fun learning

            Curiosity motivates us to learn, encouragement inspires us to thrive.  If I were independently wealthy I would take classes all the time.  But - and here's the caveat - it's got to be fun.  More so than the all-season gray skies in Belgium, I left Brussels because I was fed up with the dusty post secondary academic system that seeped all the way into creative fields like my design studies.  I felt inhibited and put down, instead of motivated and inspired.  That's how I landed on the shores of this country where I found a much more open learning environment (I'll leave the financial picture out of the conversation because that's a whole other discussion).

            I find that in general college education here encourages inquisitiveness, individualism, creative thinking and doing, critical-analytical thinking, and is practically oriented.   Many institutions have beautiful facilities with new buildings, great lab and studio spaces, well designed sports and communal facilities, all of which foster a positive learning environment.  I have experienced encouraging, nurturing, personal relationships with professors who work with, not above, the students - a totally different atmosphere than I knew from Europe where I encountered condescending professors on pedestals assured of their superiority.

            A Parisian friend said to me a while ago that France's dusty, staid, academic environment discourages exploring and voicing novel theories and inhibits innovation in research.  The best learning environments foster an inquisitiveness of seeing the world through children's eyes, full of wonderment and curiosity and of "what if?".  I love learning.

           

 

it's ok

I am so frustrated with these compostable trash bags.  They rip easily, humidity seeps through them, I can only fill them about halfways before they fall apart, and many times I need to double them up before bringing them out to the trash can.  Yet, I bought a big box of sixty twice - out of guilt, figured I couldn't give up so easily.  The environment is really important to me, I want to be responsible, be a good example, and do my share to save the world.   Plastic is an environmental

           I am so frustrated with these compostable trash bags.  They rip easily, humidity seeps through them, I can only fill them about halfways before they fall apart, and many times I need to double them up before bringing them out to the trash can.  Yet, I bought a big box of fifty twice - out of guilt, figured I couldn't give up so easily.  The environment is really important to me, I want to be responsible, lead by example, and do my share to save the world.   Plastic is an environmental nightmare that never (well, at least almost never) decomposes!  It swirls the Pacific in plastic islands the size of Texas, plastic shopping bags hang from our trees like rags and fly across roadways and fields, softdrink loops ensnare fish and seabirds, and fish and marine mammals ingest plastic bits and pieces that float in the ocean.  I don't want to be yet another contributor to this horror show. 

            Remember the days when we didn't care because we didn't know?  But sometimes life, and practicality, takes over and I think I'm done with these compostable trash bags because they just don't work and I really have tried and done my very best. For now I will settle for sturdy bags that are made from recycled plastic (at least something good), but, alas, are not compostable.  And I think the world will survive, and I will be ok.  What are your thoughts?

complex shopping logistics

             Thirty, forty years ago things were simpler.  You'd go to the big supermarket to one-stop shop for most things.  We weren't worried about pesticide residue, we didn't think much about where our foods came from,  we didn't see the bigger picture of the conflict between profit and growing food sustainably, and the Western Diet hadn't blown up in our face yet.

            Nowadays I spend quite a bit of time running around to different places to fulfill my many food philosophies:  local food from local farmers to support the local economy and get the freshest possible food, produce that has not been sprayed or at least as little as possible, foods that are grown sustainably, pasture raised meat and sustainably fished seafood, eating more vegetables and lots of greens, and of course being cost conscious of the higher cost these types of food command.  It creates an intricate and more time consuming web of food related errands. 

            While we still do eat meat we eat a lot less of it and every few months I stock the freezer at a local farm where the animals graze outside all year round.  We get our raw milk and yogurt from a farm that is twenty-five miles away and have organized with several other families to take turns picking it up for the group so each of us only has to drive every other month.  Eggs come from the family whose place serves as the local weekly milk pick-up point.  Once a month our buying club gets a grocery and produce delivery from our food coop - we buy in bulk and share and save.  Some of the things I buy from the coop are bulk legumes, seeds and nuts, bulk tea and spices, condiments, nut and seed butters, also some personal care items.  Since the coop produce only lasts for about two weeks I fill in from a whole bunch of local farmers, and sometimes the supermarket.  I buy my recycled paper goods at Trader Joe's, where I also get some other organic basics such as vinegar and oils, chocolate, frozen organic spinach, and organic canned tomatoes.  Most of our supplements I order online as well as some specialty items I cannot readily find locally or through the coop (like our favorite smoky tea lapsang souchong, which our daughter humorously calls lapsang sooch).  And, believe it or not, I recently found a 5.5lb container of organic chia seeds at Walmart of all places (yes, I admit that I go there, too).