Miomarmo

Simple Statement of the Day

Mankind's true moral test, its fundamental test (which lies deeply buried from view), consists of its attitude towards those who are at its mercy: animals. And in this respect mankind has suffered a fundamental debacle, a debacle so fundamental that all others stem from it.
~ Milan Kundera, The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Inspiration and the Pending Spring Season

With the pending spring season upon us, snow melting, birds chirping, and the sun shining, I find myself (as I do every year) pondering the wonderment of the upcoming season with life anew. 

To make me laugh at myself and in keeping with the situation, I compare my renderings akin to that of the main character in the movie "Groundhog Day" as Bill Murray (portraying Phil Connors) realizes the err of his ways (as he's forced to live and relive the same day over and over again) and begins to contemplate each day, every moment, filling himself with knowledge and the beauty of wonderment as opposed to kidnapping a groundhog (punksatony phil) and telling him "don't drive angry...".  For anyone who has seen the movie, I hope this made you chuckle.

 

I truly believe Bill Murray's character had the right idea and hope the appreciation and inspiration becomes contagious this season.

I find that I tend to read more inspirational things during the spring and summer months and now with spring just a few weeks away I've delved into many inspirational thoughts and readings.  Here are some that I wanted to share.  Whether it brightens someone's day, makes them think, or just makes them go "hmmmmm", I believe that they serve their purpose well.

"The most effective way to do it, is to just do it!" ~Amelia Earhart (1897-1937) Aviator

"The principle of happiness should be like the principle of virtue: it should not be dependent on things, but be a part of personality." ~William Lyon Phelps

"They can conquer who believe they can.  He has not learned the first lesson of life who does not every day surmount a fear." ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

"To improve the golden moment of opportunity and catch the good that is within our reach is the great art of life." ~ Samuel Johnson

There will be many more over the course of the next few weeks until spring has sprung.  I hope it brightens someone's day!

Saving the world with your wallet and your fork

Happy Earth Day, everyone! Hopefully, you already know that the little things you do each day can help make the world a better place. Today I'm asking you to extend that to your wallet and the choices you make at the supermarket. If you haven't already seen Food, Inc., I strongly urge you to watch it for free online and see how scary our food has become, and how overpowering are the handful of giant corporations who control almost the entire food industry.

The trailer:



PBS is streaming the entire movie for free here.

Have you already seen it? What changes have you made for you and your family since you've watched it?

Hollywood Goes Green

    As being green becomes the new trend in Hollywood, us average folk have probably wondered at least once, whether or not we’re avid readers of People magazine, if the recyclable Hollywood icons live up to their claims of green living. Established tabloid favorites such as Jennifer Aniston, Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan, Miley Cyrus and all the up and coming High School Musical kids are not touted for their eco-friendly ways. Even with the new “in” of greenness, a specific agenda is in place to promote a small contingency of celebrities who are ecologically sound. In order to find out the truth about as many celebrity greenies as I could, Google.com was consulted.

      The first entry on “green celebrities” yielded Grist.org’s 15 Top Green Actors. Some of the top ten include Leo DiCaprio, Ed Norton, Robert Redford, George Clooney and Cate Blanchett. DiCarpio has an environmental documentary in the works entitled 11th Hour, Norton helped BP launch it’s Solar Neighbors Program, Redford launched weekly 3 hour slots of eco-programming on his Sundance channel, Clooney was Vanity Fair’s cover boy for their green issue, launching Oil Change to discourage America’s dependence on oil and Blanchett has converted her entire home to solar power. 

      Also on the list is Ed Begley, Jr. coming in at number six. Truly, with all the things he’s done including driving electric cars, running his home solely using solar energy, launching his own eco-domestic show entitled “Living with Ed” and even powering his toaster with a stationary bike, he should have topped the list at number one. All that bike riding for a slice of toast would wear anyone out. 

      Surfing the wave of ecological awareness are fashion designers, most notably Stella McCartney. In a recent issue of Style and Design supplemented in Time magazine, McCartney was praised as having an eco-friendly line which she claims is a throw back to her mother, hippie-chic Linda McCartney. She refuses to use fur or leather in her designs and instead uses natural materials; she’s quoted as saying “why…are we not questioning the fact that it’s barbaric to raise an ostrich for a bag? They say it’s a by-product. Well, I didn’t eat lizard lately”. Despite the lack of animal skins, her clothes are flying off shelves in high-end boutiques. Some of her top clients include Madonna, Natalie Portman and Gwenyth Paltrow.  

      After all this searching on the internet, a big player seemed to be missing: what happened to Al Gore? The Nobel Prize winning creator of An Inconvenient Truth was notably absent from Grist’s list and from any of the websites searched. Gore eco-warped his home in 2007, but quickly discovered, according to Fox News, that his “carbon-neutral” home used twice as much power in one month as the average US household does in a year. Despite the incredible usage, Gore put in energy efficient windows and added solar panels to his roof. Extra profits from AIT went to globe-friendly education.

    For some, being “green” comes naturally, but celebrities have easy access to funds that can transform their homes and lives into ecology friendly environments. It begs the question: why not be a little greener with your green?