The Core of Sustainability?

I’m reading a remarkable new book called Community: the Structure of Belonging, by Peter Block.  It captures clearly so many things I wish I could say about how we work together to produce a sustainable community.  Here’s an excerpt.  Let me know what you think of this…

Every community has its buildings, leaders, schools, landscape, but for the moment let us say that these are not what make a community unique or define its identity.  Instead it is useful to declare that the aspect of a community that gives it a new possibility is simply the conversation it chooses to have with itself…

…Thus if we speak of change or transformation in our city or town… we are referring to the conversation that is occurring in that town.  We do this not because it is the whole picture, but because it is the part of the picture that is amenable to change.

This means the alternative future we speak of takes form when we realize that the only powerful place from which to take our identity may be the conversation that we are.  We begin the process of restoration when we understand that our well-being is defined simply by the nature and structure and power of our conversation. [emphasis added]

Ralph

Teachable Moments Ahead

I am about to become a grandfather.  Like, any moment now.

Opportunities to teach this young person things out of my (alleged) wisdom will now abound.  I have options here.  I can talk to the child (we don’t know the gender yet) about school work, sports, spiritual matters, occupational choices, history and politics, business, photography, and more.  These are the playpens in which I have dallied over my six+ decades.

There are things a child needs to learn on her/his own: how to throw a curveball, when to trip the shutter, punctuation, table manners, etc.  I can help the child’s parents, of course.  Indeed, the whole family can team up on the kid for many of these apparently necessary lessons.

Ultmately, of course, the child will choose what it absorbs.  My father never understood why I couldn’t memorize the basic principles of plane geometry while easily retaining the names, uniform numbers, and batting averages of the Brooklyn Dodgers’ entire starting line-up, year for year, even when my age was still in the single digits.  And dates.  I knew dates.  The bane of every history student’s existence, and I knew them all.

In my previous post I talked about streams.  I’m gonna take this kid out, soon enough, and get all muddy with him.  Or her.  Filthy muddy along the stream banks and dusty all over from grassy meadows and piney woods.  And how to swing a bat, of course.  No self-respecting environmentalist would miss a chance to feel the strength of some sweet maple or ash fibers that have given up their lives to help us fly a ball across an infield.

The dates, the trees, the streams, even the batting averages — they all tell stories.  I want to tell the kid stories.

Ralph

Water, water everywhere…

Can you name the streams that run through Lawrence Township?  Can you name the one nearest to where you live?  Have you walked along it or waded in it? Taken your friends, kids or grandkids to share those moments?

Did you stoop, perhaps, to pick up a mossy stone, and turn it over in your hands as you looked at it closely, or felt its ancient weight in your hand?  There’s an unknown story in every one.

Did you see any of the tiny fish or insects that live in and on the water?  Or perhaps a crayfish?  Did you hear or see birds nearby?  See (this would require some real luck) a fox pick its head up from a drink?

Are you able to name trees that shade our brooks?  Shrubs or ground plants?  Do you schedule your walks in season to enjoy their brief flowering times?

Do you have any pictures (photos, drawing, paintings) you’ve made of what you’ve seen along our streams or ponds?  Do them up right and they make great gifts.  Make our water be everywhere in our minds.

Ralph

Should We Do It This Way…?

I clipped this from an enviro-news website today — Ralph

Want to advertise your green car in Norway? You cannot use the words “green” or “clean” or “environmentally friendly” or “natural” or “environmental car” starting October 15. You can’t even say “car x has low emissions of carbon dioxide.” Why? “Cars cannot do anything good for the environment except less damage than others” says Bente Oeverli, Consumer Ombudsman.

Many car makers (Toyota, GM, Mitsubishi, Peugeot, Saab and Suzuki) have had phrases in ads called misleading by Norway. Toyota dared to call the Prius “the world’s most environmentally friendly car.” What’s wrong with that? Norway says that can’t be proven. You have to document all aspects of production then compare that to all other cars. “In practice that can’t be done” says Oeverli, so they can’t say it. There are fines if they do.

About pets

I am ambivalent about sustainability and pets.  Confused may be the more honest description.  Emotionally turmoiled.

They’re not sustainable.  We devote who-knows-how-much farmland and energy to producing and distributing their food, medicine, collars, toys, and even in some cases, clothing.  We scatter their waste all over.  We even pay, some of us, to insure them.  Good sense says don’t have them.  At all.

On the other hand, we’ve been cat owners in our house for nearly 20 years.  Drifty and Griffin were, successively, great joys, true members of the family,  cherished companions, and teachers.  I can’t imagine having missed these experiences, and I cannot imagine the human species without its assortment of animal friends; cats and dogs, obviously, but also birds, mice, fish, turtle, snakes, iguanas, guinea pigs, and monkeys.  And the horse of course.

I am a friend to every dog I have ever encountered, even the slobbery ones who also shed.  Show me even an ugly canine, and I melt.

And how would we even know parrots could talk if people hadn’t kept them?

So, once again, it comes down to re-thinking certain aspects.  Can we do with fewer manufactured pet devices, for example, and more natural playthings?  Does a dog have more fun with some plastic chew thing than with a stick from your back yard?  Are there organic food options available?

When we go to the pet store and load up on inorganic treats, plastic toys, and polyester pet beds, we are laying waste to natural resources and making yet more contributions to global warming and climate change. So look around the house for existing alternatives, and save your money.

And if you get a new puppy for Christmas, be sure to invite me over.

Ralph

All I Want for Christmas…

Tis the season. . .  to be giving useless gifts. At least that’s how I see it.  Every year I stress about finding the “perfect” gift for my mom, boyfriend, and siblings. And then I remind myself that it is impossible to find something perfect.  Mid stride, I’ll stop in the mall and look at all the people rushing around me. What a bunch of suckers! Somehow, a vast majority of the world has been convinced that Christmas means spending money, racking up credit card bills, and buying people things they don’t need.
A few years ago I realized how much money I was wasting. Instead of gifts I arrived to my family’s Christmas dinner armed with tin cans full of homemade cookies. They received more compliments than any candle, potpourri, or cheesy tree ornament from years before. The baking process took some time and hard work but beat the usual chaos of shopping at the mall.
No one cares if you got a close parking spot at Walmart or what deal you got on Black Friday at Target. The true meaning of the holiday season has been lost and replaced with one that generates a lot of waste, stress, and harm to ourselves and the environment. Gas used to drive to the mall, plastic bags that will never decompose, and annoying packaging that accompanies every electronic gadget –– are all here, in form or another, to stay. Let’s get creative this year and do our loved ones a favor by giving them a gift they can actually use. Knit a scarf, bake a pie, offer a helping hand for a home project – something that a person can appreciate and won’t get stuck in the back of their closet.

Lauren