Scientists worldwide are alarmed by the amount of microplastics being found in watersheds, lakes, drinking water and oceans.
Parents of children often remind their kids “don’t forget to brush.” Working men use abrasive hand soaps after a day in the shop. Women cleanse their faces with soft scrubs. What’s being liberally applied in the name of good hygiene are microbeads — a big part of the invisible microplastics waste stream — and these little plastic scrubbers are polluting our drinking water supplies.
Scientists worldwide are alarmed by the amount of microplastics being found in watersheds, lakes, drinking water and oceans. Here’s a list of 10 stealth microplastics compiled by the science journal, “The Conversation.” …
— A note to my nephew while sheltering in place, March 28, 2020
An interview with photographer Dawoud Bey on visualizing history made me think of you — because you have a good photographer’s eye and a practiced understanding of the African-American experience. You once said photos have little value these days because everyone has a digital camera, we’re awash in images. Yes, this is true.
What’s missing in the endless stream of random snapshots, however, is creative intention beyond the frame, beyond the moment’s capture. …
Today I started dating, well merely a first meeting, no pressure. I chose the place because it’s close to a store selling handmade Valentines for kids and I bought a bunch. He was 20 minutes late, hated the cafe’s clatter. I suggested butterscotch en pot de crème for desert, mentioned it was so good last time I licked the pot. He didn’t grin at my exaggeration, said it’s the rule: first dates are always Dutch.
I paid for two at the register, $24.63 including tip, carried the Queen of Hearts server card to a table outside. The sun was too…
Today I’m thinking about the future while putting away Christmas decorations collected by women in my family for more than a century. It’s the last time. It’s bittersweet, but has to be done. I need to stop trying to create a holiday extravaganza for children, in my mother’s style. There are no more children. I’ve been trying for years to turn Christmas into a special occasion for everyone, an experience that builds memories and bonds families. Today I see that’s a big fail and I’m burning down that old desire.
The days leading up to Christmas were fun-filled, even magical…
The wine caves at Sonoma County’s Bella Vineyards, completed in 2003, allowed the winery to expand its storage capacity without having to take out vines to build an aboveground structure.
Caves are places of wonder, of shelter and security, and dwelling inside them is a tradition as old as the human race. Although evidence shows these hidden structures also were used exclusively to store wine as far back as 6,100 years ago, California’s winegrape growers and wineries now are building new kinds of wine caves and using them in ways never before seen.
In addition to providing efficient storage and…
Unpacking, not just my suitcase, but also experiences and impressions gathered during 2.5 weeks in the UK — Ireland, Northern Ireland and London. In part the adventure was about resetting my creative life, finding a new starting point, connecting with who I am on a deeper level, understanding what it means to be an American of Scots-Irish descent, what is true about my heritage, what is myth.
So I stood bickering in Ormeau Road in Belfast with my adult son Michael and his girlfriend Mariah about how to spend the day exploring the city, which bus to take, how far…
Since spring I’ve been following a gun violence awareness effort in my community. In March students from Natomas Charter School Performing Arts Academy installed a “bed” made of shaped branches. They laid a patchwork cloth seeded with wildflowers in Sacramento, outside the South Natomas Community Center where I practice yoga.
Through spring and into summer, I’ve watched the bed transform and I’ve taken my grandnieces and grandnephews to the nearby playground and then to see the flower bed.
We’ve talked about why students in my community created this public art and what they — and everyone — hopes will happen…
I’m alone. Utterly. A single orchid blooming white, but not luminous, on the empty table in my drape-darkened breakfast room. I study this waxy green plant, find not a shoot, not the slightest promise of an intricate unfolding into petals. Sitting still in the half light, I’m spent and weak — bereft.
If I didn’t tell you before, here it is. Mike got his driver’s license on the third try a few months ago. The examiner wrote on his perfect test “Excellent Driving” and added a happy face. That cost me $635.
Now, instead of getting a job here in…
He talked about visits to Ephesus over lunch, about watching the ancient ruins being rebuilt from one visit to the next. He described the helter-skelter pieces of stone being numbered and then painstakingly reassembled. He mentioned the city, built at the crossroads of Greek, Roman, and Persian influences, was once a center of civilization. Now it’s a bone yard of antiquity.
He lives in an active senior citizen community, he said, but doesn’t golf and refuses to buy a golf cart to get around, says it’s too much trouble. The carts always need fixing. He caught me checking his ring…
When Europeans got off the Mayflower and took a look around they found lush forests that helped meet the needs of the first Colonists. The newly arrived thought they were looking at a pristine natural environment, not realizing American forests had been actively managed by Native inhabitants for millennia.
Unfortunately, that error in understanding has persisted for centuries. Protecting our forests and grasslands from fire, letting them grow “naturally” without attention, has turned out to be an error in perception — and a recipe for disaster.
What European-Americans actually saw, including settlers of the West who came later, was the…
