Hope Beneath Our Feet_ Restoring Our Place in the Natural World - Martin Keogh [44]
A small group of five students had signed up to dedicate their afternoons to collecting recyclables at the high school, and we were soon elbows-deep into our jobs: sorting paper and plastic, emptying bins, and returning rolling totes. However, this was no easy task. With more than a thousand contributors to the recycling effort and over a hundred bins to collect, there was a big margin for mishap.
Since then, we have encountered some predicted problems and some that were unforeseen. We have to deal with cleaning out trash that is mixed with the paper and plastic, including countless lunches and construction materials. One day we found a whole chocolate cake upside down in the bottom of a seventy-gallon rolling bin. Needless to say, with no way to reach the bottom of the barrel without climbing in, it was an exercise in problem solving.
Days like that one make me wonder if all of this work is worth it. How much does recycling mean to me? Is it worth giving up my free time to clean and empty bins and make phone calls? Then I just think about watching our recycling dumpster grow full of paper week after week. I think about how teachers and students alike comment on how they are ashamed that they did not start recycling earlier. I think about how fellow students and parents watch us each day sorting and dumping paper into the dumpster, and how they have become more aware of the problem through our work. Finally I think about the blades of grass sprouting around the dumpster and the feeling of sunshine on my face, and I think that maybe I can help my grandchildren feel the sun and enjoy our earth.
When I doubt myself, I wonder how much of a difference we really make. Then I think of one piece of notepaper that is put in a recycling bin by one student, and all of the paper from that class piled on top. Then how that one bin is combined with all the contents of the bins on that floor into a rolling tote. Then how all the rolling totes are dumped into a large dumpster and how soon the dumpster is full, and how the dumpster fills every two weeks. All of that paper to be recycled, and all of it starting with one student and one piece of paper.
Kristine Alach currently attends the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, as an Animal Science major. A passionate equestrian, she loves to work with horses and study their behavior. She recognizes the need for change in many facets of the world.
A Five-Hundred-Year Plan
JANE HAYES
A while back I met a military man who had a fifty-year plan for his life, career, and family. Our conversation became lively when I admitted that I’ve been thinking about a five-hundred-year plan and it has lots to do with beans.
My plan is inspired by the Iroquois edict of caring for the welfare and well being of the seventh generation to come. That means I care for my grandchildren’s grandchildren’s grandchildren.
It helps me to hold great great grandchildren in mind as I face the challenge of changing my untenable cultural habits. Until I had them in mind, I hadn’t been able to imagine effectively acting on daunting issues like war, global food security, and climate change. Now I can let go of immobilizing feelings that we are never going to be able to get past these issues peacefully and intelligently.
My gut tells me that it is time to lighten things up a little. No matter how dire the situation, we cannot live on fight-or-flight our entire lives. Our intelligences are reduced by 20 percent when we are in a stressed state. Exhaustion doesn’t help