In an exchange from a 1990s TV series, “Mad About You” a wife portrayed by Helen Hunt says “My mother sure knows how to push my guilt button,” to which her husband, played by Paul Reiser, replies, “She should – she installed it.”
Guilt is something that mothers – Italian and Jewish mothers in particular, although they by no means have a monopoly on it – are very good at instilling in us. And while it may well prevent us from engaging in negligent or undesirable behavior, it’s also something that we’re often inclined to rebel against, for the simple reason that it tends to act as a killjoy at times when we’re looking for ways to make our lives a more pleasurable experience.
The reason I bring this up is that all too often, we’re pressured to suffer similar sensations of guilt for our neglect or mistreatment of Mother Earth — and are similarly inclined turn off the message.
So I say, instead of being made to feel guilty about the things we do that may be contributing to the destruction of Earth’s environment, let’s start feeling good about, and even celebrating what we can do to reverse those things. Because let’s face it – a sense of guilt is not the best vehicle for motivating people to save the world. In all due respect to the good intentions (and even the effectiveness) of those Italian and Jewish mothers, reward and recognition are much more pragmatic ways of making people want to do the right thing than saddling them with the burden of guilt.
