http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzI1SbSpBZc&feature=youtu.be I like this beautiful video, produced by Climate Desk, because it brings climate change home to us. Martha Carlson: “Anyone can see a picture of the polar bear but what does it look like in *my* backyard with *my* animals or *my* plants?” Bringing it home, where it has been all this time, of course, …
Author Archives: kaat
On Speaking Up and Speaking Out
Some people in my town who have seen me speak publicly have come up to me and mentioned that I do not seem used to it. Â That is true. I used to be a teacher (TA) in college, but that kind of speaking was very different from Speaking Up, which is what I call what …
Building an Engine
I’m reading Gura’s book, American Transcendentalism, A History, and on page 19 there it is: Toward that end they called “for immediate application of ideas to life,” so that in this brave new world a thinker “was called on to justify himself on the spot by building an engine, and setting something in motion.” Exactly. …
Riot for Austerity, Year Three (October 2010 to December 2011)
We started our Riot in October of 2008. In the interest of making my bookkeeping easier, I’m going to count Year Three as a 14 month year. The percentages (of US National Average) for Year Three for (1) Gasoline, (2) Electricity, (3) Heating Oil and (4) Water are as follows: year three 29.1 14.6 24.5 15.3 …
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New Year’s Resolution(s): Friends and Self Care
We have a few plans for the new year. Just a few. But I think my most important aim is to connect meaningfully with someone, every day. That could be a phone call with a  friend who is far away, an impromptu lunch with an acquaintance, a meeting with fellow activists, a speech to strangers …
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Riot for Austerity – Month 38
This is the Riot for the month of December 2011 for the three of us. Half of that month we were away in my hometown in Belgium, which explains the low numbers. Our first year’s averages were calculated here, our second year’s averages can be found here. Edson fixed the calculator: all go tither to crunch those numbers! …
The Story and the Now
I found an old journal (last part of 2007) in a stack of novels hidden behind a chair in my little “office”. I am usually very careful with my journals, keeping them together and safe. This one isn’t the usual black moleskine but a fancy cloth one given to me by a friend, and that’s …
Burning House
Now I can’t stop blogging! I just wanted share this, from Jim Harrison’s North American Image Cycle: The boy stood in the burning house. Set it up that way, and with all windows open. I don’t want a roof. I want to fill all those spaces where we never allow words to occur. That’s what …
Perspective from the Creatures of the Soil
A Fugue. I’m reading the newly arrived Life in the Soil. Actually, I’m devouring it. And it’s not even that particularly well or passionately written. I started wondering about this as I marveled over acellular slime molds and trichomycetes and realized that I often take refuge in books about soil and geology when I am down …
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Priorities in our Activism – Part 1
Lately I’ve been in several situations and conversations that have brought home for me an important shift in how I as an activist (and many other activists) consider my priorities and view my task. I stumbled into The Situation some months back. With the Green Team we have been focusing on recycling. At the beginning of …