Brain Drain #1: Making the World a Better Place In the Tiniest Possible Ways

It is difficult for me to embrace the changing of the seasons.  Particularly this year, as I have enjoyed a good deal of sunshine this summer.  Spending time in the sun has, in fact, become part of my daily routine.  I will miss it when the days grow short.

September is much different for me this year.  I left my job at Planet Care and have been doing odd jobs to make ends meet: jobs such as weeding gardens, cleaning out gutters, pet-sitting, interior house-painting.  I've been using my muscles, sweating, getting dehydrated, re-hydrating, but especially spending time in the sun. This sort of hard, physical work, this being outdoors and next to the sun, has helped me to feel my Self - an unadulterated sense of who I am, how to take care of myself, and how to begin to peaceably co-exist with others.  

I was walking my dog, Soupy Sales, this morning when I noticed a student walking to the Higher Education Area Transit (HEAT) stop.  She seemingly wanted to avoid any interaction.  But I spoke a greeting and wished her a good day.  She smiled in a genuine manner and seemed grateful for this small kindness.  And I wondered about that.

Do today's youth feel it is necessary to be prepared for bad things at all times?  Do most of us feel this is necessary?

I have a lot of compassion for today's youth because in my opinion they have lost a connection to their source: the earth.  Not all of them.  But it occurs to me that people who grow up in cities without easy access to nature are cheated.  They are exposed to a denser concentration of culture.  And maybe that serves as a means of connecting to the earth.  I may not know what I'm talking about.  It just seems to me that there is a fundamental urge in us all to feel connected to the land.  And this may not be immediately apparent to people who have never had access to nature.

Maybe I'm projecting.

But the youth of today have extremely challenging conditions in which to grow up.  There are not many decent role models in positions of leadership, for example.  The current state of the economy creates significant financial obstacles.  Prejudice comes in many varieties and manifests in extreme forms.  The environment needs tender loving care, yet power possessing beings who are controlled by greed and power lust will continue to do things to the environment to further hurt it.  I don't know how I would feel growing up in such a world as this.  When I was 18, I was aware of the bullshit in the world but felt a sense of hope, a sense that obstacles could be overcome.

I continue to experience this hope, though it has taken on a different form from that of my 18 year-old self.  When I was 18, for example, there seemed to be breathing room, a sense of expansiveness left on the planet.  This was in 1979.  Today, there is less breathing room, less space left in which to create something new.  Maybe this is just a perspective of my advancing age.  But it seems that as compared with 1979, there are many more obstacles to overcome in this world.

Far from making me discouraged, I believe in the resilience and the intelligence of human beings.  I know that we are smart.  I know we can create a better set of conditions in which our youth may grow and carry hope in their hearts.  I feel a deep responsibility to future generations to work like hell for the duration of my life to address all the issues I mentioned above.

I have a request to make of you at this point, gentle reader: I ask that you consider every action, every word spoken, with great care.  Consider how it will help.  And I would ask that if you see there is no use in contributing an action or a word to our planetary zeitgeist, if it would be harmful rather than helpful, would you please refrain from executing this action or this speech?

Be mindful that every small word and deed affects the greater whole.

In a similar vein, rather than focus on each other's differences, can we please focus on our similarities?  For example, I feel relatively secure in making the following statement: all of us wants to be healthy and happy.  In order for us to be healthy and happy, all of us needs a means of providing ourselves and our families with the resources to make these concepts a reality.  We all need healthy food, clean water, shelter, clothing, access to healthcare,  We all need these things.  Can we focus on this for just one moment a day?  Then stretch that moment to the next moment.  Until soon, we can accept this truth with all of our being.

I believe we can learn to love others and have compassion for their journey to achieve health and happiness.  But each of us needs to work very hard to attain this love.  We need to cease being judgmental and begin to stretch our imaginations to consider the circumstances in which others speak or act out.  I direct these comments to my liberal friends as well as my conservative ones.  Because we all are guilty of making reactionary judgments.

All I am asking is take a moment to think before speaking, before acting.  Just stop and think for a moment: how will this statement or this action help put the world in a better place?

Thank-you for reading.

Love,
kathyclark

My Heart Aches, My Hand Burns and I Don’t Love Coal Ash

Water is an old friend.  I have always played in it, whether it manifests as a creek, a river, a pond, a lake, an ocean or a puddle.  I love the water.  At the same time, I hold a fear of what might be hidden by the water.  Cotton mouths, sharks, dead bodies, leeches.  This duality - the mystery and the awe, the danger and the pleasure - deepens (no pun intended) my love of water.  

During my childhood there were widespread campaigns to promote a clean environment.  The “Give a Hoot, Don’t Pollute” slogan emerged as did the famous ad featuring a Native American man crying by the side of a road after a driver has just thrown trash at his feet.  These ads instilled in me at a very early age an awareness that we humans, collectively, need to protect the earth. I always imagined that we would. 

I remember learning about air pollution in grade school.  I remember reading about coal plants and the nasty stuff emitted from their smokestacks.  I remember learning about smog and thinking how awful such a thing exists!  I wondered how people could live by inhaling brown sky rather than the blue sky I was used to inhaling. But I always believed that collectively, we would clean up the environment.  We would wipe away the Native American’s tears.

In February, the third worst coal ash spill in American history happened in the town of Eden, NC.  The Dan River, source of water, food and recreation for many, became spoiled by the waste from burning coal.  Coal is the source of our power.  Whenever we turn on our lights, we rely on coal. So in my mind, I am part of the problem.  

Like many people, I have been following the news reports indicating the layers of cronyism that led to this preventable tragedy.  That’s right: this didn’t have to happen.  But it did.  Because for whatever reason, we, collectively, do not care about being good stewards of the environment.  

I decided I needed to visit a healthy river before taking a trip to the Dan.  I went to River Bend Park and wandered around the Catawba for a day.  Fish leaped out of the water for a tasty insect snack. Turtles strategically positioned themselves on fallen tree limbs for maximum sun exposure.  Fishing birds took a break from their sport and stood on rocks in the middle of the river. Immersing myself in the elemental life of this river was just the boost I needed before visiting the Dan.  It was as if I needed a placeholder in my mind - something to help me remember what a healthy river should look like.  

I went to the Dan River half expecting to see piles of gray matter heaped up on the shores and trapped in eddies, half expecting to see the dead bodies of turtles and otters, birds and fish.  I saw none of this.  Neither did I see leaping fish, sunning turtles, nor fishing birds.  

I walked down the series of stairs leading to the water and knelt down on the last one.  I looked into the cloudy water and contemplated reaching in.  The familiar fear of what lies beneath the water seized me.  I imagined all manner of monsters dwelling just out of my sight, waiting to grab my hand, possibly pulling me into the water entirely. But I wanted to see if I could pull up some coal ash from the bottom.     

I rolled up my sleeve and thrust my arm in past my elbow.  The cool water was all I felt.  Nothing with teeth.  No coal ash either.  I made another effort, dipping my arm in further, to no avail. I couldn’t reach the river’s bottom.   

I shook the water off my arm and walked a little further up river.  I soon noticed a burning sensation on my hand and then a prickly sort of itchiness. It wasn’t too severe.  In fact, I wondered if this was a psychosomatic manifestation.  Ultimately, it doesn‘t matter.  Coal ash is on the bottom of the Dan River, even if I can’t see it.  Toxins such as arsenic, thallium, mercury, chromium, lead, boron, selenium, cadmium, antimony and molybdenum are in the Dan River as a result.  These toxins have already killed mussels and turtles.  Some of these toxins become more potent as they move up the food chain.  So over time, more deaths will occur among larger animals.

I am part of the monster that lives beneath the Dan River because of my reliance on coal-based energy. All the life-destroying elements of coal ash released into the environment are the direct result of my inability, and our collective inability, to demand another option. It is now time to stand up and make this demand.  It is up to us to show Duke Energy what it means to be a good steward of the land and hope they follow suit.  

As I left Draper’s Landing, I pondered the irony of a large sign posted at the entrance: “This is your drinking water…help keep it clean!”  

Yes, please.  Help.

Hold the Arsenic

Currently, I work in the juice bar of a "healthy supermarket" called Planet Care.  I put raw vegetables into a very loud industrial strength grinding-things-up machine and their juicy innards flow out of a little drain pipe and into a cup waiting below.  I then serve this cup of juicy innards to a customer who hopes this elixir of life will be the solution to the problems they face - losing weight, remembering important daily details, having energy, having motivation, having the energy to have motivation, being motivated to have energy, living a long and fruitful (or veggie-full) life.  Not to knock it: vegetable juices can be entirely beneficial.  Just not when coupled with a muffin.

The other day, a woman came in and ordered one of our house specials and this is what she said, "I'll have a Red Sunset, light on the arsenic."  I write all orders down because I am often inundated with more orders than I can fill quickly and need to keep tabs on who ordered what first.  So I was writing down "Red Sunset" as the words "light on the arsenic" reverberated in my brain.  I finished writing and looked quizzically at my customer and asked, "Did you say 'light on arsenic'?"  The woman looked at me in earnest and said yes.

I stood there completely befuddled.

I've been obsessively thinking about the coal ash spill in the Dan River.  And arsenic is a component of coal ash.  So naturally, my thoughts were immediately directed there.  To Eden and the Dan River.

~~~

Arsenic? Coal ash.  Dan River.  Eden.  We're not in Eden.  Our water isn't arsenic-laden.  Yet.  Is it?  Oh God!  Is it?!  All those poor fish.  Mussels.  Turtles.  All the plants.  The birds.  The mammals.  The people!!!  All that coal ash.  How can we restore the river?  How? Still, she wants a juice.  What does a vegetable juice have to do with water, either arsenic-laden or regular?  What is she talking about?

~~~

Coal ash is the byproduct of burning coal for the creation of electricity.  Surprisingly, it is "more radioactive" than the waste generated at nuclear power plants according to Scientific American.  Additionally, coal ash contains heavy metals such as arsenic,  and selenium, and cadmium, and mercury, and many others.  But primarily when one talks about the toxins in coal ash, arsenic is at the top of the list.  It is a highly toxic substance.  Carcinogenic even.  The EPA requires that there be no more than 10 parts per billion of arsenic in drinking waters.  And 10 parts per billion of arsenic in commercially produced apple juices, for that matter.  More on that in a moment.

The coal ash contamination of the Dan River occurred an a no longer functioning coal power plant owned by Duke Energy.  Duke Energy generates 70 percent of its electricity via coal.  It is the largest power holding company in the United States.  I get my electricity from Duke Energy.  Currently, I have no alternative energy source.  I am, therefore, responsible in part for the contamination of the Dan River.  And this realization drives me crazy.

I don't want to give Duke Energy my business.  I don't want to perpetuate a reliance on fuels that destroy the land, harm people and pollute the environment.  But I don't have a choice if I want to use my computer, cook my food, read by lamp light and stay warm in the winter months.

I launched an event via Facebook called Coal Ash Wednesdays in order to promote the reduction of energy consumption.  One day a week, anyone who cares to participate cuts their energy use back and from 7 pm til 7:30 pm EST, everyone shuts off the main breaker to their house.  This much is doable.  This much can help.  It's the only thing that makes sense in light of the senseless destruction of life and the local economy along the Dan River.

~~~

Dan River.  Coal ash.  Arsenic.  Juice.  Arsenic and juice.  Red Sunset.  Arsenic....oh!

The juice ordered by the woman wanting light arsenic is called Red Sunset.  Red Sunset contains carrots, beets, apples, parsley and ginger.  In contemplating these ingredients, I remembered a crucial element in solving the mystery of what this customer meant.

There is a misconception that apple seeds contain arsenic.  Apple seeds contain cyanide, an equally poisonous yet completely different compound.  In order for one to die from apple seed ingestion, one would have to pulverize and/or masticate the seeds to break the hard protective coating exposing the inner amygdalin.  One would need to consume a shit ton of these in this manner because the human body is able to detoxify small amounts of cyanide.

At any rate, I remove all the seeds from each apple before I run it through the pulverizing/masticating juice-making machine.

The customer may have been referring to the trace amounts of arsenic found in commercially packaged apple juice.  This is the result of naturally occurring arsenic in the soil and the use of pesticides and herbicides in orchards.  There is organic arsenic, which the human body can process, and inorganic arsenic, which it cannot.  In fact, the inorganic arsenic is a known carcinogen.  Long term exposure  to it can result in especially nasty forms of cancer. But I, the Juicer Person, do not use commercially produced apple juice in the fresh juices.  I juice real live apples.

 ~~~

"Excuse me...but you said 'light on the arsenic...'?

"Yes."

"Do you mean light on the apple?"

"Yes."

"I see.  Alright then.  I was momentarily confused."

"I was wondering....it can't be that complicated."

No.  It's not complicated at all.