Do Nothing

The true harvest of my daily life is somewhat as intangible and indescribable as the tints of morning and evening. It is a little stardust caught; a segment of a rainbow which I have clutched.” ~ Henry David Thoreau

We are a busy bunch these days. I don't know about you, but I spend a chunk of the day on the computer accessing an unlimited supply of information. Some days I am so overloaded that I think my brain has been rewired.

A while back I stumbled onto a website that challenged me to do nothing for two minutes. Ready for yet another computer diversion, I was game. I began listening to the soothing sounds while gazing at the tranquil image on the computer screen, then something very strange happened. At first, I settled into my chair, my breathing slowed and my gaze softened. After about 40 seconds, I got incredibly antsy and grabbed the computer mouse.

Two minutes - sounds so easy. Right? Check out Do Nothing For 2 Minutes, then please come back and share your thoughts.

Here are 5 Ways to Practice The Art of Doing Nothing.

Credit: Ben Scott

A Lesson We Can Learn From The Lorax (Again)

The Lorax, by Dr. Seuss has been the go-to environmental book for kids since it's publication in 1971. With Earth Day just around the corner, The Lorax will be read in schools and homes throughout the U.S. this month.

Let's refresh the events of this cautionary tale: The Once-ler devised devious ways of cutting down Truffula trees for the "biggering and biggering" of his manufacturing operation. The smogulous smoke that spewed into the air from his Thneed factory made the Lorax "cough, whiff, sneeze, snuffle, snarggle, sniffle, and croak." The beautiful Swomee swans were no longer able to sing, so the Lorax sends the birds away to find cleaner air. The Once-ler "biggered" to the point where he poisoned the Lorax's eco-lovin’ life with polluted water, polluted air, and left him in a sunless panorama of Truffula stumps. Poor Lorax.

Where We Were Before the Clean Air Act, when air pollution plagued the world, the ramifications of acid rain and smog were a blip on the radar of most folks. When awareness kicked in, and the ecological science began to mount, it became a priority to legislate for clean air. At the time, environmentalism was mostly a non-partisan issue, paving the way for the Clean Air Act.

Where We Are The EPA statistics indicate that since the Clean Air Act, the US has decreased toxic fume emissions by 109 million tons, which has reduced pollution and improved the air quality 48 per cent. This week the Senate voted down several pro-pollution amendments that would have decimated the Clean Air Act and kept the EPA from protecting the quality of our air and water. This is great news!

UNLESS… Do you know there is a pro-polluter lobby? It is unfathomable to me that such a thing exists. Didn’t everyone grow up heeding the Lorax's message that we are all interconnected, and collectively we need to take responsibility for the health of our planet and its inhabitants?

The Moms Clean Air Force is not willing to hand over a world to our kids like the one the Lorax left behind. We can't forget the importance of reorienting environmental values away from pure economic and political points of view, and towards common sense science. We can not relent, because the Once-ler-type bully polluters are figuring out ways of "biggering" and continuing to blow their smogulous smoke at our kids.

Muddy Comments

Here’s the first comment I read Monday morning on an article I wrote for Care2 titled, 10 Ways To Help Kids Cope With Japan:

“my god how stupid is this article? coping with what the tv says? are parents really this stupid that they need an article on how to explain natural disasters to their mentally ill children?” ~ Jay

No caps, just hateful spewing.

Hopefully by the time you read this, the next few commenters will clean up Jay’s vomit. That’s how it often works on blogs. Maybe they’ll be all over him, and the conversation will go humming back to normal. Maybe. Websites have the ability to deem the comment inappropriate and delete it. They haven’t. If it’s cleaned up, the post might continue to get hundreds of constructive and adoring comments. Yet, this one guy feels entitled to bring us into his revoltingly unsafe world.

After three years of blogging, I rarely get nasty comments. I don’t let these types of comments get to me anymore. They used to. Now I just wonder where these people come from, and why they even bother to comment?

I checked Jay’s profile. Here’s a shortened version: Age: 37 Lives in: Canada Causes: women's rights, violence against women, violence against children, pro-choice, environment, endangered species, civil rights, children welfare... About me: sweet, loving, silly, strange, cat owner, loyal, average intellect... What Bugs Me: unfriendly people, the destruction of rural areas, people who won’t use their minds!, people who rape, ignorance, cruelty, bullying… Passions: writing, nature, making a difference…

What a crock. I’m going to take back an earlier statement I made. This does bug me. While I might be stuck in the mud with writer’s dismay, I have a few questions for you: Do you think all of our advancement towards becoming a more global community through the Internet has made us any more tolerable of each other? Should I moderate comments here? I don’t (except for spam). Is it only a matter of time until these slugs find Econesting and muddy it up?

I’m closing my computer.

Photo: Juliet Harrison