Thanks to Rebecca Blood for the link… I agree with her assessment. It is great advice on living well.
Reflections On Italy
TODAY WHILE TROLLING the hard drive on my Macbook Pro I came across a .txt file titled “Reflections on Italy.”
Link: Seat 1A: Reflections On Italy
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Walking our talk | Gristmill: The environmental news blog | Grist
Walking our talk
Janisse Ray says that greens need to ‘be the change’ in moving toward sustainability
Posted by Erik Hoffner at 12:02 PM on 24 Aug 2007
Thanks to Erik for the pointer…Janisse Ray raises questions about “living the talk” that have bothered me also, and trust me she’s much further down the path than I am. Go check out her article on Orion –
Link: Altar Call for True Believers – Are we being change, or are we just talking about change?
I find her confession in the article refreshing…She knows she isn’t an environmental saint, and doesn’t claim to be.
At risk of appearing a fraud, I want to admit my own culpability right up front. I live in a comfortable house in the small city of Brattleboro, Vermont. My husband and I cut trees to heat our home, and some of them are alive when we fell them. On the coldest days we turn to fossil fuels to keep the house above sixty degrees. We drive vehicles that consume fossil fuels, and we have raised a son who also now drives a gasoline-powered vehicle. We even own a motorboat. Our home uses electricity that, in part, is produced by the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant. I fly regularly. Never having been to Europe, I’d like to take my family there someday, and chances are we’ll fly.
The entire article is a great read…Go check it out…
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Somewhere in the past few months I heard tell of Pete Jordon’s book “Dishwasher: One Man’s Quest to Wash Dishes in All Fifty States.” While the interview sounded interesting it didn’t sound like a book I’d ever read. Now the New York Times sucked me into an Op-Ed written by Jordon that has impressed me with his writing style enough that I’ll have to keep my eye out for his book…Here’s how the Op-Ed starts…
NOT knowing what I’d eat — or if I’d be eating at all — I decided to play it safe and dumped two dozen red multivitamins in a sandwich baggie. I stuffed the baggie into the pocket of my corduroys.
Then I pulled on my coat, grabbed a rolled-up sleeping bag and the brown paper bag that contained my clothes, and left the note on the kitchen table.
As I slipped out the front door of my family’s small San Francisco apartment, I shouted “See ya later!” to my brother Joe — the only person at home. From the living room, he called back, “Where ya going?”
“Out,” I said, then closed the door behind me.
I was 15 years old, and it was August. The note on the table read: “I’m taking a vacation. I’ll call when I get there. Be back in about three weeks.”
Link: On Vacation, All by Myself – New York Times
It sure looks like the man has the storyteller’s gift. Further research is needed…
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You know, it really is the little things that count when it comes to making big changes in how we treat the environment around us. Pablo over at Roundrock Journal posted how he has changed the way he carries drinking water to Roundrock.
The use of the little single servings of petroleum byproducts surrounding someone else’s tap water has always seemed wrong to me…And the cost is just ridiculous, both monetarily and environmentally. Ask my family if it isn’t a pet peeve of mine…One I seem to loose regularly to the two women in this household. So reading how Pablo has made the change is heartening. I know I’ve nagged enough so that we don’t burn through the “water bottles” as much as we did.
Like I said it’s the little things that add up to big changes…It just takes time. So keep chipping away at your house too…
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Well the wife is making all kinds of puttering around noises so I guess that mens it’s time to get my tail-end out of this chair and my head out of cyberspace and move…Times a waisting…But then again, ain’t that what times for? Arrivederci…
