Have Yourself a Merry Persistmas...Week 20

Climate Grief, My Eco-Village Dream Life & Thrift-mas

Yesterday at the YMCA I ran into my friend and former editor Anne, which I take as a sign that this week’s NSP must be all about environment. Anne is an eco hero because she’s dedicated so much time and energy to the Sierra Club and COSF, our local nonprofit that preserves open spaces and maintains hiking trails. Also this week I reconnected with Karyn, the editor who assigned my very first story for a national magazine. Which, by the way, was an environmental story about newly developed house paints that were low emitters of volatile organic compounds. Of course, this was at a time when few knew what VOCs were. My my point is more this: here I am full circle back really loving the idea of writing about anything that relates to environment and efforts to improve it.

My Eco-Village Dream Life

Recently I’ve been obsessed with the Rachel Carson Eco-Village. For about $400k you can move into a beautiful new eco-friendly house (called a passive house) and be a part of a village of likeminded people coming together in an environmentally conscious community. RCE runs as a sociocracy (and you have to take a class to be a part of the village), but I promise you these are normal people. I sat in on a Zoom meeting of founding members and other interested folks — a librarian from Tennessee, a professor, an architect, a yoga teacher from NYC and a retiree moving from Miami. I would totally do this except I need to convince my husband to move to Pittsburgh and also I should probably visit Pittsburgh. But it’s cold there and that’s also kind of a problem. Anyhow, the next Zoom info session is Jan 27. More info here should you also want to fantasize about an eco-village dream life.

The Little Tree that Could & Other Persistmas Tales

In the spirt of persisting and environmentalism, here’s a pic of my Christmas tree. We bought this tree at the grocery store about 10 years ago when I had the idea that I wanted to just grow my own tree and bring it in for the holidays. At first, my family was a little skeptical. Some people even made fun of my tree. Then a few years ago this tree looked to be not long for this world and I mentioned that maybe we should go back to getting a regular Christmas tree. Suddenly, my family was completely devoted to the tree and insisted we still use it. They’d fallen in love with the strange tree. And last year while we were homeschooling our youngest kid we opted for a unit on permaculture and started to use gray water on this tree. With the gray water, the tree made an incredible comeback. So here it is to live another Christmas — the little tree that could (now a quite big tree and very Seussian).

It’s not perfect, but everybody now seems to love this tree. Does anyone have a suggestion for a name for our tree?

Speaking of odd-looking yet environmentally conscious holiday decor, here’s the wreath I made at the Organic Gardening Club’s wreath making workshop. Thank you Oonagh and Heather for encouraging me to try something new! I was the slowest and most awkward wreath maker of the bunch, but I persisted! And this will def become a yearly event for me.

Climate Grief

Everyone I know — from the most liberal to the most conservative — is worried about climate change. We should be. This is the issue of our lifetime. I get it, though, that sometimes it feels hopeless. It is not. What I’ve learned by interviewing scientists and activists who work in the area is that the solution to climate grief is to do something — like what Anne is doing by volunteering. Right now for the first time in nine years I’m not driving an EV. Long story, but as a cost-cutting measure (we are footing the bill now for two tuitions) I’m using the Subaru that was sitting in the drive when my son scampered off to college. So I hate that I now burn gas, but I also still walk often and I proudly do things like insist my family drink from recycled jars.

Classico Pasta Sauce and Bonne Maman jam are the best because the jars are fab. I have many other things I do too, which I’m sure I’ll write about in future weeks.

Climate Writing

I recently wrote about a some great dad-vocates in LA’s Echo Park area who are trying to remake iconic Sunset Blvd to be safer and more bike friendly. If you missed my article in The Guardian, please check it out.

Earlier this year I wrote for Open Mind about how Big Oil hijacked the carbon calculator as a way to convince the public that climate change was totally our fault. I wasn’t the first person to report on this but I was the first one to track down people who worked on the original BP ad campaign. So that was cool. Read the story because it’s interesting and because the side bar is dedicated to clear tips on what you can do to help climate change (ok I’ll just give you a hint: it’s about pushing for big systemic change with our government and corporations while also doing what you can individually — probably not too shocking).

Merry Thriftmas

Oonagh, the fearless organizer of our Sunday hiking group, also organized a holiday exchange recently. We each had to bring a recycled or repurposed/thrifted gift in recycled wrapping. It was so much fun! Please steal this idea and have your very own Merry Thriftmas exchange.

Lastly…

Next week my editor pal Linda Lalande is going to do a tarot card reading for NSPers. We’ll discuss her Jungian training, why she likes tarot and so much more! I’ll post the video. Stay tuned.