Life is good.
Some people approach challenges with such a positive attitude that they are able to accomplish way more than those of us (such as myself) who are frequently stymied by fears (unconscious or otherwise). With Green Building Alliance's Inspire lecture series at Phipps Conservatory I got to hear a lecture (more of a rallying cry to America) by a person I would have to call a saint in action.
His name is Stephen Ritz of the South Bronx, one of the most difficult urban neighborhoods in the United States. He and those he has been working with have taken conditions most of us would consider unbearable (and unbelievable that they actually exist in this country) - pollution so bad many of the students need inhalers; poverty and lack of school funding so stark the normal things like functioning bathrooms and plumbing we wouldn't consider not having are not givens; violent crime a daily fact of life - and turned these problems into chances to transform lives and communities.
Like Hazelwood, they have no grocery store. They are a food desert. When you're poor and don't have the ability to get to a grocery store to buy decent food, you end up relying on junk food, sodas and candy - not the way to grow sane adults. This is why we have a food club in Hazelwood, and why we're working with the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank to start a community-owned grocery here.
Talking about how children can't learn when they're fed either not enough or the processed junk that passes as food in so many poor neighborhoods (and which causes any number of diseases like diabetes, heart disease, and attention deficit disorder), he asked, "How many kids are going to bed hungry tonight? And how many kids are eating themselves to death?" But rather than get discouraged by the inhumanity of a society that allows some to starve and others to overeat so much food laced with chemicals that they suffer enormous problems (so that some corporations can make a buck selling junk), Stephen teaches the strategy of "endless resourcefulness" - making use of what you have, never giving up. His students recycle: plastic bottles into plant growing structures such as greenhouses; cardboard into furniture; organic garbage into compost; old buildings and abandoned lots into plant factories with green roofs. He's taken the fears of children living in such circumstances which lead to drugs and criminality, and led them into making money inventing and building even computer-monitored vegetable and herb growing operations. Those on the way to suffering prison and early death are now making money designing and building landscapes for high-end residential and business customers. Making lemonade when life hands you lemons.
Recognizing that the entire ecosystem of the Earth is in a state of emergency, as I do, can yield crippling depression. But though I work to wake fellow citizens to the absolute life and death nature of this emergency, a balance must be kept which recognizes that the problems ARE solvable - IF we work together. The same science which is wrecking even the weather of the planet by our addiction to (and wars for) fossil fuels and combustion processes such as the internal combustion engine automobile, the same science can and must be used to transform our whole society. And it needs to happen now, not ten years down the line, not thirty years, NOW! People say Oh you'll never get the whole world to love each other, Good luck with that, and You've got to look out for yourself, you can't change the whole world. But what the majority of cynics don't know is Number 1 - The best science is proving the miraculous, Number 2 - The problems are so at core now that there is no saving yourself, there is no escape, this is the big one, what are you gonna do, leave the planet? And 3 - The key to the miraculous (and I'm talking real science now, concrete results of our good intentions that go beyond what most think the laws of science allow) is love. We're all connected to each other.
As goofy, mystical, illogical, and unrealistic as it sounds, we are connected to the whole universe beyond time and space. This is why there have always been miracles happen. All life is a miracle. When a loved one is injured or even killed, often the supposedly impossible happens - hearts make connection at whatever distance. When you're trying to do something good, something loving (like feed people) your love spreads and the next thing you know others are working together with you. When Hurricane Sandy knocked the hell out of parts of the east coast, Stephen Ritz and so many others somehow managed to reach the deepest level of joy in themselves by saying "Si se puede!" - Yes we can! And they did! The kids who had learned from birth ducking bullets and knives are now building living roofs and living walls and recycling the organic waste we've been letting go to the landfill to grow good quality food to feed each other for free and sell to those who can afford to pay for it. They're not just learning survival at a minimum wage throwing unhealthy poor quality cheeseburgers; they're learning to enjoy cooperative work producing something to be proud of - top quality vegetables and herbs, and for a profit.
Do you not think THAT is miraculous?
To find out more about Stephen Ritz's Green Bronx Machine, look at the links the Green Building Alliance has provided at:
http://www.go-gba.org/content.aspx?ContentID=341 And even if you can't support their work financially, liking and sharing them on facebook and twitter and anywhere else will help them by spreading the word:
http://www.ted.com/talks/stephen_ritz_a_teacher_growing_green_in_the_south_bronx.html
ALL life is good. Every person and every creature, every living thing has a purpose in the beautiful holographic symphony which is the Universe.
Jim McCue
St. Jim the Composter
412-421-6496
composter and biotech researcher
http://bioeverything.blogspot.com/2009/02/celebrate-earth.html
http://hazelwoodurbangardens.blogspot.com
http://facebook.com/alllifelover
http://hazelwoodhomepage.org
His name is Stephen Ritz of the South Bronx, one of the most difficult urban neighborhoods in the United States. He and those he has been working with have taken conditions most of us would consider unbearable (and unbelievable that they actually exist in this country) - pollution so bad many of the students need inhalers; poverty and lack of school funding so stark the normal things like functioning bathrooms and plumbing we wouldn't consider not having are not givens; violent crime a daily fact of life - and turned these problems into chances to transform lives and communities.
Like Hazelwood, they have no grocery store. They are a food desert. When you're poor and don't have the ability to get to a grocery store to buy decent food, you end up relying on junk food, sodas and candy - not the way to grow sane adults. This is why we have a food club in Hazelwood, and why we're working with the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank to start a community-owned grocery here.
Talking about how children can't learn when they're fed either not enough or the processed junk that passes as food in so many poor neighborhoods (and which causes any number of diseases like diabetes, heart disease, and attention deficit disorder), he asked, "How many kids are going to bed hungry tonight? And how many kids are eating themselves to death?" But rather than get discouraged by the inhumanity of a society that allows some to starve and others to overeat so much food laced with chemicals that they suffer enormous problems (so that some corporations can make a buck selling junk), Stephen teaches the strategy of "endless resourcefulness" - making use of what you have, never giving up. His students recycle: plastic bottles into plant growing structures such as greenhouses; cardboard into furniture; organic garbage into compost; old buildings and abandoned lots into plant factories with green roofs. He's taken the fears of children living in such circumstances which lead to drugs and criminality, and led them into making money inventing and building even computer-monitored vegetable and herb growing operations. Those on the way to suffering prison and early death are now making money designing and building landscapes for high-end residential and business customers. Making lemonade when life hands you lemons.
Recognizing that the entire ecosystem of the Earth is in a state of emergency, as I do, can yield crippling depression. But though I work to wake fellow citizens to the absolute life and death nature of this emergency, a balance must be kept which recognizes that the problems ARE solvable - IF we work together. The same science which is wrecking even the weather of the planet by our addiction to (and wars for) fossil fuels and combustion processes such as the internal combustion engine automobile, the same science can and must be used to transform our whole society. And it needs to happen now, not ten years down the line, not thirty years, NOW! People say Oh you'll never get the whole world to love each other, Good luck with that, and You've got to look out for yourself, you can't change the whole world. But what the majority of cynics don't know is Number 1 - The best science is proving the miraculous, Number 2 - The problems are so at core now that there is no saving yourself, there is no escape, this is the big one, what are you gonna do, leave the planet? And 3 - The key to the miraculous (and I'm talking real science now, concrete results of our good intentions that go beyond what most think the laws of science allow) is love. We're all connected to each other.
As goofy, mystical, illogical, and unrealistic as it sounds, we are connected to the whole universe beyond time and space. This is why there have always been miracles happen. All life is a miracle. When a loved one is injured or even killed, often the supposedly impossible happens - hearts make connection at whatever distance. When you're trying to do something good, something loving (like feed people) your love spreads and the next thing you know others are working together with you. When Hurricane Sandy knocked the hell out of parts of the east coast, Stephen Ritz and so many others somehow managed to reach the deepest level of joy in themselves by saying "Si se puede!" - Yes we can! And they did! The kids who had learned from birth ducking bullets and knives are now building living roofs and living walls and recycling the organic waste we've been letting go to the landfill to grow good quality food to feed each other for free and sell to those who can afford to pay for it. They're not just learning survival at a minimum wage throwing unhealthy poor quality cheeseburgers; they're learning to enjoy cooperative work producing something to be proud of - top quality vegetables and herbs, and for a profit.
Do you not think THAT is miraculous?
To find out more about Stephen Ritz's Green Bronx Machine, look at the links the Green Building Alliance has provided at:
http://www.go-gba.org/content.aspx?ContentID=341 And even if you can't support their work financially, liking and sharing them on facebook and twitter and anywhere else will help them by spreading the word:
http://www.ted.com/talks/stephen_ritz_a_teacher_growing_green_in_the_south_bronx.html
ALL life is good. Every person and every creature, every living thing has a purpose in the beautiful holographic symphony which is the Universe.
Jim McCue
St. Jim the Composter
412-421-6496
composter and biotech researcher
http://bioeverything.blogspot.com/2009/02/celebrate-earth.html
http://hazelwoodurbangardens.blogspot.com
http://facebook.com/alllifelover
http://hazelwoodhomepage.org
posted by St. Jim the Composter at 11:46 AM
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