To Tree or Not To Tree

I have not had a real Christmas tree since my son was about 10 years old - today he turns 34 so its been a long time. It sort of evolved gradually, first as an attempt to inject some creativity into the usual decorations I grew up with. Then it was a question of whether it would be better to get an artificial tree that would last more than a year. Then it became a question of whether we should be cutting down those living, breathing, carbon-sucking, fragrant pine beauties for a week or two of indoor entertainment. Finally I landed on the side of keeping the trees in the ground where I think they belong. But that doesn't mean that a shimmering plastic thing is making its way from China to my house or that there are no twinkling Christmas lights at play but it does mean that I still rely on an extra dose of creativity to keep it festive. Best still, I like to decorate my outdoor trees which, by the grace of mother nature, are the perfect size and shape to hold the lights that I so adore. This way I get to enjoy the holiday without sweeping loose pine needles off the floor every day or without the disasters that my tree-climbing cat would inevitably inflict on said tree. I only ask one thing for all the real tree fans, please please please recycle responsibly. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all my family and friends.

Enough Already

The death and destruction wrought by ISIS and their particular brand of hatred saddens and scares the heck out of me. They seem as inurred to the connections between all the humans on this one planet as the tyrants planted throughout our history. They are every bit as sadistic as Hitler was towards Jews and other Eastern Europeans, as Stalin was toward Ukrainians and other Slavs, as Idi Amin was towards Ugandans, as murderous as Milosevic was in Yugoslavia and and and..... Human history is peppered with unspeakable crimes of human against fellow human, each stemming from some intrinsic mistaken notion of the perpetrators own superiority and, hence, the disposability of those who stand in their march towards some nihilistic destiny. What saddens and upsets me as well is the reaction of the haters, i.e. those who have decided to be judge and jury on events way out of the control of even the most enlightened among us; those who choose to cast a vote against compassion and justice; those who were born into the freedom of this great country, and especially those, who were themselves welcomed as immigrants and refugees, but who reject reason and succumb to the same hatred that spawned the great tragedy in Paris. How many of us who live comfortably in our warm homes, or how many of us who fled from any calamity remember how we are protected and saved, yes saved, from a fate as terrible as any faced by the refugees of today? On the other hand, how many of us can forget? We must not and cannot forget that it was the kindness and bravery of others who made possible the lives we and our children enjoy today, and it is our duty to pay it forward. Nobody asked my mother, my father or me if we would be model citizens...they just took in us refugees, gave us shelter and the start of a new life. It pains me to see hatred aimed at people even more unfortunate than I was back in 1949. All I can think is but for the grace of the universe, it would be me floating on an endless ocean only to wash up on a cold, cruel shore.

Heck.

Heck is the least I want to say right now. Let's start with the immediate and obvious target of "What the heck is going on in this country" is the rise of the Trump machine. So I say, What the....? Does anyone believe that this sideshow can amount to anything remotely doable? Has there been a single plan put forward by this poll-leading reality show whereby we can judge how any of the high rhetoric will be realized? Maybe this another one of those times when I vow to move to Canada or beyond if this fiasco goes forward. Next is the "What the heck is anyone thinking while the climate disinigrates taking all of us with it". Where is the outrage when entire species disappear? Or when our own lives are endangered by rising sea levels, burning plains, raging rivers, tornatoes and hurricanes without match? Where are the demands for action....immediate action!? Next is "What is going on around my town"? There are empty storefronts as far as the eye can see. There is much wringing of the hands but no immediate concerted action. Each and every citizen has a stake in filling those empty stores with products and services they can use yet we sit back and wait for.......? Someone else to do it? Some miracle to happen? Some pennies from heaven to finance an economic resurgence? Finally, everywhere I turn there are empty lots growing weeds, needing mowing or vicious wacking, inpinging ugliness onto what could otherwise be attractive and productive spaces. As a gardener I say if you see something, do something. If you see a weed - pull it or better still replace it with something beautiful. No one else owns our lives and the immediate as well as far environment in which we inhabit our lives. It's all in our hands and no one elses.

Animal cruelty

What is it about photos and videos of abused animals that compels otherwise sensible people to share the horror? I have seen more such photos of unforgivable acts against innocent animals than I care to remember. Are we really trying to shine a light on the abuser or is there some strange need to deliberately turn our stomachs? We should not tolerate abuse and we should protect and cherish the pets who depend on us for affection as well as care but does sharing gory nasty depictions of abuse do that? Maybe I am more squeamish than most but I find myself quickly scrolling thru such shared information wondering how many more times it will show up on my screen. Do we share photos of cattle being slaughtered so we can enjoy hamburgers for our weekend cookout? Do we shine a light on the chickens and pigs who never see the light of day let alone be allowed to stand up and walk? Where is the outrage when big agriculture cages 300 million chickens so they can produce eggs non-stop. These animals are excluded from all federal animal protection laws. What else do we know and not know about how factory farms foster more animal abuse every day? Care for what happens to animals? See what the ASPCA has to say and then decide what is important to share. https://www.aspca.org/fight-cruelty

Earth Day 2015

Earth Day is 45 years old this week. That’s a lot of years promoting a message of caring for our environment and ensuring a safe future for our children and grandchildren. Yet here we are facing ever greater climate disruptions with precious little progress on solving these problems. Rather than give up in despair, each person in each house in each community can start to solve local problems by paying attention and getting to work. Earth Day activities are all round us this month but it’s important not only to go see the turtles at the local environmental center, but also to reduce your own waste stream, recycle and reuse what you can, bring your own bags to shop, plant that seed, grow that tree, teach your children, learn from your children, follow important policy discussions and vote for those local and national representatives that reflect a way forward into a positive future. Forth-five years is not such a long time but in that time the environment has gotten worse, the outcry from the scientific community has gotten louder and bolder, and we can no longer afford to sit and watch the news unfold on TV – we need to become the news: demanding action, taking action, being the change we want to see. The theme for this year's Earth Day activities says it best: It's our turn to lead.

A little Peace and Love please

I was driving home from work on a dark, damp, cold afternoon feeling every bit as gloomy as the weather when Aquarius/Let in the Sunshine started to play on the radio. It didn't take more than a few seconds for me to become instantly refreshed and singing along. I wasn't a die hard hippie but did have my moments back in the day so naturally this song brought me back to the time when bell bottoms ruled and peace and love were in the air. It wasn't all wine and roses back in the 60's and 70's. As the Vietnam war took its toll on young lives, John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr and other leaders were assasinated, and students at Kent State were gunned down I felt a piece of myself was lost with each of them. But the possibilities for change were very much alive. We marched to end war, we protested injustice, we started Earth Day, we pushed for equality, we demonstrated our anger and disappointment and we made a difference. I can't help but believe that we could make the dramatic changes that our nation and world desperately need today if the same spirit ruled. A wrecked environment, income and social inequality, bigotry and intolerance, gun violence, and endless wars keep the fires of discontent raging. Seems to me the message of love and peace has never needed a louder voice, so sing on, dream on and march on.

Ukraine Under Siege

With no forewarning, I started to cry as I spoke with the White House operator. My message was to urge the President to provide defensive arms to outgunned Ukrainian soldiers and citizens under siege. And I had to add that the latest bloody battle in Debaltseve, and its subsequent capitulation to Russian-backed forces, is breaking the heart of this child of Ukrainian-born immigrants. Twice in the last five years I was in Ukraine: first to celebrate its successful Orange Revolution, and then to support the hard-won fight for democratic elections played out over months on the Maidan in Kiev. On both occasions the excitement of a free and self determined nation was infectious. My visits were marked by the heady enthusiasm of new lovers; in this case the lovers were the citizens of Ukraine and the freedom that democratic elections portended. Freedom is a stranger to Ukrainians. Communists, Nazis, Bolsheviks, Stalinists, you name them and they came to Ukraine seeking the natural resources, the fertile soil, the hard working laborers, and at times, taking the very bread out of the mouths of the farming peasants. So that is why the taste of the promise of democracy is so sweet to everyone living and struggling in this little known country. I cry when I think of how close the Ukrainians have come to realizing the dream of all its children and how brutally that dream is being crushed by Vladimir Putin's aggression. I cry when the world shrugs at the death and destruction wreaked by his forces, and the seeming endless fight still to come. Other wars and turmoil around the world seem to get the attention that Ukraine is begging for. There are bombing missions, arms shipped, advisors committed, in many other parts of this uneasy planet but the Ukrainians are in this alone. They poke at the bear as best they can, but the bear still comes and eats them alive.

What do you repurpose?

What you're looking at is one bucket of snow (freshly picked this morning after the latest storm) and one bucket of water. But its actually a bucket of snow turned into water for indoor plants. This is not a classic example of repurposing but I like to think of it as a creative reuse of something that would otherwise go to waste. The snow had a possible future as a sculpture of some kind or a surface to sled on and I played with each of those over my many years living in the northeast. But until now, for whatever reason, I never thought to collect it, bring it inside, and melt it to keep my plants going thru the winter months. The rainbarrel outside does this duty over the warm months and I am very glad to have hit on this idea over the winter months too. What do you repurpose? Let me know and share in your comments so we can all get a little more creative with what is all around us every day.

Frowny Face

There is little to smile about today. The Senate passed their bill approving the Keystone pipeline. The Koch juggernaut is aiming $900 million at the election process. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has declared climate change can no longer be prevented. Ukraine is a battleground holding against a superpower. ISIS is threatening more murder. The flu is raging and its freezing out. There are some days where all seems lost. I am not going to dig out a "feel good" adage or find a way to look on the bright side. There are times when we just need to take in the reality of our situation and figure out what to do about it. What can we do about a culture that will "drill baby drill" us right out of existence? What can we do about a government that is not working for the people but for the fat cats who need no help. What can we do to aid societies around the world struggling to create a democratic future against staggering odds? Its true that at any given time the news can be overwhelmingly bad but one way or another we steer a course thru the chaos and persist. Today is not one of those days. Looking around you wouldn't know that there was a concern in the world. We are still buying SUV's like fossel fuel is as clean and sweet as bottled water. (Don't get me started on bottled water.) We are lining up at the Apple store as if the iPhone is our key to immortality. We keep electing people too concerned about their political futures to concern themselve about the future of the people and the country. Wait, maybe I am reading the wrong news reports. Maybe I am watching the wrong news programs and maybe I should just change the channel on the TV. Yes, that's the answer. Change the channel. That will fix it.

Pajama Day

After sleeping in til 9 this morning I am declaring this my unofficial pajama day. Slogging to work yesterday thru freezing rain and slippery roads, and putting in a mean eight hours, make it that much more luxurious to say NO to going anywhere today. The spontaneous decision to stay put supports the notion of not making any plans cuz its kind of too late to do so anyway. But not going anywhere doesn't mean I don't do anything. I have already written and submitted one grant application on behalf of a community garden project, and I may do another one. I have already read thru most of the Sunday New York Times and will next wrestle the crossword puzzle. I am about to twist and "Om" my way thru a yoga practice and then maybe make some soup. But that is about the sum of my ambitions. More important, the fact that today we celebrate the legacy of Martin Luther King is all the more reason to sit and reflect. Special days like this are set aside for reflection on the genesis of those celebrations, the people and situations that engendered them, and how they mold our own way of living. News articles have called 2015 the year of action and its clear there is still much to do on many fronts. Today is a good day to decide what form those actions will take.

It all starts with a seed

I have been thinking about my vegetable garden, which is not unusual as I am often thinking about growing, picking, preparing or eating homegrown veggies. So naturally this is the time of year those thoughts turn to seeds, i.e. which seeds to pick from my library, which to buy out of a myriad of catalogs, which to swap with friends, and when to start them growing. As we set about planning for a community garden a friend and fellow gardener remarked to me recently "It all starts with a seed". Indeed all good things start with a seed of some kind. In my case, it leads to an abundance of tomatoes, greens, squashes, beans and more. But it could also be a seed of an idea, a musical phrase, a splash of color, an unaswered question. These in turn can lead to a symphony, or watercolor, or scientific breakthrough. Seeds are in fact just the possibilities we can crack wide open every day if we so choose. I can't compose symphonies or paint waterlilies but I sure can dig in the earth then watch my garden grow and bloom again this year.

The key to pacticing the Three R's

Most of us have heard the three R's of learning, i.e Reading, 'Riting, 'Rithmetic, many many times. There are three more R's that are just as important and that make a huge difference in our communities and on the planet: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. As a practical matter this boils down to a few simple actions: 1) don't buy things you don't need or items that come in wasteful packaging or that cannot be recycled, 2) reuse and repurpose what do you buy - a rule of thumb might be to reuse at least three times; then finally 3) recycle whatever solid and organic waste that you can. Fundamentally this can be summed up in a fourth R - Rethink what you do every day. When shopping, don't let store clerks toss one item into a plastic bag rather carry it out as is or bring your own cloth bag. When you're done with a package see if it can be used to store something else or grow a plant or line a litter box. And when you have cleaned up the kitchen or cleaned out the closet see what you can recycle back to the supermarket, or in municipal recycling or in a compost pile or at a thrift shop. The three R's of the environment start with one: Rethink then rethink again.

Resolving to simplify

I resolve this year to do the one thing that can make the most difference in the most areas of my life individually and our lives collectively. Simplify. To simplify means making something simpler or easier to do or understand. To more easily understand and focus on the essentials of living well it seems to me that getting rid of the clutter that generally surrounds us is step number one. The digital age has layered electronic clutter on top of the materialistic clutter that has defined our society since the end of the great war to the point that we are constantly distracted and almost never have nothing to do. Stuff is everywhere....stuff in the garage so there is no room for the car, stuff in every room of the house so that organizing and cleaning is a full time job, stuff in the car so that there is no room for passengers, stuff in the fridge that has been forgotten and morphed into a living thing, stuff in the closet that hasn't seen the light of day in years. And we stuff our heads with Facebook, music, news, movies, TiVo, Roku, Hulu oh my. Enough. I vow that I will have 30 minutes a day to do nothing except breathe, and look, and listen, and touch, and just be.