I'm Keeping' on the Sunny Side

 We have been enduring endless rain here in NYC but before the powers that be hear me whining let me take a moment to appreciate what the rains have brought.

The trees have burst into leaf. I don't have a favorite color because I love them all but Oh, Boy, that GREEN! It really lifts my spirits.  So I have to say I'm thankful for the rain.

As I give thanks for the rain and the green leaves I'm reminded that I also feel grief and fear about the state of the earth, in particular about the overwhelming flood of plastic in the landfill, the oceans and even in our own bodies.  How can I work to stem the flood?  How can I even start?  Well, here's one long story.

Arthur and I love fresh pineapple but I hate cutting up a whole pineapple. My supermarket sells pre-cut pineapple in a plastic container but I resist. If you can't bear the cross then you can't wear the crown and if you won't cut up the fruit, you don't deserve the sweetness. So thank you, Westside Market but I'll have to pass.

 I love my market, and it's on the same block as my gym so I can take care of several chores in one trip.  Lately they've remodeled the produce department and it's so appealing that I treat grocery shopping as an Artist Date. [this is a reference to Julia Cameron's iconic book, The Artist's Way and her suggestion that we take regular excursions to someplace beautiful and inspiring to fill up the creative well.]

I push my cart around gazing at the piles of deliciousness and abundance and feel grateful. It all looks especially appetizing because there's no plastic but look what they just came up with... 

Everything I need for dinner, all peeled and ready to throw into the pot. And pre-peeled garlic cloves!  

So tempting to a lazy cook! How can we resist?  I had to speak up about the plastic so I went to the manager who I have always found to be very nice and accommodating, and said, "that new display of vegetables is so beautiful, and it looks so delicious and convenient.  I wonder, is that compostable plastic?"

And she said, "I'm afraid not--I know, it's not good for the environment."

And I said, "Well, I'll keep on peeling my own garlic."

And she said, "It's really for the best."

That's my first step.  My next step is to write to the suits, the ones making decisions, and register my protest.  

And a next step is to address the root of it all by passing laws for; 

Extended Producer Responsibility

a globally recognized policy used as an effective tool to put the onus on the producers for efficient end of life waste management of plastic.  Another idea would be to rethink our ways of packaging everything we buy.  What was the thinking behind using an indestructible material just once and then throwing it away?  Because it was cheap? Now we're seeing what cheap actually looks like.

I've already had a chat with my City Councilman, Erik Bottcher and I'll reach out to the NY state legislature.

State Senator Todd Kaminsky sponsored Senate Bill S1185C to establish the Extended Producer Responsibility Act but id didn't seem to get out of committee.  You can imagine how hard the plastics industry will fight this but Maine, Colorado, Oregon and California have already enacted EPR. Sounds like good company to me.

Meanwhile, the work on my latest drawing proceeds slowly.

    Having a new puppy may have something to do with that. Lucy was so peaceful and ladylike in her later years that I quite forgot about puppy energy.  Puppy school starts on Saturday.