Today is Earth Day

-


 The first Earth Day in 1970 was also the day I enrolled at the Art Students League so this is a big anniversary for me.

In 1970 we knew the earth was in trouble but did we have any idea how dire things would be by now? 

This painting by my neighbor, Stephen Hall, is titled 

"Toothpaste Cannot Go Back In The Tube"


"The Orangutan is holding up a toothpaste tube, not only as a piece of plastic garbage left by humanity but also as a metaphor for the irreparable damage we are inflicting on our world."

I identify and commiserate with the Orangutan but, because my mother always told me that it's better to light one candle than to curse the darkness, I have turned to this;


Can you read it?  it's a zero waste replacement for your toothpaste.  Can I hear an amen?
My dental floss now comes in  paper, not plastic.




I've also started washing my hair with cake shampoo and I can testify that it works just well as the stuff that comes in plastic bottles.  Next time we meet I'll show you how silky my hair is now.
There's more.
I've traded in Lubriderm with its throwaway bottles for Public Goods lotion--they send re-fills; that doesn't eliminate plastic entirely but it does cut it down.
And in the laundry room;

To replace gallon jugs of Clorox!

These are tiny steps, but every little bit does something and it's good to shop with awareness, and to form good habits.  I'll keep searching for solutions. I'm sure you're seeking solutions as well and I'd love to hear what you're finding.  Here are the companies I've found;

Public Goods https://www.publicgoods.com

HiveBrand http://hivebrands.com

Terra & Co

Yes, the work ahead of us is enormous. As the Talmud says;


The good news is,  we're not alone.  People all over the world are gathering to find ways to save the Earth.

Today at four o'clock in Central Park,


this will be a gathering of the following Faith groups and anyone else, including, I hope, YOU!

American Indian Community House
 Jewish Climate Action Network
NY Society for Ethical Culture American Buddhist Study Center
Fourth Universalist Society
Earth Care, First Presbyterian Church @ 12th St. 
Beloved Earth Community, Riverside Church Third Act
New York Friends (Quaker) in Unity with Nature

Sponsored by: Third Act Interfaith Group

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

I'm Keeping' on the Sunny Side

-
Image
 Good Morning!  I was thinking about posting a reprise of an old post about PINK, to keep the Barbie vibe going; I understand that in London they've painted all the red telephone booths pink and the great Ferris wheel has pink lights in honor of Her Plasticness but I had a better idea--you could say the Sun came up! You know I have a granddaughter named Sunny, right? I wanted to do a drawing for her and what else could I start with? The Sun and sunflowers--not very original but she's two and a half--to her everything's new and it's her name! Filling in the sky I see that it looks like the way I draw water, but that's OK.  I added Batchelor Buttons beneath the Sunflowers and I like the way the blue makes the yellow pop.  I'm not sure how to handle the transition from flowers to sky so I won't think about it.  Remember Mickey Rivers; "I don't worry about what I can control because if I can control it why worry?" And I'm in control! I used som
Read more

Oh, Russell

-
Image
 I have to teach Russell that when I say, "I just devoured that book!" I don't mean it literally. However, I must admit that he has a discerning eye, and has brought some forgotten favorites back to my attention, like this -- Art Nouveau  by Martin Battersley, from The Color Library of Art.     Here is Symbolist poet Robert de Montesquiou, an aristocrat and a dandy, the original of Proust's Baron de Charlus. I placed him with this Barbie because she has a Belle Epoque kind of vibe.  The painter is Giovanni Boldini 1842-1931. "He fascinated his sitters by his method of painting, gazing at them intently as though to draw out their inmost secrets and then attacking the canvas with long brushes held at arm's length. He transformed his sitters into almost impossibly seductive creatures striking languorous poses and suggested that the slightest movement would result in the beautifully painted silks, chiffons, lace and chinchilla falling off to reveal them in writhi
Read more

Summer Reading

-
Image
What are you Reading?  I love it when someone asks me that. The Times Book Review has a column that asks what's on your night table?  Does everybody read in bed?  If I have a good book I can't wait to say good-night. But as reading and writing has made me focus on language an abyss of bad grammar has opened before   me and I cry out in anguish. Will I ever become inured to hearing Ivy League graduates on NPR saying, "Him and Me are gonna..." and "Please reach out to John or I?" Terry Gross never corrects anyone's grammar and I respect  that,  it's not a good interviewing technique,  but where are the mothers and teachers?  How has it come to this? And another thing! The misplaced modifier!   In a biography of Willa Cather I read, "At the age of eight, school began to bore Willa."  Really? School was eight years old?  Miss Cather is rolling over in her grave.  And this, from Elle Decor; "As a young girl, her father affectionately nickna
Read more