Recharged by youth

(Emily here)

It has been a very long while since I have written and to be honest it is because Matt and I have stalled out on topics to write about. We have bought a house, and that very large purchase makes us feel excitement and a tad guilty at the same time. But, at least this way we are investing in our own future so that we can continue to help other people (or something like that!).

This past weekend I attended a "youth summit for biodiversity" put on by Ontario Nature. The entire weekend was incredibly inspirational and jam-packed with activities focusing on the importance of biodiversity. Even though I attended as a chaperone, I learned so much and came away feeling just as pumped-up and excited about joining a cause as the students did.

One of my big plugs is that we can't expect to turn around our environmental problems when there are 1.2 billion people in the world fighting for basic survival. If a starving person is faced with choosing between saving an endangered plant or feeding his/her family, what do you think he/she will choose? I have always thought that the answer to our environmental woes is to help the starving/homeless/poor first; and then deal with healing the planet. I understand that both are huge issues and will take a similarly huge amount of political pressure to make happen.

There was one speaker this weekend who runs an organization called "Leadership Rewired." He was incredibly dynamic, entertaining and really got the participants to think about some big issues. He did this great activity where he asked the entire auditorium to stand up. On his projector screen he showed different words and asked us to sit down when we saw something that we couldn't live without. Cell phone. Ipod. Facebook. Music. Coffee. Shopping. And so on, and so on, and so on. At the end of about 25 items on the list there were only 2 people left standing. He went on to say, "there are only two people left standing, and this is before I got to the 4 items that 1.2 billion people in the world live without every day." Food. Water. Shelter. Education.

Pretty poignant.

He continued on to say that if the students want to help out with ANY cause they really need to "use their youth" to do good. Now, I may be coming into the end of my youth (and some may say that boat sailed a long time ago and I should stop dreaming!) but I still felt just as motivated to do good as the students in that room.

So I've come back home from this summit and feel recharged. I want to do more for the global community and for the environment. I'm going to "use my youth" while I still have some left!

The 5.10.5.10

(Matt Talking)



5 reject greed
10 tread lightly
5 connect with (the bright side of) community
10 build up democracy

http://www.fairshareinternational.org/

Fair Share International, (based in Adelaide AUS) is a community that has adopted the 5.10.5.10 rule. (I think) a really simple way to think about how to aim your life in a better direction.

5 - Donating 5 percent of your gross income to help the disadvantaged
I'm finding this one harder than I thought I would... It is really easy for me to fall into the mindset the I "don't have much money". To pull this off I think that I should probably start looking at a deduction at the paycheque level. I'm not sure I'm good enough at saving otherwise.

10 - Reducing your environmentally harmful consumption by 10 percent each year until you can do no more
This one conjures up images of a hippie drum circle upon first reading, but I think can be very practical.
I'm going to try to bike as much as I can (including to work and to the country) until the weather gets cold (using less gas). We just got some smokin' bikes so hopefully the novelty factor will keep us glued to them.
I've already got everything on power bars (exorcism for your phantom drains) so I don't know how much better I can get with electricity use.
I'm going to try to stick to buying used stuff (umm..... except for bikes.. they don't umm... count) whenever possible.
I'm going to try to be more packaging friendly.
I'm going to volunteer in the political campaign of an environmentally friendly politician.

5 - Giving 5 percent of your time to helping people in your community.
Does organizing nerdy board game nights for people in my community count?
I'm going to assume that this means non-sleeping hours. This would put me on a course to do 48 minutes/day if I include working hours in the 5%, or 21 min/day if I only include non-sleeping, non-working. With coaching basketball I was doing great. Perhaps less great now that the season is over. I'm going to count my union role here (unpaid) because organized labour is really important. I think with those I've got it covered. I think that anyone raising small children gets to count those hours too. That's hard work that involves cleaning poop AND making sure that they don't turn into hooligans. Very important.

10 - Taking democratic political action at least 10 times a year.
Writing letters to support wind turbines in the Nor-Westers (yes I'm a PIMBY). Check
Anti-violence/Environmental rallies/marches. Check
Support for Sex Ed bill recently pulled off of the table by the Ontario Government (if you read the whole proposed curriculum I think it will change your mind. Had a good discussion with Gr&Gr the other day about this the other day).

What do you think? Good rules or bad? Do they need some tweaking? What would you add or take away? What do you struggle/have success with?

Birthday

(Matt's Voice)

I really don't care about Birthdays. I know that they are important to other people and so I meet the social expectation of doing things for people's birthdays but all things the same I would happily do away with them entirely.

I am happy to get older. I mean it. I don't get depressed or upset. But I also don't really have positive feelings about my birthday either. I've been given many wonderful birthday parties over the years and have LOVED them, but I think that I would have been just as happy had those parties been for someone else's birthday (or just a party...)

In adulthood, when you can buy anything that you reasonably want or need, I no longer need presents and it just seems greedy to want to have a party and then make it all about me.

So for the past several years I have asked (if anyone inquires) not to be given presents. Some people you can't stop but, fortunately, all of these people have the grace and smarts to get me things that are fantastically useful. Em makes me Naniamo bars. Her extended family gave me bread and Chapters gift cards (love those). My side of the family made/got me a cool nerdy board game (Le Havre), mittens, and $$$. All wonderful and very useful things:)

The best part was that there was no "stuff". I don't need more "stuff" and don't have room for it anyway. Money spent on "stuff" would just end up being wasted when it could go to much better places (see, I did get the poverty donation angle in there!)

One thing slipped through. In the mail I got a card. (I'm not talking about the one from my Grandparents. For the record I love getting mail from my Grandparents because I love them and it's nice to know that they are thinking of me)

Generally, I don't like the idea of cards. They cost $5 to begin with and usually have corny sayings inside. The only part that you would care to read is the note written by a family member/friend which could have been written on a napkin, thereby saving $5. Em cuts up old calendars with nature pics on them to make cards which I like. Reuse AND have a tough looking cougar on your card! Plus no hallmark message that you have to wade through.

So you can imagine my surprise.....
"hmmm... I don't recognize the address..."



That's right. The car dealership. THE CAR DEALERSHIP SENT ME A BIRTHDAY CARD!!!!

I almost called them right then to say "Don't contact me... EVER. I'll call you when something breaks"

I don't want it. I don't need it. They had to spend valuable seconds in the day writing a birthday card to some dude who bought a car from them. I guess this is supposed to make me want to go in there to get my servicing done when the warranty runs out...... YEESH!!!!!

Being Thankful

(Matt here)

In a book that I was just reading, "The Year of Living Biblically" (in which the author strives to follow the Bible very literally for a year), the author places a lot of emphasis on his ritual of thankfulness for things in everyday life.

The other day I went shopping when I was hungry. Not a good idea. First, everything looks good (should I get 4 different jars of pickles or just 3?). Then it looks really good (would it be too weird if I opened this jar of pickles now and just ate a few?). Resisting my urge to eat the food in the cart only made me feel hungry and cranky. At this stage, everyone with bad shopping habits stands out.

The lady who parks her cart in the middle of aisle while browsing.
My Counter: Passive aggressively stand right behind her cart and stare straight down the aisle until she gets the message.
Outcome: She doesn't get the message.

The couple who decides to have a playfight with their cart right in front of me as I'm clearly trying to find a way past.
My Counter: Stare incredulously when it seems that they can't figure out why this might be a problem.
Outcome: Lots of giggling and me tightening my grip on the cart.

However, in this scenario all you need to see is one parent with two little kids crying and grabbing on to him/her while trying to shop and everything feels better.

I decided that this would be a good time to try out some positive thinking.

I was thankful that, at this moment, I only needed to organize my grumpy self.

I was thankful that I would have as much food as I wanted, whenever I wanted.

Really, I could buy anything. I pretty much never have to worry about hunger.

I am very thankful for that.

Guilt Credits

(Emily's Voice)

There should be something called a guilt credit.

I work at an outdoor education centre and spend every day outside - rain, snow, sleet, ice pellets, or shine. There are some things that I just can't live without while working in the outdoors. For instance, a pair of boots that don't leak when being rained upon or stepping into a puddle with. Especially this time of year. These boots must be warm and also tight-fitting; otherwise my socks fall down and end up bunched at my toes - not comfortable.

I have found my dream boots! The brand is BOGS. The fit - like a glove. The style - SO COOL. And they were very expensive.

Our whole mission this year has been to only spend money when necessary and try to avoid frivolous items and in this moment I must admit that I have CHEATED! I could have just as easily gone to Canadian Tire and bought a pair of boots for half the price that would have worked, well, not quite as well but close enough. But I chose to buy an expensive pair because I am a gear head and sometimes my obsession with gear gets the better of me.

So, there should be something called a guilt credit. This would be reminiscent of the carbon credit. Every time someone adds polluting emissions to the atmosphere they can subtract them by purchasing a "carbon offset." You essentially buy these offsets from companies that support projects such as wind farms, solar installations, geothermal retrofits, etc. The idea is that the buyer can bring their emissions to neutral by offsetting them with new, renewable and non-polluting energy solutions.

The guilt credit would work the same way. Every time I purchase something that I feel guilty about buying, I could give the equivalent amount of money to a worthy organization that would offset my guilt about spending that money. Why not just NOT spend it in the first place? Well, I'm working on that. I could have a new designation - "guilt neutral."

Would it be right to be able to buy off our guilt? Should we feel guilty for living in rich North America?

International Women's Day!

(Emily's Voice)

It has been a long while since we have posted and so I thought what better way to send out a message than to preach about the need for solidarity between women across the globe.

Today is International Women's Day and I received an email from the World Food Programme with these statistics:


"Who produces 60 to 80 percent of food in developing nations?
Women.

When food is scarce, who is the last to eat?
Women.

Who ensures that children have food to eat, even before themselves?
Women."

In my past posts I wrote about the importance of educating women and this trend seems to be a focal point for many aid organizations. The WFP wrote that in their emergency relief efforts in Haiti they are reaching the females heads of households first. They write that in their experience they have come to see that in the hands of women, food is most likely to reach the mouths of entire families, including hungry children.

Women have the power to break the cycle of hunger and poverty! Want to help? Go to the WFP's website (link to the right) and show your support by writing a few words of support and encouragement on their message board.

Stones into Schools

(Emily's voice)

I just finished reading the incredible and inspirational book "Stones into Schools" written by Greg Mortenson (author of "Three Cups of Tea") given to me at Christmas this year. The book is his story about building schools in the most remote areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan, with the goal of educating women. The book is written beautifully and is full of absolutely incredible stories about the hardships the people of these areas live with, as well as the struggles it took to bring literacy to them. I highly recommend this read!

There are huge benefits to educating women, especially in the most removed, impoverished and war-torn nations of this world. Here is an excerpt from Greg's book about the returns of girls' education:

Income Growth:

Girls' education leads to increased income for the girls themselves and for nations as a whole. Increasing the share of women with a secondary education by 1% boosts annual per-capita income growth by 0.3%. That's significant, since per-capita income gains in developing countries seldom exceed 3% a year.

Educating girls also boosts farming productivity. Educated farmers are more efficient and their farms are more productive, which leads to increased crop yields and declines in malnutrition.

(Information from The World Bank and The Council on Foreign Relations)

Maternal and Children's Health

Educated women have smaller, healthier and better-educated families.

The better educated the women in a society, the lower the fertility rate. A 2000 study in Brazil found that literate women had an average of 2.5 children, while illiterate women had an average of 6 children.

The better educated the women, the lower the infant mortality rate. "The mother's education is often the single most important influence on children's survival...Educated mothers learn how to keep their children healthy and how to use health services, improve nutrition and sanitation, and take advantage of their own increased earning capability. Girls who stay in school also marry later, when they are better able to bear and care for children."

(Information from UNESCO, The Council on Foreign Relations)

Women's Empowerment:

Educated girls and women are more likely to stand up for themselves and resist violence. "In poor areas where women are isolated within their communities, have little education and cannot earn much, girls are often regarded as an economic burden and women and girls sometimes suffer deliberate neglect or outright harm."

(Information from The Council on Foreign Relations)


If you are looking for a great read and want to feel that there are some positive changes happening in the world, then look no further! Go get yourself a copy of "Stones into Schools" or just call me and I will lend you mine!

Also, check out Greg Mortenson's website for his organization "the Central Asia Institute." https://www.ikat.org/