The film The Graduate was released over fifty years ago. It was a good film. There's a poignant moment in it that I'll never forget. After just graduating from college, the advice given to Benjamin from his dad's employer Mr McGuire was just one word - Plastic.
The scene is distressingly, ironically prophetic.
It's likely Benjamin never got into plastic, but the rest of the world lost its mind and scrambled to produce and use and throw away as much of the stuff as is earthly possible.
If only we had stopped back then and listened to the voice of reason. If only the waste and destruction caused by over producing the stuff could have been foreseen and avoided.
What if there had been something far less harmful to the planet had been promoted?
Is there a chance that Benjamin got into dry stone walling? Perhaps. Maybe others would have caught on to how cool it was, and how non destructive. Sure, we'd still have to use paper bags, and glass jars and not get into over-packaging stuff and avoid producing and buying a lot of tempting consumer products, but having a generation of people who loved and work with natural stone surely would have been part of a much needed healing process for the earth, instead of the 5 decades of plastic we've subjected ourselves and the rest of the planet too.
