The Bravest Woman I Know
In the Gaia Girls books, Gaia often says, “Be brave.”
Julia Butterfly Hill is the bravest woman I know. She tells it like it is. I think it is interesting how listening to this level of truth-telling makes even a greenie like me squirm. One-by-one, we will need to move away from our disposablility consciousness. Can you pick ONE THING you currently throw “away,” and make a new choice? I dare you. Pick ONE thing in your life that you currently throw “away,” and choose differently.
After all, how can we tackle the BIG problems if we are not even willing to tackle a little thing like using a paper cup?
This entry was posted on Saturday, July 10th, 2010 at 11:40 am and is filed under From the Author. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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Lee Welles-author says:
My small thing: Two doors down from my office is a rockin’ pizza place called, “Atlas Brick Oven Pizza.” Needless to say, when an author gets a little hungry, a slice of veggie-ladden ‘za really hits the spot!
However, they always hand it to me on a paper plate…sometimes in a paper sleeve.
My ONE THING is to take my OWN plate over each time. It seems small, but that one plate is a twig on a tree.
I like trees.
isquiesque says:
Excellent, Lee. Let us know how that goes. I take my own reusable container to the restaurants where I live and they really have trouble getting their brain around the concept. “But! Health codes require I use something that is clean! I don’t know that your container is clean! I must put it on this styrofoam, then you can put it in this allegedly clean but no doubt bacteria-laden container you’ve brought in!” I eventually get through to them, but it’s tricky sometimes, and when I can’t get through to them then I refuse to place the order, and go without, and they *really* can’t get their head around that one.
Anyway, you’ve challenged me to look for another thing, and, while I’ve talked the folks at the deli (a place I normally just go on the fly without much pre-planning) into putting my stuff into paper instead of plastic whenever possible, I think I should do two things. First off, the place has pretty unhealthy food. I struggle to resist it, but I love it. So maybe I should find a middle ground: I can have the unhealthy food, but only if I walk to get it, and only if I bring my own container. They’ll have to figure out how to weigh my food in a container, but they’re used to my tree-huggin’ non-farmed-meat eatin’ ways by now (I’ve inspired them to start carrying vegetarian items!), so it shouldn’t be too hard.
Thanks for posting this video, and for challenging me to cut out one more disposable thing.
Lee Welles-author says:
Your deli should be able to put your container on their scale and hit, “Tare” to re-zero it. I LOVED a local chicken parmesan sub. I recently switched to the eggplant. Wonder if I could convince them to buy local eggplant and charge more for it?
isquiesque says:
Yes, they should be able to zero out their scale once my container is on it, that’s true. Hopefully they won’t give me the whole ‘this isn’t sanitary’ argument.
My favorite (and forgive me if I’ve told you this story before, Lee) was at the Cup-a-Joe in the airport in Juneau, AK. I gave them my travel mug and asked then for an Americano. The woman looked at my mug, mulled it over, then told me she needed to use one of their paper cups. I said, ‘Okay, but only if you can pour the coffee into my cup and reuse the cup for the next person.” She said she couldn’t, so I told her I didn’t want the coffee. She said, “Well, I’m not sure your cup will fit in our machine.” “Sure it will, it’s the same cup I always carry when I travel and other people have taken it here.” She still looked unconvinced. I said, “Look, I carry this mug everywhere I go. It saves you money, and it keeps us from having to use one more paper cup that’ll just be thrown away.” She looked at me and said, “Oh. You’re one of the *those* people.” This gave me pause, but I replied with, “Yes. Yes, I suppose I am. Now, can I have my coffee, please?” She was able to fit my cup into the machine.
I love being one of those people, don’t you?
Lee Welles-author says:
Let’s hear it for being one of *those* people! I want a t-shirt that says, I’m one of *those* people!!
Yep, I’m one of those people who thinks the definition of insatinty is to create disposable items from non-renewable resources. It’s just math, after all.
I’m one of those people who considers others ahead of my personal convenience.
I’m one of those people who believes my grandchildren, and yours, deserve a planet that still functions.
I’m one of those people that is willing to ask, “Is this right?”
I’m one of those people. JOIN ME!
I love that story and hope you don’t mind if I use it in a lecture someday.
isquiesque says:
I’ll have one of those t-shirts, too… so long as it’s made somewhere reasonably nearby from organic cotton. ; )
Hey, you might enjoy this, too: http://isquiesque.livejournal.com/481030.html
isquiesque says:
Oh, and I don’t at all mind if you use that story. If it helps get a point across to a certain audience, by all means use it!
EarthTeaherb says:
yay for *those* people xD
Tessa_of_the_Sea says:
In regards to the “new choice” challenge, I’ve decided to start making art from food wrappers and can labels. Anything that I find on the counter that’s close to being thrown away, *BOOP!* onto the sculpture! Maybe I can post pictures later? Also, anything else not going onto the sculpture gets recycled