SEEKING SIMPLICITY

EARTH DAY 2013

Happy belated Earth Day! Actually, I should have posted this on Monday, but have just not gotten around to it until now. It shouldn't matter though, as in fact every day SHOULD be "Earth Day!"....

Right? Speaking of which.....

This weekend I was reminded that this is something we don't perhaps think about as often as we should. John and I had the pleasure to spend some time this weekend with his uncle, visiting from Seoul, Professor Hosub Yoon.
Professor Yoon is the Dean of College of Design at Kookmin University and the Head of Environmental Design Institute in Seoul, Korea. His passion as a visual designer and environmental activist has led him to travel the world to raise consciousness about environmental issues through visual design. His specialty and usual 'event' includes creating on-the-spot hand-painted tee shirts for children, featuring a variety of his own nature-themed designs created out of natural paint, and using his slogan:

On this visit, Professor Yoon visited with us and did an event in Carroll Park, creating dozens and dozens of tees for the excited crowd of kids watching and helping (by holding the shirt corners tight). He also visited the schools of two of his grandchildren and did shirts for their whole classes.

As you can see, happy kids, beautiful tee shirts, and hopefully a day that will make them think and spread the word about environmental concerns and responsibility.

You can read more about Professor Yoon's work, and mission here: Green Canvas.

He's truly dedicated, and his energy and enthusiasm for spreading the word about environmental awareness is amazing to observe. If only more people had even a little bit of his energy, and dedication to the idea of 'saving the earth', just a LITTLE bit, we would be getting somewhere, I think.

Over the course of the weekend our family spent a lot of time with Professor Yoon, in a variety of New York City's most high-profile public places, creating shirts, having conversations, and just generally spreading the 'word'. The kids helped out enthusiastically by giving out buttons and postcards with his unique messages and drawings, (and goofing around in the park) and by laying shirts in the sun to dry.

What I learned while doing this both on the High-line, and in Union Square, was mainly these two things.

1) There is a lot of interest in the message, and if only two or three people go away from one of these 'events' with both a free shirt and a willingness to share their concerns about environmental issues...that multiplied many times....will begin to make a difference in how we live and hopefully help people begin to make responsible changes in how they use energy and our Earth's resources. I believe that we need little reminders every day of the small but important changes we can all make in our consumption habits.

Exchanging ideas, sharing thoughts

2) It's incredibly hard to give things away for FREE in NY. New Yorkers are skeptical, and wary. If they see what looks like something being sold, they will skirt around and avoid you most of the time, unless they WANT to spend money. Somebody claiming to give something for free is doubted. However once people were convinced that there was no 'catch', they were also very open and willing to talk, share and exchange ideas and thoughts, and of course very grateful and happy for their free 'gift' shirt.

Free Tee Shirts!

This skepticism about getting something for free, the idea that someone would just give something away, is one that I hope we are, as a society, willing to leave behind. I think it's crucial that we leave it behind. We are trained to believe that everything is for sale, or can be bought, and also that things with no 'value' assigned to them are not 'worth anything'. And this is exactly the thinking we need grow out of if we want to be open to sharing what we have with others. Whether it's giving away a bag of clothing to someone who needs it, or that food you're hoarding (for no reason) to a food bank, or less common things like giving away that bike you never use to someone who needs one to get to work. Or giving away those suits and heels you really don't fit anymore (let's be honest...they just don't fit) to a recent grad who has interviews to go on and can't afford the clothing. The key element, aside from setting aside this hesitancy to give stuff away because we 'might use it again' is just plain getting over the hassle of doing it. It's rather difficult to actually give stuff away, in the best and most useful way possible. It's a HASSLE. But we need to do it. Before you just toss things, think to yourself "who do I know who might need this?". And then, don't be afraid to ask them if they need or want it. If you notice or see any requests from organizations or groups that need specific items (books, toys, food, shoes, etc...), keep that information on file so you can contact them about it later when the time comes to get rid of those things. Keep an eye on your local neighborhood email lists and freecycle community emails, Yerdle notices and Facebook messages, the bulletin board in your building's laundry room. Ask around....chances are you can cut down seriously on what you throw out. That stuff is still useful, just maybe not to you. And the value of it (which is exactly zero in your closet or garage or attic) can be huge when it's put in the hands of someone who needs it. Once we get into the habit as a society of sharing our belongings better - once we all get over our sqeamishness about asking for things and giving them, and once we have better systems in place to facilitate that sharing, then in that way we can all start saving.