But the overwhelming challenges facing our only inhabitable planet will not. Those will still be here tomorrow. So let’s get louder. Today, tomorrow and the next… until we are heard:
Bear Or Bigfoot…
Look what I found in my unplowed driveway. No, not the utility bill. I put that there so you could see that this print is at least half a foot long. I guess it’s a bear. Or a smallish bigfoot?
Either way if something with paws this large is roaming around my yard I’d really prefer not to know about it. Unfortunately this winter’s brand of precipitation is perfect not only for turning snowbanks into poured concrete but also for fossilizing big scary paw/foot prints that you wish you never saw.
It does make for an exciting dash to the mailbox though.
I Pledge Allegiance to the Earth. Nuff said.
Do you remember having to pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all every freaking morning back in elementary school?
I do, though I didn’t really get what I was saying at the time.
I mean, what the heck was a republic?
And why was it invisible?
I understand it all now okay but I’m happily trading it in for this updated and far more relevant version.
I pledge allegiance to the Earth (standing tall, hand on heart).
Nuff said.
Image by SolPurpose and lamblionstudio.com
Let’s (not) take the kids for a day on the (US industrial beef) farm.
Tascosa Feedyard, Texas (detail) source: Mishka Henner
Those little black and whitish specks that look like ants on the left? Cows. That enormous acid green pool of slime to the right? No idea. But I know this: there is something terrible going on with our food production in this country. It’s poisoning us and it’s poisoning the environment. I can’t imagine any of those poor cows are too psyched about it either.
But wait, there are many more horrifyingly fascinating aerial views of America’s heartland shot by photographer Mishka Henner at his website. Take a look here. I dare you. When you’re done please join me at the paragraph below.
Done? Ok. I’m sure we can all agree that no kid (or cow) should ever have to spend the day on any of those farms. And I consider myself a kind of casual, quasi-expert on this farm thing after having lived on a beautiful New Zealand farm where happy cows grazed in wide open pastures with no slime in sight.
So me, myself and everybody else, let’s choose to rethink our purchases. Let’s choose to rethink our family’s diet. Let’s choose to buy grass fed beef, locally farmed if at all possible. It’s usually less convenient and definitely more expensive so let’s just buy less of it. Or none at all. If ever we could collectively be inspired to become organic farmers, vegetarians or vegans it should be right now… as we sit here staring at all those little American cow-ants imprisoned on the shores of Lake Slime.
International Book Giving Day… on Valentine’s Day!
What day is February 14th? It’s International Book Giving Day, silly!
Actually, this was news to me and probably is to you, too, but hey, what better way to honor your little Valentine than to give them a book?
“International Book Giving Day is a day dedicated to getting new, used and borrowed books in the hands of as many children as possible.”
Roses are red, violets are blue, chocolate makes you hyper but this book is for you!
Three simple ways to celebrate International Book Giving Day:
1. Give a Book to a Friend or Relative. Celebrate International Book Giving Day by giving a child a new, used or borrowed book.
2. Leave a Book in a Waiting Room or Lobby. Choose a waiting room where kids are stuck waiting and there are few to no good books available. Purchase a good book, and deposit your book covertly or overtly in your waiting room of choice.
3. Donate a Book. Wrap up a box of children’s books that your kids have outgrown and get them in the hands of children who could really use a book or two. Donate your books to your local second hand store, library, children’s hospital, or shelter. Alternatively, donate your books to an organization working internationally to get books in the hands of kids, such as Books for Africa.
Click here to gift a copy of Long Live Earth – have a happy Valentine’s/International Book Giving Day!
Spring, anyone?
Over the years I have had some very good neighbors and, like most of us, some not so good ones. Where I live now I have only trees for neighbors. Simultaneously quiet and entertaining they are, I think, the best variety. I took this photo of them while standing at my bedroom window this morning. Stoic and unadorned, it’s hard to imagine that in just a few short months they’ll be covered in tiny chartruese explosions.
Is there anything more wondrous than spring?
The World We Made… it’s enough to make you throw your recycling bin in the trash can. Or is it? A must read by Jonathon Porritt.
While scientists and environmentalists are well intentioned with their daily projections of our not so distant future dystopian world order and subsequent extinction it can put a real damper on the day. The struggles of our grandparents can seem downright quaint in today’s post climate change world… the age old mantra “life goes on” a phrase twenty somethings of today might wear ironically on their t-shirts.
Can you blame them? The daily challenge of survival is no longer limited to ourselves as individuals, our individual communities or even entire populations but now encompasses every last one of us, including all future generations and/or the lack thereof. It’s enough to make you throw your recycling bin in the trash can.
The answer? I have no idea. But I am inclined to think that a very good start would be for all of us to run to the bookstore or the internet and grab a copy of The World We Made, an imaginary memoir written in the year 2050 by history teacher Alex McKay. The author, Jonathon Porritt, who just returned from the World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi is a founding member of The Forum for The Future, an environmentalist and no lightweight in the scientific and technology community. This green futurist believes that we already have the technology to create a sustainable, progressive world in which environmental, economic and social advances are shared, maintained and enjoyed by all. The catch? We must also believe that this is doable. It’s fundamental. If we don’t collectively believe that it is doable it simply won’t get done.
I’m in. I’m gonna get the book. And I’m gonna believe. How about you?
Buy the book here. Read an interview with the author here.
“The World We Made presents a credible vision of the world in 2050 – a world that is connected, collaborative and genuinely sustainable. This is the biggest thing I’m working on at the moment. We simply have to change the ‘mood music’ in terms of the way people feel about sustainability, and that means that everything we do in Forum for the Future is about positive solutions to today’s converging sustainability challenges.” Jonathon Porritt, Author of The World We Made
“In a world where doom and gloom surrounds us everywhere, Jonathon Porritt shows us that another future is possible. . . Jonathon is arguably more responsible for helping to create that positive future than anyone I know.” Jeffrey Hollender, Co-founder of Seventh Generation and Co-chair of Greenpeace US
Long Live Earth as featured on Reduce Footprints… many thanks.
Treading lightly on this planet should be the of goal of every one of us. Look no further than Reduce Footprints for all kinds of info and inspiration. And thank you Reduce Footprints for your generous and thoughtful review of Long Live Earth!
Here is an excerpt:
“Let me give you my impressions of this book. The illustrations are beautiful. Each one is a photo of a quilt square handmade by Ms. Morrison. They are enchanting and whimsical. The text is done in rhyme; the cadence is very appealing and, I believe, will become like a song which stays in the heads (and hearts) of readers. Some of the words may need a bit of explanation for younger children but most kids will have no problem understanding the meaning. The book is appropriate for all age levels, for reading alone or together, and would make a terrific gift. Adults will enjoy it, as well!
Here’s another fact which, as “greenies”, you’re sure to appreciate: the book is printed on recycled paper by FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) certified suppliers using certified environmentally-friendly ink. Yay!
I highly recommend this book … for your kids, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, neighbors, schools, etc. You can purchase a copy by clicking HERE.”
Read complete post here.
The Perfect Storm: Gypsy Envy Meets The Tiny House Movement.
image from http://www.tinyhouseswoon.com
I’ll never forget my first gypsy caravan. Emerald green gingerbread trim, yellow dutch door flanked by tiny window boxes runneth over with hot pink geraniums… white pony grazing lazily alongside. I don’t remember how old I was or where I saw this image (which instantly seared itself into my permanent psyche) but I do remember being absolutely incensed. I mean, why on earth had I been born and strapped to these ridiculously regular people and not to an exotic band of gypsies so that I, too, could live in a magical little house on wheels… with a pony? Oh, the injustice!
So you can imagine my reaction when it recently came to my attention (where have I been?) that there is something called the tiny house movement. All around us people are building tiny houses. To placate inane laws which prevent people from building homes which are deemed “too small” (small houses = small property taxes = big no-no) these tiny houses are predominantly built on wheels. In other words, they are gypsy caravans (!).
Pic from Canal Winchester news. Click for story. These guys of http://www.tallmanstinyhouse.com are 6’7″!
Who is fueling this tiny revolution? Older people freeing up and paring down – choosing to ditch their big homes and redundant possessions, younger (and smarter) folks choosing to go small from the get go, environmentally conscious people from all walks of life who choose to leave behind a smaller footprint (and in some cases next to no footprint at all) and, perhaps, a few gypsies wannabes. The implications (financial, environmental, psychological) are both huge and heartening.
Where to park these tiny houses? That’s a little trickier but not impossible. If there’s no generous relative in your life with land to spare and you can’t afford to buy a patch yourself you can offer a small monthly sum to a struggling homeowner in exchange for a corner in the backyard… or to a cash strapped farmer for a tiny slice of his or her paradise. There are also some more formally organized partnerships that are cropping up called tiny house communities.
Gypsy envy aside, this concept has really got me fascinated. For example, I am a single mom. My son is grown and living his own life now. In a few years my teenage daughter will likely be shipping out, too. Admittedly, over the years we have lived a bit of a gypsy life though more by default than design… moving 12 times in the last 24 years (which is also the current age of my son). From country to country, state to state, town to town, house to house. Boy, this is getting old. And exhausting.
image from http://www.sunsetridgegypsy.com
Not the moving around, so much – one could argue that I am a bit of rolling stone by nature – but the carting of all of the many contents from one house to the next, the crippling mortgage or steep rent, the never ending, ever rising utility bills. Somehow (“Hey, mom, did you ever think that maybe going to art school wasn’t such a good idea?”) money is not bursting out of the seams around here. Nor is there an investment portfolio or any of those things that seem to belong to other people. And those “other” people, as we’re all noticing, have become notably fewer and farther between. Which means that the vast majority of us are facing a future of continued stagnant wages, rising costs and ever increasing debt while the environment, in the process, is being destroyed. In other words, samo, samo.
The cherry on top of all this is that retirement, for many of us, is not even in our vocabulary. When you step back and think about it for a minute it really does seem crazy to spend our entire lives working to pay for our unnecessarily large (and immobile) mortgaged or rented homes just so we can come home on our day off and maintain them.
Which reminds me (ugh), it is my day off and I am now way behind on my housework, which there is far too much of.
http://www.tumbeweedhouses.com tiny house plans and worshops
Ya know what? The vacuuming can dang well wait until next week. I am simply too busy trolling the internet and dreaming of my not so distant life as gypsy queen of my very own tiny house on wheels, complete with window boxes… and a pony.
Ok. Maybe not the pony.
Click here for the tiny house movement’s background.
Click here for tiny house plans and workshops. And here. And here. And here.
Click here for tiny house (on and off wheels) listings.
Click here for tiny house (on and off wheels) inspiration.
Continued thanks to Amazon reviewers of Long Live Earth…
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*****5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews here.
“Wonderful Book for Earth Day or any day!”
January 10, 2014 by mbscott “mbs” (Buffalo, NY)
“I read this for Eath Day every year to the K kids–great book about taking care of the planet. Good for budding Evolutionists, too, as it references the earth being way older than 6000 years–and prehistoric man! The illustrations are actually quilt squares–beautiful.”
Thank you Amazon reviewers for continuing to send in your kind thoughts!
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Meighan Morrison 