The 2010 World Equestrian Games

I am so sorry this piece is a little dated! I wrote it and then got sidetracked--but I felt it was worth posting anyway. The WEG was fantastic, and I very much enjoyed what I watched of it. Wish I could have seen it in person though! The picture I've attached shows Edward Gal of the Netherlands riding Totilas. This pair took the gold medals in Dressage, for each of the competitions. I echo many other sentiments, I am sure, when I say I would "consider cutting off a limb for a ride" on this horse!

For the first time since the World Equestrian Games (WEG) began in Sweden in 1990, they were held in the United States this year at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington. Competitors from over 60 countries around the world sent 1,700 athletes (800 human and 900 equine) to compete for 16 days in what essentially amounts to the “other” Olympic Games for equestrian sports only. Always before it has been held in Europe, but this year was different—it was finally our turn, and nobody does horses like Kentucky.

Three of the disciplines would already be familiar to people who watch the Olympics: Dressage, Three-Day Eventing, and Show (or Stadium) Jumping. The WEG also included competition in Reining, Vaulting, Endurance, Combined Driving, and Para-Olympics. Over a period of 16 days, all eyes in the world equestrian community were focused on Kentucky, and NBC Sports carried taped coverage of highlights three week-ends in a row for a total of six hours, which is almost unheard of. The Olympic Games equestrian events never fared so well! And if you were a real fan, you could watch live, streamed action (or video on demand) through Universal Sports or FEI.TV. You could read blogs from a number of different writers and read breaking news as it happened. You could watch different video packages, too, depending on your interest, and now you can purchase DVDs of the events through the Kentucky Horse Park Web site. I can tell you, I plan on watching all of this several times again! Well, I won’t be watching ALL of it, but I will be watching the Dressage and Three-Day Eventing pretty closely. Just for the record, my all-time favorite equestrian sport is Three-Day Eventing, with Dressage a close second. I’ve never competed as an eventer, because I fell off too much when jumping, and considering my age felt it was not a wise choice for me, but that didn’t affect my love of the sport!

Few people outside the equestrian community have any concept of what it takes to bring all these horses and their riders together to compete. For many of the smaller countries, it can be likened to putting a man on the moon. All of the competitors must be flown to their destination, not to mention the feed, equipment, and support personnel that go along with them, and that trip is not without peril. Several years ago the entire Mexican equestrian team and their horses went down in a crash on the way to a Pan American Games competition, the speculation being that one of the horses got loose on board and unbalanced the plane. Few people are aware too, that up until just a few years ago Australians were forced to sell any of the horses taken to outside International competitions, because they were barred from re-entering the country for health reasons.

The costs of equipment are staggering too. If you watch any WEG footage, take note of the helmets many of the eventers and stadium jumpers are wearing. Those GPS brand helmets retail for over $500, and that’s just a start (No, I don’t have one of those!—I’ve got a well-worn Troxel Legacy that I bought several years ago and need to replace!) . Saddle pads can run $150+ each, those ear nets go for about $80+, and saddles are around $2000+. Then there is what the riders wear: Breeches $200+, body armor $300+, custom boots $1000+, dressage frock or hunt coats $600+. Horses and riders need loads of miscellaneous gear, too: Anti-sweat sheets, stable sheets, water buckets, salt blocks, clippers, tack trunks, grooming brushes, etc., etc., etc. No way around it, competing at any level is very pricey, especially if you wear the latest in fashion and technology. Yikes, I get depressed just thinking about all that!

In the end there were many surprises and upsets, as there are in any sports competition. There were moments of shining glory that were so moving and beautiful they brought tears to my eyes. If you can watch nothing else, please see the brilliantly performed Dressage Freestyle ridden by the Gold medalist Edward Gal of the Netherlands on Moorlands Totilas, and you will never forget it. Several different videos are available on YouTube. One unhappy piece of news that I've heard since the end of the Games is that Moorlands, the owner of Totilas, has already sold him to Paul Schockemuhle of Germany. Mr. Schockemuhle, once a world-class show jumping competitor, is now a horse breeder, so Totilas won't be with Mr. Gal anymore (a crying shame), and he may not even be used in competition any longer, which is a real crime for a horse so brilliantly talented. Money talks, however, and we lesser humans must always remember that "It's the MONEY, stupid!" Never mind ART! Pul-leaze!

Another real disappointment was that the number two-rated pair in the dressage world was eliminated from competition, because the horse somehow managed to get a small cut on his tongue which bled for a few minutes. It had to happen though, because everyone is now supremely conscious of the welfare of the horses, and that is as it should be. Other disappointments came as Team USA saw its hopes of a medal in the Three-Day competition go up in smoke when Karen O’Connor’s young horse Mandiba had a refusal and then knocked down the gate jump in their Stadium round. Then Rodrigo Pessoa of Brazil, whom many believed would win the gold medal in show jumping, saw his hopes dashed when riding the Final Four competition for best horse and best rider. At the same time, others rose to prominence that had never been heard of before, surprising everyone—perhaps not least themselves. For instance, Abdullah Al Sharbatly of Saudi Arabia had the good fortune to take home the silver medal for Saudi Arabia at his first world-class competition--quite a break for a very talented young man.

In the end, 11 countries out of the 60 or so represented took home at least one medal, with the United States winning a total of four (two golds, one silver, and one bronze), just besting the medal count of Germany (two golds, two bronzes), and Great Britain (one gold, three silvers). It was less than any of them had hoped for, but each one was well-deserved and hard won. In any case, the equestrian community and equestrian sports are the real winners, not to mention International cooperation and good will! Now let us look forward with anticipation to the 2012 Olympics.

Sam's Vision Quest

As many of you are aware, my husband Sam is off on a solo trek through the wilderness of Northeastern Oregon right now, pursuing what most of us would call a Vision Quest. While many of you think he’s totally insane (and that I must be too for allowing him to do this), I have to tell you that I support what he’s doing 100%. In fact, I’ve been engaged in my own quest in my own way for some time now. Besides, tell me just how I would stop him? Draw all the money out of his bank account? Let the air out of his tires? Be a complete bitch on the subject and insist that he “just forget it, or else?” Please! You all know that’s not me, and perhaps you don’t have the kind of relationship that Sam and I do. We don’t tell each other what we can or cannot do. We can raise objections, if we think the other person is totally off his/her rocker, or if the budget won’t support it, but we have pretty generous limits in our marriage. If it’s something that we really want to do, and we are willing to make the requisite sacrifices of time and money while meeting our other obligations, then our attitude is, “Hey, go for it man!”

I did have two requirements of my own before Sam left on his trip: (1) He needed to have some way of letting me know where he was and that he was all right; and (2) He had to have extra insurance to cover any possible rescue efforts or injuries he might incur. I did not feel these were unreasonable requests, nor did he, so Sam bought a Spot Tracker at REI and paid the subscription's costs of activation and tracking, plus he paid for the accompanying Lloyds of London insurance that went with it.

Sam has been planning this trip for at least the past year and possibly even longer—and I mean PLANNING. Down to the last little gnat, if you know what I mean. While he’s gone, he plans to take a bundle of photographs for at least one book he wants to write, and today I decided that I would keep a journal of sorts too, printing out each Spot Tracker message and the locator photos that go with it, so I can record Sam’s journey in my own way. For some reason, neither of us has ever been able to access the Spot Tracker shared Web page (I always get a “Server is busy, try again later” message), but that’s okay. I AM getting the E-mails whenever the beacon sends a message.

So Honey, have a great time! I know you wish I were there, and so do I, but that time will come. This is your time to do what you need to do, and those experiences should not always be shared with someone else—at least not at the moment when you are engaged in doing them. I look forward to hearing all about your journey and looking at all the incredible photographs when you return. I know they will be awesome.

The New Zombies

Tell me, am I the only one who is upset and annoyed by the current trend of so many people walking around with their noses glued to their cell phones? Whatever happened to life without constant interruptions and being continuously hooked up to everyone (that is, everyone else who’s plugged in) on the planet? Whatever happened to “normal” life, where you talked to the person who was in front of you, and actually looked at them and paid attention? I am very unhappy with and disturbed by this behavior. It reminds me far too much of the Borg of Star Trek Next Generation fame.

Who would have guessed that the telephone and the Internet would have such consequences? Not me. I happily got my first cell phone so I could call 911 if I fell off my horse on a trail ride (I used to ride by myself all the time—and I often still do) and to locate my husband Sam if I needed to ask or tell him something. It was a convenience to ME, and I rarely used it.

Likewise with the Internet: Sam and I got our first PC, courtesy of a friend who used to rebuild them and give them away (it was his hobby and way of giving back to others), because Sam was writing a book. Our friend Tim came by for a visit one afternoon and found Sam literally cutting and pasting his book copy on the living room floor and told Sam that there was a better way. The next thing we knew, we were signed up for Qwest dial-up and had our own E-mail accounts. Wow! Sam pretty much stuck to writing his book, but as for me, I was plugged into the world and everything I could ask for on the Internet. I jumped in and basically never looked back, shopping for Christmas presents and paying all my bills on-line—that is, until I got onto Face book. That is such an incredible time suck that I refuse to go there more than once a month, and I’m considering chucking it entirely, I hate it so much!

I really haven’t been unset with most incarnations of modern day Tech up to now. I feel comfortable with most of it in fact, happily playing my iPod Touch and watching TV shows on my dinner break at work, for example. I used to look forward to whatever E-mails all my friends would forward me every day like a kid on Christmas morning, and I spent a great deal of time reading, replying, and forwarding them on—that is, until my PC got a virus from one. That put a sudden end to enjoying all those attachments. Then too, it occurred to me that all of this was replacing real human interaction. Unlike many people, however, I don’t walk around plugged into my iPod all day long. In some ways, I think the iPod phenomenon may have been partly to blame for the current texting craze, but then who knows how it really got started?

Texting has gone beyond being a craze or an addiction. It is dangerous and absurd! Just the other day I watched a woman (and not a teenager) cross the street at a major intersection without glancing up even once from texting on her cell phone! I’m sure she believed she was perfectly safe, but seriously, I would never do that. If a car had come around the corner and hit her, she would have never known. Then there is the obvious danger of texting while driving. People who do that should have their licenses revoked, their heads examined, and their priorities re-evaluated—and that’s when they are on their own time. Doing social networking while on the job is just plain stealing, in addition to everything else.

Then there’s the appalling rudeness these folks exhibit. I’ve encountered it a number of times while at work with people who can’t put their phones down for the 30 seconds or so it takes to answer my questions and do my job, and I have to say I’ve completely lost patience with them. When they are ready to talk to me, then they can let me know, otherwise I’m not wasting my time being background noise. I’ve even had a couple of them who were really clueless accuse ME of being rude, because I refused to tolerate their rude behavior—and believe me, I’m not about to start.

No, zombies are no longer limited to being the shambling undead in the movies; they have pulses now, and you can find them practically everywhere. These are probably less aware of their surroundings than traditional zombies of Voodoo lore. Those at least knew what they were doing on an elementary level, and zombie-dom was usually not their fault. Maybe one day, medicine will advance to the point where they can just have their phones grafted onto their heads, or put on a special pair of contact lenses. This last is no joke—it’s new technology that’s in the pipeline, according to a brief segment I saw on the TV news not long ago. When that happens, my friends, no one will be safe. As the Borg always say, “Resistance is futile.”

Definitions of Self

Due to a number of focused thoughts, movies, and magazine articles I’ve encountered recently, I began thinking about how we define ourselves as individuals. What makes us who we are? There are so many labels we can attach to ourselves, but the labels are always insufficient. In the end, what is it that captures the essence of each unique and irreplaceable identity that comprises humanity? Of course the answer, if there is one, is complex and not easy to find.

I’ve encountered this question before, most recently in having to write an “About the Author” piece for a book I have in the works. It’s not easy to talk or write about yourself without sounding pompous or boring. I mean, you can’t just write an “I was born on such and so, and I did this, and this, and this.” Come on! Who wants to read that drivel? Not me, I can tell you—and yet I had to come up with something that covered the ground without putting the reader to sleep or making me sound like a conceited ass.

Part of all this includes how we THINK about ourselves. For instance, I’m a wife; I am not a mother (of human kids anyway); I have a job; I have a dog and a horse; I have a car unique to me (yes, it’s customized); I grew up in a specific area of the country with a unique familial upbringing. All of those things would tell you a great deal about me—but that’s not who I am. I am not the political party I “belong” to (not at all!); I’m not the high school I graduated from, or the college(s) I attended. See what I mean? This is not easy to pin down!

After considering all the above-mentioned stuff about me, it occurred to me that perhaps the closest thing to what I would call “Me” is my mind and what goes on there: the thoughts, dreams, and aspirations that take up residence or just fly through, maybe taking me on to other thoughts, dreams, and aspirations. Am I the sum total of all the thoughts I’ve had in my lifetime, or am I what is there right now? Some of what was “there” in times past has since been rejected and replaced by other notions that I find more “at home” in my present circumstance. I’ve “changed my mind,” so to speak. Mind boggling, is it not?

Well, in the end, I had to finally compromise: I AM those labels I might pin on myself, but in addition, my mental and emotional world has to be given its own justifiable space too. I am a wife, employee, dog and horse mommy, writer—you name it. I am also the jumble of thoughts dealing with what I read in Scientific American this morning, Vogue Knitting the other day on my break at work, and Practical Horseman magazine that I digested last week. I am still pondering the movie Michael Clayton that I watched yesterday, as well as a movie trailer I saw two nights ago on Repo Men (Jude Law and Forest Whitaker). Are you getting dizzy yet? I sure am!

How Time Flies!

I had the veterinarian out a couple of weeks ago to do my horse Hadarah’s teeth and got a shock. As many of you know, I’ve had horses in one way or another much of my life, and I’ve had Hadarah since she was six-months-old, so she’s like my kid—or at least the closest thing I will ever experience to having children. Anyway, when the vet asked how old she was, I thought she was about 23 or so. Since Hadarah is in really great shape, most people don’t think she’s even that old, so when I dug out her registration papers the other day, I got a surprise!—She’s 25! The vet thought she was in really terrific shape, even for 23, except for her teeth, that is, and I have to face the fact that one of these days Hadarah will become a gummer.

Now I’m reading up on how to take care of OLD horses, something I’ve not had to do before, since most of them never live long enough to need hay or complete-ration pellets and start viewing hay or grass merely as entertainment. I’m glad though, to know that even as an old horse, I can still continue to ride and enjoy my equine partner for many more years yet. I want to offer my heartfelt thanks to those research institutions that have made this possible! It will indeed be a very sad day when Hadarah and I part company, and I’m happy to know that it’s still some years down the road.

All of this was in preparation to getting my own backside into the saddle again—something I haven’t done for about the past year. I’ve had my own health problems, but one of the main reasons why I quit riding was because my ortho Doc really scared me. Now, she knew when I got my total knee replacement several years ago that I planned to continue riding, and she didn’t tell me I couldn’t. What she did tell me was that I could NOT fall off, or I would break my leg right below where the prosthesis ends in my tibia. Well Jeez, that put the fear of God into me! Granted, I really don’t fall off anymore, unless there are mitigating circumstances, but one never knows when a horse might shy and there you are looking up from the ground! All the same, that news scared me to death, because what would I do then?

Well, I’ve chewed over this news for the past year or so. I continued to pay my horse’s board and buy her treats, but considering that horses are very expensive creatures to maintain under the best of circumstances (you don’t want to know how much the vet bill was for the teeth, general exam, and shots mentioned above), it rankled that I was now too scared to hop on and go for a ride—me, who has taken several years worth of riding lessons and paid out a small fortune buying horse tack through the years!

Finally, I just said, “To heck with it! Life is too short not to enjoy what we love! If I break my leg, I break it, and we shall just deal with it then! So there!” This week I’ve been on vacation, and I have thoroughly enjoyed spending time every day with Hadarah—and yes, we have gone for some rides I loved it, and yes, it’s just like riding a bicycle—you never forget how!

The Gushing Continues

Like everyone else I know, I watch in agony and disbelief as the oil from BP’s destroyed Deep Water Horizon well continues vomiting crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico. It has been for the past 60 days—TWO MONTHS now! BP tells us the end is in sight—in August? Tell me, do any of you still believe anything BP’s talking heads have to say?

As bad as it is, I must tell you that this isn’t the worst oil spill ever—aside from the Exxon Valdez mess in Alaska, it’s only the best publicized. I guessed there were worse ones out there, since the Media was touting this one as “the worst in U.S. history.” Selective journalism, tsk, tsk. In case you are wondering, here is a list of the five worst oil spills on record, according to Mother Nature Network on-line:

1. The Gulf War = 360,000,000 gallons (about 100x the current BP spill)
2. Ixtoc 1 = 138,000,000 gallons
3. Atlantic Empress = 90,000,000 gallons
4. Nowruz Oil Spill = 80,000,000 gallons
5. Exxon Valdez = 10,800,000 gallons

We don’t yet know where the BP spill in the Gulf will finally stack up.

That this has become a political football should surprise no one. First of all, let me remind all of you that our troubles concerning federal support of Big Oil began many decades ago. Most of us never knew (or have forgotten) that the Bush family made its fortune in Texas oil, and always believed it was in its best interests to rubber stamp anything the petroleum companies wanted. You’ve heard of de-regulation? There was never much federal Reg-ulation to start with, and oil companies pay very little of the cost of doing business—WE pay for it, in the name of keeping the costs of oil exploration (and doing business) low. They pay no taxes, so you can see why this disaster is such a big deal—I mean aside from the actual disaster itself. It should not have surprised anyone that Elizabeth Birnbaum, the recent head of MMS (Minerals Management Service, the government agency charged with supervising oil companies operations) was so cozy with the oil companies (there are multiple accusations involving her and various employees of the agency) that she was forced to resign. None of this is new, and it is all inherited baggage from several previous Presidential Administrations, Democrat as well as Republican.

BP has been an especially notorious offender where worker’s rights and safety are concerned. It accounts for 97% of the violations OSHA has handed out over the past three years, amounting to a whopping total of 760 “egregious violations. In comparison, Sunoco and Conoco-Phillips each had 8, Citgo had two, and Exxon had only one during that time (OSHA). Most of us never heard about the explosion at the BP Texas refinery in March, 2005 or the leaks at their Prudhoe Bay pipeline almost one year later.

So, while some of us are cheering that President Obama secured $20 billion in an escrow account to help people and businesses hurt by this disaster, what is Rep. Barton (R) of Alabama saying? We owe BP an apology for such a shakedown? I thought I was going to vomit. This fund was put together so people could get the money BP owed them in a timely manner, without having to spend years in court haggling over whether they even had any claims. Remember the Exxon Valdez? After initially agreeing to pay all the costs associated with damages and clean-up, Exxon went to the courts for 20 years to fight it. When duly-elected representatives in this country are uttering such complete and asinine drivel, do they wonder WHY the people place no trust in them anymore? When you hear words such as these, there should be no question in your mind who this man calls his constituents—and it ain’t the people of Alabama who voted for him.

As horrible as this disaster is, I have to say that BP’s CEO Tony Hayward has made it seem even worse. Who could possibly be a more incompetent representative for his company than this unconcerned, self-indulgent, supercilious clown? The only thing he genuinely cares about is whether he will lose money—or maybe his job. If BP had been truly alarmed by the extent of the destruction, the company management (including Mr. Hayward) would have been down there in the trenches from the very beginning actively doing everything possible to contain this mess. They didn’t even have a real back-up plan in place (theirs was a rubber-stamped version from the Exxon Valdez spill, as evidenced by the fact that they planned to save endangered seals and walruses), plus the company representative named to call in emergencies had been dead for five years. There weren’t any relief wells in place, as is required in many places throughout the world, and only in the past few days has BP begun drilling them. Yes, Mr. Hayward, if you had been down there in your coveralls getting your hands dirty scooping up tar balls or cleaning pelicans, I could possibly forgive you—but you weren’t, were you? This week-end you were off to the Isle of Wight to watch your $450,000 yacht compete in a race. At least BP had the sense to finally put an American in charge of their claims process. Mr. Darryl Willis comes across like he cares, saying he volunteered for this assignment, because he was born and bred in Louisiana. Well Mr. Willis, if BP had come clean about the extent of this mess from the very beginning and called for all help possible, most of us would be lining up at your gas stations, rather than boycotting them! I sincerely hope your track record is an improvement over what we’ve seen so far.

So, I live way up here in Washington State (as do most of my friends). Like you, I’ve watched the daily newscasts with the “blow-by-blow” details and felt heartsick over the loss of wildlife, their habitat, and the complete collapse of a way of life that depends on fishing and tourism in the Gulf States. I’ve felt totally helpless in terms of giving any meaningful help in this situation. I mean, today we are actually planning on rescuing somewhere around 100 endangered manatees? Nobody ever figured it would come down to rescuing individual animals of this order. I don’t suppose we’re worried about saving sharks (then again, we probably are), but what about the coral beds, birds, turtles, dolphins, fish, and shrimp?—It boggles the mind. What on earth can I do? I know it almost sounds trite now, we’ve had so many unbelievable disasters this past year, but we CAN send money to organizations on the scene that are doing the work to clean up the Gulf and save wildlife. Here are a few responsible organizations that I personally endorse for donations:

The Louisiana Gulf Response Network (http://www.lagulfresponse.org/):

In the wake of the BP Oil Spill that is threatening our coast, local, regional and national conservation organizations are coordinating volunteers to assist in local, state and federal recovery efforts in Louisiana.

Our organizations - including
the Barataria-Terrebonne National Estuary Program (http://www.btnep.org/home.asp),
the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana (http://crcl.org/),
the National Audubon Society (http://audubon.org/),
the National Wildlife Federation (http://www.nwf.org/), and
The Nature Conservancy (http://www.nature.org/)
- are established, active advocates for the preservation and restoration of coastal Louisiana.

We are organizations with a history of on-the-ground work in Louisiana, and we are combining efforts and experience to implement an effective volunteer response and make a real difference in the BP Oil Spill recovery efforts.

Earth Day Revisited

I was so inspired after writing yesterday’s blog that I felt I had to add a bit more. For those of you who have decided you want to start living more responsibly, where do you start?

Okay, you’re doing the obvious things: using your own shopping bags, instead of plastic; recycling and reusing containers; maybe even driving a more energy-efficient vehicle. What about those “green” cleaning compounds I told you about? What about organic gardening? What about buying products more responsibly?
Recipes for household cleaning products are easily found on-line; or if you wish to just buy them, those are now available too. Just a few minutes ago I went on the Internet and did a Google search for “recipes: environmentally friendly cleaning products,” went to http://www.care2.com/greenliving/make-your-own-non-toxic-cleaning-kit.html , and downloaded their PDF of recipes for the most common cleaners. To be honest, I have to say I have not tried them myself, though you may remember how excited I was a few blog posts back when I discovered that plain rubbing alcohol was outstanding at cleaning up that greasy goo that collects on everything in the kitchen. No, I’ve taken the usual human way out and bought the Clorox Green cleaning collection (which is, by the way, backed by no less than the Sierra Club). I am excited about making some of these cleaners, because I really want to do as much as I can. Besides, it’s got to be less expensive, and I won’t be supporting some mega corporation that hasn’t necessarily been that green in the past. Money in my pocket and better for the planet at the same time; sounds like a deal to me.

What about getting a hybrid car? Toyota has made millions on sales of their Prius, and all the other car manufacturers are jumping on board. From BMW to Lexus and Chevy to Ford, models of every type of vehicle are now available as hybrids. Want a pick-up? The Chevrolet Silverado 1500 Crew Cab or Tahoe was made for you. What about and SUVs, America’s favorite type of vehicle? According to the Kelly Blue Book site on-line, there are now 16 models from a range of carmakers. Want a luxury hybrid? No problemo! Audi, BMW, Cadillac, Lexus, and Mercedes-Benz have stepped up to meet your needs. There’s even a luxury GMC Yukon for you.

But do you really NEED a NEW car? One thing I haven’t heard mentioned anywhere in all the hype about “Cash for Clunkers,” for example, is the fact that the manufacture of all those new cars is pretty polluting all on its own. Think about all the chemicals, etc. that go into making a car, and where does the energy come from to make it? Sorry folks, if it’s coming from coal-fired electrical plants, your “green” car ain’t so green anymore. Then there’s the electricity to charge the batteries. Does it come from a wind farm that is minimally polluting (those have environmental impacts of their own, but thankfully not ones involving so much CO2)—or does your electricity come from a coal-fired furnace? Some of us are really lucky, because our electrical energy comes from burning garbage, and I don’t even want to go there.

Everyone who drives a car can make sure it is running properly. Get a tune-up. That’s not beyond the reach of anyone. If you want a different vehicle, buy a used one that gets better gas mileage. The pollution from the manufacture of that vehicle went into the atmosphere a long time ago. And don’t drive anywhere you can reasonably walk. You probably need to get more exercise anyway, and being outside is not only healthier for you, but you will also look around and be more aware of the environment surrounding your home. Do you commute huge distances to your job? Consider getting a job closer to where you live, if at all possible. I know that it often isn’t, but it’s a consideration. You will be putting far less carbon into the atmosphere if you only drive six miles to work, rather than 25 or 30 miles every day. You will also be far safer, because one of the biggest risks in any of our lives is driving or riding in our cars. See if you can car pool. Many companies actively support carpooling, and in some places you can even get a free, fuel-efficient van from the state for the purpose of driving your group back and forth from work. One of the perks of carpooling is that you can drive in the car pool lane! Think of it: You can get to work much faster, less expensively, visit with people you know (hopefully they are friends), and save wear and tear on your own vehicle and nerves at the same time. You might consider taking the bus to your next destination, and then you won’t have to pay to park your car—or worry that it might be vandalized while you are there.

Well, I really need to wrap this up, but I think you can see how living a more green existence is well within the reach of anyone. It isn’t hard, and you don’t have to move away, live in a log cabin, and start eating nuts and berries—unless that’s what you really want to do! Just start doing something, and think about what you do. If you see some trash on the ground, pick it up. Use the KISS principle, and before long you will be coming up with ideas of your own that never even occurred to me!