energy for the future

Not coal, not oil, not natural gas, not wood, nor nuclear are energy solutions for the future regardless of what the politicians are or are not saying.  “Drill baby drill” and “fracking,” or "liking coal," are indications of increasing desperation, and talk of energy independence without investing in alternative energies is simply a short-term stopgap measure and not a long-term solution.  Closing our eyes and ears to the inevitable, that some time in the not-so-distant future we’ll have depleted the reserves of non-renewable energy sources, is childish and irresponsible.   The sooner we accept responsibility that the world is changing and that we must change with it, the better for all of us.

A large roof with southern exposure is ideal for solar panels that can meet your hot water needs and/or supplement your electric needs.  State and federal tax credits make them worthwhile considering, and they can also be leased now.  Consider triple-pane windows (the standard now for new construction in Germany) and thicker and better insulated walls to avoid heating the outside (in Europe walls are usually about 12” thick).  Geothermal systems use the constant 55o subsurface temperature to heat and cool with much less energy input than conventional HVAC systems and the federal government offers a 30% tax credit on equipment and installation costs.  Passivhaus is a German concept of insulating a house so much that not much energy gets lost, period.  Inevitably, the price for non-renewable energies will keep rising.  Investing in one of the renewable energy sources for your home is like an insurance policy against higher and higher utility bills.

Renewable energy sources are indefinitely available, they never deplete, how great is that.   Solar panel applications, for example, are now ubiquitous in Europe and many other countries.  We saw them everywhere in Italy this summer.

 

 

just being

Usually I am just doing.  Dipping under the radar of doing accesses a place within me that is peaceful, timeless, and emotionally removed (not remote!).  This place permits me to observe more objectively without the emotional entanglement, and it lets me feel, hear, taste, smell, and see without the mental word chatter that permeates my mind. It is difficult to even achieve seconds of this peace of mind, but boy is it worthwhile.

beauty of the seasons

Season specific activities, decorations, and foods ground me and connect me in a deeper way with nature and my surrounds.  Because they teach the children to live by the natural rhythm of the seasons I truly appreciate that we have four distinct seasons here in the northeast. Fall is my favorite.  October is so beautiful and I like the crisper temperatures.   In general, I love the many distinct fall activities and festivities, from back-to-school after the long and hot and lazy summer, to pulling out my sweaters and our thick down comforters, to apple picking and fall foliage, the last barbeque of the year, Halloween with its pumpkins and gourds, the first fire of the season in the fireplace, and then, when it becomes blustery out there, Thanksgiving, which leads directly into the sparkly year-end holidays.

are you a cultural creative?

It is quite possible that you have never heard of them. It is also quite possible that you are one of them, or us. It is estimated that we – yes, I am definitely one of them - are more than 80 million strong in this country alone, and that there are about 250 million of us worldwide. The funny thing about the Cultural Creatives is that they don’t realize how many others share their values. Cultural Creatives believe in authenticity, in quality over quantity, in contributing to a healthy planet, in transparency, in many of the values that people embrace who are into sustainable and green living, homesteading, the farm-to-table and locavore movements, sustainable agriculture, and so forth. The Occupy Wall Street Movement is full of Cultural Creatives, but fizzled because of lack of leadership and lack of realization how many actually share these new values; dare I call it a newly emerging consciousness structure? If this has perked your interest, you can find out more about The Cultural Creatives and whether you are one of them, on Paul Ray and Sherry Anderson’s website. They are the sociologist psychologist husband-and-wife team who gave this emerging phenomenon its name and wrote a book about it in 2000.

Filmmaker Frigyes Fogel made a movie about the movement, its ideas and values, and is now planning a TV station.

education for the future

Imagine if school was designed for the specific purpose of bringing out the best in each child instead of trying to create corporate drones, teaching to the test, or catering to the supposed needs of “The Economy;”  imagine if your child’s teacher looked each one of her students in the eyes each morning, shook their hand, and greeted them individually by name; imagine if school was designed specifically around your child or teenager's emotional developmental stage; imagine if school was designed to wake up your children’s creative thinking abilities; imagine if school was designed around seeing the relationships across subjects instead of segregating subjects into neat compartments (that don’t exist in reality). The Austrian philosopher Rudolf Steiner conceived such a school system about one hundred years ago that does all of the above, it is the Waldorf school movement.