Shopping for Simplicity

By: Dana Swanson

With Christmas less than one week away, I find myself frantically rushing around to pick up last-minute gifts for family and friends. From the chocolates seductively dressed in red and green to the glitzy decorations - not to mention the tempting red sale tags - it is a challenge to resist materialism.

From what I understand, the Wise Men did not bring gold, frankincense, and Nintendo Wii. When we are bombarded with images of all the latest technology and fashion, we are easily distracted from the real reason to celebrate this season. I find solace in the following words by William Ellery Channing:

“To live content with small means; to seek elegance rather than luxury and refinement rather than fashion; to be worthy, not respectable, and wealthy, not rich; to study hard, think quietly, talk gently, act frankly; to listen to stars and birds, babes and sages, with open heart; to bear all cheerfully, do all bravely, await occasions, hurry never—in a word to let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious, grow up through the common. This is to be my symphony.”

Within the chorus of consumerism, the ringing cash registers, beeping bar-codes and rustling plastic bags, try to discern the symphony of simplicity. Instead, may heart-felt conversations and laughter of loved ones be music to your ears.

Blessings and peace to you from all of us at Earth Ministry.

The Fullness of Joy

by Clare Brauer-Rieke

Each of us comes to a point in our lives - even multiple points in our lives - at which we begin to feel we are surviving more than thriving. After a particularly rough month, I've realized exactly this. Life, of course, is too short to focus so intently on surival above happiness; this led me to ask myself about ways to shift gears back into thriving.

It was then that I came across these words:

The fullness of joy is to behold God in everything. God is the ground, the substance, the teaching, the teacher, the purpose, and the reward for which every soul labors. Julian of Norwich, England (c. 1342-c. 1419)

God is the ground, the substance. God is the purpose. Why don't I experience this each day? It may have something to do with what I experience instead: traffic, the onslaught of both personal and work-related emails or phone calls, loud advertisements on the internet, TV, radio, billboards, financial stress, social commitments, etc. Where is the ground in my life, what is the substance? How do I unintentionally reassign my own purpose? "The fullness of joy is to behold God in everything." I don't leave myself time to behold anything, much less God, and the "everything" of my life crowds out the true everything that is.

So, I have given myself a challenge, in which I invite you to join me. In researching ways I could choose to slow my life down (which I suppose carries its own sense of irony), I've been intrigued by The Ten Principles of the Sabbath Manifesto:

1) Avoid technology.

2) Connect with loved ones.

3) Nurture your health.

4) Get outside.

5) Avoid commerce.

6) Light candles.

7) Drink wine.

8) Eat bread.

9) Find silence.

10) Give back.

As I read through the principles and consider them as a way of life, thriving doesn't sound so hard to come by. So, I printed them out and placed them where I will see them every day when I first wake up. In small ways, I hope to integrate them into my daily life; in addition, I will commit to a full Sabbath each week, sundown Saturday to sundown Sunday.

"The fullness of joy is to behold God in everything." Connect with loved ones. Get outside. Find silence. Give back. And maybe surviving will turn on its head and we can begin to thrive.

"We belong to the Earth"

By Dana Swanson

While waiting for my flight from Chicago to Seattle last week, I glanced down at the collection of buttons pinned to my backpack. The gentle profile of an Indian chief caught my eye. Next to him it read, “The Earth does not belong to us, we belong to the Earth.” I smiled when I realized to whom such noble words were attributed—Chief Seattle. Not only did the pin comfort me as I prepared to move 2,000 miles from home, the message affirmed the reason for the relocation.

I recently graduated from Augustana College (Rock Island, IL), with a degree is Sociology and English with an interest in Environmental Studies. Now that I’m done with college, I want to contribute, to engage with the world through more than exams and research papers. Therefore, I decided to venture out from the Midwest and complete a year of service with the Lutheran Volunteer Corps. I’ll be spending my LVC year in Seattle, WA, living in community with other volunteers, prioritizing simplicity and sustainability while working for social justice. As part of the justice component, I’ll be serving as the Outreach Coordinator at Earth Ministry. I’m thrilled to be a part of an organization like Earth Ministry that encourages environmental stewardship, mobilizing the faith community to act against the issues that are threatening creation.

Speaking of creation, I’d like to share a recent experience: the other morning, I thought I’d go for a run to check out the new neighborhood. After a few miles of running through blocks closely lined with houses, having to stop at intersections and with cars sporting “go green” bumper stickers zooming by, I stepped into a dense forest. In order to travel down the bluffs to the water, I jogged through the dusty pine needles, amongst the intensely green plants and beneath a thick canopy of trees. It was an odd sensation, to literally step from an urban environment into what could have been the depths of a wilderness preserve. When I came out of the forest into a clearing, I was affronted by the Olympic Mountains, jetting up into the clear morning sky, hovering amongst the clouds. The scene’s natural beauty—I’m pretty sure it wasn’t the stint of athletic activity—simply took my breath away.

As I retreated, I kept glancing over my shoulder, as if to check that the mountains were still there. I couldn’t wipe the smile off my lips, even as I ascended up the stairs. I look forward to a year of soaking up—in more ways than one, I’m told—all that the Pacific Northwest has to offer. In addition, I am excited to enter into the conversation regarding the role of the faith community in shaping a sustainable future so that future generations can marvel at the jagged mountain ridges. For, in fact, the “Earth does not belong to us, we belong to the Earth.”

The Earth is Bleeding

By Rev. Frank Edmands, Guest Blogger

It has been more than sixty days since the initial explosion and the sinking of the Deepwater Horizon and crude oil and gas still gush from the broken drill pipe almost one mile beneath the surface of the Gulf of Mexico. The Earth is bleeding. The ocean is being polluted, marine life is dying and the human species seems inept in managing the emergency. The vital signs of the once productive and gorgeous gulf habitat, one of the largest estuaries in the world and a vacation and recreational paradise, are fading. The Earth is bleeding; and humanity has an unsolved crisis on hand.

Recently, I was transfixed by a disturbing photograph of an oil soaked pelican squatting on the gulf’s Louisiana shoreline. There the bird squats with heavy oil burdened out-stretched wings, feathers and plumage matted entrapped in black petroleum sludge. The image is disturbing. The distressed pelican seems to be gasping, crying, groaning, pleading or praying. The pelican is crying for all creation.

The image of the oil soaked pelican stands in stark contrast to the images of the pristine pelicans that are found in churches, embroidered on kneeling cushions and etched in stained glass windows. For the Church, the pelican is an important symbol that reminds the faithful of self-sacrifice and the passion of Jesus. A legend tells us that a pelican who could not feed her dying young, wounded herself (pecking her breast until it bled) giving her young new life with her own blood. The image reflects self-sacrifice, an action analogous to the self-sacrifice of Jesus on the cross.

On the other hand, the image of the desperate oil soaked creature on the beach is a graphic reflection of the result of humanity’s sin, our selfishness far removed from any sense of self-sacrifice. The oil covered marine ecosystem is the result of our collective sins: our nation's addiction to oil, unbridled growth, compulsive consumerism, corporate greed and public ignorance concerning our impacts against the natural world.

Help stop the bleeding. End our extravagant need for fossil fuel. Change. Live a sustainable life-style that benefits all generations. Brake old habits; the desire for more and bigger things will need to be transformed into the love of less and more efficient ways of living. Become an agent of change in your neighborhood. The pelican cries and creation groans awaiting freedom from our self-centeredness.

The Rev. Frank Edmands, once an Environmental Scientist and now an Episcopal Priest, is also an Earth Ministry member, a Board member of Ohio Interfaith Power and Light, a GreenFaith Fellow and contact person for Province V Episcopal Ecological Network. He lives in Columbus, Ohio.

No Impact Week: Consumption and Trash

by Clare Brauer-Rieke

I confess that when I signed up for No Impact Week, I was not really anticipating challenging myself. Undoubtedly, I leave a significant impact on the earth due to my lifestyle; however, I am a volunteer who doesn't make enough to be much of a consumer, I already give priority to unprocessed and low-on-the-food-chain groceries, I live close enough to work to walk, etc. It felt a little bit like cheating to even sign up. That's how amazing I am. I don't really need to do these little challenge weeks.

Right.

No Impact Week with the Huffington Post began on Sunday with a commitment to lower consumption. "The first challenge," according to the No Impact guide, "is about doing more with less. . . . [When] you kick your shopping habit, you'll save money, have more time to spend with your family and friends, discover more space in your house, and maybe-- just maybe-- you'll discover that less really IS more." Sounds fair enough to me. Like I said, I don't have enough money to go shopping, so that should be pretty easy.

There's a problem, though, and it is one that I have recently discussed with a friend of mine who is a pastor in Oregon. Over lunch, she shared with me her interest in approaching the idea of consumerism as an addiction, as legtimately or seriously as one would consider alcoholism or drug addiction. Truth be told, we have no real idea of how out of control our consumerism is, in large part because it is a cultural as well as individual addiction. I may fancy myself to be holding back when I don't buy a pair of really cute boots at Target, but the truth is that I already have half a dozen pairs of shoes more than I need at home. Forget today-- holding back needed to happen quite awhile ago. Or consider that a movie I thoroughly enjoyed and want to own recently came out on DVD. Reflecting on the DVDs I do now own for that reason, how many times have I actually watched them since buying them? And even more depressingly, how soon before DVDs are obsolete, fading from fashion like the VHS?

Fittingly then, today's theme is trash. "Ninety-nine percent of the stuff we harvest, mine, process, transport-- 99 percent of the stuff we run through this production system is trashed within six months," says Annie Leonard in "The Story of Stuff." Ouch. It's easy to convince ourselves that trash is unavoidable, but is it? The challenge is out there. Most of what I'm throwing away, I bought. Did I need to buy it? If I did (unlikely), could I have bought it used or with less packaging? Now that I'm debating throwing it away, have I considered all ways I could reuse it, or fix it if it's broken?

Honestly, considering these things, makes me feel . . . happier. Rather than feeling restrictive, there is something freeing about evaluating my addiction to consumption and beginning to consider ways to pull out of it. There is something oddly comforting about the realization that I don't have to make as much trash as I do. Really, from here, it's up to you and me.

Simplicity and Possession

By Deanna Matzen

In Matthew Chapter 19, a young man comes up to Jesus and asks what good deed he must do to have eternal life. Jesus responds by telling him that there is only one who is good, but that he should keep the commandments. The man asks, "Which ones?" Jesus basically tells him all of them. The young man, pleased with himself, says that he has kept all of those commands and asks Jesus what he lacks. Jesus tells him that to be perfect he must sell his possessions, give the money to the poor and then follow Jesus. The man was dismayed because he had many possessions, so he walked away.

Jesus responds by saying to his disciples, "Truly I tell you, it will be hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God." The disciples were astounded and asked, "Then who can be saved?" Jesus looked at them and said, "For mortals it is impossible, but for God all things are possible." (Matthew 19: 16-26; NRSV)

For many of you, this scripture is probably old hat. Many of us remember this passage because Jesus is either using hyperbole with is eye of a needle metaphor to grab attention, or we're in serious trouble. One of the explanations I've heard for Jesus' metaphor is that the "eye of a needle" is a gate in Jerusalem's wall that is so small that a camel would have to get on its knees to pass through it after removing all of the items it was carrying on its back. While some people suggest that this explanation is just not accurate and off the mark entirely because it puts salvation in our own hands and not God's, I would like to posit that even though the gate explanation may not be what Jesus meant, it certainly does serve a purpose. While this explanation may suggest that we can get into heaven of our own accord by simply removing our possessions from our camel (sell them and give them to the poor), I believe that we need God in order to do even that.

In my opinion, choosing to live simply (voluntary simplicity) requires something from us that is unobtainable on our own. In order to live sustainably on this planet in ways that honor God, neighbor, and planet, there is a quality required of us that is more than any human can obtain on their own. We need the Spirit of the Living God to call our hearts to contrition and desire to care for this planet by relinquishing possession of our stuff. It is a spiritual call that requires Godly strength to resist temptation, grace for the times we fail, and hope that change is possible. We are all rich--no matter what our socio-economic status might suggest--we all need God to enter into the kingdom of heaven.

One way to read this passage is that one of our greatest barriers to God is our possessions. Jesus did not answer the young rich man's first question about obtaining eternal life with the command to sell his possessions. He told him to keep the commandments. The man, pleased with himself but unsatisfied with the answer asked Jesus again. What Jesus saw in him was the truth that the young rich man wasn't keeping the commandments because he coveted his possessions too much. I recently read essay on simplicity by A. W. Tozer* and it called us to consider deeply the things that possess us. It is not wrong to have possessions--we all need clothing, shelter, hobbies, and tools for living--but when we are possessed by our possessions, we are not free; we are enslaved to our self-life.

"To be specific, the self-sins are these: self-righteousness, self-pity, self-confidence, self-sufficiency, self-admiration, self-love, and a host of others like them...Self is the opaque veil that hides the Face of God from us...We must bring our self-sins to the cross for judgment. We must prepare ourselves for an ordeal of suffering in some measure like that through which our Savior passed when He suffered under Pontius Pilate."

Ask yourself today:
How am I like the rich young man?

What in my life possesses me and veils the face of God?

What am I not willing to take off my camel to enter into the Holy City?

What choices have I resisted making that would help me better steward God's creation?

*In "Spiritual Classics: Selected Readings on the Twelve Spiritual Disciplines," edited by Richard Foster

The Gift of Craftiness

By Deanna Matzen

Last fall I learned how to crochet and, for the first time in my life, I found a craft that kept me coming back for more. On one of my recent trips to see my parents, my mother happily handed over all of my grandmother's retired crochet hooks and some of her pattern books (where I saw a few familiar afghans). Oddly, I somehow made it through 33 years of life without realizing that my own grandmother crocheted and that's why my brother and I were given matching yellow, orange, and green crocheted bedspreads when we were kids. It's all coming together now.

While I was excited to get my grandmother's crocheting tools, there was a deep sadness in me that when she was alive, she never thought to teach me how to crochet. Granted I didn't see her very often, she lived in Indiana and Arizona most of my life, but when we did get together she taught me things like Cribbage, Gin Rummy, and Solitaire; couldn't she have taught me this simple crafty skill?

There are many levels to this sadness, one is that crocheting (like knitting, which I tried to learn as a child but never took to) is a useful skill that fits with a simple, non-consumeristic lifestyle that I strive to live out, though often failingly. Since October when I learned to crochet, I have given several scarves, two hats, two blankets, and one stuffed animal as gifts to friends and family with some more scarves in waiting to give to the homeless this fall. Each of these gifts has been received with great joy, more so than anything I could have ever bought them.

The beginning of these projects were boxes of old yarn I'd be carrying around for years that I wanted to put to use. It's that thrifty, don't waste anything, pack rat part of myself that wanted to rile against the consumerism of this culture that held onto that yarn. Now, it has a new life and new purpose.

To that end, I want to share with you a project I look forward to working on later this summer or fall, a crocheted Market Bag designed by Lion Brand yarn (the pattern is free, but you have to sign up for their newsletter to view it). I can make it with my old yarn and use it for groceries or other shopping outings, making it an easy fit into my enviro-ethic! I am so grateful that I finally learned to crochet and can reclaim some of the thrift, simplicity, and self-sufficiency our grandparents took for granted.

If you have eco-crafty projects that you'd like to share, feel free to comment on my blog post or email me! Happy Crafting!

A Holiday Season to Remember

By Chris Olson, Outreach Coordinator

I like to eat. In fact I love to eat. You could go so far as to saying that eating is one of my favorite activities. Over the last four months I have rediscovered my love of hearty and delicious meals and realized what a true privilege it is to have a bounty of food in the kitchen cupboards. The Lutheran Volunteer Corps gives each of us $95 for food that we pool together as a house (there are five of us) to buy groceries for the month. This is, in fact, plenty of money to get us through the month nourished and healthy. BUT...and this is a big but for me....I find that I do not have the plethora of food choices that I have had at all other times in my life, nor the general abundance of household food that, previous to LVC, I took for granted. We live on a limited budget which means that we need to get the basics, make sure that we have enough for supper each night, and maybe one extra "luxury" item each week. There aren't many snacks, leftovers, or taste enhancers in our house.

At first it was a struggle for me, especially since my housemates are vegetarians so we do not buy meat (a choice that I wholeheartedly support, although every once in awhile I get a craving for a turkey sandwich!). As the months pass by, however, I am learning to adapt and adjust to the food situation. The new limits have also allowed me space to become thankful for the food I do receive.

Thanksgiving held new meaning for me this year. My housemates and I were invited to the house of a former LVC member to share the day with her and a number of her friends. It was a potluck meal and as I stood in front of the kitchen counter I found myself thinking how thankful, absolutely thankful I was for all the food that was in front of me. It was a shared meal made from the wonderful generosity of 18 different people. I ate my fill that evening and savored every single bite.

Its not often that we are made to face the privilege and prosperity that so many of us blindly grow up with in the United States. For me, food has always been one of those things I have not had to think about. I always had the means to buy whatever I wanted at the grocery store, but for billions of people around the world that is not the case. As I said before we are in no way starving at our LVC house and I do not mean to compare our situation to the truly dire situations of many, but just that LVC is giving me the chance to step back, to think about my place in our global food system. How I eat and what I eat is intimately and ultimately linked with planetary social and environmental justice issues. There is something powerful in living out a way of life that is different from your own. For me, LVC is giving me a clearer understanding of many issues just by placing me in situations that were foreign to me until now. As I think back to my excited anticipation for my Thanksgiving meal and look forward to the many shared meals with family and friends over my Christmas break, I know I will be ever more grateful for the gifts I am given and that this will be a holiday season I won't forget.

37 Shopping Days Left to Christmas

by Deanna Matzen

I can't believe it. We're only a little over a month away from Christmas. I don't know about you, but no matter how early I try to start thinking about buying or making gifts for Christmas, the time always flies too fast. All of a sudden we're just a week before Thanksgiving and it feels like crunch-time.

For years, my husband and I have tried to reframe Christmas and move away from spending a lot of money, with some success. This year, however, with the economic troubles our nation finds itself in, we are more determined than ever to refocus our Christmas mindset. Christmas is not supposed to be about spending tons of money, though Wall Street would like the economic boost. Christmas is about celebrating the birth of Jesus. While I understand that giving gifts at Christmas is a visceral reminder of the greatest and most lavish gift we ever received - Jesus - we should also balance gift giving with honoring the other gifts God has given us - creation, time, talents, creativity, etc. So for today's blog, I'd like to pass on some resources and new ideas for holiday gift giving.

Inexpensive, Creative and Eco-Friendly Gift Ideas from the New American Dream.

Waste Free Holidays: Give Experiences instead of Stuff - while this site is specific to the Seattle/Tacoma/Olympia area of Washington State, anyone can give gift certificates for experiences instead of stuff.

Buy Nothing Christmas - gift ideas that require little or no purchase.

Hundred Dollar Holiday is Bill McKibben's aria to the end of stuff (based on his book).

And if you still need an idea or two, how about giving a gift membership to an organization that reflects that person's value, like Earth Ministry! Or give the gift of knowledge...a book, whether new or used, would make a great gift. Money & Faith: The Search for Enough is a new addition to the Earth Ministry collection and a very timely one at that. Or how about a regifting Christmas or a thrift store Christmas or a Craigslist Christmas. Who said that gifts have to be brand-spanken new and fresh out of the wrapper to be meaningful?

And finally, I'd like to encourage you to participate in Buy Nothing Day on November 28th. It's a simple stand you can take against consumerism. Afterall, you won't need to buy anything on the day of post-turkey mega-sales because you're simplifying Christmas this year!

Space and Time

by Deanna Matzen

I started reading a new book the other day. It's called "The One-Life Solution" by Dr. Henry Cloud. It's not about the environment, but rather about boundaries and work life. So, in a way, it is about the environment -- the emotional, relational, and performance environments we live in every day -- and in another way, it's about the community of people working on behalf of the environment.

Why am I reading this book? Well, I'm going to be candid for a moment. Environmental work is hard work. It's fast-paced like the rest of our society. We see a very urgent need and we are all running after a solution. And, let me tell you, things are busy over here at Earth Ministry and there are days that I know I'm not keeping up.

So as I was reading the book during my lunch break the other day, I was struck by something. First I'll share the text and then I'll comment.

"The issue of boundaries is one of the biggest issues that all of us will face in business and life....The long and the short of it is that time and space --long-depended upon boundaries on work --no longer exist. So, work has become an invader of the rest of life, in time, space, energy, and other ways. Family interaction decreases, and quality of interaction decreases. Other social ties suffer as well. Now people spend hours they used to spend on life together in front of some
kind of screen instead--working....The result of this, and the disappearance of many other
boundaries from our society--such as morals and values that used to contain a lot of destruction and help to integrate our characters--is that more and more we are living in a "structureless" life."

When I read those words I thought, "hmmm...ain't that the truth." Then I reflected on Earth Ministry's attempts to enter and use the world of screens to get our message out. For example, this year we have started a this blog, created a group and cause on Facebook, and sent out more email alerts. When we started our Facebook page, most of the staff had not ventured into the realm of online communities. For me, it was fun to see how many friends I had and to keep up on the daily life of friends far away. But the longer I'm on Facebook, the more I realize that it's just a disconnected use of my time. I don't "see" my friends nor engage in any of the quality conversations that I thrive on...those conversations where we talk about life, faith, politics, the world, our loves and passions, musings and stories.

And when I started to really examine it, I realized that one of the great benefits of Earth Ministry is that we still hold events like the Celebration of St. Francis and Colleague Consultations. These are events where people come together face to face and have those moments of "destruction and help that integrate our characters". When we engage in conversation about morals and values, we break down and deconstruct our ideas and beliefs that act as barriers to integrating our selves as whole people and as whole societies.

In the season of presidential politics, aren't you starving to get your face out of the TV and look at people in real time and space? Or maybe you're tired of talking politics at the water cooler, rehashing everything the media has said on a topic. If this is you, I invite you to engage with Earth Ministry members, board and staff by attending one of our upcoming events. Set some boundaries on work and TV...come have fun with us, learn with us, worship with us, breathe in some fresh hope, engage with us and connect with God through community. In the end, you may find yourself a little more integrated!

Water Down the Drain

By Chris Olson

A major aspect of my Lutheran Volunteer Corps year deals with forming intentional community around the three tenets of Social Justice, Sustainability, and Community. One of the issues that our house as been talking about is water conservation, specifically around our dishwasher. We didn't expect to have many amenities in our house since so much of the LVC experience is about simplified living, but were surprised to find a well furnished home when we arrived (thanks to the generous folks at Ballard First Lutheran next door and the keenly honed rummaging skills of past LVC house dwellers). Dishwasher use immediately became one of our topics of conversation. Some of us saw the community value in chatting around the sink while doing the dishes. I have had wonderfully rich conversations with past roommates while holding a sponge in one hand and a dirty plate in the other. My other housemates were pushing for filling the dishwasher and spending community time doing other things, getting the dishes out the way and moving on with the night. Ultimately the decision came down to the LVC tenet of sustainability, would we save more water using our dishwasher or washing our dishes by hand? We all thought we knew the answer, but each housemate had a different idea with a different logic behind it and all of them made sense in one way or another. I started to do some research on the subject and found a few articles and studies that compared dishwashers vs hand washing.
Here is a summary of what I found:

The first dishwasher was created in 1850 and consisted of a wooden box with a hand-cranked wheel that splashed water onto the dirty dishes (HA!). Since the mid 1800's, dishwasher technology has evolved and throughout the latter half of the 20th century grew in popularity. According to a study done by Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, the two main problems with dishwashers stem from energy and water efficiency. The authors of the study write, "The implementation of energy standards for appliances by the U.S. Department of Energy established new benchmarks for energy and water efficiency. A significant proportion of the energy savings for today's automatic dishwashers comes from the reduction in hot water use. Because energy is used to heat water, less water use by a dishwasher also means reduced energy use. In 1978, 83% of a dishwasher's energy use went to heating water, with 10% used for washing and 7% for drying (Enders, 1978). By 1994, only 56% of the energy used by the dishwasher was to heat water (Whirlpool Corporation, 1993). A significant reduction in water usage resulted from designing more efficient wash systems that incorporate direct water delivery and improved soil-handling systems (Dzierwa, 1994). The average water use per dishwasher cycle decreased from a range of 11-15 gallons per normal cycle in 1978 (Garrett, 1978) to 6-10 gallons per normal cycle in 2000 (Soap and Detergent Association [SDA], 2000)."

The dishwasher has become a more viable option in recent years, especially when compared with recent studies on hand washing dishes. "Scientists at the University of Bonn [pdf] in Germany who studied the issue found that the dishwasher uses only half the energy, one-sixth of the water, and less soap than hand-washing an identical set of dirty dishes. Even the most sparing and careful washers could not beat the modern dishwasher."

However, even when using a dishwasher some people still wash-by-hand to a certain extent. This has direct consequences on water conservation. "One consumer decision that greatly affects water and energy usage during dish washing is rinsing the dishes before washing them in the dishwasher. If dishes are pre-rinsed using a dishwasher pre-rinse cycle, approximately one gallon of water is used. Pre-rinsing in the sink under running water, however, uses up to 25 gallons of water for 5 minutes of pre-rinsing--a substantial difference. In the study discussed here, 93% did some pre-rinsing of dishes in the sink, and 48% rinsed five or more times per week. With the estimated water use of up to 25 gallons per meal, this practice represents a substantial use of water and energy."

So, dishwashers seem to be the better choice as long as you have a recent model and stay away from pre-washing your own dishes. My LVC house is still working out the details on our simplicity strategy, but its nice to have a little back ground to base our decision on. I'm placing two of the article links at the bottom of the blog and the other research paper has a link if you click within the text on the "University of Bonn".

http://www.joe.org/joe/2003february/rb3.shtml

http://environment.about.com/od/greenlivingdesign/a/dishwashers.htm

Choose reusable...or at least compostable!

Summer is a fabulous time to live in the Pacific Northwest. Very few bugs, warm days with low humidity, gorgeous views of mountains and water…And although I realize we’re technically not quite there yet, summer activities are sprouting up on every corner.

There are picnics in the park, outdoor concerts, and family gatherings at the lake. These are all wonderful ways to enjoy Creation! However, we must continue to be mindful of our impact on the earth.

Over Memorial Day weekend I spent a glorious afternoon at Seattle’s Folklife music festival. There were great concerts and cool arts & crafts and…TONS of trash! In one instance I saw a concert end and as people moved to their next venue there was a trash-covered lawn in their wake—a sea of plastic bottles and disposable food containers.

While the main problem in this situation is littering, it occurred to me that even once all that trash was placed in the appropriate containers the problems of overconsumption and reliance on disposability remain.

The good news? Environmentally-friendly alternatives exist!!

It may take a while to get food vendors at local festivals to change to compostable alternatives (although the Mayor’s proposed foam food container ban should help!), but you can certainly make the switch when you plan your own picnic or buy goods for a family get-together.

The BEST way to go would be to use your regular dishware or the reusable containers you already own. But if you’re concerned about breakage or need to serve a large number of folks, look for compostable plates, bowls, cups, and “silver”ware at your local grocery store. PCC and Whole Foods have a variety of earth-friendly options, and I’ve even seen compostable tableware for sale at Staples, an office supply store. The simple, unwaxed paper plates you can find at almost any grocery or convenience store are also compostable—if you live in Seattle you can simply add those items to your yard & food waste collection cart!

As always, bring your own reusable water bottle along on hot days, and encourage your friends and family to do the same!

Enjoy the warm weather—just don’t forget to live lightly on the land.

Made in America?

Amongst environmentalists, the topic of "buying local" food has been around for some time. Yet, it took the global food crisis to really make a dent in popular culture to think about buying American or shopping locally. That's why I was so intrigued when msn.com, the homepage for my web browser, had a headline asking me to take a quiz, "American or Foreign Brands?" . Needless to say, I was intrigued. Who doesn't like a good competitive quiz?! I mean, I'm no newbie to buying locally; I look to see where my fruits and vegetables were grown from when shopping in the grocery store. I've even found errors between what the sticker on the vegetable says and the sign posted by the grocery store. Not that the workers cared when I noted the discrepency. However, sad to say, I only got about 30% of the questions right. I highly encourage you to take the quiz, see how you fare. But here's a hint...products called America's Choice, not so much made in America.

Maybe we should be asking ourselves, the FDA, and congress why foods aren't labeled to tell us where they're made. Afterall, shouldn't the good ol' US of A care whether or not we "buy American"? The sad truth may just be that like car manufacturing, an "American" brand is only just that, a brand. It's quite likely that the parts came from China and were assembled in Mexico. Ah...globalization.

The quiz was part of a larger series called, "Extreme Consumerism". This is an interesting and informative look at how Americans are spending their money, especially in a global economy. If the topic of slowing down and making more informed and throughtul consumer choices from a faith perspective is appealing to you, you might want to consider reading Earth Ministry's book, Simpler Living, Compassionate Life. This book is also ideal for study groups. Simpler Living, Compassionate Life is available for purchase on Earth Ministry's secure website.

If we each do a little bit, together we can do a lot!