Eco-Epiphanies: Personal Wastefulness and Societal Stupidity

For some, deep ecological truths are, looking back, arrived at in spectacular natural settings or dramatic experiences. For me, two anecdotes stand out as clearly pivotal, changing my thinking and my behaviors – hence, eco-epiphanies. The first was nearly twenty years ago, listening to Rabbi Arthur Green’s Yom Kippur sermon. I have no recollection what exactly his topic was, but his line: “American disposals are better nourished than many people with whom we share this earth” was so true and so jarring, that I vowed to start recycling that minute. OF course, recycling didn't feed people, but it was where responsible consumption started. Step by step, year-by-year, my consciousness about waste grew, until I became an environmental activist – fortunately, along with many others. However, I still thought of waste as a personal matter, that I should be more careful not to waste food to begin with, buy less packaging, that sort of thing. Virtue, as Dick Cheney would call it.

The second truth arrived in a story about Sudanese refugees, teenage boys settling in the United States. Survivors of great trauma, all orphans who had lived in refugee camps for many years, they were brought here and settled by Lutheran Services. Social workers helped them adjust, and it was educational for both these “Lost Boys” and those who helped them. One woman described taking them to a Big Box store to outfit them with American necessities. They stopped to look at a wall of hair dryers, unfamiliar to her charges.

On their first afternoon together, she took them to Wal-Mart for clothes. They gaped at the endless rows of textiles and gadgets, including some that looked like futuristic handguns. “Those are hair dryers,” Bernstein explained. Benson couldn’t wrap his mind around it. Why would you buy a machine to dry your hair? It dries on its own.

Somehow that shocked me into awareness of how ridiculous much of our consumption is – looking at it through the eyes of the world’s have-nots. We Americans live in a bubble. We don’t question basic assumptions about how we use resources, and allow ourselves to be absurdly wasteful, spending time, money, and natural resources to do things that don’t need to be done to begin with! We could live a high quality of life much more resource efficiently, and certainly will need to do so if the planet is to survive the onslaught of the results of our over-consumption.

Suddenly we find ourselves in a world which looks very different – many Americans are in fact being forced to get by with less. It is interesting to watch Americans driving less, for example. Is this change do to:

1) People coming to their senses, at long last?

2) People, being unemployed, are not commuting to work?

3) People going out less on discretionary buying expeditions, due to financial anxiety

4) Or people actually having less income, changing their spending behaviors?

Clearly, for many of us, the recent experience of economic contraction is unprecedented. The same behaviors being touted for saving money are identical to those which save natural resources and decrease carbon emissions. Perhaps the new habits folks are acquiring can be reinforced by public policy, incentivizing our consumption in ways which will, while not cutting into our quality of life, will make us wiser consumers and better world citizens. Better late than never….

My Keen Rice Bag Shoes

My friend Mindy, also an artist and eco-activist, saw me in my funky shoes made of repurposed rice bags.  She thought they were a hoot, and was surprised  I hadn't posted them on my blog.  Here, Min.
The reason I didn't is that while they are upcycled rice bags, they are made in China, and I wasn't able to really verify anything about their eco-biography.  Hoping for the best, that they aren't made in a sweat shop, and that the rice bag collectors were paid fairly.  Of course there is lots of rice in China....  Let's hope they didn't ship the rice bags in from somewhere else.
Should you be interested in a pair, note they run very large.  Order a half size smaller than you would normally wear.  Keen's description:  the upper is crafted with reclaimed rice paper. Recycled polyurethane and cork create a naturally comfy footbed, rewarding your eco-friendly frame of mind. Please note, because of the unique nature of this product, each item is one of a kind.

Women's Clothing Giveaway 6 - January 29

Seated at The High Point at Allens Lane, meeting over coffee to plan an event, my mini-backpack caught Sue Wasserkrug’s eye.  “Funny, I once had backpack that looked just like that”, she commented, quizzically.  “Well… did you donate it to the GJC Women’s Clothing Giveaway?”  Having just met, we looked at each other and burst out laughing.  Sue meeting up with her old backpack, one of my favorite Giveaway finds, totally captures the whimsy and heimishness of our annual happening. 

Not only was this hilarious, it solved a challenge for me: what on earth to say, writing about the Giveaway for the sixth time?  In truth, though, our Giveaway has grown and evolved in many new ways, due to the creativity, planning, and hard work of many devoted volunteers from Women’s Club and the Social Action Committee.  Sue, by the way, is a neighbor who volunteers at the event, too.

Last year the Swap took a quantum leap, becoming the Giveaway.  One of our challenges was the enormous surplus of donated clothes left at the end.  Marcy Bacine reached out to day care centers and organizations that support low income women around the city, inviting them as guests to the event; many enthusiastically attended.  Our beautiful marquee Lincoln Drive sign, featuring the stunning papercut by our own Mindy Shapiro, helped build excitement.  As a result, we tripled our attendance, raising over $4500 to donate to Darfur refugees, and had way less clothing leftover.  (The remainders are donated to Whosoever Gospel Mission in Germantown.)  Our permanent website helps with social networking.  Rivkah Walton has created lovely fliers and other PR materials. We have created something really exciting and impactful!

Genie Ravital has coordinated this event since she dreamed it up back in the day.  She has developed systems that work beautifully, kept track of details like who can lend dress racks, where the signs are stored, how many tables we need.  Our volunteers are seasoned as well, often pitching in as personal shoppers, with Connie Katz heading up food and details. 

Last year there was some worry that there might be a riot when so many women showed up prior to the opening at 11:00 AM, but everyone managed to find clothing without pepper spraying other shoppers.  Many happy women walked out with large designer shopping bags (donated, of course) full of gently used clothing. Throughout the day, additional garments were continually added to the tables, as women laid out donations before commencing their own hunting and gathering expeditions.

Women For Women International is this year’s beneficiary.  Nicholas Kristof recommends its important work with women survivors of war and conflict.  Of the dozens of wonderful organizations working globally to help lift up women, this one best expanded the Darfur Alert path we have taken, but also we love its name. Women For Women pretty much sums up what the day is all about.

To volunteer email Geniebud@gmail.com or to link us to more agencies serving low income women, contact Marcy Bacine, marcy49@me.com

Playing the Online Coupon Game - and Usually Winning

I am a total sucker for discounts.  Once I've established I am buying an item, for personal or business purposes, I am getting a huge kick out of finding online coupon codes to insert at checkout.  I began to notice how many check out systems ask for a coupon or promotional code, so I opened a new window, googled the company name and "coupon" and all these sites popped up.
Just bought 25 shipping boxes.  By googling the company + coupon, a code for 5% off popped up.  In this case, that totaled 43¢, but why not?  I've scored free shipping and numerous other discounts.  All that it took was an extra minute to search coupons.  Note, though, not all codes are valid.  I just wasted about 20 minutes on a clothing site trying to insert code I found on line, none of which worked.  But more often than not, they are valid. I treat it more like a sport than a strategy.
Presumably the coupon sites get a cut if you enter the company website through their site; they often have clickthroughs.

Muichic - Mucho Gorgeous and FairTrade, Too

Much as I love craft fairs and handmade clothing and accessories, I do try not to collect too many trinkets.  I've gotten good at admiring but not acquiring.  Today at a Home & Garden outdoor fair, underneath gorgeous sunny skies, I hit the jackpot.  This gorgeous necklace is made by Muichic in Colombia of natural materials, but let them tell you their story.  It's fun and funky, helps people support themselves, and preserves rainforests.  Trifecta!

muichic (moo·ee·sheek) is 100% natural, sustainable & organic jewelry ethically handmade in Colombia.
Tagua is our raw material. All of our pieces are made by hand from "tagua nut". The tagua nut, a botanical alternative to ivory (a.k.a. vegetable ivory), is a seed that comes from the ivory-nut palm which grows wild in the humid tropical forest of South America. Its use stimulates the local economies in the region providing an alternative to cutting down rainforests for farming.
Unique accessories that are environmentally friendly ; gracefully chic make up our natural bijoux collection...bold, playful ; colorful goodness for your body. All of our pieces come in different colors and like snowflakes they all differ from one another. Each tagua nut has its own distinctive grain and shape which gives a remarkably uncommon quality to each piece of jewelry. Quality ; individual variation on each piece are guaranteed.

  Check out this close up!  The boldness of plastic color, but with the elegant aesthetic of hard polished natural material.  I see why they liken it to ivory, with grains like wood.

PS - the necklace clasp broke, so I emailed Muichic.  They told me to just send it back for repair.  It was sent to Colombia, and I've just received it back.  That is great service!

My No-Disposable Vows

About a year or two ago, I decided I would simply not use disposable cups, plates, or silverware.  (So-called silverware, plastic forks et al) unless they could be washed and reused.  When I go to meetings and conferences, I bring a mug, my own silverware, et al.  Much of what I eat can just be consumed without utensils.  If I forget to bring a mug, I just don't drink anything.  I am able to stick to this personal practice pretty easily.  I see it as more than just a eco-habit and entering into a spiritual practice.

There are some situations which have proven to be too awkward in which to observe this prohibition, though.  When I am a guest at someone's house and they directly serve food to me on paper plates, I accept it.  Who wants to be the one at the birthday party to throw sand?  I have yet to have the nerve to directly confront someone and say, "Sorry, I don't eat on disposable plates.  In my book, they aren't kosher."  Maybe someday I'll get there, but not yet.  I suppose I could also take my bamboo plate to people's homes just in case the dreaded disposables appear on the table, but that does seem a little holier-than-thou.  And I would like to be invited back to people's houses!

Any one out there taken the pledge?  Just found a group online, called - cleverly - Refuse, the Plastic Pollution Coalition.  Sad enough, though - my google search for "pledge not to use disposables" also brought up Disposable Pledge wood polish.  Yuck!

Full Length Mirror Search Ends at Etsy

When buying an item, I always like it to be the greenest it can be, but I couldn't figure out how to apply that to mirrors.  Really, all we wanted was a plain old vanilla full-length mirror, slightly nicer than the inexpensive ones at Home Depot.  Searching online, it became clear this was no simple quest. It turned into visiting dozens of mirror vendors, gaudy and gaudier, as well as pricey and pricier.

Eventually I found a site that would fabricate a mirror to our specs.  Not cheap, but at least we'd get the damn mirror up on the wall, after a year in our new house.  Then the light bulb went off - it we were doing a mirror from scratch, why not check Etsy and see if we could hire a craftsperson rather than a factory to create the piece?

Score!!

A quick Etsy search turned up Inspired by Nature, a couple in Tennessee who works with reclaimed wood, designing and creating all kinds of cool things.  It was great fun to design the mirror with them, emailing back and forth, until the order was placed.  About two weeks later, just as promised, a monster sized box arrived with our beautiful new full-length mirror made of reclaimed barn wood painted white.  For the same price as buying from a factory!  No kidding.  Kent was a delight to work with, and how great is it to help people support themselves by doing beautiful work reclaiming old wood, and getting a piece yourself?

Moral of the story.  Check out Etsy when you need something made to order.  It may be cheaper, since you're paying the craftspeople directly, than going through a store or site.  Such are the wonders of the internet - from a wood-shop in Tennessee to my bedroom in Philly.

(Tree not included.)

Cooking: Ecological, Economical, and Better for You...

Cooking has never been one of my passions; it’s more a commitment which follows from liking to eat. This past year I find myself enjoying cooking more, and spending more time at it.  There are a number of contributing, idiosyncratic factors like my new sunny kitchen and its wall-mounted radio, so NPR can keep me company when I’m slicing, stirring, or mixing.  And my new IPad allowing me to easily download and listen to interesting podcasts and living near enough to Weavers Way Food Coop to shop daily. The fact that my children grew up means I both have more time and two fewer picky palates to please, also making the cooking process less stressful.

But there are some way simpler, replicable things which have contributed to making my cooking more efficient, and therefore more gratifying.  I did a budget check and realized how much we were paying to eat in restaurants, often because I just didn’t have the energy to decide what to make for dinner at the end of a long day.  Once I realized it would pay back, it justified my putting more time into meal planning.  I created a simple data base of weeknight menu combinations which we both enjoy eating, including any unusual ingredients and advance prep that facilitates getting the meal to the table.  By doing the thinking in advance and entering it in my google-doc, I can just refer to it, make a menu decision earlier in the day, and plan accordingly.  If it will be chili, I know I need to get the rice started in advance, that sort of thing.  Since I actually finding the menu decision more onerous than the cooking, this has made a huge difference!

A small investment in better cooking utensils has vastly improved the cooking experience.  Better knives, larger frying pans, a sturdy long-handled spatula and new goodies like a roll-up cutting mat have been so much nicer to use.  Purchasing a duplicate set of measuring spoons and measuring cups is an embarrassingly simple upgrade.  If some are in the dishwasher, I don’t need to rummage around to find them.  If I want to prepare two dishes in a row, I don’t need to stop and wash them. Duh!  Why didn’t I think of this 35 years ago?  The cost of this enhancement is paid for by one stay-at-home meal.

The internet has also livened up the cooking process.  Recipes, techniques, cooking blogs, even unusual products – these are all available with one click. If you’re someone with a large cookbook collection, you might want to join EatYourCookbooks, a site which features tens of thousands of indexed cookbooks.  Register the cookbooks you own and use, and when you search by recipe title or ingredient, it will find the recipe and ingredient list.  Where’s that great recipe for pecan lemon pound cake?  This site will locate it. It doesn’t bring up the recipe itself, but will tell you which cookbook it’s in.  The first five cookbooks are free; after that there is an annual fee. 

Eating at home is cheaper and healthier.  Another motivator, on the environmental front: at-home food preparation has a much smaller eco-footprint.  Unless you would walk to the restaurant, you save the round-trip drive.  Restaurants themselves are extremely high consumers of water, electricity, fuel, chemical cleaners, and disposables.  While the diner might focus on wasted food (portions which are ridiculously large, uneaten bread which can’t be reserved, Styrofoam clamshells to take home, double-wrapped in plastic bags) most of the waste is out of the diners’ sight.  There are some greener restaurants which compost, but most generate huge volumes of trash and food waste, none of which is reused or recycled.  Restaurants are not, by law, allowed to serve leftovers!

Ectopic Heart Beat, Benign Palpitations, Cardio-Hiccups

This is a completely off-topic post, written  in hopes it may be of interest and help to people who have the same weird heartbeat thing which I have.  Starting in my 20's I very occasionally had a moment where I felt like my heart stopped and then went thud, followed by a nano-second of breathlessness. But before I could focus on my imminent death, everything went back to normal.  An EKG in a doctor's office assured me I was fine, nothing to worry about.  Hah!  Nothing to worry about, until the next time this happens!

In my mid-50's, I noticed it more, and once again had a physician check it out, same result.  Nothing to worry about.  Then a few months ago, around my 58th birthday, this started happening several times an hour.  Usually in threes, a few minutes apart.  I would be very conscious of my heart beating, a weird sensation.  Each thud would be followed by a slight flutter in my chest and stomach.  This began to drive my crazy, trying to figure out a pattern, what might be causing this uptick (pardon the pun!).  And lots of anxiety, since it is an unpleasant sensation.  The doctor reassured me it's harmless, and called an ectopic heart beat, as "in the wrong place".  No known cause, no cure.

Eventually the frequency made me so nervous that I asked for a referral to a cardiologist.  I just couldn't believe that something so scary-feeling could really be harmless.  He did another EKG and an echo-cardiogram, neither of which is invasive or unpleasant.  He pronounced me the healthiest lady he had seen all day, and described these as "benign palpitations".  Benign is good, but it sounds very alarming, really. There is no known cause, this is just one of those things that happens;  it's weird, but it's harmless.

I am slowly training myself to be less reactive to my benign palpitations; which at least will decrease my reactivity.  The most useful thing I've come up with so far is to rename them heart hiccups, since that in effect is what they are.  Somehow, hiccup sounds more friendly and normal than benign palpitations.
I do hope they go away just like them came; some days I have very few.  Other days I have a lot.  Just sharing.  By now I've discovered a few other people who have these too, and we're all alive and well.

Postscript: three years later.  I am incredibly grateful to the first commenter, who - years ago - wrote that magnesium supplements helped him/her.  I tried them and could feel the difference immediately.  I have continued to take them daily and it has taken the edge off my palpitations. When they occur they usually don't just happen once, but a bunch of time over a day or two, and I realize how long it's been since the last episode.  Eventually they stop, but I don't notice that they stopped until they happen again.

I reported this to my doctor and she said, basically "Cool."  Whatever works.  As in, no evidence it works but it can't heart.  I also told my acupuncturist and she confirmed that metals are good for heart function.

The Ecology of Gifting

Gifting is an area where the material/ecological and human nature/psychology are at odds.
It's good to give, it feels good.  It's fun to receive gifts, and important for all kinds of symbolic reasons.  Gifting is ritualized; messing with it leaves people confused and hurt.  But!  Most of us have way more than we need, and the occasions for gifting have been multiplied and grossly inflated by retail marketing and advertising.  Choosing a gift that will truly please the recipient is a huge challenge.
There isn't a one size fits all answer, but here is a list of questions I am posing to a group where I will lead a discussion on this topic.  Thinking for a few minutes about your answers will likely surprise you.

1. What was the best present you recall receiving?
2.  What was the least appropriate gift you've received?
3.  What strategies for ratcheting down the "Gifting Industrial Complex" have you or  your family employed?
4.  Do you resent or enjoy gift giving?
5. Calculate a quick estimate of the number of gifts you present in a calendar year.

What stood out for me is that there weren't many presents I could single out as having been terrific, despite all the wonderful and much-appreciated efforts people have made to please me over the years.  From this I generalize that the odds of choosing an ideal gift are slim, unless I am unusually picky.  That said, I would be very bummed if no one had ever made the effort.
This year I am actually including gifts in an expenditure spread sheet and it's amazing how much we lay out , even though I am highly evolved on this question and avoid material gifts as much as possible.  How much more are people in the gift-giving mega-sphere laying out - birthday parties, bar/bat mitzvahs, weddings, hostess gifts, birthdays - endless!
My nomination, by the way, for the least appropriate gift I've received was a donation in honor of my Confirmation in 1968.  I didn't mind that it was a donation, it's just that it was to The Cemetery Fund.  For a sixteen year old.  Creepy!!  (However, if the goal of a gift giver is to be remembered, it worked.  I still recall who it was from.)