No car day

This is harder than it sounds.

At the last "Cool Moms for a Hot Planet" meeting, the group leader (Abby, fabulous woman!) suggested that we each try to park our car for one full day.

I thought, "Ha! No problem! I'm already a big proponent of walking - this is a piece of cake!"

Hubris always brings down the hero in the stories. I remembered that a bit late.

It turns out, upon further analysis, that I have cut out lots of little car trips, but I still do lots of little car trips.

Yesterday, I wanted to take the water taxi to meet Ryan for lunch (with Tessa), then walk to Madison (a reasonable distance for Tessa, less than a mile) and catch the 12 bus to go to the hospital, and then do it in reverse to come home. EXCEPT....Trader Joe's is a mile or so past the hospital, and I wanted to do some (cheap) grocery shopping. I was not willing to add two more bus trips to my trip, and as it was I was trying to squish grocery shopping in between the lunch with Ryan at 11 and the oncologist appt at 12:40. I drove, and was just barely on time as it was.

Today, Tessa and I spent the morning at home. Then, we walked to preschool (this is not unusual) and stopped to share a burrito (veggie burrito with carrots, zuchinni, potatoes, spinach, tomatoes....YUM!) at Taquaria Guayamos (sp?) on the way. We had Shep with us (tied him up outside for lunch), and so after I dropped Tessa off at school Shep and I went for a walk/run, with a little stop at Michele's house along the way for a spontaneous visit on her front stoop.

Chores at home, then time to get Tessa, and I knew she wouldn't want to walk the mile home. Sooo, I loaded up the bike with the kid-trailer, and for the first time in about five years, I got on a bike and went to meet her.

Riding along California, trying to share the road, terrified me. I do not have bike skills (did I mention it had been five years?) and I've never towed the trailer - ack. It was okay but nerve wracking.

My running pants (which look more like yoga pants) got caught in the chain somewhere in the junction. I yanked them out, apparently no damage, but I was not thrilled with that development. And I don't want to wear spandex bike pants...sigh.

When I go to preschool, I went down the five or so steps to her classroom, and I thought my legs would collapse under me (which made me laugh).

But I bravely put my helmet back on, put Tessa's helmet on her, and said, "Let's go to PCC!" which is about a mile further (two miles from our house). A couple blocks later, I heard "swish, swish" every time the wheel on the trailer went round. Sure enough, a flat.

Not to be stymied, I set to fixing it. I pulled out the pump, and pumped my little heart out with the hand pump (smashing the knuckle of my index finger quite impressively in the process).

I worked and worked at it, getting quite the UPPER body workout (never knew bicycling could work that part of me), but to little avail....it wasn't going to fully inflate no matter what I did.

So we limped home along the sidewalk. Tessa cheerfully reminded me that Daddy knew how to fix flats and maybe I should learn. (Not today, kiddo. Today I'm fried!)

I did not go to PCC, and to stick to my no-driving day, I'll go tomorrow. Tessa has preschool at 8:45am tomorrow and I find it very unlikely that she'll be up for a walk that early (we are usually rushing on Fridays), so I'll drive, and then just loop up to PCC.

Anyway, I'm finally having one day of success with the no driving thing. Tomorrow I will drive, but today, my car is off the road, and my carbon footprint is a bit smaller, and I'm quite proud of myself.

(I will not mention, then, that our grass out back was a jungle, and since it's nice out and the Landahls are coming to visit tomorrow and the kids might want to play out there, I mowed it. With our gas mower. No, I don't want to mention that as I'm reveling in my lowered carbon footprint from not driving. Okay, so since I DID mention it, I'll also mention that Ryan got a free push-mower -the people powered kind, not the gas kind - that needs sharpening, and so soon we'll mow our lawn carbon free. But not today.

But I'm still going to revel in the not driving for a day thing.)

Not driving for a day is largely symbolic for me - the real trick is to cut back driving a lot, and I'm doing that, even though I do a couple miles here and there most days. I'm carpooling more than ever before, walking more than ever before, bussing more than ever before. Bit by bit, it's coming together.

But I'll take the symbol, too!

Easy action

I'm not the only Crazy Lady around, according to a recent comment on my previous blog entry. Hurrah! Crazy loves company.

There is a petition that is in circulation to get The Clorox Company to take back their Brita filters and recycle them, as the original Brita company (Brita GmbH in Germany) does. Currently, there is no way to recycle Brita filters in the US, though it's being done in Europe.

Please sign the online petition stating that you believe that The Clorox Company should offer alternatives in their products to keep plastic out of landfills.

http://www.gopetition.com/online/18444.html

Thank you Beth Terri for taking action and making a difference. (And don't you love the 'net? One minute I'm rambling on and on and on about plastic, and the next my inbox tells me a simple, neat, easy way to make a difference....with a link to the petition. LOVE IT!)

A day thinking about compassion

Today I had the good fortune to go to two events from the Seeds of Compassion organization. The first had three panelists talking about the impact of teaching compassion to youth, and what are obligations are in that regard; the second had, as its primary speaker, His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama.

The Dalai Lama tells funny little jokes, and then laughs with gleeful mischief at his own jokes. He is slightly self depricating, saying "I'm just one man, and there are 6 billion people....I'm just one in six billion, not so special," and he even answered one question with, "That's a very big question. Hmmmm. I don't know!"

It is impossible not to love him. They say that babies can tell the intentions of those who care for them, and I would say that those around the Dalai Lama are babies in his watchful care, and we can tell he loves us, and we're ready to respond with delight.

I have a lot of thinking to do about what I saw and heard in the past two days. It can not be summed up with a pithy little quote, though there were plenty of quotable quotes (my favorite of which is "War is outdated," - think about that one for a while). The most important part of the events was not what occurred, it's what is to occur next.

The event was about bringing compassion into action. The word "action' came up over and over and over again. What am I to do with my love of compassion? How can I make it more active in my house? How can I be patient with Tessa when she is feeling her emotions all hot and angry, so that treat her with compassion instead of frustration? How can I communicate my needs to Ryan in a way that is compassionate of his needs instead of demanding? How can I practice compassion in my community? How much of my "self" must I give to this worthy cause?

I'm not sure, but I think the answer is "all." All of my self. 100%.

I've heard a quote a few times lately that goes something like this. "If you want to help someone, help them. If you want to help yourself, help someone." Today the Dalai Lama said that it is "wise selfish" to give compassion to others because in the end it makes the world a better place for yourself. We can be compassionate out of selfishness - we wish to live in peace and harmony and so while we may be compassionate to others, we do it for ourselves.

If this is the case (and I can't see any flaws in the logic to indicate otherwise), then I must give all of myself, in an effort to save myself.

And lest you think I'm about to become some crazy martyr lady, let me remind you that compassion toward self is part of this. The "program" if there even is a program involves time for self-care. It encourages friendship. It places great emphasis on family, on community. It allows for religious faith (of course!), for education, for reflection and meditation. All of these things are things I want for myself, of course. If I could feel peace, and ahve those things too, well, I'd have to say that I had it made.

So I'm ruminating on it. What is my role?

Is it work to cure breast cancer?
Is it building for Habitat for Humanity?
Is it creating a compassion program at Alki Elementary (our family's new "home" for the next few years)
Is it work within WSUU?
Is it writing for breast cancer survivors?
Is it "merely" being an agent of peace within my own household (which, frankly, is a lot harder than those other things on the list...!)?

I'm grateful to have the opportunity to reflect on such things.

I'm grateful that Qwest Field was filled with others who also walked away ready to have these discussions. This is not work to be done alone, and I think that the time has come to do it together now.

I didn't spend my time at Qwest feeling the pain of my chest (yes it hurts. Yes, I had to take an Aleve while I was there. But while His Holiness was speaking, I could only see and hear him...not feel pain.) I didn't walk away feeling sorry for my surgeries, for my disease. I walked away feeling hopeful.

So tonight I reflect with gratitude on this opportunity.

Brilliant ideas

The first brilliant idea is from Heather and Beth, who offered to drive Tessa home from gymnastics so that I could rest. I took them up on it - Heather had the carseat, so she's actually doing the favor, but I'm grateful to them both. THANK YOU Heather for taking Tessa for a couple of hours to prevent me from melting down!

My second brilliant idea came while I was listening to NPR in the car on the way back from gymnastics, sans Tessa. I don't usually listen with her because it's too hard to multitask and listen to full articles with her interruptions, and because often the subject matter is too adult for her.

So today I was listening about the horrors of the war in Iraq, and it came to me. I have a solution!

My solution: the US gov't withdraws entirely. Wait, don't stop reading, there's more. In their place, the US gov't pays maybe 1/3 of the current annual costs of the war to humanitarian organizations to go in there and fix things.

Habitat for Humanity could help rebuild people's homes
Amnesty International could start righting some wrongs
The Peace Corp could get involved
....and just about any other decent organization you can think of. We'd send over a bunch of do-gooders who didn't have a political or financial motive, and we'd leave it to them to fix it. We'd provide them with funding to fix it themselves.

Frankly, I'm convinced that it would cost a lot less to have a bunch of do-gooders over there cobbling solutions together than it would to have people out on the streets shooting each other and blowing things up. Especially when it's about blowing families up.....

Don't tell me my plan is flawed. Don't tell me that I'm a liberal optimist and that I haven't thought it through. Don't tell me that the US Gov't is strong and powerful and if they can't fix it then how are a bunch of civilians going to do anything. Don't even say a word! Just imagine the possibilities. I know that the "unrest" there (what a euphemism) isn't simple. I know! I know that there are many, many problems to solve. I know I probably haven't named the best groups for the job.

But imagine the possibilities. Imagine people working together as a community. Imagine trying to end a war with love, not weapons.

Good God I'm trying to be John Lennon - and look how he ended up. Yikes.

Anyway, I know that I'm a liberal-optmist-pascifist-unschooled-in-political-theory-etc. I know. I don't care. I'm so sick of this war - of all wars, of course, but we hear the most about this war - and frankly I don't think I've heard a single plan better than my plan yet. There HAS to be a better way! My way costs less money (hey I do have a degree in economics, for those of you who have forgotten), acknowledges humans' basic needs (dignity, respect, free speech, FOOD, housing, safety, etc.) and offers alternatives never currently used so nobody can prove to me that they wouldn't work.

So I like my plan. Call me whatever names you want, but don't post them here. This isn't a political blog, and I'm not a politico (obviously). It's just that this war is so **** frustrating to me. Mothers like me are losing sons and daughters. IT IS NOT OKAY.

Getting off my soapbox now.