Virtue: a good moral quality in a person, or the general quality of goodness in a person.

Virtue signaling: an attempt to show other people that you are a good person, for example by expressing opinions that will be acceptable to them, especially on social media.

Do you lament other people’s choices that impact the environment? Before you cast judgment, are you doing everything you can?

Trish and I were discussing the disaster of plastic pollution and I challenged her a bit. Are we doing everything we can? How many things do we buy that are packaged in plastic? Could we find options that are unpackaged or packed in paper? It is easy to say we need to do something, much harder to do everything we can.

Since our conversation, we have noticed even more how difficult it is to avoid plastic. What to do? Never buy fresh berries, meat or fish at the supermarket? Avoid all the veg packed in plastic? What about shampoo and other toiletries? The lack of sustainable choices makes compromises easy.

By all means, inspire others to live sustainably, but also be honest with yourself. What more could you do? If you want to change the world, lead by example.

Are you living a life of virtue or are you virtue signaling?