MUIR: Make Sure a Few Paths in Life Are DIRT
AND THAT YOU SEE SOME GREEN!
Instead of rose colored glasses, recent research suggests you wear green ones.
According to NPR this morning, people who have more GREEN in their life feel less pain.
Learn “Researchers Explore A Drug-Free Idea To Relieve Chronic Pain: Green Light” here. Read more…
Elves Target Single Use Plastic
Join Elves worldwide in targeting the single use plastic problem
Did you know just last week scientists revealed there could be a million times more plastic in the ocean than previously thought? And that scientists have found higher concentrations of microplastics in Arctic sea ice than the Great Pacific Garbage Patch?
Just like other parts of the world, Arctic birds and other critters fill their bellies with tiny particles of plastic. It’s not that they’re stupid — they’re just hungry and they think it’s food. Read more about it here.
That’s why we elves are joining Greenpeace in descending on Target’s headquarters. All this plastic pollution has to end, so I’ve traveled south to help Greenpeace put supermarkets’ and retailers’ feet to the fire when it comes to single-use plastic – starting with Target because Target cares about its public image – so every act of mischief adds up, my friends.
Target executives paid attention when Greenpeace activists delivered over 220,000 petition signatures against plastic last month. And I’ll bet the retail giant doesn’t want a bunch of wild holiday elves on the evening news.
If we keep it up, Target executives will smarten up and commit to phasing out single-use plastics at their stores. That starts a cascading wave of pressure on other big stores and brands to switch to reusable and packaging-free goods and gifts.
All we want for the holidays is a plastic free future — which means I’m no longer happy being Santa’s little helper, watching plastic packaging ruin the holiday season.
Now, I’m going to be Santa’s little protestor!
Santa, this mischief doesn’t happen without a movement behind it. That’s why I’m asking you and others to give now to power the Greenpeace movement, protect the North Pole, and help out all of Earth’s beautiful creatures.
I know it’s a busy time of the season so thank you Santa for understanding that I have to run now and get my protest on. Stay tuned for photos!
Love,
Your Greenpeace Elf
PS I’m cc’ing Greenpeace. I think there’s a lot more elves out there who might want to join up at Target stores across the country for a little protest action! Much more worthwhile for the world and our spirits than a spirited Santacon!
Or maybe do both? Why not make a Target store a Santacon stop and tell people about the perils of single use plastic?
NOTE: This article is modeled after an email from Greenpeace which has set its most ambitious December fundraising campaign ever to raise $1,031,000 by December 31st so they can scale up all their work like this project for people and the planet.
Greenpeace is NOT affiliated with Santacon and is NOT calling at this time for Santacons to go to Target or for Elves to go to their local stores. But that doesn’t mean we Elves can’t do what we want!!
Three Fall Conversations: A New Poem
Three Fall Conversations
by Gwendolyn Alley Read more…
Scott Struman, VC Students at EP Foster Library Th. Dec. 5
This Thursday, Dec. 5, at 730pm the Thursday night series in the EP Foster Library Topping Room (651 E. Main, Ventura) hosted by Phil Taggart features Scott Struman. During the open mic that follows, some of my Ventura College students and I will be there.
Learn more about Scott, hear some of his poems, and learning about his writing process by checking out the video above; a sample poem and short video are below..
“it’s ok for our hearts to be broken over the world,” says Joanna Macy. “What else is a heart for! There’s a great intelligence there. …Our earth is not a supply house and a sewer. It is our larger body. We breathe it. We taste it. We are it.”
What happens when we name problems, research solutions, and take action?
Sometimes in the process our hearts get broken.
And sometimes in the process our hearts get healed. Read more…
Words Have Power
Words. We all use them– inside and outside of our heads, on the page and off. Read more…
Understanding “The Mind of the Soil” — A Walk With Vincent Charlot in His Biodynamic Champagne Vineyards.
Near Mardeuil, France, biodynamic Champagne winemaker Vincent Charlot holds his most precious asset: healthy soil. To make the best champagne, Charlot says he must “understand the mind of the soil.” Biodynamic practices direct Charlot in how to listen and learn from the soil in his vineyards.
Because of intensive, widespread pesticide use, the region of Champagne may have the most polluted water in France — and the world. Charlot uses natural, organic remedies to build strength in the vines through the chalky soil. “When you have soil like this, the roots are deep,” says Charlot. “Just like a person — more balanced, less sick.”
As Charlot farms biodynamically, we safely smell and sample soils formed from marine fossils long ago. “When you taste the chalk, you can taste that the wine is born from the sea,” says Charlot. Like a sponge, chalk absorbs moisture releasing it by evapotranspiration to carry minerals from earth into grapes for flavor and texture in wine.
“When you drink the wine,” says Charlot, “you understand the soil.” If there’s more clay, there’s more fruit, more sensuality; the chalk soils have more tension. Few are invited to visit vineyards; I am fortunate to walk there with Charlot. In the US, Vincent Charlot’s biodynamic champagne ranges in price from $60-$110.
The Le Fruit de Ma Passion label represents how biodynamics integrate cycles. “When you work biodynamically, you work closely with the sun and the moon,” says Charlot. “But that’s really just the beginning of biodynamics. When you believe about the sun and the moon, the rest is more simple.”
See more pictures and read the complete article on Wine Predator.
In Beauty We Are United: On Sat. Nov. 16 Plant Trees at Hayden Preserve 9-12, Midtown Ventura Cleanup 2-4pm
In Beauty we are united,
through Beauty we pray,
with Beauty we conquer.
–Nicholas Roerich
In Beauty. Do Beauty. Be Beauty. Express your gratitude for the beauty of our planet this Saturday in Ventura by planting trees or helping clean up.
TREE PLANTING AND RESTORATION WORK AT HAYDEN PRESERVE
Based on Holocaust Diaries: “Ghetto” Opens Weds. at Ventura College
Holiday Mason 11/7, Ventura County’s First Youth Poet Laureate 11/8, Psalms of Cinder and Silt Release 11/9
Every Thursday, at the EP Foster Library in the Topping Room you’ll find featured poets and an open mic beginning at 7:30pm. The library is located at 651 E. Main Street in downtown Ventura (across from Winchester’s) and the host and curator is Ventura County’s Poet Laureate Phil Taggart.
This Thursday, the feature is Holaday Mason who I heard read as part of the Climate Crisis reading “All Fall Down.” Other upcoming readings are November 14 Sean McCoy, November 21 Michael C Ford, December 5 Scott Struman; my students and I will be there Dec. 5 with our class anthology.
Here’s a another sample poem from Holaday Mason called “Menopause”:
On Friday Nov. 8, all are welcome to attend the inauguration of Genesis Perez as the 2019-2020 Ventura County Youth Poet Laureate at 7pm in Guthrie Hall at Ventura College 4667 Telegraph Road in Ventura; a reception begins the event at 630pm. She will serve for one year as official poet and ambassador to the community for poetry.
According to a press release, “Genesis Perez has been published in Scuffed Diamonds, a collection of Ventura County Poets and Through Me, You Will See, a collection of Oxnard High School Poetry slammers. She won the 2019 Oxnard High School Poetry Slam. Perez is a poet of social conscience, dealing with sexual harassment, sexuality, grief, and the struggles of immigrants. She was a featured reader in Mexican Schools at Beyond Baroque in Venice, Los Angeles, and the Elite Theatre Company in Oxnard. Her poetry is a close and profound examination of the human condition. Genesis Perez is 18-years-old. She was born and raised in Ventura County. She is a freshman at California State University, Northridge, where she studies Marine Biology. She has been involved in the local theater community for many years and utilizes her stage experience to enhance the delivery of her poetry to audiences. She has described herself as a “total ham”. However, she is dedicated to advocacy through the Literary Arts.”
Psalms of Cinder and Silt is an outgrowth of a series of readings Phil Taggart organized at the museum the EP Foster Library and at other sites affected by the Thomas and Woolsey fires and the resulting mudslides. The anthology is published as a special edition of SOLO Novo by the generosity of Glenna Luschei.
According to organizers, “These voices in the anthology represent a vivid cross section of our community and its remarkable resilience; these poems bring the power of our stories to create connection in times of crisis.” While I am in the anthology, I am not sure whether I will be in town on Saturdau and able to participate in the reading. The anthology Psalms of Cinder and Silt will be available for purchase at the release party and may be purchased on Amazon.
art predator 