Let's Have Earth Day Everyday

Beginnings

As we plan and grow, beginnings tend to land somewhere between illusive, inadvertent ends. Even with an open-mind and a consistently discerning spirit, we look up one day and realize that what was once a vague possibility--a mere hint of a thought of an idea--is now a newborn reality that we’re inadequate at nurturing, initially. So relying on the notes that we‘ve taken assiduously from our previous life lessons (along with good old trial-and-error), we ultimately figure it out, making our merry blind way towards the next unpredicted start with our new skills in tow and fear of potentiality with each step.

Magnifying Earth Day

Earth Day efforts are to our environment what Valentine's Day gestures are to our loving relationships: channel all your efforts into one day and see how well the cause turns out in time. Loving your Mother Earth shouldn't be a chore, and expressing your love to your mate shouldn't be either. So if we truly value each other i.e. believe in our souls that we are better off with our significant others in a healthy environment (and understanding why), in smaller yet more frequent increments, it's easier and even more rewarding to celebrate one another year round. Now I know what you're thinking: revoke this girl's woman card if she doesn't want diamonds and when do I get the golf clubs I've been eyeing? Material items have no meaning unless they symbolize something greater, so the greater something is what's worth your time. Succumbing to gimmickry is totally in vein if we aren't diligent 24/7 from birth 'til death, generations in succession, to keep our Mother feeling loved. Material gifts can be sparkly band-aids for bruised relationships (and the plastic packaging isn't biodegradable so it's bad for the Earth anyway), but if you want them, get them yourself, and require more introspection and substance for your life. True love is inspired, self-deprecating, and priceless. A healthy environment supports, subsists, empowers...it's golden. Your birthday is plenty time to satisfy your wanton, superficial needs, but showing appreciation for whom and what is around you lies in the thoughtful measures that we take consistently. Your precious Earth is worth more than one day of reverence.

Spring

"The real voyage of discovery exists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes."
--Marcel Proust

I'm quite pleased to admit that I've grown to appreciate the sanctity of springtime. It's always been beautiful and refreshing, but not until my late 20s did I grasp its unparalleled ability to waken an entire group consciousness into action where even the catchiest of ad campaigns might fail. That's not to say that I didn't enjoy the inexhaustibly sun-filled days of St. Petersburg, FL when I lived there for a couple of years--the sky was vastly blue, the rainfall was fleeting...even the bums were more cheerful than I'd noticed up North. But I never ceased yearning for that victorious feeling when the Ohio snowfall ceases and the windows are agape for the first time--the yellows turn to greens again, the flowers with warranted apprehension reveal themselves to the world, coaxing people out of hiding. We feel alive and empowered to clean up all of our baggage from the year before and anything that peacefully compels one to quell their procrastination is a force to venerate.

Way Dismay

As I rounded the bend of the third consecutive parallelogram inscribed in exhaust that lunch hour I thought, “How green could this little dance possibly be...and where has Adams Street gone all of a sudden?” This is mono-directional insanity. Downtown had sucked me into its sick, twisted matrix, AGAIN, and I'd had it. Didn't matter that I'd been vigilant and downright familiar with my destination when I left my house. I somehow still managed to enter my street 2.5 inches beyond my destination, instantly passing the nearest available parking areas, blowing through the upcoming intersection, subsequently sweeping myself into carousel mode. Throw in the construction merges, detours, and egocentric j-walkers infiltrating the roads at full force and I ended up just as I had too many trips before--wasting gas money, emitting toxins, getting seasick and increasingly (albeit predictably) annoyed to my core, awry in the polygonal pits of turn signal-less, red light running, one-way street-filled Hades. Amidst my brewing frustration, a brief semblance of reason tells me that one-way road systems couldn’t have been created solely to infuriate me, so whose brilliant idea were they and for what practical purposes? At this point I wanted to arrange a movement to make them obsolete. This anxiety isn’t good for my health or my brake pads. Whimpering home, I was beyond eager to research this issue and gain an understanding for the pestilence that is the one-way street system.

Apparently there is great controversy over the location of the first single direction roadway, but the main contenders are: Lima, Peru, New York City, and London. For the sake of (unabashed) bias, let’s give NYC the distinction. Historians explain that New York’s theater district was so vivacious in 1791, that traffic was especially chaotic around show time. The frustrated carriage drivers began to simultaneously aim their horses’ heads east towards the river allowing the increased fluidity to temper the mayhem, and so the one-way street was born. Other cities noticed how much more orderly, safe, and efficient these paths were particularly in carrying a high volume of passengers, and began following suit in their own congested areas. This is why we find them in the heart of so many cities--good old downtown.

When you compare a one-way street to its two-way counterpart, numerous studies have shown a dramatic decrease in the number of conflict points i.e. opportunities for collision. This results in a lot fewer accidents vehicle-to-vehicle as well as vehicle-to-pedestrian, a huge bonus I must admit. Because one-ways allow for a larger traveling capacity, there's also a significant reduction in the number of stops needed (like half as many), so stop-and-go traffic,which is not only irritating but terrible on your car, is diminished as well.

Although it’s a complicated and lengthy process, cities like Montgomery, AL and Toledo, OH are surprisingly converting many of their long time one-ways into bis, in the recent years. Many of the businesses supporting this change cite reasons like "block-neglect," which asserts that since travel consistently flows away from the establishments on one end of the block, business at that end are neglected (which is how I feel when my destination just happens to fall on the wrong part of the road and I barely breeze past it only to venture twice as long to return to where I started, IF I get my bearings back at all). Two-ways also create a pedestrian-friendlier environment because they require lower speeds, which are a definite advantage. I'm not a gambling girl so I'll just utilize the services of good old Mapquest next time I need to go downtown.

Feels like home...

This is the first post of the rest of my blogging career. Thanks for being a part of my dream!