A Little Help?

Ebola. ISIS. Israel. St Louis. And those are just the big headlines.  I was reminded of those and more after a brief reprieve from the news during a three-day getaway. And I found myself weeping while watching the broadcast the night I returned. When is it okay to tune-out? What is the tipping point between the responsibility of staying current and doing one's part vs self-responsibility to fight the anxiety provoked by helplessness...or its close cousin, hopelessness?

I have Saved a Child, donated to UNICEF, cleaned up the parks because NY Cares, mentored, protested and donated some more. And heaven knows I have evangelized environmentalism. By nature I am a bit of a cockeyed optimist yet I find my faith floundering. Must I keep watching the news? Do I dare to look away? For how long?

How do we stay tuned in, which is essential for staying empathetic to the plights and needs of fellow human beings, and not turned off by the tonnage of bad news? How can I renew my confidence that a little help from everyone can help turn a tide? It takes a village may be an understatement with what we are facing; ironically the temptation is to run away...or just turn away. It's easy to compare oneself with the angels who do aid work and feel insignificant. I'm hoping sending more donations and creating more dialogue will help the world at least a little and stave off some bit of pain for those afflicted - and for those of us watching from home.

Some Suggestions for where to send A Little Help:
Red Cross
Anti-Defamation League
UNICEF

Mine, Yours, Ours: Eat It

Across a two-page spread in today's New York Times Sunday Review section (or if you no longer read newsprint, below the online "fold" on the Opinions page) live three seemingly different, but to me curiously related pieces, that spotlight how we look at ourselves and others. Check out "MySelfie, Myself," "Ma'am, Your Burger Has Been Paid For," and "How to Feed the World," and tell me if you see the connection.

What I see is a series of stories that illustrate our varying levels of self-orientation, the good, the bad and the ugly.

There's more than just self-orientation to taking and "selfies" - but, according to @NYTimes tech reporter Jenna Wortham in "MySelfie, Myself," these digital self-portraits are "more about showing your friends and family your elation when you're having a good day or opening a dialogue or line of communication using an image the same way you might simply text 'hi' or 'What's up?'" Or, as a Vine co-founder said, it's less about vanity but "...about you doing something else, or you in other places. It's a more personal way to share an experience." And posting selfies apparently ups one's social currency, sparking more reactions and responses to posts.

So here you go:

But no matter how it's positioned, selfies by definition are "all about me." Me, myself and I are the subject. 

So then we look at the next story below that, "Ma'am Your Burger Has Been Paid For."  This piece describes today's social resurrection of the "Pay It Forward" concept coined by the 1999 best seller (whoops, almost wrote "best selfer!") and later film version with Kevin Spacey and Helen Hunt. 

Apparently in a phenomenon primarily happening at fast food drive-thrus, customers are being self-LESS, paying for the car behind them in a chain reaction of random acts of generosity. Stories of hundreds of consecutive cars covering the food purchases of the drivers following them were reported at Tim Hortons in Winnipeg to Chick-fil-A in Houston and so on. (FYI, though not mentioned in the NYTimes story, a little late to the game Starbucks tried to leverage this selfless trend with an organized version of altruism last week, but we'll give them points for trying to encourage a little less selfie-ness in the world.)

Which brings us to "How the Feed the World." In a nutshell, the "how" won't be by covering the cost of the coffee of the car behind you. It will be, as the astute Mark Bittman describes, when we "stop assuming the industrial model of food production and its accompanying disease-producing diet is both inevitable and desirable."  This is a tough but important article to read. 

Bittman reminds us that we have more than enough calories produceable to feed the projected 9 billion people blooming by 2050. But a third is going to feed animals and another third is wasted along the food chain.  Especially here with Big Ag where based on the number of people fed per acre "the United States ranks behind both China and India (and indeed the world average), and roughly the same as Bangladesh, because so much of what we grow goes to animals and biofuels."

There IS a road to salvation, but it will require something we don't do very well outside of the occasional Chick-fil-A drive thru lane: selflessness and a shift to less consumption, more energy efficient farming methods and a focus on not how MUCH is produced but HOW food is produced. 

By diversifying crops, mixing plants and animals, planting trees — which provide not only fruit but shelter for birds, shade, fertility through nutrient recycling, and more — small landholders can produce more food (and more kinds of food) with fewer resources and lower transportation costs (which means a lower carbon footprint), while providing greater food security, maintaining greater biodiversity, and even better withstanding the effects of climate change. 

I stopped eating meat and poultry for good back in the '70s, shocked by reading "Diet for a Small Planet" and its statistics on the inefficiency of grazing cattle vs growing protein rich soybeans, for example. Even if you approach things more moderately, do consider posting a selfie of yourself reading "How to Feed the World" with a link to the article.  And instead of saying "Ma'am, Your Burger has Been Paid For," galvanize your friends and consider giving up the burger even for a week, or to whatever degree you can, and pay it forward for the population and the planet by saying, "your edamame has been paid for."

It had to happen...Less Green for More Green

Yesterday I got a solicitation in email to purchase the new study from Natural Marketing Institute on the Mainstreaming of Sustainability.

 It has been nine years since NMI conducted the first... research study on the Lifestyles Of Health And Sustainability (LOHAS) marketplace. In 2002, only a few companies were talking about sustainability. [Now] most Fortune 100 companies have C-level sustainability staff and have infused sustainability throughout the organization so that it is everyone's responsibility to consider the environmental and social impacts of their products and operations.

Today I received an solicitation in email to purchase a Green Deal of the day.  Now, I'm a big fan of Groupon, LivingSocial, ideeli, you name it.  I know, I know: higher consumption... but less gas when buying daily deals online vs at brick and mortars! But check out the Green Deal rationale, which makes sense to ME:

You want that big coupon for that local restaurant or that online retailer that makes you call all your friends because you can't believe what an amazing deal you just got.  But you don't want to get great savings at the expense of your commitment to taking care of people and the planet.

Now you can get a great deal AND support the companies who share your values.

  So, I love that now, instead of all our early cries about mainstream companies jumping on the green bandwagon, now the green guys are going mainstream.  At this point, I'm all for things moving both ways, and finding a good, green middle ground. 

IMHO - Film Fest and Broadway Opinions

I did my third yearly trek to the Hamptons Film Festival a couple of weeks ago. The beach in the fall is wonderful , and farm stands have all those colorful gourds...Well, you get the picture. And speaking of pictures, I saw some great ones...and not as great ones. Here's the scoop in case you can catch or avoid any of these IMHO ("in my humble opinion" for those not IMing w/teens):
In order of favorites of what I saw:
Big River Man - Documentary that you'll swear throughout most of that it can't be real. You'll think it's Spinal Tap, or something. But not only is this film real-life but it's hugely important to see.

Did you know that there's a guy in Slovenia who has swum the entire length of the disgustingly polluted Yangtze, the Mississippi, and now the 3,300 mile AMAZON river? Do you know the last trek took took this man, Martin Strel, about 66 days and basically drove him to the brink of insanity? He did it to raise environmental awareness (and because he probably already was a little insane). But while he's a hero in Eastern Europe, he's virtually unknown and unheralded in the U.S. Typical. Probably because he's no Lance Armstrong; he's 53, overweight, and a heavy drinker.

I digress. This is must-see, and will be on TV, premiering on Planet Green in January. Go John Maringouin (seen here w/me and my new favorite T-shirt)! A great docu-director who has made a career out of unusual stories. I mean, this guy lived on the Amazon shooting this for two and a half months, too!

• Applaus ("Applause") - Danish film starring the amazing Paprika Steen. She plays an actress battling alcoholism and trying to regain custody of her kids, but its all interspersed with her playing the alcoholic Martha on stage in "Who's Afraid of Virgina Wolfe?" With a tight story line and intense performances everyone in the audience was amazed it was a first time director. REALLY worth seeing if you can find this foreign film somewhere.
• "Solitary Man" - No one does man-on-the-brink better than Michael Douglass. Any guy approaching mid-life crisis, and the self-confident women (Susan Sarandon) who are fed up with them, should see this.
• "Men who Stare at Goats" - I'm sorry. I wanted to love it. I could BE a goat starer. But I only liked it. Clooney? Excellent. (Duh.) McGregor? Dunno.
• "Five Hours from Paris" (Israeli feature film) -- Good. Cute. DEFINITELY look for on NetFlicks. Maybe not for $12.50 at theater.
  

And just to throw in a theater thought? Really enjoyed Brighton Beach Memoirs on Broadway last week! Great set, great cast. Maybe NY-centric story for some, but fun. Looking forward to see the other "bookend" -- the 'sequel' of Neil Simon's story called "Broadway Bound," that also opens soon.

There you have it.