Diamond-Cut Life

I’m sad that John Edwards has exited the presidential race. Why? I saw his as the most honest and courageous voice on the national stage, between his populist stand against poverty, naming corporate greed for what it is, and . . . imagine this . . . promoting that Americans should be willing to sacrifice as we address global warming.

I heard Mr. Edwards use those words when I was

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This Thursday evening my husband and I will participate in Focus The Nation, a nonpartisan teach-in and movement to address global warming that has been embraced by Barack Obama, Arnold Schwarznegger and more than 1,600 campuses nationwide.

This makes it the largest teach-in in our nation’s history, which I’d say is a right-sized strategy to deal with the largest problem we’ve ever faced.

Our friends Eban Goodstein, an

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My husband Thor and I love to have people over for dinner. At the same time I’m addicted to sociability, I ‘m also passionate about choosing food with the smallest possible carbon footprint (similar to ‘embodied energy’). Our guests keep coming back, so I gather our cooking tastes pretty good.

Here are the major guidelines we use:

• Buying local food lowers carbon footprint more than the ‘organic’ label
  Example: Australian wine doesn’t make

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Last night some friends and I had one of our periodic ‘Green Girls’ dinner parties at my friend Colleen’s house. We had a blast sharing news, laughter, viewpoints and encouragement around sustainability. Colleen’s meatless eggplant mousakka was a hit.

We all eat more than 1,000 meals a year, for a big percentage of our carbon footprint. If we want to lighten our carbon footprint, the principle to embrace is

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Martin Luther King Jr. had a dream: that America could rise above the selfish institution of segregation. The dream seemed hopelessly idealistic. Too many people in power benefited from segregation, and were willing to violently defend it.

What if Dr. King were alive today? I am convinced his dream would embrace sustainability, i.e. living in a way that ensures future generations can also live. Everything he stood for supports such a

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Today’s post is a brief one as I sit here at Stumptown Coffee in southeast Portland, Oregon. I’m sipping from a real mug instead of a disposable cup. Have you ever noticed how much more sensual the porcelain feels against your lips than a flimsy paper cup? How pleasing its warm weight is in the palm of your chilly hand on a winter morning?

It turns me on, to be honest.

Which

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As I’m following the primaries, two things keep coming to mind: why isn’t global warming central to the problems the candidates are addressing? And why aren’t we and the media expecting more courage and leadership from them on such an obvious problem?

Newspapers nattering about likability reminds me of the guys rearranging the deck chairs as the Titanic was sinking. The largest scientific consensus that the world has ever seen

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Doug Glanville has an important editorial in the New York Times today. He’s saying that our culture’s deepest fears drive athletes’ use of steroids, i.e. fear of aging, failure, vulnerability, being replaced, etc.

‘Play without steroids despite your fear’ is his summary advice to players, which is what he reports he did himself as a pro baseball player.

He’s touching into much more than professional sports. Everyone, athletic or not, has to

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In my last post I talked about overspending with credit cards and overspending the earth’s resources needing a similar solution: live happily within our means. It feels so much better this way, believe me.

Here are my Top Five recommendations for how to break free of credit cards, based on how I did it. (Note: If your debt comes from medical expenses or not earning living wages

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Confession: I am a former credit-card addict. Many years ago I racked up huge debts, played all the games of transferring my balances, thought I was very smart, la la la.

Today I have zero debt, and am much happier. (Smarter, too.) I think many others could be happier in this area, as well. I suggest we all break free of credit cards and stop using them.

How do credit cards relate

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