Flower of the Week

Honeysuckle. Sweet, enchanting, sense-delighting honeysuckle: a delicious treat of the springtime. It's hardly possible to pass by these heavenly-scented bushes without instinctively closing your eyes and savoring the sweetness that it passes through the air. The next time you happen to be near some honeysuckle flowers, do yourself a favor and indulge in the pure joy of taking in one of nature's most amazing perfums.

The Story of Bottled Water

Annie Leonard breaks it down:

Spirits & Trash

Communities across the country, watch out! Because Pick Up America has commenced their glorious trek across our lands, and there are two things that are bound to be picked up if you just so happen to fall in their path: trash, and your spirits.

This group of brave, inspired people have taken on a journey to travel across the girth of the continental United States, gathering all of the disposable crap that passes through our lives daily and ends up discarded on the side of the road, usually within the confines of some precious ecosystem, or intruding upon some family's backyard. They are exploring and exposing the nature of American consumption, and striving to find the kind of solution that would persist in the mindset of society. Where the Pick Up Artists go, they promote the significance of our shared responsibility to the earth: stewardship of the land, and a necessary reflection on the lifestyles and habits that inflict toxic and unnatural results on our own bodies and lives, as well as on the environment. And where they go, they bring with them their vision, their tenacious commitment, and their unbound and completely enjoyable spirits.

I had the pleasure of walking with them, briefly, as they passed through Annapolis, MD. And hidden within what would seem in passing as a peaceful wooded spot nearby the local police station were layers and layers of caked, smelly, buried trash. It seemed to completely engulf the soil within which it had been implanted, and its general indistinctness from the road made me wonder how much more of my earth is tattered like this... probably more than I could bear to truly realize. Within just two hours of pickup work, we had collected an astounding (and disgusting) 286 pounds of trash, which the Pick Up Artists then left for the Highway Administration to round up.

So far they have traveled from the very Eastern shore of Maryland, across the Chesapeake Bay and into the Capitol of the State, and have collected over 10,000 pounds of trash. Along the way they have won the hearts of local communities, have inspired many folks around them, and have gathered immeasurable support in the form of warm meals and comfortable lodgings by volunteers who are more than willing to be a part of their experience, even briefly. After spending just a day amidst the joy and the tenacity of these amazing Pick Up Artists, I felt totally gratified and inspired. If everyone else they encounter along their journey feels a fraction of what I have, then perhaps this feeling of stewardship will persist beyond the tracks of Pick Up America, and into the mindsets and lifestyles of people all across the country.

To follow their journey, look here: pickupamerica.org

Flower of the Week

A lovely and abundant Bougainvillea vine, one of the many decorative marks of southern Sicily. A characteristic plant, it captures all of the color and richness of sicilian culture, proudly representing some of the very best of what the island has to offer: its picturesque flora. The Bougainvillea flower has a smell so sweet, and a depth of color so intense, that it is almost impossible to resist snipping off one or two as a gift for yourself (as I did... shamelessly). I carried the flowers in my hair, and for the rest of the day I was enchanted by their charms as they tickled my cheeks and delighted my nose. A true joy of a flower.

Got Food? Thank A Farmworker!

So this week just happens to be National Farmworker Awareness Week. And considering what little awareness we normally have in regard to those who provide us with our food, the attention that such a campaign should draw towards issues of farmworkers' rights seems necessary. Every day in the United States, farmworkers face grueling physical conditions, insufficient wages and a lower standard of living, all to perform one of the

simplest and most sacred tasks of humanity: to sow and to harvest the glorious fruits and vegetables that feed us all. Yet still, we take this precious work for granted too often. So this week, and every day, take some time to pay attention to where your food comes from, and try to consider the rights of the workers who provide that great gift to you.

factsheets provided by the NC Farmworkers Insitute

The Fracking Shale

The Catskill-Delaware Watershed, from which New York City gets its water supply, is made up of 1900 miles of fresh, clear water nestled within the Catskill mountain region of upstate New York. It delivers nearly 1.4 billion gallons of water every day to 9 million residents, and has been praised as being a part of one of the most efficient, high quality water systems in the country, delivering safe, clean drinking water to the city. It is also a part of one of the mostsustainably-run systems, as 95% of the water supply is delivered via gravity alone, and as the watershed itself is used as a natural filtration mechanism, saving New York the cost of building and maintaining excessive water filtration plants.

By investing over $600 million in the conservation and pollution-prevention efforts in and around the NYC Watershed, and by buying up some of the surrounding land, the city and state have safeguarded a precious resource by maintaining its purity at the source, rather than managing water filtration efforts farther down the line, and reducing the amount of added chemicals necessary for purification. New York city has always had clean drinking water: pure and simple.

Still, New York State has put this enormous economic investment, as well as the safety of New York City residents at risk for the sake of supplying contracts to energy companies who wish to use the Watershed for natural gas drilling- namely, hydraulic fracturing, a process which has proven to be disastrous for water supplies in countless regions around the country. Conveniently exempt from the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA), and protected with by trade secrets, companies such as Halliburton continue to receive permits to drill in and around what should be protected areas

The Chesapeake Energy Corp., which had received the first contract to drill on NYC Watershed land, has rescinded on its ambitions, bowing to public pressure and announcing publicly that they have no further plans to drill in the area. But many opponents to hydraulic fracturing believe that this action is not enough, that the compromising extraction technique should be completely banned within the confines of the watershed. Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer has spoken out in favor of a ban, citing that the company's decision not to drill is in no way legally binding, and that the Department of Environmental Conservation should discontinue its issuance of permits to any potential drillers in the area.

After all, the energy companies are gaga over an enormous subterranean supply of natural gas which extends far beyond the New York City watershed, and offers the opportunity for drilling elsewhere but next to our clean water supply. The Marcellus Shale is the geological mass in question, and it stretches from Ohio and West Virginia eastward to Pennsylvania and New York, and contains up to 516 trillion cubic feet of natural gas throughout its entirety. So, why the watershed?

After public outcry and calls for environmental review, the DEC released a document on the safety and regulation of hydraulic fracturing for natural gas and the wells associated with extraction, and extended the period for public comment to the end of 2009. Currently, the DEC is still considering the many arguments heard from these series of hearings, and will be making a decision about the watershed in the upcoming months. Seems like a no-brainer, doesn't it?

Below is a map, generated by the DEC, of the large scope of the Marcellus Shale in New York State, featuring several existing drill sites. Surely there must be some other drilling sites within this mammoth area that do not compromise drinking water supplies...

A Lesson in Creative Writing

...from one of my absolute heroes. An inspirational, intelligent, funny, and extremely sensitive soul, on the lessons of creativity and expression:

First rule: Do not use semicolons. They are transvestite hermaphrodites representing absolutely nothing. All they do is show you've been to college.

And I realize some of you may be having trouble deciding whether I am kidding or not. So from now on I will tell you when I'm kidding.

For instance, join the National Guard or the Marines and teach democracy. I'm kidding.

We are about to be attacked by al-Qaida. Wave flags if you have them. That always seems to scare them away. I'm kidding.

If you want to really hurt your parents, and you don't have the nerve to be gay, the least you can do is go into the arts. I'm not kidding. The arts are not a way to make a living. They are a very human way of making life more bearable. Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow, for heaven's sake. Sing in the shower. Dance to the radio. Tell stories. Write a poem to a friend, even a lousy poem. Do it as well as you possibly can. You will get an enormous reward. You will have created something.

~Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. From A Man Without A Country