to Maine and back: June & July roundup

June and July have been filled with all kinds of summer fun. It all started with the first Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) share. The share, which is from a farm in Ottawa, Illinois, is a program started by Resurrection Covenant Church to support local farms, eating healthy, and community outreach. It has changed the way I eat and think about food. It has also been some of the best food I have ever eaten.

First CSA share box

The first share of veggies!

Me, cutting up some kohl rabi.

Swiss chard, tomato, cheese loaf. It's freakin awesome!


The mangos are chopped.

Mango ice cream.

The summer has also been filled with concerts, movies in the park, and lots of walking. July has been an especially busy month. I’ve listened to a little Beethoven while enjoying downtown. I saw the original The Odd Couple with friends under the stars of downtown. In July I ventured to two new states – Maine and Virginia. On my trip to Maine I got to see the Atlantic for the first time in the Northeast. The New England trip was too short and the Virginia trip was too long. I also got to go to the Shedd for the day!

I’ve enjoyed cooking over the past couple of months. I hope I can continue to enjoy it in such a fast paced world. I’m exploring how to make cheese and other dairy products. Along with looking into another career lately, there are also lots of unknowns and surprises to come in my life. Amidst not having a lot of money in a rich city, I am enjoying life at its fullest.

what's up with all the green

I’ve been a little ‘green’ lately. A couple of years ago someone asked me what my ideal job would be if it could be anything I wanted. It only took me a couple of seconds to think and exclaim, park ranger. I then went on to expound why that was. Lately, I have been thinking about how to be a park ranger (or working for the National Park Service (NPS) or some other related field). It’s difficult. I’m not classically trained to be a park ranger. I don’t have a degree in environmental studies or anything like that. I don’t have any connections in the field.
I do know however that I love and care for nature and animals. I have as long as I can remember. I’ve thought about research. From my sociology background I know that is something I would enjoy and be good at. So, I’ve begun looking for jobs in that field. I don’t know if anything will come of it. I’m not sure if it is something I should even pursue after many years in different fields. But, I will continue to try.

Live and Let Die

Live and Let Die is a 1973 James Bond Movie. I think it is also a great phrase describing how most Americans live their lives - “I live and let everything else die.” In a world of processed food, mass produced food, modern-day slavery (paid or not paid), oil induced war, and so on; as long as the status quo (aka me) isn’t messed with who the hell cares. Christians and non-Christians still treat the earth and animals with little disregard or respect. And apathy is killing our earth. Just look at the trash that litters the roadways, highways, streets, rivers, and lakes of this country. Forget the local landfill – the earth has become the landfill. In The Late Great Lakes, William Ashworth explains that the rich resources of trees, fish, ore, and water of the great lakes which were at one time thought impossible to exhaust or pollute are now exhausted, made extinct, or polluted beyond repair because through history people were apathetic about the earth’s resources and what the damage could be. It’s clear by the continued polluting, lack of care, and over recreation today that people still are apathetic and down right don’t care. It is too bad that we still have not learned what these damages have done and have kept to business as usual.

Disney, the most magical company on earth, who is usually devoted to consumerism, marketing kids, and building more and more theme parks came out with a recent movie by Pixar: Wall-E. Wall-E, a movie which I thought would be another clever, funny Pixar movie (which it was) had an underlining theme about the environment, consumerism, and healthy living. I’m not sure if this moral of the story reaches kids or even some adults. However, the moral was clear: if we do not change our habits of killing the environment and using the earth as our trashcan, future generations will be paying the consequences. It was a glimpse into the future and it was not a good one.

Why should we care about the environment? 1 Cor. 1:20, Gen. 1:20-25, Ex. 23:12, Hosea 4:1-3 to name a few. Is it too hard? Will the earth really not be destroyed by our harmful ways? No. Simple as that. In a world however that is becoming closer and closer to that of the people in Wall-E, maybe anything is too hard. Is it too expensive? No. Because of the growth of the fast food industry and other cheap manipulated food, the real cost is in the inhumane treatment of animals, workers, and consumers. If justice rose, food could be distributed fairly and equally and at an affordable cost to all.

Will the earth and its resources be damaged, exhausted, and polluted? For us rich Americans I think we have a while before we will see any changes. As long as the water continues to come out when we want it, movies continue to make more and more money, and dirty processed food continues to be served to our liking we may never notice. For others around the world - they do not have the same luxury. Global warming is already affecting the poles and is showing glimpses of affecting other parts of the world. Lack of grain, corn, rice, and any food is affecting the world poor and is even affecting the farms of the United States. Fat is becoming the norm, and fast and convenient is becoming the mode. Irradiation, processing, and chemically inducing food is becoming more and more popular as less safe and healthy foods are being destroyed and wiped out.

Live and let live. Let us not be paralyzed by apathy, laziness, and consumerism and care for God’s creation.


Additional Resources:
Fast Food Nation
The Late Great Lakes
Unfettered Hope

challenging to be green

I haven’t written in a while. I have been traveling for vacation and work.

Carbon footprints are a way to look at your lifestyle and to see how much you are destroying the earth. Scare tactics don’t always work. Just look at the history of Christians using scare tactics during Halloween. Likewise, in being “more green”, you don’t always see the benefits and in many cases end up spending more money to buy healthy food, fair-trade items, time, etcetera. In a recent article in the fashion and style section of the NY Times I came across “A More Flattering Shade of Green”, an article that talks not about the negative effects of humans on the environment, but what we can do positively to help it. The article is interesting as you see a mother trying to get her reluctant and skeptical family to be more environmentally friendly. The author of the article, Michelle Slatalla, recommends the site Carbonrally.com. The site has challenges to be more green. The challenges can be done individually or someone can create or join a team to challenge others in the goal to become more green. The goals are moderately low and do not turn an average person or family’s life upside-down.

The benefits of this idea are easily seen. First, it uses positive reinforcement to encourage people to be green instead of negative abuse. Second, it encourages you to not do it alone, but indeed start a ‘team.’ Third, it uses small steps to improve. If the challenges were too big or hard for people to do or change their life style they would be too discouraged to do it or to continue. This encourages people to start small and eventually be able to accomplish bigger challenges. Some examples of the challenges are to print and use less paper at work, or to drive 5 mph less when driving (on the highway).

Take a look at the website and see if you are up to the challenge.

NY Times: A More Flattering Shade of Green
Catalog Choice - Choose to have less

what's in a name?: independence day

The Independence Day holiday is spent most of the time eating burgers and brats and watching fireworks explode in the night sky. It is the time where people stake out seats and set out their lawn chairs the night before for the parade. It is a time where people dust off their American flag and hang it outside for the week. Much of the holiday is spent with family and friends who are glad to have a day off of work.

I like the idea of spending time with family and friends. The idea of fireworks is a great way to celebrate Independence Day. Or is it Fourth of July? On July 4, 1776, (or around that time) it was not the end to the tyrannous hold of Britain - but a declaration of independence. It was the beginning! Thousands of men (and women) free and slave lost their lives over the next years for the glorious cause.

It was a war for freedom. It must have been bizarre to be in an era where towns were split between rebels and Tories, when towns were pillaged, and where militia were born. Soldiers fought for freedom with barely the clothes on their back and sometimes not even that. Medical care was even worse than it is for the soldiers that come home wounded from Iraq or Afghanistan. There was no assurance of victory and it was against the biggest and the best in the world: the regulars of the British (and Hessian) army.

Amidst the brats and parades that barely resemble anything about liberty and freedom, remember the legend of Washington and the brave soldiers under his command, the farmers and families who lived and died for their country and for generations to come.

recycle those bulbs

I’m not always amused or impressed by what the big box stores do. Most of the time big box stores let me down with bad environmental practices, bad humanitarian practices, and an ideal I do not embrace- consumerism. In a recent NY Times article it explained that Home Depot will now offer recycling for compact fluorescent bulbs. The article quotes Ron Jarvis, Home Depot’s senior vice president as saying, “[Home Depot is] trying to do the right thing,” he said. “Some of the things that we do are for the community and not for the bottom line.” This may not be completely for the right thing, but it is close as a big box store might get that runs on making money.

The more efficient compact fluorescent bulb, which is still well out-sold by incandescent bulbs is becoming more popular as people are trying to care for the environment more and trying to save a few dollars. However, for some trying to be more green has not included the use of the compact fluorescent bulb. The bulb contains a small amount of mercury. Through the story Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland we know that mercury is not so safe. I think this is a great initiative by Home Depot to dispose the bulbs properly without harming people and the earth.

Note: the article did not explain how the bulb recycling program works and what happens to the bulbs after you recycle them.