How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant with the weak and wrong…because sometime in your life you will have been all of these.
George Washington Carver
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This past Saturday millions of men, women and children turned off the lights to observe something called Earth Hour.
I first heard about this phenomenon a few years ago. It’s a nobel idea but I have a few questions about how it works:
1) Why are we focusing on what individuals consume when most waste is created by structural inefficiencies and large corporations? Recycling one glass bottle or turning off that light is meaningless if you don’t overhaul the system. It isn’t easy to change public policy, of course, and it isn’t something one does by sitting in the dark for an hour…but it’s the only way anything is actually going to improve.
2) Is technology evil? I find it kind of odd that Earth Hour is about not using technology. A lightbulb (or any other manmade item) is just a tool. Yes, they can be misused but they aren’t inherently “bad”…or “good”! It all depends on how you use them.
3) Is environmentalism a religion? Ok, so this question is a little facetious. It is odd to see so much attention paid to what one does for one hour once a year, though. How do you bridge the gap between that ritual – however meaningful it may be for those who participate – and what people do the other 8759-8783 hours of the year?
Did you participate in Earth Hour this year? What do you think of my questions?
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Here is this week’s list of blog posts, comics, twitter feeds, videos and other tidbits from my favourite corners of the web.
I’ve never done this before on Suggestion Saturday but if you have a Twitter account go follow @vulgar_tongue. They tweet entries from the 1811 edition of Francis Grose’s Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, a directory to English slang from 200 years ago.
And here’s something else I’ve never done. Click here if you want the AgeAnalyzer to guess your age based on what you write on your blog:
The AgeAnalyzer thinks http://www.on-the-other-hand.com is written by someone 36-50 years old.
I wonder why it thinks I’m at least a decade older than my actual age? 🙂
Mutually (un)Intelligible. A short video of two birds talking about…something.
I Hope Barack Obama. This is a blog full of people wishing good things for President Obama. You can submit your own wish for him or just read through it. I hope this becomes a meme. It feels so much better to bless others than to curse them. (Thanks for the link, Undercover Nun!)
From An Open Letter to My Muse:
But, here’s the thing. I show up everyday. Every single day. I’m here while I’m working and I’m here on my days off. I’m here when I feel like it and I’m here when I don’t. I’m here whether I have the time or not. Because I treat this thing seriously.
I really wish you’d show up more often. Because I feel like I’m doing my part.
(Comic via AsboJesus.)
The employees of the Toronto Public Library have been on strike for the past few weeks so my access to new books has been slim. What have you been reading?
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[Shaima] Alawadi, a mother of five, had been hospitalized since her 17-year-old daughter found her unconscious Wednesday in the family’s house in El Cajon, police Lt. Steve Shakowski said.
The daughter, Fatima Al Himidi, told KUSI-TV her mother had been beaten on the head repeatedly with a tire iron, and that the note said “go back to your country, you terrorist.”
There aren’t enough words in the English language to express my sorrow over this.
I wish I had something profound to say. I don’t.
I just read this article over and over again trying understand how anyone could do this to another human being.
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Photo by Joe Ravi, license CC-BY-SA 3.0.
Olivia at Reading in the Bath recently had something interesting to say about her experiences with online childfree groups:
So one of the things I’ve enjoyed about sticking around in a few different groups for a while and getting past all the (to me) slightly awkward ‘I like children…with sauce’ jokes, is that I’ve found there are many other people who don’t come from a place of hatred or hostility either.
To be honest my sexual orientation and non-theism tend to surprise others much more often than my decision not to have children.
But there are certain similarities between being childfree and being part of other minority groups or subcultures. Answering the same questions over and over again grows repetitive and there are times when I wonder, “why is s/he so focused on this one issue instead of everything else we have in common?”
This is where it really helps to have relationships with other people who are also members of group X and grok why I’m so frustrated (or confused, thrilled, or irritated!)
Just like Olivia says, though, sometimes you have to filter the wheat from the chaff. I’m not an angry person and I don’t dwell on the offensive stuff other people say or do. These things happen.
Angry people aren’t the majority, though. From what I’ve seen for every person looking for a reason to be offended there are two or three who just want to live in peace. The problem is that when the media or the rest of society notices group X they tend to seek out the most controversial, outspoken member they can find. It’s good for ratings and page views and, to be honest, the rest of us are often not as interested in outside attention.
And so the rest of the world continues to assume the worst about group X while those of us who are actually living it roll our eyes and continue on with our daily lives.
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Here is this week’s list of blog posts, videos and other tidbits from my favourite corners of the web.
Discrimination Against the Long-Term Unemployed. Sad.
What Makes Sex Good? So it’s spring and once again street preachers are asking strangers what I consider extremely personal questions. Not everyone considers the topic of religion to be a private matter, of course, but I’ve often wondered how they would react if I started asking them for a detailed description of their sex lives. Would they realize I was making a point about the (in)appropriateness of certain topics when meeting someone new? Eh, probably not. 😉
Lady Magazine. To be honest these kind of magazines all but satirize themselves. It’s still a funny picture, though.
The Red Ball Project. Because our world needs more whimsy.
President Obama On Trayvon Martin’s death (if you haven’t heard of Trayvon Martin the link does explains his death in more detail):
My main message is to the parents of Trayvon Martin. You know, if I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon. And you know, I think they are right to expect that all of us as Americans are going to take this with the seriousness it deserves and that we’re get to the bottom of exactly what happened.
Interesting speech:
What have you been reading?
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Time: 1943
Place: Clinton, Iowa
Don’t you wish you could slide into an empty seat and listen in on these conversations?
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Photo by Ben Pollard
Is rain in the forecast for today?
Hey, I didn’t know swans lived in Ontario!
Have you had your tea yet?
Let’s go for a walk.
Drew smiled.
What? Am I talking too much?
Smile.
You know I only operate on two different speeds. Tomorrow I’ll probably grow silent again so enjoy this while you can!
Smile.
Most of the time I’m quiet around even those who mean the most to me. Occasionally I have a long list of thoughts that aren’t too private to share. I’ve never been able to find a balance between the two, though.
Have you?
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Here is this week’s list of blog posts, photographs and other tidbits from my favourite corners of the web.
Did Stone Age Cavemen Talk to Each Other in Symbols? We need a Rosetta Stone for these symbols.
Four Seasons, One Photo. What the same patch of land looks like in all four seasons.
Music Lessons. If you give a dog a music lesson…he or she just might learn something!
Thanks to Daphne for sharing this video with me a little while ago!
What have you been reading?
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Forgotten Heroes is a series of posts about extraordinary men and women who are (probably) not remembered by the average person. Previous heroes include Nellie Bly, Charles Loring Brace and Emily Murphy.
If you know of a forgotten hero who should be included in this series let me know about him or her in the comment section or via my contact form.
Time: 1968
Place: Toronto
“Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because, and only when, they are created by everybody.”
― Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities
To whom does your neighbourhood belong?
Businesses?
Politicians?
Advertisers?
Jane Jacobs thought it belongs to you.
Well maybe not legally. But she saw a difference between building a city for cars and building it for people.
She thought of a city – of any community, really – as a living thing. Just as you or I wouldn’t survive very long if we traded in our livers for an extra stomach Jacobs believed that cities need to be mixed-use and dense in population in order to prosper over the long haul.
If all of the businesses are at one end of a city and all houses on the other it’s going to be pretty difficult to maintain a sense of community. Everyone will be too busy driving from one end of the city to the other to go to work or pick up a loaf of bread.
There was a time when I spent four hours a day travelling to and from work. It doesn’t leave much time for getting to know the neighbours…or to browse at a local store.
A few generations ago it was common for people from every class, but especially the poor, to live in the same neighbourhood in which they worked. Sometimes shopkeepers lived in the same building as their shops and business owners sold products from their living rooms.
Fashions and zoning laws changed and this isn’t something you hear about very often these days.
I wonder if it will ever be allowed again?
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