Even in Crisis, Hope Takes Root

By Maurice Carter, Sustainable Newton President

A petunia growing from a wall above my koi pond reminds me we're made of strong stuff.

It's taken longer than I hoped -- weeks in fact -- to get to where I could organize my thoughts to share a few words about how we persevere with sustainability efforts in these troubling times.  But, I suspect you all understand.

It's a striking reminder how much life changed so quickly to reread my last post about Arbor Day written 43 days ago, on February 20.  It was easy then to imagine young seedlings and saplings growing into mighty shade trees to shelter generations to come.  But, thinking about that future is a more difficult task today.

I find myself spending spare moments on days not occupied by the present to reflect on my past.  Or, more accurately, the past of those who gifted life to me long ago.

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One vivid memory is of my grandfather -- my father's father -- at mealtime with our family.  Done eating, I was scraping leftover food from my plate into the trash, along with the aluminum foil wrapper from a baked potato.  When my grandfather told me to save the foil and rinse it to use again, I thought he was crazy.  No doubt I laughed.   I also know I had many variations of this with him and my other grandparents over the years of my childhood.

Who knows yet what conditions we'll face in the days, week, months, and years ahead?  It does little good to fret.  But, I do find myself searching memories for hints and tips my grandparents shared about lessons they learned growing up in the hardest economic times our nation has ever known.

I wish I'd paid a more attention then.  And, I wonder if they told me all they could have at the time.  But, the memories that shaped their lives were probably not something they particularly wanted to dwell on either.

I find myself as old now as my grandparents were when I went out on my own.  And, I am living in a time when food waste is one of our most pressing factors contributing to global warming -- an age when roughly a third of the world's food production goes uneaten.

If my grandfather were transported to my time, or I back to his, I wonder how the conversation might go as I try to explain sustainability and why it's something I'm passionate about.  The world  my grandparents and their contemporaries lived in was not a place where excess was an option.  It was a world that could barely yield enough.

I know they were glad to see my parents, my brother, sister, and I enjoy a better life than they had known.  But, the pendulum inevitably swung too far, as it always does.

The cornavirus pandemic and associated economic uncertainty will try us all.  It's not a moment any of us would willingly choose to endure. But, this is also a time to recognize and embrace opportunities to move forward on a more solid, sustainable foundation.  I feel those changes in my own life already:

• Our freezer and refrigerator are no longer places food goes as a staging ground for the trash and then the landfill.  Our reserves are a lifeline for avoiding suddenly perilous trips to the grocery store.
• Leftovers are a precious asset to be counted and cataloged, then used judiciously.
• Composting and sorting materials for recycling -- or better yet, reuse -- is no longer an imposition on a busy day.  It's the stuff of which days are made.
• Small organic farms and farmers growing local food are our best friends ever at the moment.
• Sheltering in place to avoid spreading disease is an ever-present reminder how much our individual actions impact lives around us.  It reveals in scary terms -- but also, in hopeful ways -- how interdependent we are on each other.
• We are suddenly more mindful of the moving parts in our lives.  And, by that, I mean all the people who do their jobs so that I can have electricity when I wake up in the morning, food when I need it, clean water, sanitary disposal of my waste, mail, news, entertainment, information, and a way to reach out to friends and family.

It's all an abrupt-but-necessary reminder of all we take for granted...  a wake-up call as to the fragility of life as we know it. But, it's also a comforting reminder we stand today on the shoulders of those who lived through other such times.

As we commit collectively to the task of rebuilding what's been damaged and restoring what we value most, let us also pledge to each other to learn the lessons right before us and harvest fully the wisdom of those who lived before us.  Let us strive for more than just a "return to normal," for normal wasn't always truly our best.

As you hopefully join us in resuming our focus on building that better world for our children, here are some resources to help:

• The Earth Day Daily Challenge
• 5 Ways to Compost During the Coronavirus Pandemic
  
• Uniting from Home:  a Virtual CCL Event with Dr. Katherine Hayhoe
  
• In Uncertain Times, Citizen Science Can Empower Individuals