Take note of the note

"Like we care for you, we care for our planet. Please help us sustain it by hanging your towels for future use to help reduce the amount of water, energy and detergents we use daily. Of course, we would be happy to replace your towels should you want new ones. Simply leave them elsewhere and we will replace them, freshly laundered."

I like to have words of others helping me in this writing space. And these words you have read above are no different, even if they aren’t from a particular person but can be found in any hotel bathroom in any part of the world. I see them often, and each time I turn on the taps to the shower and read them, I realise I care. I care about the planet.

No, I’m not tree hugging you all out as my new year’s resolution (you know I don’t do them), but I am quite capable of using a towel for more than one day.

It could be a towel, it could be a plastic bottle or waste paper. Don’t just throw it away, it has another life in it. Do you use a towel only once at home and then throw it in the laundry basket? Do you pee outside of the toilet bowl and throw toilet paper on the floor at home? So why do it in the public domain?

But it could also be you or me. Do we throw ourselves away so easily? It’s our life to hold, nurture and make grow. And if the plastic bottle or piece of paper within us is finished we need to recycle ourselves. We need to reinvent ourselves. Our careers, your personal lives. It is our duty to get as much use out of that plastic water bottle as possible. We can fill it up so many times. It will dent and be a bit out of shape but a litre bottle will always hold a litre of water, a litre of life. The label will shred and come off, but who needs labels anyway? We are free to be what we want.

We have just come out of the festive Christmas season, the period of goodwill to all men, where we should be helping others to recycle and refill up their plastic bottles. A couple of months ago when I was in Bali I found places on every corner to refill your water bottles, it was easy to do and cheaper than buying a new bottle – enough of an incentive I would say. But we need one thing to make sure that we refill and recycle whatever we hold – the will to do it.

Every one of us needs to have will. With this we can accomplish so much, without it we are fucked in trouble...and so many times we find ourselves in trouble. I would like every fat-cat politician to know that. I wonder how many of them are quite happy to throw their towels on the bathroom floor after using them only once.

So please take note of this hotel note; hang your towel on the bathroom hook provided and don’t throw it on the floor after using it once, there is so much more to to dry. Let's start with the right attitude, at least that, and then the actions will come next. But saying that with the right action of hanging up the towel, you gain the right attitude. Ok, ok, I'll stop here and not go in to which came first, the chicken or the egg. But whatever you do with that towel describes your present and will predict your future. Happy New Year to you all!