For the full life experience, put down all devices and walk

by John Kaag & Susan Froderberg Pedestrian: a word fitted to the most drab, tedious and monotonous moments of life. We don’t want to live pedestrian lives. Yet maybe we should. Many of history’s great thinkers have been pedestrians. Henry David Thoreau and William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Walt Whitman, Friedrich Nietzsche and Virginia… Continue reading For the full life experience, put down all devices and walk

When I was a boy

by Diana Ellis When I was growing up, the utterance from my father of the phrase “when I was a boy…” usually at the dinner table, inevitably resulted in a combination of interest and eyeball-rolling, depending on how many times we had heard the story before. Now in my mid 70’s, this is one story… Continue reading When I was a boy

We Are the Weather: Saving the Planet Begins at Breakfast

We Are the Weather: Saving the Planet Begins at Breakfast by Jonathan Safran Foer Hamish Hamilton | 2019 | 272 pages This is one of those books which deals with a divisive subject (climate change) and then creates yet more  discord amongst readers because of the author’s style and message.  Jonathan Safran Foer delves into… Continue reading We Are the Weather: Saving the Planet Begins at Breakfast

Going green is all about what you gain, not what you give up

by Kate Laffan According to The New Republic magazine in June this year: ‘You will have to make sacrifices to save the planet’, while the US newspaper Metro asks: ‘What would you give up to end climate change?’ These headlines, read from my desk in London where I carry out research in environmental psychology, present… Continue reading Going green is all about what you gain, not what you give up

21 Lessons for the 21st Century

21 Lessons for the 21st Century by Yuval Noah Harari. Penguin Random House.  372pp Oxford-educated lecturer in history at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Yuval Noah Harari established his credentials with two bestsellers. Sapiens was a reflection of mankind’s progress through history, from the discovery of fire to the creation of cyborgs. Homo Deus detailed… Continue reading 21 Lessons for the 21st Century

GLOBAL CRISIS – THE VIEW FROM NARAMATA

by Stan Hirst The following is a lightly edited reprint of a post which first appeared on this site in July 2012 (pre-Harvey, pre-Irma, pre-California fires, pre-Trump, pre-COP 21, pre-COP 24).  In the Blogmaster’s humble opinion it deserves a rerun. ******************************************************** Naramata Centre: A green, leafy place on the eastern shore of Okanagan Lake, British… Continue reading GLOBAL CRISIS – THE VIEW FROM NARAMATA

Serene Solitude Supports

by Jill Schroder Serene solitude supports… sublime silky silence sustains… I love the soft sibilance of these sounds, which still satisfy me as I bask in the afterglow of my annual camping trip with women friends. This year we were way away from it all, and it was nourishing, rejuvenating, restorative, heart and eye-opening. I… Continue reading Serene Solitude Supports

A conversation with a guy in a pick-up truck

by Stan Hirst Langdale, B.C. on a Sunday afternoon in early spring. Background of sunny weather and balmy breezes. Add in a few thousand Sunshine Coast vacationers and day-trippers heading home. Result = a humungous line-up for the Horseshoe Bay ferry. Which is how I found myself in a tightly packed line of parked vehicles… Continue reading A conversation with a guy in a pick-up truck

Country of Survival

by Lillian Ireland and Rob Dramer This country’s beautiful and fragile human tapestry is interwoven with strands of every ethnicity imaginable. What a privilege to live in a country where, for the most part, our relationships exist within frameworks of respect, dignity and congeniality! Canada is known globally for this. Yet watching our country slowly… Continue reading Country of Survival

Perils of Apparel

Proceedings of a Suzuki Elder salon, April 5, 2018, Vancouver, B.C.  Researched and written by Erlene Woollard, Patricia Plackett, Julie Zhu, Erzsi Institorisz, Allison Penko, Jennifer Sharp, and David Plackett Edited by Stan Hirst     THE ENVIRONMENTAL AND SOCIAL IMPACTS OF WHAT WE WEAR The apparel industry is the second most polluting industry on Earth today, exceeded in impact only by the… Continue reading Perils of Apparel