When What People Said Meant Something

I've tried not to hash out my true feelings about the current state of American politics when friends and family are around, because it has just become so unpleasant!  But current events over the past month have pushed me over the edge. I've never been more embarrassed to be an American, and I have been longing for the days when anything expressed on a national platform actually meant something. 

Remember when?

• Leaders had to have integrity and accomplished careers to earn the respect of people they needed to elect them
• 'Family Values' included respect and support for your partner and all of your children
• Meeting, or hearing a speech by, or working for the White House was an honor a select few people got to receive on an annual basis
• Legislation used to be researched, discussed, vetted, tested, re-written, and reviewed again; and citizens had the opportunity to weigh in by sharing their feedback with their representatives, and those representatives had the opportunity to submit amendments, based on that feedback

When did it become acceptable for anyone - let alone someone holding prominent decision-making abilities - to use slang anatomical terms on national media, so vulgar that broadcasts replaying the quotes have to censor them?  I refuse to accept this behavior as 'normal.'

When did we become so attention-deficit that announcements and opinions shared in the incomplete sentences of a 140-character tweet are guiding government policy?  I expect my legislators to represent their constituents, research effective policies, and communicate professionally to defend their decisions.

I understand that politics includes making "promises" during the campaign that aren't always feasible to keep once installed.  However, I am disappointed in all of the people I hear continuing to support politicians who made bold statements and commitments to electors during an extended campaign, and reversed course once they have had the ability to drive those changes.  The leaders I support stand behind their commitments, even when it means explaining why they couldn't accomplish something they were trying to.  Whether you accomplish it or not, if you claim to believe in something, those beliefs shouldn't change when you are actually installed.

When did it become tolerable for leaders to change their story every day until it's nothing like their original statement?  I refuse to normalize the lack of accountability our leaders have for the things they say, on or off the record.

When did it become possible for government employees to continue to add pages to their federal disclosure documents as their past actions are revealed to the public, simply because they didn't realize that "comprehensive" actually means "everything?"  When the rules bend for some, there is no way to hold them fast for anyone in the future.

When did we begin to accept that government employees in public service positions can garner additional profits by directing government business through their personal enterprises - including money from foreign governments?  I prefer that my tax dollars do not end up in the hands and pockets of manipulative corporations, especially when the owners have allegedly committed to serve our country.

When did it become acceptable for our commander in chief to condone brutality by law enforcement agents?  I expect the leaders of our country to work towards equal rights, equal opportunities, and justice for all citizens.  There is no place for violent behavior in a system with the primary goal of keeping peace in a civilized society.

When did empty threats spread over social media become newsworthy?  I cannot listen to any more media correspondents read and discus social media posts as if they had personally interviewed the source.  To maintain any level of integrity, facts should be verified by multiple sources before they are broadcast.  Anyone can post anything on the internet; that does not make it true.

When did bribery become a common and legal component of our political system?  A true democracy would not be controlled by financial contributions, which purchase the opinions and votes of our representatives, senators, and governors.

When did destroying the world around us become common practice?  In less than a decade, our planet will not have the ability to produce enough food to sustain the projected population.  We should be working together to ensure the future of our species, but we seem to be vying for the most efficient depletion of natural resources possible.

How many more people have to suffer or sacrifice their personal liberties before we can offer equal opportunities to all people, regardless of gender, race, religion, economic background, or how you choose to define your family unit?  How far do we have to lower our standards to be able to elect officials who live with integrity and abide by ethical morals? What will it take to get back to an America where I can be a patriotic citizen again? 

I refuse to accept our current state of disarray as the new normal.  Even though it may take years to sort through the mess our society has created, I do believe that we have the potential to find a way out of the darkness.  We are all in this together, for better or worse, and I choose to believe the future will be better.

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

Day 12: Let Your Heart Be Light

The day we have been anticipating for the past month and a half has finally arrived, and I hope that you and yours are cozy and well-fed, enjoying some holiday cheer and relaxing.

My final thought about Greening up your holdiay season is to remember that less is always more. If you keep this mantra in the back of your mind, it will become easier and easier to follow. There are many approaches to celebrating the holidays without over-indulging. Eat less, use less, buy less.

You will feel healthier, more relaxed, and hopefully happier as you share the season with people you love, and prepare for the new year.

For Santa's Clientele

Day 10: Making Sure that Everyone has Toys on Christmas Day

As you shop for gifts for your family, friends and colleagues, keep in mind where gifts you purchase come from, and all of the resources involved in creating the product and presenting it to your receiver. These days there are eco-friendly categories of every product. If you can, take the extra time to explore options to buy something locally, and save the carbon involved in transporting something across the country, or even overseas. Consider the packaging involved, and avoid cellophane and plastic wrap wherever you can. Make it a point to support Fair Trade vendors who apply and promote sustainable practices.

Throughout this process, you should also consider what the receiver will truly do with your gift. Will they really use it? Explore experiential gifts, like tickets to a show or event, edible gifts, or packages that will allow them to enjoy something routine more than usual, like a luxurious collection of shower and bath treats. Get creative with the joy you spread, and people will appreciate your extra thoughtfulness!

Filled With Your Favorite Things

Day 8: Sending a Little Christmas

Exchanging gifts with friends and family across the country means that there are lots of packages being shipped and delivered each day. In this internet age, shopping online has many advantages over shopping in a brick-and-mortar retail environment. You can make online purchases 24 hours a day, and you save all the time spent driving to, parking and browsing in a store. Not to mention the benefits of avoiding the crowds out and about during December. Shopping online also allows you to quickly compare items, and select the best product for your needs at the best price.

However, shopping online only increases the amount of packages - and packaging - used to deliver purchases and gifts. If you are buying a gift to give to somebody, consider having the item shipped directly to them instead of adding the shipment to your house first. Any retail organization worth its salt will have optional gift wrapping and messaging available for you to take advantage of, and save yourself additional time and money.

When you open packages at home, don't discard the paper, bubble wrap, and insulation used to pad and protect your products. Save it for the next box you put together to ship out. Throughout the year I am constantly searching for a good box to use and appropriate packing material when I need to send something. This season provides a cache of cardboard boxes to save and access as needed, instead of recycling everything now and purchasing more materials throughout the year.

There are lots of ways to re-use packaging materials to save resources.

A Beacon in the Night

Day 7: Harvest Your Light

Taking the dog out this morning, I noticed that several of my neighbors still had their decorations lit up. Some had the inside of their windows lit, and some braved the HOA and strung lights on the eaves of their unit. Lovely to share with the neighborhood, but why were they still on at 5:45 am? Surely not just for me and Bosco, shivering in the pre-dawn.

Save energy by using timers for any lights and displays that need to be plugged in. They are fairly inexpensive and common in most stores that carry lights and decorations. Leaving them on all night can be festive, but pick a block of time between sundown(4:30ish this time of year) and midnight that you will consistently enjoy the lights. Our timers turn on about 20 minutes before the sun sets, and go off between 11pm and midnight.

If you host an event, or have family in town the few days around the holidays, adjust as you wish. But on the second Wednesday in December, nobody should be enjoying your front yard at 3am.

Absolutely Impossible to Resist

Day 6: Some Disappear to Who Knows Where

Bake treats from scratch, instead of purchasing mass-produced preservative-laden snacks. In addition to the traditional tins of cookies and fudge, put together breakfast baskets with jams, muffin mix, and teas and coffees. Make up mason jars of home made hot chocolate mix. Share goodies that your loved ones will truly enjoy! These items seem much more thoughtful and personal than the boxes stacked near the checkout line at the grocery store.

This also provides an opportunity to get creative with the containers you use to share them with friends and family. Avoid packaging that will be thrown away, and use tins that can be re-used, or gift seal-able containers that the receiver can use year-round.

In A New Old Fashioned Way

Day 5: Later We'll Have Some Pumpkin Pie

Instead of using plastic or Styrofoam during holiday cocktail parties and dinner gatherings, use real dishes, glassware, napkins and utensils. Yes, it adds to the cleanup effort, but think about how many resources go into that one use for each disposable item. Purchasing holiday-themed products also adds up, so you will also be saving money.

For kids and anybody you don't trust with your wine glasses, use paper-based plates and napkins, and corn-based cups and utensils that can be composted. These have become common enough in my corners of the world that it's not difficult to find, if you know what you are looking for. This also goes if you are serving 16, but only have service for 10 or 12 - the more the merrier, as you pass around coffee and pie!

Brown Paper Packages

Day 4: Tied Up With String

In the US, 4 million tons of waste is generated each holiday season from gift wrapping materials that are used once and then discarded. 4 million tons!! Don't get me wrong, I love the colorful ribbons and festive paper, and the sight of a lit Christmas tree loaded with gifts is one of the most festive parts of the season. However, it is one of the most wasteful aspects of the holiday season. Here are a few ways you can reduce the amount of materials that get thrown away on December 26th.

Gift Bags: Holiday gift bags reduce the waste of wrapping a box with paper. However, this generally includes replacing the tissue paper inside the bag, and depending on the gifts inside sometimes the bags look worn out after only a few uses.

Make your own gift bags: Inspired by a quilter friend of my mom's, I started making re-usable bags out of holiday fabric. They are simple designs with draw-strings, made in various sizes to accommodate all shapes of boxes and gifts. They take significant time and energy to design and sew, but seeing them recycled among family gift exchanges is very satisfying. The holiday fabrics available are just as festive and bright as most wrapping papers, including some that incorporate foil and glitter. And using real ribbons to tie them adds to the textures beneath the tree. (I also cheat and wait until the week after Christmas to buy up holiday fabric patterns on super-sale, which makes them much more affordable!)

Furoshiki: The traditional Japanese style of wrapping a gift, enclosing it in colorful material and tying the corners together artfully.

Recycled Paper: Purchase rolls of recycled paper that can be composted or burned when its purpose has been served. Barring aggressive rips, save scraps that can be trimmed and saved inside a roll for smaller gifts next year.

Wrap a box: Find a box that has a separate lid, and wrap them each individually. This way the receiver can remove the lid and open the gift without taking the paper off, and the box can be used for another gift.

'Tis the Season to be Jolly

Last night we participated in a performance by VOCO at the Chautauqua Community House. It was a delightful gust of winter songs celebrating the beauty that comes out of the dark cold nights and the warmth that is created by gathering with good friends and family. The last set was included adorning the stage and brick fireplace with fresh evergreen branches collected from the area, and it created a beautiful and serene homage to the season. I realized that sometimes the most simple additions can have the biggest impact.

Day 3: Deck the Halls

As you break out the holiday decorations, add new ones to your collection, and perhaps gift new decorations to others, keep in mind where they come from and how they were made. Avoid the cheaply-manufactured decorations that are often imported from overseas, and make your own. This presents the opportunity for some family craft time, which is especially fun with kids in the house, and also creates uniquely festive decorations for your home. You don't need kids around to help with this, though. Here are some examples of personalized decorations we have around our house this time of year:

Garlands. One of the most basic design elements, these can be strung pretty much anywhere. Trees, banisters, windows, mantles, doorways...anywhere in your house that could use some character. We have strung popcorn using a needle and thread, which gets hung outside as a snack for the birds at the end of the season. We have used paper bits to make colorful chains, some of which have included seasonal messages, religious verses, and song lyrics.

Bring the outdoors in. Branches, berries, pine cones, stones, and nuts can be used to add seasonal color. Make centerpieces out of branches nestled around candles. Fill clear vases or jars with nuts and berries to flavor a mantelpiece display. Use pine cones to add texture to your fireplace. Get creative with what you have access to in your yard, it's a much cheaper alternative to going to Walmart!

Re-purpose old decorations. Have old or maybe damaged ornaments that you don't want to hang on your tree this year? Fill a bowl with them to brighten your coffee table.

Snowflakes. Snow is a neutral motif that can carry through any celebration of this season. Select paper ranging from regular copy paper to fine glittered tissue paper, and cut out geometric patterns. These can be hung on a tree, in windows, mirrors - on any surface in the house that could support them. And like the real things, each one is completely unique!

Recycle last year's cards. We hang cards we receive each year in the living room to cherish the greetings. This year Americans will send 1.9 billion greeting cards during the month of December. This is tons(literally) of materials that will share sentimental messages and be discarded or stashed away for the next 11 months. If you have a pile of cards you have received in previous years, or if you collect cards you receive this year, you can use these bright and cheerful pieces to make colorful decorations. Ornaments, gift tags, and any craft that calls for colorful paper will easily brighten up a room.

No matter what your decorations incorporate, I hope that your home is merry and bright this time of year!

Keep Shining On

The lights and yard displays that go up this time of the year brighten up the season for me, especially when it snows and the whole world takes on a bit of a glow. That brilliant holiday sparkle can be made by more efficient lights these days, using LED strings.

Day 2: Oh Christmas Lights

Choose LEDs (light-emitting diodes) instead of incandescent bulbs to decorate your home, inside and out. They're a bit more expensive, but last much longer and use 80% to 90% less power than conventional mini bulbs. Saving on energy consumption also means you save on maintenance, with LED strands lasting up to ten times longer than conventional stings. This is also because LEDs do not produce heat, so they won't singe fingers — or the tree. They are safer overall than incandescent bulbs.

LED strands come in a bright white, as well as many color choices, color changing bulbs, and color combinations. Some local organizations have sponsored programs in past years to accept old strings of lights and help you update to LED strings. Take advantage of these opportunities when they are available in your neighborhood. If you invest in new lights to adorn your eaves this year, I recommend spending the additional money on LED strands and we will all save in the long-run.

A Symbol of Goodwill and Love

Over the past few years I have integrated several habits into my holiday traditions in attempts to reduce some of the waste and excess that is inherent to celebrations this time of year. I know that traditionally the 12 Days of Christmas begins on Christmas Day and is celebrated through Epiphany, but this year I want to share with you some of the ways that I have tried to make my Christmases a little more Green.

On the first day: O Tannenbaum!

One of the most iconic elements of Christmas for me is a decorated tree that becomes the focal point of the living room. Decorating it has always been a special occasion, for several reasons. First of all, it is something that happens at the beginning of the season, in preparation for all of the celebrating. In addition to kicking off my seasonal decorating blitz(usually accompanied by breaking out the Christmas CD's), it also involves unwrapping the lovely collection of ornaments I have amassed, which includes one Mom helped us pick out every year of our childhood. Each one has a memory associated with it, and hanging them all together creates a splendid, shimmering Christmas tradition.

Most of my life we have picked out a cut tree from a lot, varying in size from trees short enough we could top it ourselves to a gorgeous 14-ft tree Dad had to dangle over the halfwall of the second story to top with the star. I love the fresh pine smell, the character each branch has, and the challenge of evenly spacing the lights and ornaments. However, I am not a fan of the need to vacuum little needles on a daily basis, the water that needs to be constantly maintained, or the sad disposal of the tree at the end of the month.

When we got married and began to alternate Christmases with both families, it meant we would be out of town for several days over Christmas every other year. We decided to use a synthetic tree on the years we wouldn't be celebrating at home. Then we adopted Bosco, which complicated the water issue even further(not to mention my coveted popcorn garlands!), and each time we contemplated buying a fresh tree for the season I have been more and more consumed by a feeling of guilt about cutting down a perfectly good conifer to abide in my home for a month. It seems sacrificial to end all of the years that have been put into that tree just for a short period of indulgent enjoyment. Needless to say, we have been erecting our (pre-lit!)artificial tree for the past several years, which has saved time, money, trees, and quite a bit of mess. It's not quite the same, and is made out of non-renewable petroleum resources, but I know that it's a more sustainable long-term solution for us.

In addition to artificial trees, it is becoming a more available option to purchase a living Christmas tree. This means you get to enjoy a live tree(potted, with roots and soil) that you can plant after its stint decorating your house. This option is significantly more expensive and takes some very intentional preparation, but the investment supports a local nursery or farm, and provides a significant contribution to your landscaping after the holidays are over. When we have a yard where we could plant and nurture a live pine tree, I fully intend to pursue this option.

If you do have a cut tree this year, check out your municipal resources for composting or chipping the tree into mulch. Many cities and towns offer a day in January when trees can be collected from your curb for free and used in local landscaping projects. But please consider these alternatives to buying a cheap cut tree from a big-box lot. It will support your environment and add some local Green to your holiday and beyond.

Over My Hill, Over My Hill...

My month of trying to become an uber conscious consumer has been overall a success. In the past 30 days, I used four plastic shopping bags(two were necessary in Japan, where they have NO trash cans!), and my awesome Timbuk2 compact bag has joined the list of things I double-check on my way out the door - phone, wallet, keys, bag, check!

It has also made me more acutely aware of the problems our generation will have to deal with in a decade or so, as the un-sustainable habits our country has leaned on over the past several decades have compiled to create an unfortunately unhealthy environment. There are other communities in the world who realized this much earlier, and have forced people to pay for using plastic bags, fined people for not recycling everything possible, and developed incentives for the use of composting and renewable energies. I have faith that the necessary changes are possible, but in order to create a change on a great enough scale to impact the planet, they must be inspired on an individual level.

Here is a depressing clip - creative wit and humor aside - that will possibly influence your shopping habits too:

"The Majestic Plastic Bag," http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLgh9h2ePYw