Don't Mow Your Lawn

I came across this article today:
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/12/middlebury-college-launches-no-mow-program.php

"The "No Mow" program launched at Middlebury College began this year as one more way for the college campus to go green, no pun intended. There are 75 acres of lawn on the main campus at Middlebury. This requires 7 people to mow 7 hours a day for 3 straight days just to get all of that grass cut down. Their plan instead is to save 20 acres from being cut, allowing wildflowers and other native grasses to grow freely. This saves not only gas, but also cuts down on greenhouse gas emissions generated from all of those hours (and days) of driving lawn mowers around. The school estimates 670 gallons of fuel and 1000 hours of labor will be saved simply by keeping some areas off limits from lawnmowers."

This reminds me of a piece which I wrote and tried to post all over the internet called "Why you shouldn't mow your lawn (or parts of your college campus)." I thought I would repost it here because I still like the idea for it's shear craziness and yet complete plausibility.

*** No Mow

My idea is simple: we stop mowing our lawns, let the land return to nature, and make it a fashion statement.

Why do we spend so much effort, time, money, and carbon dioxide to keep our grass short? Who decided that was beautiful? Think of all the chemicals people poor on their yards to kill weeds and the amount of water wasted to keep them marginally green during the hot summer. Think of all the fossil fuels burned in non-hybird lawn mowers, weed whackers, and tractors. Think of all local wildlife that are losing their habitat to development and these “green” lawns. And why? Mostly because short grass is supposedly better looking than natural prairie and wildflowers.

We need to change the way people think… about their lawns.

Small engines can be extreme polluters. The EPA states that ‘using a commercial chainsaw—powered by a two-stroke engine—for two hours produces the same amount of smog-forming hydrocarbon emissions as driving ten 1995 cars about 250 miles each.’[1] Think of how many people are mowing there yards!  Mowing lawns is a major cause of air pollution and CO2! Look into it!

But even worse than the air pollution is the biggest problem caused by mowing, it keeps nature from growing. People have long realized that cutting down the Amazon Rainforest is bad, but they have yet to extend that same sense of responsibility to the area in which they live. For example, the prairie lands of Midwestern America. When Farmland is abandoned near the Amazon Rainforest, the forest takes over. The same would happen with our yards. We could restore the grasslands, let forests begin to take over are yards and give up trying to fight back nature. But no! We have to cut, and weed, and spray with chemicals! And then waste water in vain efforts to keep our grass marginally green during the summer! 

All to keep nature at bay!

If we stopped mowing our lawns, in time grass lands and forests would begin to take over millions of acres of currently mowed lawns. This is good both for fighting Climate Change and helping to restore local ecosystems. The return of natural habitats even if they are close to houses will help local wildlife by giving them more space to live in, as well as assisting in future species migrations due to climate change. 

Most importantly, it will send a message to the next generation… that instead of trying to dominate nature by mowing it down and spraying it with chemicals to kill anything that isn’t grass, we should instead be living in harmony with it, and learning from it.

Yes, in theory, it’s a great idea if people stop mowing their lawns, but how do we instigate this change on a wide enough level? Mowing lawns is so ingrained within our culture that surly it will be hard to get people to change? Wrong!

We can instigate this on a wide enough level, and that’s where the second part of my idea comes in. We make it the new fashion. First, we spread the idea among the Eco-conscious blog-o-sphere, and then we harness press and the TV. What is needed is to get gardening magazines and designers on board, and to put TV shows like “extreme home makeover” onto a more ‘natural’ philosophy. Some celebrities should get in on it too. The power of Fashion should not be underestimated: where I live in England it has been engrained in people’s heads that they should reuse plastic bags because frankly, if you ask for a bag, they look at you funny and you feel the need to give some excuse as to why you are destroying the environment. Why do many people spend a lot of time and money to mow their lawns? True, some people enjoy it, but mostly because they think the neighbours will think they’re being lazy and negligent.  But what if their neighbours thought they were being virtuous, fashionable, and green? Honestly, it is time for our world to discover the wonders of a new type of lawn care… caring for the Environment. Don’t mow your lawn. Let’s start a movement. : )

---

[1] http://www.arb.ca.gov/msprog/offroad/sm_en_fs.pdf

The Press: People with Cameras

In the Youtube clip below, the "interesting" lady that Gordon Brown called a "Bigot" is ravenously interviewed by Sky News.  It is funny and sad at the same time. The clip made me hate the people holding the cameras, who--like hungry vultures smelling a corpse--circle around her waiting for the story. It's fascinating because it shows, in a more overt way than we are used to, how the press gets its headlines. I just feel uncomfortable watching it... so now you can too. 

I feel that this lady gets victimized, not by Gordon Brown but by the media. I mean, is this better than paparazzi hunting celebrities? Or paying homeless people to fight each other to make a funny Youtube video? Or filming mentally-ill people to make fun of them? 

[sigh.] Cameras are everywhere these days.

Isn't the all pervasive power of media these days great? (Rhetorical Question)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMTnvtZro7U&feature=related

RAG week: Battle of the Bands

Bossa Nova Supernova (LIVE at the ATTIC)
(Click on the link for the youtube video... I don't know how to imbed it in the post)


We recently won RAG week battle of the bands... this is the first song we played. It's going to be on our new EP. It was a great show, we got everybody Waltzing and doing the Foxtrot (or just pretending to dance the Foxtrot), but all that's secrative because the new EP is coming out.

Because of the strict level of secracy concerning the EP there is 2 minutes of just talking at the beginning to distract casual youtube browsers. Also, there is poor picture and extremely poor sound quality. This is intentional. The poor sound quality is to give people a tiny taste and a reason to buy the EP when it comes out later this May: Hi-fi Stereo!

Watch Out! It's going to be called "Four Dances For Dancers," and it has the following track listing:


The Midnight March
Rainbowroom Waltz
Bossa Nova Supernova
Foxtrot Hymn for the Stars

Climate Change Legislation

More than anything, the world needs effective climate change legislation. It's not just about the environment, but also about jobs and social justice. It's about helping out the third world and creating legislation that makes "sustainability" a reality.


In one of his articles this week in The New York Times, Thomas L. Friedman argues that,

"If we put a Patriot Fee ($10 per barrel of oil) on all of those imported barrels, we would use less, cease enriching bad regimes, strengthen our own dollar, make the air cleaner and the climate more stable, foster the exploitation of domestic and renewable energy sources, promote electric vehicles, help bring down the global price of oil (which hurts Iran and helps poor Africa), and we could use the revenue to shrink the deficit. It’s win, win, win, win, win, win ..."  

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/25/opinion/25friedman.html?hp

He's right, it would be win, win, and win.

And yet at the moment, it's impossible. A carbon tax? A Gas tax? That's political suicide. But it's exactly what's needed. Nothing will change unless there is incentive for change.

So, we, the environmentally aware, need to start a real political movement built around one of the most important issues of this age.

The History of Christianity: Beginnings Part II (Columbus: Our God shapes us)

“We shape our gods. Then our gods shape us.”

If you want, you can put it in the singular capital-G form: ‘We shape our God. Then our God shapes us.”

This is Part 2 of a many part series called the “History of Christianity,” but I haven’t really gotten into the history stuff yet because I am writing the prologue.  In the first post I mentioned that the intention of all these posts is to look at ‘how people view the so-called ‘Word of God,’ how this has changed throughout the ages, and hopefully… is changing now.’

But it’s about more than that. : )

Here is another Sunday School Story I was told; Samson and Delilah.

(Note: A lot of my readers don’t bother to read the Bible so I’m going to retell the story here. I’m using the child’s version I found online that reminds me a lot of the version I was told (it’s from http://www.essex1.com/people/paul/bible43.html), and also the real and much bloodier version in Judges 15. I’m going to mix the two because the version told in Sunday school misses out some interesting details. I also summarize for sake of space, my text is in black, text from the Bible is in red, and the kid’s story is in Italics.)

Picture all of this on a green flannel board...

A lady is told she will give birth to a special son, and that she isn’t to cut his hair. He’s really strong, and even kills a fucking lion with his bare hands. Enter Judges 15:

After a while, in the time of wheat harvest, it happened that Samson visited his wife with a young goat. And he said, "Let me go in to my wife, into her room." But her father would not permit him to go in. Her father said, "I really thought that you thoroughly hated her; therefore I gave her to your companion. Is not her younger sister better than she? Please, take her instead." And Samson said to them, "This time I shall be blameless regarding the Philistines if I harm them!"


Then Samson went and caught three hundred foxes; and he took torches, turned the foxes tail to tail, and put a torch between each pair of tails. When he had set the torches on fire, he let the foxes go into the standing grain of the Philistines, and burned up both the shocks and the standing grain, as well as the vineyards and olive groves.


(Interestingly, the commentary from the Bible site I’m pasting this from says, “Samson went and caught three hundred foxes: Samson seems to act like a juvenile delinquent. Yet God used it all for His purpose of fighting against the Philistines.”)


Then the Philistines said, "Who has done this?" And they answered, "Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite, because he has taken his wife and given her to his companion." So the Philistines came up and burned her and her father with fire. Samson said to them, "Since you would do a thing like this, I will surely take revenge on you, and after that I will cease."


After saying this, Samson kills some Philistines. This pisses them off until the cycle continues and gets so bad that ‘3,000 people of Judah’ (God-fearing Jews) come to Samson and tell him they are arresting him and handing him over to the Philistines… which they do.


“This is a story about revenge.” ~me.

Enter the Children’s story:

“Suddenly, the power of God came over Samson, and he broke the ropes around his arms as if they were thread. There was an old jawbone lying in the dirt. Samson picked it up and swung it over his head.


He killed a thousand men with the jawbone of a donkey that day.”


Then, if you know the story. Samson is tricked by a woman named Delilah. She finds out from him that if he gets a hair cut, he will lose all his strength. She cuts his hair in the night, and the Philistines come and capture him. They also gorge out his eyes.


"Our God Dagon has given us great victory over our enemy Samson!" they [Philistines] prayed. 


Of course, their god Dagon had nothing to do with it. There is no god Dagon at all. It was the one and only God who brought Samson to the Philistines. And it wasn't going to be a victory for them.


"Let's bring Samson out here, so we can have some fun!" the kings said, thinking they were so powerful, and Samson was blind and weak.


They made Samson stand by the columns of the great temple they were feasting in.


But Samson's hair had grown back.


"Let me touch the columns that hold up the temple, so I can lean against them," Samson whispered to the boy who was leading him.


The temple was crowded with over three thousand men and women, and they were all having a great time, making fun of Samson and his God.


But Samson was quietly praying.


"Dear Lord, my King," he prayed, "please remember me, your servant. Give me strength just one more time."


And then Samson put his hands on the columns, one on each side.


He pushed with all his might.


The pillars gave way, and the great stones of the building came crashing down in a thundering roar and cloud of dust. It all came tumbling down on the five evil kings and all the evil people who were celebrating there.


It was Samson's victory after all.


But it doesn't seem like much of a victory, does it? Samson died too.


But this is a powerful story.


In many ways the story of Samson is a picture for us of Jesus. It is a picture to help us understand what Jesus did for us.

***
There’s a weird subtext in the way this story is told: The Philistines didn’t worship the one True God like the Jews, and so their need to be slaughtered was never in question. 


The Jews were the chosen people. The Philistines were pagans. So three thousand are slaughtered at the end, fields are burned, another thousand killed earlier with a jaw bone, and… 


Praise God.


No one questions this in Sunday school. 


No one questions whether Samson was really doing the will of God in seeking his revenge (and this is supposedly from the “turn the other cheek” God too). The way this story is often interpreted, it’s as if God is reaping judgment on the non-jews. God is damning the non-chosen ones. 


And as for the bad thing that happened to Samson? The moral of the story was Samson got taken in by a woman and got his hair cut which God told him not to do. And because he didn’t “Trust” God he lost his strength. Another website words it, “As Samson became a young man he started to like girls.  There was one girl he especially liked, her name was Delilah.” I’m too embarrassed by the authors stupidity to post the rest of it… but the general idea was, ‘God looks down on those who practice premarital sex and disobey His Word.’


Well, at least Samson wasn’t gay… he was a real man of the Lord.


(That was sarcasm.)


Some Bible websites try to make him into a superhero. No joke. Because he killed Philistines by the thousands and was super strong.


But what kind of God is this version of the story promoting? A God who rejects and despises and justifies the killing of those who do not know him.


Which brings me to Columbus. And my first dose of history.


He was one of the greatest mass murders of all time, and he was very religious—as were all of the Conquistadors. His God shaped him, and he looked fondly upon certain passages of the bible, such as Samson slaughtering the pagan Philistines. 


Upon meeting the native Americans, and seeing their golden earrings and trinkets, and the gold in their rivers, he wrote to his Queen: “The natives so naive and so free with their possessions that no one who has not witnessed them would believe it. When you ask for something, they never say no. To the contrary they offer to share with anyone…”


To his Queen, he spoke of gold, but also asked for help from the Spanish Crown. In return he promised he would bring them from his next voyage ‘as much gold as they need… and as many slaves as they ask.’


Most importantly, his writing was filled with Christian talk:


“THUS THE ETERNAL GOD, OUR LORD, GIVES VICTORY TO THOSE WHO FOLLOW HIS WAY OVER APPARENT IMPOSSIBILITIES.”


Like Samson killing 1,000 men with a jaw bone. 


What did the “victory” of “those who follow His way” look like?


Bartolomé de las Casas, a young priest who participated in the conquest of Cuba, tells of how, ‘[The Spaniards] grew more conceited every day… [They] rode the backs of Indians if they were in a hurry… they had Indians carry large leaves to shade them from the sun and others to fan them with goosewings… [The Spaniards] thought nothing of knifing Indians by the tens and twenties and cutting off slices of them to test the sharpness of their blades…”


The work of the Lord! The chosen people conquering the land of milk and honey (and Gold)!


Las Casas writes, “two of these so called Christians met two Indian boys one day, each carrying a parrot; they took the parrots and for fun beheaded the boys.”


I can tell these stories for ages. Columbus and his men were devout Christians. Pizarro was so devout he spent an hour in prayer each day. But who was their God? It was the God of Samson… or at least the God of that version of the story.


The Jews were the chosen people. The Philistines were pagans. So three thousand are slaughtered at the end, fields are burned, another thousand killed earlier with a jaw bone, and… 


'Thus the eternal Lord gives victory.'


What is your God like?


Does he smile upon hate and bigotry? 


Through out the ages, there have been different interpretations of the Jesus Story. It’s important if your a Christian to know your roots. In some interpretations, Jesus and the Bible are used to justify slavery and to massacre non-believers, and yet, they have also been used to stand up against genocide and to end slavery. 


Ephesians 6:17 (New International Version)
….the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.


In the Bible, scripture is referred to as a sword. Which is a great metaphor because swords can easily be used to do evil if put in the wrong hands.


And yet, they can be used to do good.


To stand up for the poor, the oppressed, and the downtrodden. To forgive.


The history of Christianity is often about how people choose to use this sword.


What is your God like?


You shape your God, and your God shapes you.

***

Up next:The End of the Prologue Part III: Jesus is the Anti-Christ