Almost anyone in the developed world, existing in this century, is in some way complicit in the unfolding catastrophe. Now, "complicit" specifically implies "wrongful" activity.

I think most folks will reject that. It likely will be regarded as wrongful at some point, if only briefly, not that it will ever matter.

In my "hyperphantasic" interior experience, movie quotes often come to mind in the actor's voice. Lately, in the last year or so, I hear Denzel Washington in my mind asking Christopher Walken, "Do you think God'll forgive us for what we've done?"

It's not something I call to mind deliberately. It intrudes when I think about the future.

Anyway, I recognize my role in what is taking place, and what is about to take place and that informs some of my choices.

The only power we have is the power to choose.

And I recall that all we can do is "our best," and the rest isn't up to us. It's enough to try and figure out what "your best" is. And there's a tension between what might be your best, and what you actually do. We are imperfect beings.

Most of our behavior is unconscious, habituated. That's not to say it's "deterministic." I'm not onboard with the idea that free will is an illusion. It's not an illusion, but it's not what most people think it is either. It's the power to choose, and it's the weakest power we have. It's vanishingly small, and we seldom have the cognitive resources to exercise it to its best effect.

Gravity is the weakest force in the universe, but it holds the whole thing together. Well, the important bits anyway. The accelerating expansion of the universe kind of undermines my analogy here, but let's just say it's the weakest force in the universe, and responsible for all of us falling on our asses.

The power to choose shouldn't be discounted either.

So, my philosophy of life these days is to try to do the least amount of harm possible. Short of killing myself, or giving up all my possessions and trying to live off the land or the kindness of strangers, my 21st century, technology-driven existence will cause harm. It's baked in, and there's no getting around it.

But that isn't a license to do nothing. It doesn't mean that it doesn't matter. I'm off the hook. "Eat, drink and be merry..."

So I do what I can, as best I can, as insignificant as it may be. It's not futile. It's not feckless. It matters to me.

One of the things we did, Mitzi is pretty much onboard with this too, is buy the RAV4 Prime, a plug-in hybrid. And we did that in lieu of buying an electric vehicle, specifically because Mitzi felt the infrastructure wasn't here yet. But we knew we wanted something that would do as least damage as we could afford.

I'm comfortable with that because it's what we determined "our best" could be. And she paid (it's her car) $5K over sticker for the privilege of doing her best.

Well, this was encouraging to see.

GreenerCars is an annual assessment of every new model in the U.S. light-duty vehicle market. It is based on a lifecycle assessment of the greenhouse gas and criteria pollutant emissions from the production, use, and disposal of each vehicle. Unlike other evaluations of the health and environmental impact of vehicles that rely solely on fuel-efficiency, GreenerCars scores every vehicle on its entire impact and is the most effective way to compare gasoline-powered vehicles to electric vehicles. In addition to assessing the emissions from fuel burned in a vehicle’s engine, we assess the upstream emissions generated by electricity used by a vehicle, emissions produced when mining and processing minerals for batteries, and emissions from manufacturing vehicles and vehicle components.

If you don't click through to the link, numbers 2 through 5 on the list are EVs. Number 1 is the Toyota Prius Prime SE PHEV.

Number 6 is the RAV4 Prime PHEV.

This is the first time I've seen this list, though it's been around for a while. Technically, I should point out that our 2021 RAV 4 Prime was the number 9 vehicle for 2021. Still, in the top 10 out of all the models on the market in 2021.

In an ideal world, I think I'd like the Prius. But I do know that I prefer the higher driving position of the RAV4.

Now, and this is important, this is not a license to judge other people either. It's not anyone's job to figure out what your best might be. That's solely up to you.

Just, do your job.

Choices matter.