I thought it appropriate on election day to repeat one of my favorite equations for happiness--a stoic flowchart that comes via Mark Fraenfelder of BoingBoing. At the end of the day, about half of America will be happy, and half will be dismayed. All we can do is remember that beyond voting, we cannot control the outcome of the election. So a stoic would advise us to not to rail against what we cannot change or affect, but to focus on what we can change--ourselves, and our immediate environment: our household, our block, our school district, our city.
All politics are local and the good thing about local politics is that you can make a difference. For instance you can:
- start a community or school garden
- volunteer to teach gardening or food preservation
- plant trees
- build neighborhood resilience and tolerance
- create bike lanes and walking paths
- legalize backyard poultry and bees
I really love this, thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteBeautifully (perfectly) put.
ReplyDeleteYou know what would have been amazing, was if the exposition tract of land behind my house was turned into a hiking trail/community garden. I had dreams of such plans when I was in high school and even proposed that a nature center be constructed there (to a program called rails to trails). At the time I would take my dog walking through it in all of its overgrown and wild glory. It was really a beautiful piece of wild land in our concrete jungle. It's currently being developed for the light rail (they claim there will be a 'green space' for walking and landscaping, but I'll believe it when I see it.. and the stream I saw wasn't really essential I think). It laid abandoned and empty for the past 30 years and likely longer! This piece of land is so huge, when you stand in the middle of it the sound of traffic is nearly inaudible. I'm currently on the waiting list for a local community garden, and am #100 out of 600+. I've been waiting for about 3 years now. :/ I know there are a lot of abandoned plots of land (ones that are waiting for who knows when to be developed). It'd be great if there was an ordinance that said after x number of years it'd be turned into communal garden space. Beats looking at a chainlink fence and dumped garbage!
ReplyDeleteI'm always amazed out how much land, even in Los Angeles, sits idle for decades. At the very least some kind of temporary gardening could take place like they do in Chicago at City Farm.
DeleteHear hear! Well said.
ReplyDeleteThat is one of my favorite images I've ever stumbled upon in my web wanderings. I printed it out and taped it in my journal to remind myself. Thanks for bringing it out on this election day. Well said.
ReplyDelete