillness we get by sitting quietly in our own backyard

And I reckon those places help to fire us up because…

We talk a lot about ways we can make a difference

We highlight practical action we can take: cutting back on showers, reducing our consumption of bottled water, saving ink and paper, recycling the materials we use at home, publishing with care for the environment, greening our business, tidying up our local environment, protecting our national parks, lining up our management and leadership values with a commitment to environmental stewardship

But for me what’s more interesting than the lists of practical action is the change – the shift in state or perspective – that the people who wrote them are trying to create.  Because the other thing I remembered is that…

We tell stories to create different states

It lies at the heart of storytelling: we tell stories to evoke a change in state in the person who’s listening.

So we told stories about the importance of curiosity, of mindfulness, of trusting your intuition, of personal environmental action, of gratitude, of breathing your values into your work and your business, of stopping and being still, of developing a sense of place, and over and over again - of the belief that you can make a difference

And I guess those shifts in state, in perception, in awareness, might well be the learning from that one day that turns out to make the biggest difference

So what did I learn, after all, in just one day? 

Plenty, was the best answer I got.  Plenty

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Blog Action Day took place on 15th October. Joanna Young was learning from JJL contributors and readers plus writers and learners around the blogosphere. 

You can check out the 23 blogs she was following, or if you’re keen to learn more, delve into the 23,000 plus who contributed to the debate.

A writer's words, an editor's eye: Blog Action Day, publishing and the environment

Ample Aliveness: A day for gratitude

Brain Based Biz: Ram Shrivastava, CEO, walks the talk of sustainability

Chris Garrett:  Noticing the world around us and Blog Action Day lost me subscribers

Coaching Wizardry: On mindfulness, the sun and the environment

Confident Writing: 20 ways to cut your words and help to save the planet

Dave Rothacker: What's your design? a sense of place

Emoms at Home: 10 green business tips to help prevent Global Warming

Entrpremusings: Rock, paper, scissors - how do we all win?

Freelance Switch: Freelance freedom - blog action day special

Levite Chronicles: Blog Action Day in the Backyard

Liz Strauss at Successful Blog: Personal environmental action

Make it Great: Blog Action Day

Managing with Aloha Coaching:  Blog Action Day 2007 - Responsibility for your sense of place and The Environment and Managing with Aloha

My 3 boys and I: Blog Action Day

Monk at Work: Blog Action Day - leave that which makes you doubt

Ramblings from a glass half full: My passion for parks - a Blog Action Day rewind

Steve's 2 Cents: Blog Action day - environment

Student Linc: Blog Action Day

Success from the Nest: 5 reasons why home based entrepreneurship is the ultimate eco-friendly gig

The Clearing Space: Gratitude in pictures

The Giving Hands: month long campaign on the environment

Word Sell Inc: Our children need sustainable packaging

Comments

[David Zinger]

Joanna,

I appreciated your review of blog action day and how you focused on the stories we tell.

David

[Joanna Young]

Thank you David

Thinking about things as stories has helped me out on more than one occasion! It brings things back to their human scale somehow.

Joanna

[Rosa Say]

Thank you for bringing this recap to us here on JJL Joanna. I too found there was much to learn from Blog Action Day, and I truly enjoyed that sense of camaraderie to be felt as so many different blog communities came together.

I had already visited about half of the blogs on your listing here (and thank you for including Managing with Aloha Coaching!), and I welcome this invitation to visit the others. As you know, writing on the environment immediately evokes thoughts on Sense of Place for me, and so there is a type of two-fold learning that occurs: first for our stewardship of this planet we all call home, taking those proactive actions the day's effort called out for, and secondly the vast pool of learning that place-connection offers. Exceptional richness.

[Joanna Young]

Rosa, I'm with you on the vast of pool that place-connection offers.

I'm trying to remember if it was through this shared interest that we started conversing with each other?

I think strengthening that sense of place offers so much possibility - for learning, inspiration, stewardship, connection - and for getting so much back ourselves, feeling rooted and connected rather than overwhelmed by the scale of the task.

Perhaps it was apt that David was writing about the learning reflections he was getting from his immediate sense of place (the fog in Winnipeg) as I was writing this...

Joanna

[Julian Ayrs]

Hi there!
Thanks for your run-down of blog day.
My own tribute consisted of animated clips, award-winning shorts, and reviews of films like 11th hour.
Check it out.
www.ijulian.blogspot.com
J.

[Terry Starbucker]

Well done Joanna, and thanks for inluding my post in your review of the Bolg Action Day posts. I never miss a chance to talk about my love of our National Parks. All the best!

[Aruni]

What a nice recap! Thank you for including a link to my post!

[Karen Wallace]

This is a lovely recap, encapsulating a lot of the things we feel. Thanks, Joanna.

We might still be finding our way in the telling of this story, but we're learn so much each time we put another step forward, another word on a page, or read another persons story.

I'm off to follow the yellow brick road and explore some of the posts you have listed that I have not yet read.

Thanks for the link, too!

[Joanna Young]

@ Julian, thanks for stopping by - and reminding me that films are another way that we try and develop the narrative around the environment

@ Terry - I hope I might get to see at least one of the National Parks myself one day :-)

@ Aruni - my pleasure - it's good to remind each other that good things happen when we overcome our blogging fears!

@ Karen - thanks for offering me that image of the blogosphere as a yellow brick road! Perfect!

[Brad Shorr]

Thanks for putting together this excellent summary of Blog Day posts. I must admit I haven't been particularly environmentally conscious, but reading all this over the past few days has made a difference.

[Joanna Young]

Brad, I don't think you're alone in that. One of the benefits of taking part in a focused discussion like Blog Action Day is the opportunity to pick up new ideas, suggestions for practical actions - and also to start flexing your writing muscles around an issue that might have seemed 'closed' to you before.

I'm glad you got something from taking part

Joanna

[Kermit Johnson]

Thank you for your summary of Blog Action Day.

I did not participate. But I was inspired to write my own belated post. Please share it with your readers:

BRAZILIAN TEAK FLOORS, SLAVE LABOR, AND THE DESTRUCTION OF THE RAIN FOREST.

You can find it at:
http://www.realestatetwincities.net/brazilian-hardwood-floors-can-you-say-slave-labor/

Anything that you can do to help promote awareness of this issue will be greatly appreciated. Normally, I don't ask for this kind of help, but the issue is that important to me.

Thank you!

[Joanna Young]

Kermit, thanks for sharing this. I don't think it matters when learning takes place - either when you wrote it or decided to share it.

And I don't think we can possibly think of learning as something that is constrained in one day! Blog Action Day was a useful hook to get people talking, thinking, changing some of their actions... but it's what happens next that is really interesting :-)

Joanna