Un-Un-Cat links to episodes in order

 Un-Un-Cat stands for Unedited-Unapologetic-Catharsis.

Until I reach the end of the story, revise and edit the working draft, whittle it down from Un-Un-Cat to Un-Cat, -- all 2019 and 2020 episodes as-is are free to read. I.e. they are NOT behind the Medium pay-wall, yet except for one episode 9. tl;dr (too long; didn't read). Behind the Medium paywall since June 2020.

Why I am writing this climate change fiction prototyping political parody is what is most important at this time. 

Here are the links to the story episodes posted so far.

Episode 1. Not a chicken, Not an egg.

Episode 2, 'Hello, World' (live long and prosper)

Episode 3. The House That Uncle Jack Built 

Episode 4. Nothing to fear, food, and point of view

Episode 5. Lonely Dog from a galaxy far, far away learns how to make friends on the internet. 

Episode 6. — Dog never gives up hope for his people to one day become friends with the people of Earth.

Episode 7. Dog's Point Of View on How to Save the World. 

Episode 8. -- Farewell

Episode 9. tl;dr (too long; didn't read). Behind the Medium paywall since June 2020.

Un-Un-Cat Episode 10. Money, Politics, and Stuff.

Un-Un-Cat, Episode 11. Cat's Don't Understand Bad-guys.

Un-Un-Cat, Episode 12.-- Cat's don't understand romance. 

Un-Un-Cat, Episode 13. -- Ask The People What They Want

Un-Un-Cat, Episode 14.--Wake Up America! The Millennials are coming!! The Millennials are coming!!!

Un-Un-Cat, Episode 15. -- How a Cat became the HUMAN candidate.

Un-Un-Cat, Episode 16. -- Home is where the heart is.

Un-Un-Cat, Episode 17. -- A WARNING from an Asperger's Spectrum Point of View for the 2020 Primaries.

Un-Un-Cat, Episode 18. -- The Untimely Impeachment.

Un-Un-Cat, Episode 19. -- Poetic Justice a.k.a. Level Orange Catharsis. 

Un-Un-Cat, Episode 20. -- FORWARD!!!

Un-un-Cat, Episode 21. -- The White House Lawn.

Un-Un-Cat, Episode 22. -- Freedom and Integrity in Journalism.

Un-Un-Cat, Episode 23.-- Heal the Digital Divide for the Humans. Cat-Versus-Dog Way of Thinking. 

This is what I'm talking about in this episode with solar flares #quote... Solar eruptions can impact radio communications, electric power grids, navigation signals, and pose risks to spacecraft and astronauts.
This flare is classified as an X1.2 flare. X-class denotes the most intense flares, while the number provides more information about its strength.
https://science.nasa.gov/blogs/solar-cycle-25/2025/06/17/sun-releases-strong-flare-8/

Un-Un-Cat, Episode 24. — Housing as a Right. The H. in HUMAN.

Un-Un-Cat, Episode 25. — The U in HUMAN 

Un-Un-Cat — Episode 26. The M in HUMAN 

Un-Un-Cat — Episode 27. The A in HUMAN; ArtCoin365 economic stimulus for the arts.

Un-Un-Cat — Episode 28. The N in HUMAN; and what that means for America. 

Un-Un-Cat - Episode 29. Physical versus Fiscal

Un-Un-Cat - Episode 30. Year of the Fish. 

Why I posted 'The Year of the Fish'

Not spam, closure. I accept that I can’t change, really... anything, going on in the world, I’m just one more fool living in it. But, I can’t help but dream about a possible better time-line to reduce suffering. It’s just the way God made me. I escape into a fictional imaginary world. 

Yesterday, July 15th I posted what I felt like is the most important episode for mitigating climate change damage. It’s really about the impact of the oil age on the world’s oceans, and about people working together to save life on the planet, instead of being greedy, working their entire lives “away” for “profit”. What ever that is, an abstraction? The world, planet Earth and life, that’s real folks. Money, at least since fiat currency, is an abstraction, anyways… I digress. 

In my opinion, the oil age is realistically a hundred years from 1949 till 2049.

And our odds of the planet surviving, reducing suffering is greatly increased if we try to mitigate the damage, yesterday. And since we can’t do that, how about now?

------------------- P.s. at this date, July 2024, it doesn't seem that I'm ever going to "bounce back". Where was I in 2017? The 50+ (not telling how old I am) still middle-aged-ish Gen-X-er, is just working on keeping going, that's all.

While I know there are no excuses in this life, I have been asked by friends and family to give myself a break. In 2019 and 2020 I went through round three of cancer treatments and surgeries. It's just taking a little while longer for me to mentally bounce back to where I was in 2017 when I started the first draft of this project. The pathology report from 2020, unlike 2019, was good news, officially I'm cancer-free, just got a couple new holes in me and a few more scars for my "collection". In 2021 post treatment side-effects were so bad I thought I might have a brain tumor. MRI results from the last week in Sept, 2021 say all clear, as far as it can see, I'm losing my mind the old fashioned way.  

From April 4th, 2020 (the date the last episode was posted) till now-ish 2021. I've re-drafted and revised the next episode three times. Then couldn't convince myself to continue. An explanation for the long intermission will be posted when I get there, sorry for the delay.

Thanks for reading, ☮+💚🌎 Uva Be

how-to-save-the-world ~ draft 4

To recap, Expulsion posts with #drawfool #doodles posted here, from Dec. 2017 to April 2018. (see list). Then I began the work of setting up my pottery studio to make ceramic art. Did I mention I am a fool artist/writer? Anyways, after a while of scribbling, the fiction book has started to take shape. August 2018. Promises, promises, don't believe me, fine. Intentions pave the way to, you know. Blog posts of fiction story from out-line posting goal for episode 1, Jan 2019.

---

list of 50 daydreams

(links to full posts in order, as blogs scroll in reverse)

1. Revolution level passive energy redesign and upcycle of all buildings, home, business, storage, all construction from dog houses to skyscrapers.

2. BYOM (Bring your own mug) water bottle or thermos.

3. Eliminate the digital divide and simultaneously save millions off of print cost across the economy.

4. to-save-world -- end junk mail via the internet for every home and an official USPS current resident/local news, services and sales email.

5. Stop using use-once throw-away plastic bags.

6. Re-shippers -- Reusable mailers for all shipping companies to eliminate cardboard boxes, and paper (SASE) envelopes.

7. No more toxic chemical roof run-off - anywhere.

8. No more asphalt or cement parking lots.

9. People and living creatures first, automobile road design second.

10. Replace monoculture mown and trimmed grass lawns with native grasses and other low maintenance ground cover plants.

11. Plants, plants and more plants -- everywhere. Gardening is the number one hobby worldwide, everyone should have access to fresh fruit, vegetables and herbs.

12. Crowdsolving save-the-world with the collective intelligence.

13. Goats and sheep, lama, etc... in movable fences, to clear brush and trim landscaping near paths and roads, fertilize and aerate land - instead of herbicides, controlled burns, machines and chemical fertilizers.

14. Organic food by default should be - stickerless and crude oil packaging free and pesticide produced products should wear the warning labels.

15. Compost. -- Inspired by the giant rats I watched roam the streets in Portland in the 90s.

16. eating meat with lower cost to the planet than factory farmed pork or beef.

17. Life on the planet dead-serious how-to-save-the-world via our oceans and rivers -- sustainable harvesting of fish and shellfish in tandem with habitat restoration.

18. Improve the human diet by body type, age and physical activity levels - not about losing weight, but for a healthier people and planet.

19. Fibers, dyes and the production of cloth, all types, baby clothes to potting soil “bags” and boat tarps, weighed for environmental impact.

20. Plug-in electric vehicles connected to smart microgrids that run on solar & wind power to replace our crude-oil dependant system.

21. People power paths everywhere -- walking, bicycle, unicycle, wheelchair or skate etc.. - as alternative transportation to roads.

22. End plastic packaging. Stop all plastic use-once-throw-away-trash by designing it out of production.

23. Standardised refillables. For all types of products currently sold in throw-away plastic.

24. Water efficient redesign of all toilet and bathroom plumbing. Flush grey-water or better yet, don't poop and pee in water at all.

25. Solve money. How do we reach that Star Trek utopia where money isn’t?

1. Housing and buildings for small businesses (individual mortgages).
2. The arts, culture, and literature.
3. Postage, packages, and snail-mail.
4. Communication media.
5. Food.
6. Education.
7. Healthcare and medicine.
8. Transportation and shipping.
9. Industry and production for larger businesses.
10. And last Government (I break that one into three parts). A. Politics, B. the work of leadership and C. the military.


26. Oh yeah, I almost forgot. Social currency for the arts, culture and literature is daydream 26/50.

27. Remove money from politics.

28. Truth in journalism and news via peer and public review plus writing credits. Some issues balanced with the rights to publicity and privacy.

29. Drugs and illegal substance laws need to be reevaluated weighing the most current research on the physical harm to the individual health of the users and each specific substance socioeconomic damage and possible benefits to quality of life for populations.

30. Prison reform - the US has the highest documented* (China is not documented) incarceration rate in the world = big complicated problem.

31. Electronic medical records that belong to the patient for safer more accurate and efficient healthcare.

32. Recognise Physical Characteristic Discrimination of ourselves (like racism, misogyny, homophobia, and ageism all rolled into one).

33. The Right to Privacy and the Right to Publicity in the digital age.

34. Family medical history as preventive medicine: as recommended by US Human & Health Services - The Surgeon General's Family Health History Initiative.
 http://www.hhs.gov/familyhistory/

35. Crime preventions plus access to health care make the human race's most dreaded 'A' word a solvable problem.

36. Outdoor lighting -- all upcycled and replaced with solar-panel plus light-sensor lamps.

37. Copycat crime and blood guilt of the entire news media industry.

38. Clean-up how we clean ourselves, our homes and our workplaces.

39. An answer for the middle-class (about global economic leveling).

40. Ridding America of unnecessary paper trash, eliminate paper napkins/paper towels, etc... (Define necessary paper :) i.e. no milkshakes sans cup, etc…)

41. Stop planned obsolescence - and make accidental defective designs repairable.

42. Understand the limitations of the human lifespan and live for people who will be here long after we are gone.

43. Economics based on production/profit need to become a thing of the past.

44. Make sure to focus on yourself sometimes.

45. Upcycle the tradition of the Christmas tree to better suit the time we live in.

46. Protect and expand “parks” (p.s. Why do we have to keep calling these areas parks?) - National and state forests and wildlife refuges to tiny urban green spaces with one tree, a green roof or a bench planter at a corner bus stop.

47. Helping families and individuals die with dignity. Stop pain meds epidemic.

48. Birds, window glass birds can see, Window angles 20% away from the sky works, how about less? 7-10% tilt plus an awning to block the reflection of the sky that they dive into and die.

49. Meatless / machineless Mondays.

50. World Wednesday -- every Wednesday.

Looking for #drawfool doodles? more doodles are posted here, and here 2018 doodles and more doodles than...

9 #drawfool doodles for May 19, 2018.

Trade-in discouraged for angry and do something

#drawfool doodle for Feb. 21, 2018.

I had just finished this cartoon about how I imagine these scary liberal trolls, um... sort of like young fat Yoda with more eyebrows... When this really scary liberal troll started "yelling" at me and this other lady, apparently it was about his own traumatic childhood? But, to sum up the last line of his rant --- "that we could take our empathy and shove it up our asses,... along with 'hopes and prayers'". .... So? I think the word that set him off was empathy and the line that I feel stupid for adding was 'How do we care?' It was part of a pun about healthcare. As a cancer survivor since my 20s, Obama-care is a big deal at our house... anyhooo.

I was going to write something about how I am sometimes afraid that I behave like a 'liberal troll' and then this guy made me realize I'm not one. Once again, I'm a moderate. So the cartoon above, of the smiling troll who sincerely wants people to read more? Peace, love, justice and the pen is mightier than the sword. Facts, truth and 'The Golden Rule'. Well, these are also tools of the moderate, along with laws, amendments, and constitutions. All created for moderating and upheld via moderation. I'm a moderate troll! ... (that made me chuckle to myself) with a bit of a relief. That liberal troll couldn't have picked a better moment in time to go-off, and wake me up. "Thanks, troll," I say feeling empathy for him.

P.s. To the troll's point, about doing something. Yes. I agree -- The point is to do something and there are a lot of people just sitting on a cushion of empathy, if we don't move our lazy asses, it is inevitable that some of it will get shoved up there.

#drawfool doodle for Feb. 20, 2018.

House plants = carbon sequestration... even spider plants.

Pep talks and pleas for donations abound, I'm not very interested in either of those. Positive energy as ignorance for bliss, and throwing money as a solution for guilt absolution. Not too keen on those lies either. Recognising people all around me are taking action and figuring out how I can join in, even in little ways, day to day, is the best placement of my anger I've found so far.

In case you wondered, I don't have a spider plant. I have a few pots of aloe, and a tropical pine tree in a bucket as a year-round houseplant and stand-in for a cut Christmas tree. I also have some test patches of miniature clover. It turns out this far North in Washington state our climate is too harsh for mini-clover. Regular clover is dwarfed by the weather around my house. Interestingly my test patch of chamomile did better than the clover. So, I traded my bag of clover with someone further South, for a bigger hardier seed and plan to plant that as soon as the ground stops being crunchy. It's below freezing in February today. I also have collected quite a few wildflower seeds, they also get dwarfed around my house, but the plants are beautiful even when less than 1/4 of the size of the same plants in the garden the seeds came from. I write this not to brag, but to cheer myself up. Feb. cold is getting to me. The increased sunshine on clear sunny days is very helpful, but not a single flower sprout tells me it's not spring yet. I'll go take a walk, get some fresh air and look again. More than gardening, I am looking forward to my art studio thawing out.

Profound conclusions? Nope. ... well okay if you read this far I should give up something. I woke up and searched for evidence to indicate if people are interested in climate change. I didn't look at surveys. Only 12 to 13% of people feel compelled to fill out surveys. I didn't look at polls or worse, data collected by the lamestream news media. The statistics on polls are in, and scientists calculated that big money has tainted public opinion on the topic of climate change by 21 to 37% percent against believing humans and the GHG (greenhouse gases) we generate are contributing to global warming. Yes, dear brainwashed masses, on average it's a fact, world temperatures measured all year, all and around the world and then totaled together into an average, it is global warming, not climate change. Even in the lower 48, USA.

Thanks, Obama era EPA to 2016, for the data.

Okay, where was I? Oh yeah. Don't get discouraged, get angry and do something. We all did this together, and it's gonna take all of us, in every wedge of possibility. Each person, doing little things, here and there, every day to keep the planet survivable for all living things, including humans of course. ...yep. I said, yep because I bore myself. Don't even know how many times I've had this cycle of recursive thought. Okay, enough expulsion for today, back to doing stuff I go.

alternate reality daydreams

Jan. 29, 2018.

Idea number 6. Re-shippers

Reusable mailers for all shipping companies to eliminate cardboard boxes, tubes, and paper (SASE) envelopes. Shippers belong to and automatically return to the nearest sender location, USPS, UPS, FedEx, Amazon, Mac, whomever. "Rent" of shipper included in postage/shipping cost. Especially for high-cost goods like laptop computers, the reusable shipping containers will easily pay for themselves after a specific number of trips from warehouse to homes and businesses.

Plastic last “forever” why not use it for a durable product that could be easily cleaned of road grime etc… The chips-stickers we now use only once could be installed in the box and another reader-sticker could be placed on the address strap that seals the shipper. A record of the distance traveled by each shipper and weight at scanning could be both fun to see how many miles/kilometers and how many trips each re-shipper travels before it gets worn-in to a state that requires it to be up-cycled.

The cardboard we now use for shipping boxes could be better used for packaging of perishable goods, like milk cartons or ice-cream tubs etc… Because cardboard is compostable or burnable. Plastic is not.

If you wonder what these plastic crates might look like, the USPS and other companies that handle bulk sorting of mail/packages. Use tubs in mail centers all over the world right now. But, I bet everything I ever wanted and don’t have that there are a few hundred designers out there twiddling their thumbs that would be entertained for several lifetimes by designing the most efficient reusable shipper for all types of products, and I also bet some of them are already designed right now, just waiting for the world to realize they need them.

I'm just going down my list 6/50 posted on this blog so far this year, 2018.


I know this doodle/draw fool for, Jan. 30, 2018 is a completely unrealistic green roof urban landscape - it's my daydream, let me lose my mind and find peace there.

Idea number 7. No more toxic roof chemical runoff -- anywhere. 

Green roofs, solar panels and roofing gutters and drain pipe materials proven to have a positive interaction with stormwater (i.e. More base, less acid). Okay, before I get lost in the ph changes happening in the world’s oceans and the depletion of groundwater. I beg for forgiveness because this, replacing roofs is not cheap, this is a multi-billion dollar problem. Many banks will not finance solar panels, even on new construction, and green roof design requires structural design not just for the extra weight, but to safely get people up there and enjoy their new spot of green space. People aren’t motivated to install a cash cow they can’t enjoy. But, imagine it. Be crazy with me. Imagine all those miles and miles of flat rooftop houses in the Bay Area of California. People tending their grey-water-filtering-roof-edge-garden-boxes. A small pretty tree with a circular bench next to a rooftop greenhouse and miles and miles of solar panels slowly tilting to follow the sun.

I thought this daydream every day when I walked the streets of Inner Sunset San Francisco or rode the trains and stared out the window at all the houses and shops going by. I knew the reason people didn’t do it, couldn’t do a green roof/rooftop living area, was money. But, SF is the second densest population in the US after New Jersey. I know people wanted that green space away from the street.

The roof has three vectors of climate impact. The first is chemical runoff in water. The second is soaking up heat and radiating it back. The third is our buildings are taking up space on the planet that used to be part of the ecosystem. We can’t give our cities back unless we lived in subterranean dwellings with a forest or a prairie growing on top. But, we can reduce our impact, maybe even grow some wildflowers for everyone, including the bees.

P.s. in case you think I just make this crap up. Runoff chemical leaching from roofing materials has been studied for decades and they are working to improve what we install on top of our buildings.

Here's a couple images from a study done by Washington State Department of Ecology.

Speaking of toxic chemical run-off and pollution caused by cement kilns.

Doodle for Jan. 31, 2018.

Daydream number 8. No more asphalt or cement parking lots.

From city corners to small town strip-malls, wouldn’t it be great if all those square mile, after who know how many million square miles of parking lots and parking spots, were converted to flexible public green spaces with EV (electric vehicle) charging! Actual parks on the roofs at the top with planter boxes and benches to pause and take breaks or eat lunch outside sheltered from sun and rain under solar-panel roofs, tilted to collect both rain and sunshine.

In front of stores, no more curbs, I hate curbs. Instead bench-high planter-boxes on the expanded sidewalk where the parking spots used to line the streets, making extra room for carts and perhaps a seating area or two for people waiting.

Of course, pick-up/drop off spots near the entrances would be nice with handicap only parking. Everybody else uses public transit or parks in the towers.

Number nine continues where this daydream leaves the parking spot.

Daydream number 9/50. People and living creatures first, automobile second road design.

All paved roads for slower traffic under 35 miles per hour, could be designed to breathe. Light in color in most climate areas, dark only in extreme polar roads that are heated to keep them clear of ice. Roads made of pearled glass (i.e. big grains of sand) native gravel and recycled plastic (i.e. No tar, no asphalt, no cement). The entire road surface has tire groves, drainage and is designed to prevent road kills.

When a sidewalk runs along a road or crosses it, pedestrian and bike paths are separated from the tire grooves. The median has markers for self-driving cars to keep traffic in the grooves.

Around schools and urban shopping hubs, the entire drop off/pick-up areas could be textured brick/cobblestone-like a speed bumpity bump. Automatic photograph tickets of anybody speeding past children and school buses or shoppers. City center areas should be pedestrian first, automobile-second ergonomic designed safer for people than cars a.k.a. pedestrian-first spaces, with underground mass transit to parking structure hubs and burgs.

The fast roads are all underground. It doesn’t even have to be deep, it could be a tube with the top at the surface where the highway used to be. Or a tube under a city.

P.s. Fast highway tubes under cities is not my idea. Do a search for Elon Musk underground LA, tube highway designs.

I did doodle something today, but I decided to start mixing things up. This mutant gnome is a stand-in for today's #drawfool P.s. Yes, it has 8 limbs/tentacles 5 feet, two arms and a tail. Feb. 1, 2018.

I spent all morning and afternoon outlining a 5 book science fiction series that keeps burbling up in my dreams, again. No joke, the first book I started when I was 16, it's somewhere around draft 5 progress wise, tho only 3/4 written and printed out double-spaced for editing notes, in two boxes (one box with notes from a beta reader). Then a prequel happened, a novella or short book via various dreams I kept scribbling on in-between other projects in 2015. It's also mostly drafted. I have decided that if I'm going to embark on another novel series, this time it's going to be completely outlined with storyboards and maps before I get lost in the details.

Comically bad #drawfool doodle for Feb. 2, 2018. 

I wrote this idea out as a joke in a blog post last year, in 2016.


Here’s a link if you would like to read that post.

The next paragraph is a synopsis if you would rather skim the gist. Bellow the gist is my opinion of grass.

10. Replace monoculture mown and trimmed grass lawns with native grasses and other low maintenance ground cover plants.

Save water and end lawn mowing machine noise, weed whacking, edge trimming and mowing machine fuel/energy consumption and cease fertilizer/pesticide/weed killer related runoff pollution of surrounding water systems, i.e. lakes, creeks, rivers, oceans etc... Restore native habitat for birds, bees, frogs, toads, moles, field mice, and insects. Only, athletic areas for playing sports should be maintained by mowing: soccer/football fields, golf courses, baseball diamonds and other athletic fields used by many people.


As for me? I love grass. But, just like cut flowers. I love grass uncut, wild, gently changing color over the seasons, pale green and light purple, yellow, straw white, brown peeking out of the snow, the green tips of sprouting bulbs, the round or interesting pattern forbs, plant like clover that nitrogen fix the soil, and are the preferred diet of grazing sheep. Then the grass, all types, grows tall and blooms. There are more species of grass than any other type of plants on Earth. Each grass has its own grain or seed pattern. Some grow along the stem, some cluster at the top like wild oats or those tall fluffs of Pampas grass that grow all along the California coast, or the native bamboo grass, red and green that grow in South Carolina swamps. Bluegrass the plant is in its own life as musical as Bluegrass the music. As long as no one cuts it. Tallgrass dances in the rain and the wind. One of my childhood memories is wandering through a field in Oklahoma that once was prairie, following a turtle to a cattle watering hole. Real prairie is not as dense as the bounce of the tundra of Alaska. When we went to a wildlife refuge, real prairie is lumpy and uneven, several layers of grass and plants matted but it is beautiful. Like a painting, endless texture and patterns to follow. We can’t easily replicate prairie in the grass areas of our yards. Our yards are not vast enough, and there are too many plants all woven together. But, if we each learned to “paint” with a mix of a few native plants, starting around our own homes, we would change the world.

I continue this thought on my leisurely Saturday, Feb. 3, 2018.

Daydream 11/50. Plants, plants and more plants -- everywhere.

#doodle #drawfool for Feb. 3, 2018.

Gardening is the number one hobby worldwide, everyone should have access to fresh fruit, vegetables and herbs. From urban hydroponics and gardening field trips to rural gardening clubs. This is happening more, in recent years. We just need to step it up, get creative. Every sunny wall should be a green wall. All courtyards should be full of plants, carefully planted, for where the plants would be happy. Office plants should be succulents and non-smelly or non-blooming plants that clean the air and don’t add pollen or allergens to the air. Alternatively grow fragile or perishable salad & herb foods in rooftop greenhouses and humidity controlled window boxes. Neighborhood gardens should be available for local populations everywhere, just like city parks and playgrounds are now. You have to get your team on the schedule for little league. Or your gardening group has an area in the dirt and a shift of yearly gardening work. Not like communism but social. Are you unemployed? This gardening group could use some help harvesting or weeding or planting spouting beds etc… You put in some hours per week and earn a basic income by helping improve everyone’s quality of life. Yeah, I said, it "basic income". There is a ton of work that needs to be done and the US has a big enough GDP to spread "it" around. Work is the opposite of the stagnation of amassed hoarded profits. Technically, no one should be unemployed or homeless and gardening work and plant care is a great place to start improving the quality of life.

Sunday, Feb. 4, 2018. I am resting and meditating on "things".

The spaces between my daydreams and my reality is an abyss of depression, full of holes/bubbles bursting or defuse with half-way solutions. An answer to one problem creating 11 or 12 more complications or at least one step forward half a step back, over and over, every day. Many of the ideals I imagine and weigh are like the road to hell, paved with good intentions. But, the source of that proverb or aphorism may be a duel between two Popes in 1150. Maybe the Serenity prayer by the American theologian Reinhold Niebuhr, 1951 is more fitting.

God, give me the grace to accept with serenity
the things that cannot be changed,
Courage to change the things
which should be changed,
and the Wisdom to distinguish one from the other.
Living one day at a time,
Enjoying one moment at a time,
Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace,
Taking, as Jesus did,
This sinful world as it is,
Not as I would have it,
Trusting that You will make all things right,
If I surrender to Your will,
So that I may be reasonably happy in this life,
And supremely happy with You forever in the next.
Amen.


It's very nice, but I'm no Evangelical either. I think my "religion" may be art and my philosophy may be fiction, so much so that to me Serenity is the name of a spacecraft in the TV show Firefly. Even the prayer copy and pasted above, came to mind from a few lines repeated in TV show we just binge-watched.

Guilt is no motivation but in the time we live in, as the artist, Douglas Coupland Quote/art "Knowing everything turns out to be slightly boring." IMO isn't ignoring everything and expecting things to change also quite tedious?

Two continent wide lawn mowing ban

The Americas: North America, Canada and South America unanimously agreed yesterday to cease the practice of mowing private and public lawns for non-sporting use. Only, soccer/football fields, golf courses, baseball diamonds and other athletic grass fields will be maintained by mowing, effective immediately.

Native Georgia grass, planted in Atlanta, USA along the 'belt-line' walk/bike path.

It was a trifecta of reasons: water, pollution and habitat, but all from the same source, climate change. “Stopping lawn mowing is one way we could take a bite out of climate change, without adding any expensive infrastructure.” A spokesperson from the American committee to protect vital pollinators, cheerfully reported.

Removing lawns from the equation saves water, especially those lawns grown in climate areas that require a sprinkler system to grow and stay green. 

2. Pollution. If we all stop lawn mowing (and machine-powered weed-whacking, leaf blowing and edging etc...), it cuts an unnecessary use of non-renewable energy i.e. gas and electricity (plus batteries), fertilizers and weed killers that leach into our soil and water systems and lastly, stopping use of lawn maintenance machines cuts one of the main sources of neighborhood noise pollution. 

3. Habitat. Grass as a mono-culture is not a good base for disappearing natural habitat for bees, native plants, birds and all creatures above and below the topsoil. Lawns as they are being used now, as some sort of machine maintained outside carpet, simply do not belong in nature.” Imagine instead of lawns, small yard shaped fields of wildflowers, clover or native climate region appropriate ground cover plants. 

Flowers next to a sidewalk in San Francisco, CA

This is a vital first step, and we are hopeful that other countries will follow the Americas example, replacing mowed lawns with native plants, ground cover, and gardens.  

P.S. Leaf blowers were last month. If you still own a leaf blower turn it in, to a machine up-cycling location near you.