I’ll be honest: Without cable, an I-Pad or I-Pod, second car, the latest toys, etc., buying most things second hand, growing and preserving our own food, working full-time as a teacher and picking up odd jobs, I still don’t make enough to live on. Without my husband’s disability check, we’d lose the house. But I believe in my work and we manage. Someone on Facebook posted, “Why is it easier to believe 150,000,000 million people are lazy rather than 400 people are greedy?” As the saying goes, evil triumphs when good people do nothing. Just look at Penn State.
Every spring, my family cleans the trash from the woods behind us. It’s worse now (in November) than I’ve even seen it. The poem I wrote about these woods, which was just released in the anthology What’s Nature Got to Do With Me? Staying Wildly Sane In a Mad World, is now covered with water bottles from the kids who play baseball there, beer cans and power drinks flooding into the dry river that goes through the trees, the path torn up by ATVs, evidence of fires, burnt spray cans, and a collection of huge rocks that looked almost sacred now covered in graffiti.
Water bottles. Only 23% get recycled each year. Many that are recycled only go on to become even cheaper plastics that cannot be reused. Cleaning up the problem is not the solution. Giving people the tools to do so might be. My family studies tae kwon do at Mastery Martial Arts. We love it there. Often, it is hard. We do it anyway, because we know we will be better for it. People were filling the waste baskets with water bottles. My husband and I brought in a huge recycling container, clearly labeled with the lesson of the month: Respect for the World. We take it home to recycle on our curb once or twice a week, as there’s no pick-up there. We even suggested Mastery make their own water bottle available along with all their other gear, and lo- it’s even in my favorite color, burnt orange. We bought two.
Now the greater problem: Why don’t businesses have recycling pick-up? I got an apology letter from the land fill about the stench of late. The site they’re using should have been closed 10 years ago, but people keep making trash. Burying it in soil (I can think of better uses for soil) and drilling wells are a short-term solution for the fact people and corporations produce too much trash. The 99% had to stop buying stuff, stuff in too much packaging, stuff that’s going to get used once, stuff made to break quickly so you go out to buy more stuff. We need to tell our representatives we don’t want a society that makes it hard to live green, and to live well.
I was frustrated with frequently being in situations where I was required to get something done and not given the tools to do it with. Sometimes people tell me, “I love what you do. I wish I had the time.” You need to make what you value a priority, or you don’t value it. I don’t spend every night cooking, but I make enough for reheating when I do. Once, pressed for time and starving, I even ate a processed frozen burrito (ick! my husband gets them) while spending the hour it took to make real food. Some of the changes we’ve made have actually saved us time. Switching to cloth napkins, buying or growing food without packaging, composting, and producing less trash overall, we only generate one brown paper bag of trash a week. Less time taking the trash out.
I still get frustrated I’m not making a difference with my changes, or by setting an example or offering this blog. Then after my art opening at First UU in Providence, I listened to Brother David Andrews, CSC, and a Senior Representative at Food and Water Watch, and learned of his and others’ role in stopping governments from having corporations control small farmers in poor countries, with efforts like taking to representatives and sending emails with 8000 other people. Then there was a speaker from Southside Community Land Trust (must get her name), now in it’s 30th year. She’s been involved with the organization 8 years. I just learned about them 3 years ago. Now there are 37 community gardens in Providence, and growing! It’s hard to see the long-term difference when you manage only your own garden and a school one, but there you are, a start. I see more school gardens, more victory gardens, more anti-corporation gardens. Start ordering those seeds. It can start with something that tiny.
Oh, and bounty hunters... A reward for every head captured and consumed. Broccoli heads, that is. The reward? Calcium, vitamin C, and fiber. Your kids should like this one too!
Reduced Fat and Sodium/Vegetarian Option
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Broccoli Bounty
Taste of America’s South
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4 cups fresh or frozen broccoli pieces, steamed
4 cups cooked rice or pasta
2 cups shredded cheese (local cheddar or Cabot's)
2 tbs. unsalted butter, divided
1 tbs. flour
1 cup reduced fat/low sodium chicken or vegetable broth
1 cup 1% local milk
1 tsp. paprika
1/2 tsp. each salt and pepper
1 tsp. Bell’s Seasoning
1/4 cup Panko flakes
This can be made in late summer with fresh broccoli or anytime with blanched and frozen broccoli. This dish is high in calcium, both from the dairy and broccoli, and a hit with kids. Steam broccoli until tender and cook rice. Melt 1 tbs. butter in sauce pan over medium heat. Whisk in flour and stir continuously one minute. Slowly pour in broth and milk, along with seasonings. Stir in broccoli,rice or pasta, and cheese, mixing well. Transfer to casserole dish. Sprinkle with Panko flakes and dot with remainder of butter. Bake at 350ºF for 30 minutes, until bubbly and golden.
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