stuff, stuff, and more stuff

 

Not sure whether you have ever given trash, your’s or that of others, much thought. But here are some statistics.  The average amount of waste each person generates has increased from 2.68lbs in 1960 to 4.5lbs in 1990.  Luckily that number has held steady due to recycling efforts.   However, it still totals about 1.35billion lbs/day or 251 million tons per year!!! Now wait - this is only personal trash, which constitutes 2% of the waste stream – yikes for the industrial waste stream!  But let’s stay with our personal garbage, because that's where we can make a difference.

The first rule of thumb is that recycling and composting are good, but buying less stuff is better.  Besides, it’s been documented that we can’t gain happiness through consumption.  Elizabeth Royte, who wrote a very enlightening book on garbage, says that “We don’t need better ways to get rid of things. We need to not get rid of things, either by keeping them cycling through the system or not… desiring them in the first place.”

But once we have garbage, what are our choices? They are dumping, incinerating, and recycling.  FYI - in untreated landfills waste can take 40 to 50 years to decompose, in treated landfills between 5 and 10 years.  Yet, plastics may take hundreds of years to decompose!   And there are other problems with landfills: their toxicity (supposedly landfills are the largest source of human generated greenhouse gases, although CAFO’s, those enormous industrial animal feeding operations that make supermarket meat are also huge culprits), and the ever increasing amounts of garbage and landfill space needed (1.because of population increase, and 2.because our consumer society model is based on ever increasing consumption– the system breaks down if we stop consuming, and then the politicians scream “recession” - stop screaming with them).

So, what can you do?

• Don’t pick up any more plastic bags from the supermarket, bring your own cloth bags
• Consume less, recycle and compost more
• Use compostable garbage bags, recycled paper products, and products made from recycled plastic
• Buy more groceries and cleaning supplies in bulk, reuse your glass jars and Chinese takeout plastic containers (I wish they would take them back, since I don’t like plastic in the first place), reuse your Ziplock bags a few times
• Subscribe to Freecycle (they are all about giving and getting for free)
• Donate your gently used unwanted stuff instead of throwing it away
• Buy clothes at 2^nd-hand stores (I am a huge fan)
• Most of all – stop wanting, wanting, wanting stuff.

social arrangements on the move

The world is changing fast and society opening up to a greater variety of family arrangements and social expressions is just one manifestation of it; what with single moms, single dads, gay and lesbian parents, and the complex family structures of divorced and remarried parents.  It became so clear to me when I read Saturday’s NY Times. On p. A9 I learned that for the first time in Cuba  (of all countries) a transgender person was just elected a municipal representative.  And on p. A11 I read that a republican senator, who was previously opposed to same-sex marriage, reversed himself on the matter when he found out his son was gay (this position now makes him at odds with his party).  Amazing how quickly things can change.  And our still relatively conservative little town (mind you, we are only 50 miles north of NYC) has now its very own LGBTQ Center of the Warwick Valley, at least online.

what do you want to do that for?

That is what we’ve heard many times since beginning the planning process for our new energy efficient house.  The most extensive argument may well have been around the merits of triple-pane windows.  In northern Europe triple-pane windows are now standard for new construction, and Canadians use them already extensively.  But here in the US energy awareness is still in its infancy and we kept being asked “what do you want to do that for?” In comparing windows, I found that Canadians build better frames, which makes a big difference, and they use orientation and climate specific glazing for optimal energy savings.  European casement windows have a much tighter fit than the double-hung windows typical for here because of the different frame design.  Passiv-Haus windows are the platinum standard, it tops them all (price included!).

Thinking ahead, Germans are already talking about quadruple windows!

the power of the positive

I was very saddened this morning by a short video that was circulated on Facebook on the far reaching (literally and pun intended) consequences of our garbage culture.

We create our reality through all the thoughts and beliefs we generate, either the fear-based ones about everything we don’t want, or alternately the ones that were not thought out carefully enough, such as  "more and more stuff."

Watch the video: the situation is the result of a culture that keeps wanting more and more in disassociation with nature and our fellow men.  I had to remind myself of the power of positive thinking.  Only when we begin to formulate in our minds the kind of world we actually do want to create, and when it is formulated in cocreation with nature, can we turn this ship around.  The thing is that it starts within each of us.

make love, not war

"Make Love, Not War."   John Lennon

working smart, not hard

This country was built on the hard working pioneer spirit that persevered over adverse conditions with dogged determination.  Stretching the workday to all hours, eating lunch at the desk, refraining martyr-like from taking vacations, are all still remnants of this dedication.  But times have changed and we know better now.  Working smart, not hard, is the new paradigm.  Recent research, as reported in the NY Times, suggests that we are much more productive working in a few 90-minute intervals with breaks in between, taking our vacations, and getting enough sleep and recreational time.  This mirrors what spiritual disciplines mean when they say that we need to “slow down in order to speed up.”

sitting and more sitting

Of course I am also guilty of what I am going to say next.  In the recent past we have culturally regarded thinking professions - our parents wanted doctors and lawyers, not farmers or workers - more highly than doing professions.  But already the ancient Romans acknowledged that we need exercise to think clearly and stay healthy when they said “mens sana in corpore sano.” Between our sedentary professions and farming out snow shoveling, cleaning or lawn mowing, we find ourselves having to get the needed exercise elsewhere.  It is quite ironic that we work long hours and don’t have time to clean or walk the dog, but then rush past dinner to catch the next exercise class or run to the gym, all the while spending precious money on all of the above.

do you see the connection?

Do you see the connection between:

• South  Korea electing a woman president
• The recent Brooklyn rabbi conviction in a sexual abuse case of a teenager
• The recent Indian rape protests?

Concurrently in different parts of the world breakthroughs are happening on the women’s rights front.  Not that I want our culture to veer in the opposite direction, towards a female domination.  No, this time around I believe we are finally headed, slowly but surely, towards cooperation, equality, mutual respect and understanding.  Check out Barbara Marx Hubbards’s websites

evolve.org and birth2012.com

on our consciousness evolution and what the end of the Mayan calendar is really about –a new consciousness structure, not the end of the world; although I am hoping it will be the end of the world as we know it now: war, environmental destruction, capitalistic exploitation and  domination.

crazy times - creative times

Crazy times here on earth!  Between the end of the Mayan calendar, the insane shooting last week, and all the other serious problems we have created - environmental, cultural, nutritionally, agriculturally and so on - it is a pretty chaotic world.  But it is also an insanely creative and opportune time to awaken and turn things around (before it truly is too late).  Like in a huge thunderstorm, where warm and cold air masses collide, the old and new are colliding in front of our eyes.  There are so many conservative and fundamentalist movements out there composed of people afraid of change, confused by what is going on, and who would like to take refuge in the old known ways.  And then there are the new movements, from the Occupy movement, to the Arab Spring, to the many women’s lib initiatives all over the world.  I mean a woman, albeit conservative, was just elected to the Korean presidency! Because 12/21/2012 and the end of the Mayan calendar usher in a new consciousness, 2013, more than any other new year in recent times, is a grand opportunity to follow your heart, make sweeping changes in your life, make a difference in the world, in your community, for yourself, and move this evolving consciousness along and in the direction of a better world, a more cooperative world, a more compassionate world, a more creative world, a saner and healthier world.

Black Wednesday?

Ever since our evolution away from a nomadic lifestyle to a life in permanent settlements we have lived out the economic misconception of scarcity, believing that there is not enough to go around, and that only “the fittest survive.”   Among many other apparitions this cultural delusion is responsible for the Black Friday – and now Black Thursday - phenomenon.  Instead of spending meaningful and quality time with family and friends, many now rush out of the house even before Thanksgiving Day is over, to stand in line, fight the crowds, and feed the big box stores some more money, truly believing that there won’t be another deal around, that “it’s now or never.”

We vote with our spending dollars.  How about voting instead for local merchants who add diversity, creativity, and a sense of community to our lives - and enjoying your turkey dinner a little longer, too?  Otherwise we’ll have Black Wednesday soon.