Wednesday, April 26, 2017

The Earth is Mad

On April 22 the world marked Earth Day. Most of us did something to show that we care that the earth is in trouble. We may feel that our actions are of little consequence, but if everyone did something, the results could be significant. 

Earth Day had a modest beginning in 1970 when U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson from Wisconsin invited students to implement projects to sensitize their communities to the needs of the environment. Since then, the warnings from scientists have become more dire as our actions have brought us closer to a point of irreversibility. But there is reason to be optimistic because we are changing our ways and becoming more engaged in our efforts to heal the earth. I can certainly see that in my grandchildren. Being green is now second nature to them.

However, when you make that comment to older folks, they are proud to point out that they were green before it became a fashionable modern-day virtue. I remember that my mother who sewed a lot of our clothes kept all the remnants and when there was enough she would braid them and make beautiful rugs displaying an array of gorgeous colors. Braided rugs are still available of course, but they are now made by machine and the yarns dyed to make symmetric patterns. I don’t think they have the same soul!

In the old days, little was thrown away. However, with after-war posterity life changed. Like most of you, I remember a time when cars were long and pink and gas was selling for about 35 cents a gallon. So we fell in love with automobiles not thinking about their growing impact on the air we breathe. Fortunately, we are getting back to basics after decades of spending our resources without much thought to how it was affecting the environment, but a lot remains to be done. 

Each of us should get involved in “greening” our world beyond the weekly recycling of household trash. We should be involved in our respective communities and putting pressure on decision makers so that economic development does not come before environmental protection. There certainly is no doubt that climate change is now a reality. Floods, hurricanes, drought and earthquakes seem to be the norm everywhere. We’ve always had those, of course, but now it seems that they occur more often because the earth is rebelling, or as my grandson puts it: “The earth is mad?”

The earth is not only mad, it is fuming. We have abused it and it is rebelling and telling us to clean up our act. Yet there are still people who believe the whole climate change is just a sham made up by scientists. But what is most upsetting to me is that some elected officials are rolling back ecological standards. Everyone should be up in arms about this and let it be known that voters are ready to rebel to save our poor planet. 

People like my grandmother and my mother did so much for the earth as a matter of course. Nature was respected and little was thrown away. For those who lived through the Great Depression reusing and recycling was second nature. Clothing was mended and hung on a line outside to dry, appliances repaired, not discarded like they are today in our throw-away society. Families had one car, not two. How things have changed! We may have a better lifestyle overall but at a cost.

It seems to me that if everyone was an environmentalist and did their share, the world could be a better place for our grandchildren who may have to pay a high price if we continue to ignore the earth’s message. If we don’t, I fear that the earth will remain “mad” and the future may indeed be bleak for them. Every day should Earth Day.

 

 

Wednesday, April 19, 2017

Faces

We see many faces as we go about the business of living. The faces of those near and dear to us could never be forgotten. The same goes for the people we deal with on a more or less regular basis like doctors, dentists, and so on. My dentist works behind a mask that looks like the lower half of a cartoon cat’s face. Not easy to forget.

But every day we see the faces of people we recognize but whose names we don’t know. The cashier at the grocery store who always greets you with a smile, the bank employee who goes out of his way to make certain all your questions are answered. In their environment, we have no problem figuring who they are. However, if we see these people outside their work place, it may take a second or two to figure out who they are. They are after all nameless faces

When I worked full time, I commuted downtown by train. I always rode the same train in the morning and in the evening. Not being a morning person, I was often late and I would rush to make it to the station before the train. The engineer would wave at me as I ran through the open space behind the houses in our neighborhood and he slowed down so I could make it to the station. In the evening, as I walked back home, he would briefly use the train’s whistle as he waved at me. This went on for a number of years.

One day, I went home at noon for some reason. As I was making my way through the downtown station to catch the midday train, I saw a man walking towards me, a smile on his face. I knew I knew the face, but for a second or two I could not place it. Then it dawned on me. I said: “I’m sorry. I didn’t recognize you without your train.” He laughed for a long time. After that, he seemed to laugh again as he waved from the train, no doubt my inane remark still echoing. 

 

Wednesday, April 12, 2017

New Worries
It seems to me there’s always something new to worry about. Not so long ago, we were told that talking on a cellular phone, i,e. with the unit close to the face for any length of time, could cause brain tumors. That could be the reason texting seems to have become the preferred mean of communication, especially among the young. People who use cell phones all the time in their work solved the problem with one of the hands-off options.
            So, while we may have thought we were out of danger, we are not according to the latest research. In Berkley, California, the bedrock of change—that community was the first to ban smoking in restaurants, for examplecomes a warning about carrying cell phones close to the skin. By doing so we could be putting ourselves at risk of being exposed to level of radiation above what has been determined to be the safe.
            So, what is the solution? According to those who studied the problem, we should be carrying cell phones at least 5/8 of an inch, or 15 mm, away from the body. So, not in a shirt or pants pocket or in a bra as some women do.
            It seems most things we do in this world have a negative side of some sort, so having to be careful how we handle mobile phones is not an exception, rather something to keep in mind. It’s only a matter of paying attention to warnings. Just like when a doctor warns a patient not to mix some medication with alcohol, we have to get used to the fact that new means of communication also come with caveats.
            One of them is certainly that we should make certain that mobile units do not end up in the washing machine along with clothing!

Wednesday, April 5, 2017

Brain Health – 2.0
To follow my musings of last week, there is another thing that we may be forgetting as the years go by: writing long hand.
            I received a note from a relative in the mail recently. A very nice gesture to be sure, but I had trouble understanding what was written. The letters were not properly formedcertainly not like the round letters we all practiced in the first gradebut I did eventually make out the message.
            I found it sort of sad that my relative has lost the beautiful penmanship for which she was famous. This is an intelligent person in her forties who has no health issues, but because of her work she is on a computer for hours at a time. Perhaps she was rushed when she wrote the note, but I think it’s more than that. Like many people today, there is no need for her to write long hand. After all, we have e-mail and all the other media for communicating electronically. So we are no longer practicing writing on a regular basis.
            After I got the note, I began to ask around to see if people had given up writing by hand. All those I talked to said there was no need to do so. They said they don’t even write notes inside Christmas or birthday cards anymore because they send e-cards.
            I wonder if the fact that I find it sad that people are no longer writing by hand makes me an old bird stuck in the past? I don’t think so. There is something so wonderfully personal when someone takes the time to write a letter by hand, instead of typing it, don’t you think?
            One of my sons acknowledges that he has very bad penmanship. Always did, it seems, so when I asked him if he ever writes by hand, he said that he no longer does. Not even short notes. “I want people to understand what I have to say!”
            Things are a changin’ as the saying goes. Perhaps wemeaning Ineed to concentrate more on the benefits of our new age rather than bemoaning what is being lost. At least, I will try!