a little red hen

Blogging: Untapped Possibilities Envirowise?

My June 21  post elicited more comments than anything since my last picture of an adorable grandchild.  Thanks to all of you who validated my sense that there's an urge for each of us  to tell our environmental stories to one another and find validation that what we're doing is meaningful.  We are everywhere!

Jaykaym in Washington, D.C. suggested I watch the a documentary, "No Impact Man."  I read about the filmmaker in the New York Times  couple of years ago when we still lived there.  "Guy is writing a book," I said to spouse.  Otherwise why would you challenge your spouse to climb four flights of stairs in an NYC walk-up and schlep a two-year old, a dog, and packages at the same time.  Too much hubris.  I want to know how the family's no-impact efforts continue in their everyday life.  He does have a blog  by the same name.  It's worth following for its detailed focus on possible citizen environmental actions.

Hattie at her web acknowledges that some times ideas from another culture, Japanese soapdish from berry box, may not work elsewhere.  Readers in exotic lands like Hawaii now have a new way to grow orchids!

Kay in Ohio joins the keep-using-them club around plastic bags.  Have to find out what Freda in Scotland means about "the 50mls round trip."  Berry box as bath toy might work with grandkids who, unlike mine, enjoy low key bath times.

Darlene in Arizona wonders if her efforts are enough.   It's not "tiny," Darlene.  Only seems that way because the environmental movement, the U.S. government, your neighbors have not discovered ways to form community around small, individual steps.

How I envy Anne in Washington (the state).  I live in an apartment; outdoor clothes drying not an option.  Sigh.

Beth Reid, a neighbor of mine here in Portland, Oregon, offered a good idea about buying the net bags--much less spendy than mine from Whole Foods!  Another neighbor wondered if our retirement community might not buy biodegradeable bags in bulk that residents could then purchase at modest cost.

Interesting  "papier-mache/wooden berry boxes" idea from m.e. (Xtreme English)  in Washington, D.C. environs.  Could only find these wooden ones which could take a lot of re-use.   Maybe Beth knows where we can get a dozen of them...talk our neighbors into  starting a mini-trend at nearby Farmers Market.

Why does everything seem more sensible in Canada?  Marja-Leena Rathje in British Columbia reminds me how I always wonder why the U.S. is not more open to what we might learn.  Canadian Broadcasting Corporation long a favorite of mine.

Surprise from Joared in Southern California:  she's blogging again!  And takes the prize for being a "do everything" approach to improving the universe through personal effort.

Two days later Carrie Sturrock in the Oregonian seemed to be reading my mind.  She writes a Friday column, PDX Green.    "Changing Minds, One Step at a Time" was her theme.  Her model was the impressive effort made by Portland's Williamette Pedestrian Coalition to move its office on foot (by foot?) via an informal parade of walkers.  Yes, this city is a great place for those of us not on bicycle...more later.

[Food poster at the top of the page from a link at Marion Nestle's blog, Food Politics.  Pennsylvania promoted these ideas during World War One.]

Not doing that again--sustainability in real old life

My neighbor B.P. (not to be confused with the infamous oil company) suggested at a community meeting that we needed to stretch our recycling efforts.  She demonstrated her suggestion by holding up plastic berry boxes that she stated could be washed and returned  to the store.  Audience exchanged dubious glances.  "You could also," she continued, "take them to the Farmers Market and put your raspberries in them."

I thought that was hilarious.  Then checked myself.  Wasn't it my idea back in 1998 that New Yorkers could kitchen compost with red wiggler worms?  Didn't I use similar little plastic boxes to create the "world's smallest kitchen composter."  Many laughed,  suggested it was undoable.  Challenged, especially now a resident of the most sustainably-conscious city in America, Portland, Oregon, I would try out her idea.

More than that, Saturday, June 17, 2010, would be my uber-effort on the container front.  In keeping with the local ethic and encouragement in stores, we've become more dutiful carriers of canvas bags.  Still find it a bit uncomfortable to simply drop the unwrapped aspirin bottle into my purse and not wonder if the "Thief!" electronics will sound as I leave the drugstore.  But the Farmers Market at PSU is the place to feel righteous about dispensing even with canvas:  I have seen people  do it.

You know how everyone is very polite in PDX?  That's how it was with the young man at the blueberry table.  Explained that I was just going to transfer the berries from the little green paper box to my plastic one.  "Think they will fit?" I anxiously asked Ron.  "Sure."  He's patient too.  Well, they fit but it's a trickier maneuver than I'd imagined; quickly gathered up wandering berries as the line behind me grew longer.

Lost a few berries, felt womanly righteousness.  Spent more time than usual in figuring out how to arrange food.  Took along a shoe box in the Zabar cart...yes, there is one plastic bag for the apricots/peaches.  Ran out of canvas...gets more complex around items that need to be held while selecting, then weighed on purchase.    

My message to B.P. is that the effort was informative for my future.   But  the berry-box-reuse notion is history in my house.  

Maybe B.P., a former elementary school teacher, and I (once one of those too) could do is design a class, "Transformative Sustainability," a/k/a  "Right-thinking Bagging Techniques for the  Older Person." Respectful, conscious of age-related limitations. 

Watch for an announcement in the Oregonian where a major grocer's  anti-plastic-bag  initiative hit today's front page. [Be sure to read the online comments following the story...are they what you'd expect?]

Summer Miscellany: images sitting on my desktop

From Food Day, the Tuesday section that arrives with the Oregonian newspaper.  Usually has more useful recipes than the New York Times Dining & Wine,  arrives Wednesdays.  

Still read about restaurants opening/closing in NYC.  Only really miss Chinese in Brooklyn.

Speaking of food, this week brought reminders of how the dreadful Monsanto keeps trying to destroy farming and all naturally grown things.  Credo posted this petition to say NO! to genetically modified alfalfa.  Please.

Two new additions to the pantry. The washable produce bag actually works as advertised--kept mixed salad leaves fresh in crisper, washed easily, plan to go all the way sustainable and take it to Farmers Market for next produce purchase.

 Cutting board with little red silicone feet is made from an eco-friendly fiber (according to label but not explained on their site).  We do not put it in dishwasher.

Made the big move to select cotton yarn for another vest at longtime favorite  Close Knit in north Portland on Alberta Street.  Sally, the proprietor, was very helpful...wish I lived closer and could get to the Wednesday night-nights.  The store has a newish blog with clear pictures on how to rescue dropped stitches, the knitter's dread.

Ron noticed a new restaurant across the street.  We split what I can only describe as the most politically incorrect sandwich made by [a] man at Pine State Biscuits.  Fried chicken topped with cheddar cheese and bacon.  This is what happens when you rarely eat meat but were raised on it and have some atavistic pull toward food that will remind you why you do not eat like this anymore.  Wish I'd paid more attention to the name of the bottled drink because it was delicious, kind of antidote to the food. 

Enjoyed the wall decoration most of all--artful reflection of weird Portland at its snarkiest.  We felt a little under-dressed as usual--no allover tatoos and only my pierced earrings which really do not count.

Meeting Ehren Tool, "war-awareness artist"

 Ehren Tool, veteran of the first Gulf War and a potter, was "installed" at Portland's  Museum of Contemporary Craft in June.  A museum member, I'd heard earlier about his work, looked forward to his "durational performance."

 Exchanging with Ehren was all I could hope for-- an old political activist encountering a  young one.  He was the first Marine I'd ever met,   had to adjust my stereotyped expectation of  what he'd be like. Ehren surprised me with with an open, gentle manner.    I am challenged by his attitude, different from mine, not anti-war rather focused on raising general awareness of war.

Three years ago, Allison Smith, posted a long, thoughtful interview with Ehren.  He spoke of what drives him:

"It's this freaky thing. To me, it's like there's a siren going off in the background all the time. There are so many veterans and refugees who've seen war firsthand, but then they don't talk about it when they get back to the States. So what regular people know about war tends to come from toys and pornography and video games. I give away the cups because, it's like, 'Drink out of the cup with skulls on it.

Drink out of the cup with bombs on it.' We don't have money for schools, we don't have money to make the corrections system a corrections system instead of a penal system, for any of that. But we do have money for million-dollar Tomahawk missiles and $13,000 cluster bombs.

 And every single one of us is part of that system whether we act like we know it or not."  

Ehren threw his cups at his wheel in a windowed, first floor temporary studio in a  corner of the  Museum. Passersby could watch him from the street.  Our three visits were uplifting for Ron and me, a powerful reminder that there can be hope in a time of darkness.

  One of his porcelain cups sits on our windowsill.  I hope you will enlarge the closeups to see the images; they are instructive, not pretty. Better, closer ones are HERE .  But this one is mine, a reminder of  how  "lifelong learning" is more than sitting in classrooms. 

Without my usual note-taking of our conversatons, my memory of Efren has a kind of purity.  It is hard to describe my feelings about this chance to be  with this young man,  a soldier in the war I'd energetically protested.  He had lived the life reflected in the images on the cups--now close to 10,000 of them are out in the world.  The NO WAR  patches Sally Mericle and I  rubber stamped in 1991 Baltimore, while Ehren was a young marine in combat,  only numbered one thousand.  Something other than the difference in scale has been on my mind since my time with him. 

His ability to put values and craft together in a sustained way are a lesson for me.  He continues to throw more and more cups, to look for venues that will bring others to join him in cup-making--war veterans, communities of caring Americans.  With all his intensity around his craft and message, he is a very gentle man with a delightful sense of humor.  When Ron and I spent time with him on the final day of the installation, we learned that where he is now is miles away from the 18 year old who joined the Marines, wanted to be a policeman.  After his military service Ehren went to college, then art school.   He was very even in reflecting on gallery visitors who glanced at his work and withdraw from its directness-- or did not respond at all.  I'd like to be  as balanced about responses to my own creative efforts.

Ron promised to mail him one of his knit hats; I enclosed  a No War patch.  Ehren sent an email "thank you" with this somewhat elfin photo attached.

Talking about him has made July 4th a more meaningful day for me and, I hope, for you.  

Too Far North for Our Attention?

On June 27, Hattie's Web posted a powerful You Tube clip.  I do not usually sit  through an eight minute online video.  But three days later, when Roxie and her family had just returned to New York, I  slowed down enough to watch/listen to Naomi Klein in an interview on  Amy Goodman's  Democracy Now program.

Klein illuminated the background on the police reaction to demonstrators at the recent  G20 summit in Toronto.  Canada, our always low-key neighbor with liberal politics, now has  a very conservative prime minister.  Like here, seismic changes are happening to the north.   Were you puzzled about the police shift from their initial no-reaction to over-reaction?  She explains the convoluted situation.

Next, in response to a question from Goodman, Klein connects the Gulf oil crisis with G20 inaction. I hope you will watch.  It would be transformative, as in the universe shifting, if more people could watch/listen to more thoughtful political commentators.  Women speaking instead of the ubiquitous men in dark suits.