Metaphor of the Month

It can be frustrating to try and solve problems you see in the world. I can hardly bring myself to read the news sometimes, because I get so impatient and dismayed watching the same battles fought over and over again. The bleeding edge of activism moves back and forth for years before any progress can be declared.

This process is unequivocally organic. If you've ever gone diving or snorkeling, it's reminiscent of the way coral reefs evolve. Each kind of coral creates a no man's land around itself: the result is a constant, toxic warfare with other kinds of plants, animals and other coral. Eventually, one chemical cocktail wins and the colony expands. The whole landscape is altered over and over this way.

If you look over decades of political history, you see the same pattern in people. As ideas are vetted, chosen and discarded by both sides, the conversation changes. And the same toxic no man's land exists around the most strident voices at the fringe of every debate.

Being a person and not a coral polyp, this seems like valuable real estate. There is no reason to watch ideologies battle from the trenches; it's not like we're dodging real shrapnel. Jump in the conversation with anything you can find. Happily, we already occupied a little piece months ago. Stephanie led the charge, and we deployed an ignorant army. It needed no marching orders at all, and it demonstrated most eloquently...

Let me know if you ever meet a person who would look this nice after standing in front of a high school with a sign for two months! They demanded no breaks and didn't even need to be fed.
I don't think this is quite guerrilla gardening so much as floral diplomacy. They can do more than clash by night on a darkling plain. They can greet the dawn and the dusk with sweet faces and they do not need words to make their statements. Still, I'm glad no one seems to have made off with the signs yet. I'll be adding more pictures to this post when I can get the scanner working, so you can watch our influence continue to grow...

West Valley Green Leaf Meets This Thursday!

Rough Agenda for Meeting 6/19/2008

Report From Officers

Award Ceremony

1) How to Submit Ideas?

Populating the Calendar

Hikes

Field Trips

What else?

2) Future Projects We Can Begin:

How will projects begin?

On the table so far:

Asteroid Watch/Stargazing

Native Garden Expansion - Museum

Garbage Reduction & Recycling/Compost Expansion

Christmas Parade

As you can see, this is a rough agenda. Please feel free to add ideas! You can leave a comment or join the thread on our google group page.

We Got Our Green On!

Get Your Green On was a great success. The Mercury News covered it, and I saw someone describe it as the biggest free green event on the peninsula! Way to go everyone! Here are some pictures if you were not able to attend... Maybe we'll see you next year!

Perhaps at the organic cooking class?

The tree mover was really impressive.


Marc's display was recycled, recyclable and people powered!


Ed Sayres helped a Green Party candidate see the future.


And when it was time to leave, we left only footprints and some tire tracks. Come see us next year, and I'm sure it will be even bigger, better and GREENER! Thanks for sharing your pictures, Chris!


And if you're looking for something to do today, why not come spend a day at the creek? We're meeting to clean up the trail behind the Borders in Los Gatos, today from 9 am until noon. Insufferable, ain't we? If you prefer to stay in Saturday mornings, the least I can do is provide a cartoon...

What are you doing for Earth Day?

Why not come Get Your Green On with us at Los Gatos High School? West Valley Green Leaf, a community group combining citizens from Los Gatos, Monte Sereno and Saratoga, joined forces with students in the Go Green Club. They've put together a great event, featuring information on solar power, alternative vehicles, green cooking tips... everything you need to green your life!


We've been preparing for months, and this weekend it all comes together. The native garden at the school we planted is even starting to bloom like it knows it's important!


Come on out and Get Your Green On, and see how you can be happier, healthier and wealthier with some great green tips! Raffle prizes and free gifts too!

West Valley Green Leaf is Choosing a New Logo

Here are all the contenders! Feel free to cast your vote in the comments, or leave feedback.




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Thanks for all the submissions!
Please cast your vote in the sidebar. Thanks for looking!

News!

I'm pleased to announce that the City of Saratoga voted to adopt two measures on Thursday. One was a resolution to implement Build-it-Green Guidelines, including LEED certification for new government projects over a certain size. And they approved an agreement for a Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory, to be prepared by Joint Venture Silicon Valley. AND! They have also approved city membership in Sustainable Silicon Valley and Local Governments for Sustainability. Whew! As you can see, there's been a lot of enthusiasm. Let's congratulate the Saratoga City Council for jumping into this thing with both feet! Now's a great time to send that letter to the editor you've been thinking about...

And I'm doubly pleased to see the city's great new green guidelines pages! Now it's even easier to go green.

Deck the Halls with Boughs of Holly...

Have you ever thought about the origins of our holidays? We all celebrate according to various traditions, but at the heart of all of them, a few things are found in common: renewal and gratitude. How much greener could you get? For example, Hanukkah, the festival of lights, is a celebration of the re-dedication of the Temple of Jerusalem, after it was sacked by Antiochus the Fourth. The holy ground was regained. And the temple's eternal flame was rekindled. Even though there was only enough oil for one day, miraculously, the oil burned for 8 days: the time it took to prepare more oil and consecrate it for the temple light.

So how about Christmas? Which a cousin has started calling "present day", much to the chagrin of her mom... Well, most of us know that Christmas is really a shortening of "Christ's Mass". It was first recorded in 1038. HUH???

Christmas prior to the year 800 was not celebrated much. There was a more prominent holiday called "Geol"... which is pronounced "yule". Sound familiar? Yule was a northern european celebration of the winter solstice... the shortest day of the year, when the northern hemisphere is furthest from the sun. Or, you could look at the Romans, who celebrated December 25th also, as Dies Natalis Solis Invicti, "the birthday of the unconquered sun." Even the Catholic Encyclopedia cites it as a probable predecessor of our Christmas holiday.

And knowing all this, many of the symbols make much more sense. Over time Christmas gained prominence and became the holiday we know today... a time of gift giving and celebration of the turning of the seasons. The holly and the ivy (and mistletoe!) are evergreen plants, and symbolize the triumph of life over death. We can credit Charles Dickens with turning those ideas to charity and goodwill toward our fellow men in 1843. It was only 7 years later, in 1850 that we hear the first criticism that the holiday has been corrupted by consumerism, from Harriet Beecher Stowe.

And in 2007, what is our burden? What kind of holidays do we want to leave for our children? Will they be hollow days, the same as any other where we simply count what we've gotten over the year and wonder what we'll get next? Or will they continue to be holy days, where we consider our place in the world and our duty to our fellow men and the future?

And most importantly, will they be fun? Absolutely. In fact, I think they'll be more fun, when we stop burdening ourselves with huge shopping lists and designer trees. Check out some of these articles for some suggestions...

How to Have a Green Christmas - Newsweek
A Guide to Green Christmas Decorations - Guardian Unlimited
Dreaming of a Green Christmas - The Decorating Diva
Rework your old incandescent bulbs into CUTE ornaments!
Bright Ideas for Hanukkah Decor - The Buffalo News
Go Green at Chanukah - JTA
Decorating for Kwanzaa - DIY

And if you're in a hurry, I can sum them ALL up in 3 steps:

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle - Your house doesn't know these are the same lights and decorations. The other houses will not make fun of it for wearing last year's accessories.
Buy Sustainable - This means live trees, compostable decorations, energy efficient lights and fair trade, organic gifts you can be proud of giving.
Buy Local - Why go further than you have to? The holidays are stressful. Sometimes it really is easier to be green.