The weight of the world

I am currently experiencing a new sensation - the worst back pain I have ever known.

Traditionally I have focused stress in my abdomen however this appears to be linked to emotional stress rather than 'buttock clenching too much to humanly do' stress. My stomach stress and the usual side effects (use your imagination) are off the agenda. It seems that doing something meaningful as a career, eating well, cycling everywhere, having love and friendship a-plenty agrees with my stomach. I must actually be happy!

However my back has other ideas it seems that pulling 14 hour days 7 days a week for less cash that I had when I was a student gives my back the hump. The throbbing stabbing painful kind of hump. I have tried to explain that we are busy saving the world but seemingly this is of little importance to my weary bones.

Before I started GreenKnickers I would spend a lot of time worrying about the world. Focusing the emotional stress of seeing so much injustice and hate in the world. Loved ones have often said to me that I carry the weight of the world on my shoulders, crying at the news and feeling personally responsible for every global crisis that I couldn't solve. I still feel sad about the world and helpless sometimes, but something is different now.

GreenKnickers is not going to cause all the change that I would like to see in the world - which is probably a good thing as I struggle to think of any ethical dictatorships off the top of my head. But GreenKnickers does represent a way in which I can maximise my positive impact.

Running an ethical business is not less ethical than giving your time for free (which actually for now we still do...). Starting an ethical business is a way of using your career and your every day life to push forward the changes you want to see. The ethical business itself has the potential to transform the lives of our vulnerable suppliers and to inform and educate people in the developed world who can create their own positive effects. But the concept of the ethical business the fact that business can be ethical and can succeed on ethical principals is itself an immense vehicle for change. Successful business' grow and so too do the effects of the business, all the energy which I used to point towards my long suffering abdomen I can now pour into my knickers - sorry couldn't resist.

However - there is one party who is yet to be convinced - my back. Well perhaps it is time to close the list book for half a day and forget that the world is going to ground. Think I will lie on the floor with my knees bent and try not to think about work. Writing this blog doesn't count does it? Doh!