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| #drawfool doodle for April 2, 2018. |
Daydream 45/50. Upcycle the tradition of the Christmas tree to better suit the time we live in.
Instead of cutting down a young tree, shipping it hundreds sometimes 1,000s of miles and then when the holiday season is over, throwing this tree out on the street to be hauled away when it's dead: we should select a live native tree, or a tree appropriate for the climate region where our home is.
A Georgia pine in GA, Douglas fir in Washington State, Cedar or Juniper in Oregon, Pineapple for Hawaii, South Carolina or Florida (they are pretty and in the evergreen family). Something watered with grey-water close to the house for desert country like some areas of AZ, Nevada, CA etc...- Whatever kind of tree or plant that would be festive for the holiday season to be decorated lightly and kept happy inside or decorated where it can be seen from the window in a courtyard, deck or on the porch.
A living plant enjoyed during the holiday to be planted as a celebration of the new year. The mentality where trees and the Earth seemed unlimited caused complete deforestation of many areas of our little planet, and this type of thinking has to stop.
This is a daydream for everyone, not just folks who live in the country. Plan and adjust to scale for densely populated urban homes & apartments. State & National Parks and Recreation, in cooperation with DOT, the Arbor Day Foundation, Nature Conservancy etc… Landscape planners and biologists. Selected areas should work with cities for the many, little nursery trees from apartment tables, planning areas in advance for reforestation. Prepare the ground if the soil has been damaged in an area, if the ground will be frozen during January, the holes could even be dug in advance, in the fall, spaced safely for everyone's benefit, to plant the new trees after New Years.
I am trying not to be complicated or lost in the details about fragile and slow growing cacti or not-really-trees pineapple, or the soft drooping branches of tropical island pine, whatever. The best planting time or area for each particular type of tree or plant is a lot of wonderful knowledge to share and learn.
The point is for everyone to participate, and share in the replanted areas as a celebration for the future.
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| #drawfool doodle for April 3, 2018. |
No yelling from a "soapbox" -- a conversation.
Writing this list of 50 daydreams out in blog posts, inevitably I find myself talking with folks about many topics. I have gotten the reaction of "Don't say anything about *that* to so-and-so, they will go off"
Therefore I am feeling the need to be clear. I am not perfect myself and it is not my intention to guilt others with these 50 ways-to-save-the-world. The daydreams are just that, dreams, wishes and ideas for a conversation.
Dialogue with others to perfect these daydreams rather than have them bark, rattle and squawk alone in my own brain is the goal.
When conversation happens we can know we are all suffering together. We are all searching for purpose, for meaning. We put a lot of labels on all these things, both the suffering and that which we attempt to hold up as having value. Labels peel away and change. Generations happen. Time erodes everything living down to a core of mineralized bone, the texture of flower petals pressed into mud that becomes stone. The will of all living thing on this planet striving every day and night to survive needs whatever humans are to recognize it. If carelessness and greed can destroy the fabric of the world, maybe awareness and seeking meaning can save everything.
Dare I say love? I love people, at a safe distance, as long as they are not bothering me. That is what I mean by no "soap-box", not yelling or lecturing. Expulsion of a fool.
I have skipped ahead from daydream 45 to 50 because I am going over the entire list, sorting by subject to figure out how to divide up the last four topics.
If we truly want to be good stewards of the world, then Earth-day should be something we participate in every week. Once a year Earth-day is not enough to get the job done. Everyone could pick a project and focus on healing our environment every Wednesday.
At first, it would be easy to find tasks that need doing. Examples: Volunteers every Wednesday to help clean up trash from parks and roadsides. Pick any water near you. There is over 100 million tons of plastic trash floating in the Pacific, pick a beach. If you are not near an ocean many ponds and lakes are polluted, or choked with weeds and bacteria fed by chemical fertilizers and sewer overflow from outdated drain systems that need to be rebuilt or repaired. Everyone is educated about the flow of their wastewater and all the lakes and ponds near you are pristine? Then there are countless streams to unbury or repair.
If many people participated weekly over time we will need to get creative and work together in neighborhood groups. Plan passive energy additions to buildings. Improve water & air quality by cleaning filters and improving local grey-water systems, in our homes and businesses. All our buildings efficient and off the grid?
Then researching invasive species is a giant topic that all hands onboard planet-wide would help greatly to heal. Just a few examples in the US: Ivy, Scotch Bloom and Himalayan blackberry briers in the NorthWest, Kudzu, Chinese Privet in the South and East. From small lots to large plots of forest land, and swamps, both park-land and private can be choked by invading plants or escaped pet snakes Pythons and anacondas to catch. Miles and miles of habitat to repair in every state in the US.
https://www.invasivespeciesinfo.gov
Once the entire world is cleaned up then we could keep going with world Wednesdays by gardening or taking care of plants on Wednesday. Or we could plan to work at home and not drive anywhere. Walking Wednesday. :) But, we can worry about that daydream when we get there.
If you find yourself wondering about my "optimism" this list of daydreams is for fiction. After having posted fiction on my blog in years past I'm debating with myself about how much more to post here. I am unsure how to best navigate the gap between blog writer to book author. I will finish this list, and do my #drawfool doodle in 2018. Past that, time will tell here's a link to whatever happens next.
Three times makes a pattern, and Blogger has now done this thing where I post something and then return the next day to find yesterdays post gone. The images are still in the 'images from this blog' file, and I have been taking a screenshot and using that image with a little bit of blog post text to share a link on social media, so I know I did save the post. I.e. it's not user error. So, I am guessing that I have used up my quota of server space, and it's past time for me to move to another blog.
Again, I will finish this project of 50 daydreams and post a link when I get there.
Thanks for reading. ☮+💚 @Uva_Be
When conversation happens we can know we are all suffering together. We are all searching for purpose, for meaning. We put a lot of labels on all these things, both the suffering and that which we attempt to hold up as having value. Labels peel away and change. Generations happen. Time erodes everything living down to a core of mineralized bone, the texture of flower petals pressed into mud that becomes stone. The will of all living thing on this planet striving every day and night to survive needs whatever humans are to recognize it. If carelessness and greed can destroy the fabric of the world, maybe awareness and seeking meaning can save everything.
Dare I say love? I love people, at a safe distance, as long as they are not bothering me. That is what I mean by no "soap-box", not yelling or lecturing. Expulsion of a fool.
I have skipped ahead from daydream 45 to 50 because I am going over the entire list, sorting by subject to figure out how to divide up the last four topics.
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| #drawfool doodle for April 4, 2018. |
50. World Wednesday - every Wednesday.
If we truly want to be good stewards of the world, then Earth-day should be something we participate in every week. Once a year Earth-day is not enough to get the job done. Everyone could pick a project and focus on healing our environment every Wednesday.
At first, it would be easy to find tasks that need doing. Examples: Volunteers every Wednesday to help clean up trash from parks and roadsides. Pick any water near you. There is over 100 million tons of plastic trash floating in the Pacific, pick a beach. If you are not near an ocean many ponds and lakes are polluted, or choked with weeds and bacteria fed by chemical fertilizers and sewer overflow from outdated drain systems that need to be rebuilt or repaired. Everyone is educated about the flow of their wastewater and all the lakes and ponds near you are pristine? Then there are countless streams to unbury or repair.
If many people participated weekly over time we will need to get creative and work together in neighborhood groups. Plan passive energy additions to buildings. Improve water & air quality by cleaning filters and improving local grey-water systems, in our homes and businesses. All our buildings efficient and off the grid?
Then researching invasive species is a giant topic that all hands onboard planet-wide would help greatly to heal. Just a few examples in the US: Ivy, Scotch Bloom and Himalayan blackberry briers in the NorthWest, Kudzu, Chinese Privet in the South and East. From small lots to large plots of forest land, and swamps, both park-land and private can be choked by invading plants or escaped pet snakes Pythons and anacondas to catch. Miles and miles of habitat to repair in every state in the US.
https://www.invasivespeciesinfo.gov
Once the entire world is cleaned up then we could keep going with world Wednesdays by gardening or taking care of plants on Wednesday. Or we could plan to work at home and not drive anywhere. Walking Wednesday. :) But, we can worry about that daydream when we get there.
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| #drawfool doodle for April 5, 2018 |
If you find yourself wondering about my "optimism" this list of daydreams is for fiction. After having posted fiction on my blog in years past I'm debating with myself about how much more to post here. I am unsure how to best navigate the gap between blog writer to book author. I will finish this list, and do my #drawfool doodle in 2018. Past that, time will tell here's a link to whatever happens next.
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| #drawfool doodle for April 6, 2018. |
Again, I will finish this project of 50 daydreams and post a link when I get there.
Thanks for reading. ☮+💚 @Uva_Be
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| #drawfool doodle April 7, 2018. |
One last doodle for luck.
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| #drawfool April 8, 2018. |
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