HEC - Jesse Kharbanda

Images of vast oil slicks, lifeless marine mammals, fish, and birds, and devastated fishermen fill our minds as we envision the extraordinary pain unleashed on the world of the Gulf Coast. For the people of Indiana, hundreds of miles away from making a direct impact, what must we do to mend a world so harmed?

Hoosiers, possessing a vast highway network and endeared to the Indy 500, must join a national effort to end our addiction to oil. While use of oil has done much good for commerce and family life, it has also caused great harm to our air, water, and land, as well as our national security and economy: In our daily lives, we—who bear responsibility for our oil addiction—must pledge to find biodegradable substitutes to our plastic containers and commit to walking, biking, and carpooling whenever safely possible. And as citizens, we Hoosiers must champion the cause of finding a sustainable, dedicated source of funding for public transit and passenger rail, two oil-saving strategies grossly underfunded in our state.

As we reel through endless intoxicating days of summer, opening the screen door onto a verdant garden on any morning evokes big-time wonder, mystery, and promise; like the rush a mother gets when her child is born, or the matchless, humbling feeling brought on by contemplative time alone in nature; a sacred curtsy to what’s beyond the daily concerns of secular life.

There’s nothing more therapeutic than the pre-dawn perfume expressed from fragrant basil leaves sodden with morning dew, inhaling deep whiffs of the ethereal aroma. Or a hazy, sweltering dog-day afternoon buzzing with bees and fickle butterflies as the solar clothes-dryer softly sways with sheets, towels, and socks. One scent or solitary sound stimulates unexpected, momentary memories worth storing away like Ball jars of saffron-hued summer sunbeams lining the shelves in the larder of the soul.