War is Not Healthy for Children or Other Living Things September 27, 2007

While I do struggle with America’s open-market, world-domination style of democracy and its impact on the environment, economy, world security, etc., this week I feel especially grateful for my life of freedom and privilege.

Many of you may be reading about the protests in Burma and the violent crackdown on the monks and general populace. Burma is technically a democracy. It has a democratically elected government. But that government has been in hiding/under house arrest for 18 years, while a military junta has ravaged the people and the land. Today (there is no other way to say it) people are being shot down in the streets as they march in demonstration against their oppressors.

I’m writing about this today because members of my family have a special connection to Burma and have worked in support of the NLD. This week we are holding the Burmese people in our hearts and praying for the success of the protests, for wise intervention by the international community, and for restraint on the part of the military.

If you feel moved to, please read more about Burma here, here, here and here. You can sign petitions to the UN here and here. You can read about the environmental devastation in Burma here.

Thanks for reading this off-topic post. Now back to regularly scheduled programming…

The elephant in the room September 14, 2007

When I was in second grade, we had to write a research paper on an animal of our choosing. We were to go to the children’s library and find all the books available about an animal and then answer various questions (e.g. what does your animal like to eat?) in the form of a series of sentences and paragraphs. I missed the boat on my top picks, koala and lion, and instead was given elephants. I had nothing against elephants, but I had nothing for elephants either. Not only that but there were only two books in the children’s library about elephants. I finished the research portion of my project within one reading period and felt listless and uninspired. I parlayed this information to my teacher who I’m sure was thinking, “Quit whining kid!” but instead said something that has stayed with me to this day, “Maybe you’ve just found everything there is on elephants.” Now even in my small seven years on the planet, I knew this had to be a mistake. And yet, I felt powerless to prove her otherwise. Where was I to find the treasure trove of elephant lore I now so greatly desired? Surely I had not cracked the ephemeral essence of elephant in these two books? I felt disappointed; like my laziness, lack of vision, and contentment with the status quo was making me miss out.

The tragic ending to this story is that I wound up writing a luke-warm paper on my two book fueled elephant information and have felt uneasy about the whole thing to this day, knowing I have done a disservice both to my own creative education and to the worldwide elephant population.

So here I am; in a sense in the same boat. I feel stuck in the world of environmental change. I’ve switched my light bulbs, starting using cloth bags, I’m unplugging my computer every night, have stopped using paper towels, have started using recycled toilet paper and now, I don’t know what to do. I have been completely sidetracked from the goal of making small, doable lifestyle changes and instead have been reading articles about high impact political activism and zero impact housing alternatives. The defeatist tone of my second grade teacher rings in my mind, “Maybe you’re doing everything you can do,” The part of me that knows this is false is itchy and uncomfortable by this thought. What I’m really worried about is the part of me that feels incompetent to make any more small changes and wants to give up will win out.

Can you help me?

What Happened to My Values? September 8, 2007

I’ve fallen off the wagon, guys. When I retreated to the mountains to house/dogsit this summer, I thought for sure that the immediate presence of nature would affirm and support my efforts to green-up my life. But instead I got distracted. I used un-earth-friendly cleaning products. I used many paper towels. I forgot my cloth shopping bags most of the time. I recycled much less than I could have. And now that I am back to my regular life, in my own space, a lot of the good habits I created in June and July have evaporated. I want to get back into my system, my rhythm. It was going so well!

Because we conceived this blog partly as a confessional space, I want to ‘fess up my excuses for being so undisciplined this summer:

#1) Cabin life is dirty. There were bugs and spiders to be smooshed (only the bold and biting ones), and adorable but hairy, muddy, dusty dogs to clean up after. And there was a dump instead of curbside pick up. I resorted to paper towels and heavy duty cleaners for dirt management.

#2) I found it tricky to transfer my systems and lifestyle into someone else’s space. More often than not I used their systems of cleaning and organizing, which were already in place in the cabin.

#3) This one is probably the real reason: I was on vacation. I think this exchange from Sports Night sums it up:
Casey: What happened to your values?
Dan: I find that maintaining them is a lot of work. I take a day off now and then.
Casey: You take a vacation from doing the right thing?
Dan: Yeah. I don’t loot storefronts or anything, but once in a while, when I consider the effort it takes to diligently adhere to a moral compass, I take myself out of the line up, and I rest for the next game.

Oy! Inadvertant, but not what I want. So it’s time for my next game, which is the same as the last game: cloth towels and cloth bags. And hopefully soon I will also tackle phantom energy. Thanks for listening folks!

That Time of the Month September 6, 2007

Here’s an issue I would not have thought about had it not been for a blog entry I recently read on the environmental impact of menstruation related products. Even though I had heard of washable rubber devices used internally as a replacement for tampons, the concept of re-usable maxi-pads was totally new to me. I was intrigued by the idea of limiting my unnecessary waste per month as well as the thought of having nice organic cotton next to my skin. However, after going to the web-site to order a kit for myself, I stalled. The whole thing just seemed complicated and overwhelming. It wasn’t instantaneously clear to me how it all worked or which products I needed to buy. Now the embarrassing thing is all this information was available on the site; it even has a link called “Need Help Choosing?” But, as I’ve been so clearly learning the past couple of months, change is hard to do! I resist it at every turn, and I’ve needed all the hand holding I can get to make any progress at all.

I read that many environmentally conscious companies realize how change aversive people are and have been working with the cost and convenience factor for their products, especially eco-diapers. This makes sense considering I had to do some in house advertising (leaving the canvas bags on the hook with my purse) in order to get myself to remember to take them to the store. As far as the washable pads are concerned, I do feel that at some point I’ll get over it, go back onto the site, and figure out what to buy, but for now I’m stalling. So my question for all you gals out there: has anyone tried re-usable period products??? I’d love to hear about your experiences.

Karen’s Earth Day September 4, 2007

Hello everyone! I’m back from my mountain escape, and I apologize my long summer silence. For my first post back, I’m going to use someone else’s words. One year ago this August my dear sister Karen watched An Inconvenient Truth for the first time, and it truly changed her life. Over the last year I’ve seen how her internal, even spiritual, shift in her relationship to the planet has manifested as a real commitment to greener living – under circumstances much more stressful than my own. Karen recently posted on her blog a tribute to the changes and challenges brought by seeing the film. Below, a few excerpts for your enjoyment; or pop over to needsnewbatteries.blogspot.com.

“My daily grind, my environmental discipline these days, reminds me of a spiritual commitment, to tithe, to pray, to meditate, to fast, to forgo, to sacrifice. One does these things solely for a benefit that can’t be held in one’ s hand. Learning to clean with vinegar and baking soda proved to be both easy and incredibly money saving. Giving up paper towels, very much harder to do, and let us not discuss diapers here. I. just. can’t. But, I might in the future…I just might.

This is a not abnormal scene in my life: baby needs Motrin for teeth. Oh, we need a new bottle, nothing in this one. Okay, rinse it out in bathroom sink. Check the bottom of the bottle: it’s a 2, 2s go downstairs. Put bottle on bathroom counter. Okay, open new bottle. It’s in a small cardboard box. Thin filmy plastic surrounds it. Deep breath. I cannot recycle this plastic here, yet. Deep breath. It goes in the trashcan in the bathroom. Small cardboard box – small ray of light, I can recycle this. It has to go downstairs to recycling. Open Motrin. Dose fussy baby who then requires nap. Return to bathroom, retrieve recycling from sink and take downstairs…

…The chores have become for me an exercise in mindfulness, of doing the steps, each in its turn, aware the result is bigger than the steps. I bring to this process a history of silent prayer, a little yoga practice and the mindfulness training that one teaches oneself for natural childbirth. Becoming part of the process, knowing the result is bigger than me and my tiny actions: a Motrin bottle chucked on a pile of beer bottles, the tending of green things, the delicate balance of shopping bags, paper recycling, vinegar rinse in the sink, three boys squashed together in a tub, in a car, laughing, loving, bickering, squawking, looking hopefully ahead to a planet with glaciers, mountains, rain forests, desserts, birds, fish, and trees.”