This time of year I find myself humming the Olympic anthem throughout the day. The Vancouver games run February 12-28, it is time to start dreaming of mogul runs and bobsled victories. For some reason I hum the familiar tune associated with the games on my way to and from errands. As if hauling my three children around was an olympic event in and of itself.  I confess that my humming, on occasion, crosses over into the Star Wars theme music. Also fitting for errands with kids, makes sense as John Williams wrote them both.

Just like the five colored rings that symbolize the games are all over everything from our Visa cards to the McDonald’s drive through, attempts at greening up corporate America are everywhere to be found today as well. Most recently, Coca-Cola’s efforts to green up the Vancouver games.

Not every corporate attempt can be trusted, but so far, kudos to Coca-Cola and their efforts. From hybrid delivery trucks, and biodegradable beverage containers to furniture made from reclaimed Pine Beetle infested wood, Coca-Cola seems to be making a truthful attempt at greening up the games that hopefully will serve as an outstanding example for such a global stage.

You can catch a good article on these efforts here:

http://www.plasticsnews.com/headlines2.html?id=17733&channel=260

Coke has gone to great lengths to bring sustainability to the games. From bringing in recycling containers to reworking clothing options for the athletes carrying the torch, an undertaking like this is not without logistical challenges. For example, the goal was to have the athletes carrying the torch wear clothing made from recycled bottles, but the temperatures in Vancouver in the winter were lower than what the original clothing could manage, so the system had to be reworked. The same with their desire to use hybrid heavy-duty trucks, which it turned out were hard to get enough of for the games.

Coke also had to work with the City of Vancouver to rework the waste stream so that the biodegradable materials actually end up in places where they will become compost material. The issues Coke faces in Vancouver, granted on a large scale, are not all that different than the challenges many of us ever greening folks find each day. We are seeing with Coke the sort of system management and conflict that happens in a million ways each day for many of us.

For example, there is currently an ordinance in my community against composting. A few years ago a misguided neighbor started adding meat refuse to his compost pile. It went rancid and drew pests so the city put a ban on composting. In other places there are not recycling systems in place to haul away recyclable products. At our church, we hoped to brew fair trade coffee throughout the building but the coffee equipment is owned by an outside company that will only allow us to brew their blend. To make a simply tweak like brewing fair coffee means revamping an entire system (where, in a church like mine that sees 2000+ people each week, comes with a price tag of over $30,000 – just to change the system).

So, it will be interesting to keep an eye on Coke’s progress at these games. And if they were indeed able to rework the system to meet their greening desires, then how can we do the same at home, in our communities, and on the smaller scales we work with each day. Keep a watch and learn!

Casey Kasem. Every year when the calendar winds down to the last official week of the year, I hear Casey Kasem’s voice in my head. He’s the radio personality that has counted down the top 40 songs for some 30+ years. He retired this year. I remember sitting in my bedroom as a teenager, wondering what the top song of the year or the decade would be on the 31st of whatever year it was. Which, probably eludes to my lackluster adolescent social life.

So this time of year when Casey’s voice bounces around in my memory, when calendar stores randomly pop up at all the malls, and when fitness centers across the US start offering special deals, I realize we have now entered the season of New Year’s Resolutions. Vows to cut out sugar or nicotine, caffeine or nail biting, cursing or speeding, yelling at the kids, the spouse, the dog, decisions to pray more, give more, do more, whatever it may be, people resolve to do it on January 1.

Research suggests that if a person can keep up with a new activity for about 6 weeks, it becomes part of their routine, it can become habitual. So resolutions that have a chance of lasting are those that people hang on to for about 6 weeks. Most people I know, myself included, last only a few days or maybe a week with their resolutions. For many of us, it all sounds like a noble idea until we either get stressed, bored, or simply forgetful. Then we are back at it until another season or reason prompts us to action again.

At the grocery store today I noticed all the magazine covers boasting the top everything of 2009. The top 10 people, top 10 defining moments, top fashion disasters, top movies, songs, etc. Normally, I barely notice the magazine covers but this time of year, I am curious. Well, what were those defining moments? Who are those top people?

I stood in line tonight with my over-stuffed holiday stomach and my silent vow to eat less this coming year, for at least six weeks. And I thought about how impossible it seems to have any resolve when seemingly perfect people who have either the most fabulous career, social life, professional life etc. stare at me from all these magazine covers as the top of the top.

And then I start thinking about how they all have personal trainers or coaches, chefs or nannies, how they attended some of the top colleges and universities or how they had parents who decided to help them become fluent in 5 languages. And I think that perhaps I may not make a resolution of any sort since I’m just an average, slouchy mom buying milk and tangerines the week after Christmas.

But, and yes, here it comes, the “green moment”, average people like me and you are the ones who should make these sorts of commitments because when a million or a billion of us vow to shift something, change happens. And yes, we need to all play nice on the international scene and urge our nation to pull its weight when it comes to places like Copenhagen. But we also need to make a few resolutions that last longer than 6 weeks on our own, without political action or government prompting. Just average people making better decisions.

So, at the risk of sounding like Casey Kasem in your head. What are you going to do different in 2010? Can you do something a bit more sustainable than you did last year? Since, science has us careening toward irreversible climate changes, shifting a few things this year seems more than a little important.

Need some ideas? Here are some really easy ones. For most of us, starting small has more staying power than converting your car to run on vegetable oil, or getting rid of it entirely. Like starting an exercise program by running a mile instead of trying to run 26.2. Take small steps that actually work and you may have yourself a new habit that means something to the planet.

1. can you carpool with a co-worker once a week?

2. can you take the train, bus, or walk to work instead of driving once a week?

3. Can you ditch your disposable coffee cups, lunch ware, plastic bags, napkins for the year?

4. Can you refuse to idle your car at the ATM, school pick up, or any pick up?

5. Turn your lights and appliances off when not in use. Wash your clothes in only cold water?

6. Make a monthly donation to an environmental/conservation organization?

7. Skip meat one day or one meal per week.

8. If you do not currently recycle, find a program near you and get started.

9. Shift your media to electronic, skip on newspapers and printed materials.

10. Conserve water (shorter showers, flush your toilet less, can you skip on watering your lawn?)

Maybe someday the rest of us, with all our small changes, will warrant the cover of a magazine. “Top 6 billion planet savers of 2010?”

Last weekend the City of Chicago hosted its Green Fest. A big event downtown. Lots of green people running around talking about everything from wind energy to composting. The brochure to advertise the event was the size of most news stand magazines. It was a big day for hippie green folks and all the wanna-bes like me. 

I did not go.

I was not opposed to going. I actually desperately wanted to go. Two of my favorite friends were going. It would have been an outstanding day for sure. I was hooked by the brochure alone. I flipped the pages and stared longingly at the seminars on solar panels and the advertisements for earth-friendly soaps. I threw an inner tantrum over the fact that I was not going. 

With three kids, one husband, and 20 years worth of yard work in front of us, it did not make sense to go. Sometimes, as great as the opportunity to hit an event like that may seem, you just gotta sit one out. So I pouted over my coffee for about 20 minutes and then got over it. There was much to do. My husband, as I pouted, was down in the basement making little garden stakes for me out of scrap wood. My memory was quickly fading over what I had planted where, and since I cannot tell the difference between sugar snap peas and green beans, I needed little signs before I started yanking beans and expecting carrots.

So after a few sawing sounds the hubby pops up out of the basement and hands me a pile of sticks and a permanent marker. “I’ll watch the kids, go out there and take care of your garden already.” So I did. Armed with gardening gloves and a black marker I labeled all my plants and pulled weeds and threw a few more cucumbers into the ground. It was fabulous. And as I plunged my little suburban hands into the dirt it hit me that rather than go downtown and think about all the green things that I could do, that I was at home actually doing those things. We spent the entire day this way. Doing the garden and the lawn and life rather than just talking about it.

Now this is by no means a slam on the Green Fest, but it is a moment to point out the curious phenomena that seems to have taken off with this green trend. Because it is all so hip and fashionable today, to be green and all, because celebs are into it and television networks talk about it, it has also become phenomenally easy to talk about being green rather than actually do it. 

I keep seeing reusable bags at the store but rarely see people haul goods home in them. I keep seeing fancy water bottles at the stores but I still see plastic everywhere. I keep seeing cheap t-shirts at big box stores that say “save the planet” and “respect the earth.” These shirts are printed overseas, they are not organic, and there is really nothing earth friendly about them. I keep seeing green festivals and events crowded with people who will go home with a few good ideas but may or may not put any of them into action. sigh.

Sometimes it is just better to stay home and plant things. Truth be told, if I had attended this green event I would have spent money on parking or public transit. You cannot get there for free in a city this size (unless I biked the Eisenhower, which is both illegal and suicidal). And I know myself, I am a sucker for trinkety crap so I would have purchased some random bar of soap or a fair trade pound of coffee to boast about how cool and green I am. I would have spent money and time and carbon that day. 

So looking back, I am glad I did not go. Bummed to miss it but happy to actually be green because I did green that day. My friend Megan went, she came back telling me about some random broom made with all sorts of recycled stuff and bamboo. She said it was cool. She also said that her sister Meredith made a good point. She simply said “but I already have a broom.” Yes, but isn’t that post-consumer broom totally cool? Yes. But I already have a broom, I don’t need a new green one. Sometimes the best green thing we can do is not to go, not to drive, not to buy, not to get sucked in, not to grab a new gadget or buy a new book, not to buy a new broom.

Sometimes the best green day ever is the one when we choose to stay home.

I remember going through a phase in high school when my little group of friends and I watched the Blues Brothers endlessly. It was already an old movie by then but something about it captivated us. I doubt every adolescent of the 80’s had this obsession with Jake and Elwood, but we did. We thought we were cool, dressing up like them on Halloween, quoting the movie every time we were “definitely on Lower Wacker Drive.” Who else does this at sixteen? Looking back, my hunch is that it had to do with the fact that we lived in Chicago and the Blues Brothers are, by far, one of Chi-Towns best claims to fame. 

Midwesterners that we were, we realized that we were hopelessly uncool if we dared to compare ourselves to swanky New York kids or flip flop wearing surfer types from California. We live in what the rest of the country calls “the fly-over states.” At least this is what I am told they call us. Hah I say, you don’t have the Blues Brothers. It was our attempt at getting on the map.

Now I don’t devote much of my time and thought energy thinking about John Belushi and Dan Akroyd. I’ve got too many other useless things to obsess over. But this past Saturday morning I had a chance to love my sweet home Chicago more than ever before, and I’ve been thinking about them ever since. 

You see on Saturday morning I ran a race. A 10 mile race. Along the lakefront. Downtown. On a sunny and gorgeous morning. The race happened to end inside Soldier Field on the 50 yard line. It was called the Soldier Field 10. It was awesome. Not so much the running 10 miles part, but the being downtown part was great. I’m downtown a lot but something about that morning was fabulously different. 

It started actually with a lot of green pride. I woke up at 5:00 am and then hit snooze and took my time getting ready. I needed to be down there by 6:30 so of course I panicked and set my alarm early. Then the fact that I live so close to the city kicked in. No need to rush. I did not leave until 6:00. I was parked by 6:23. awesome. Live close to what you do. Save on time and gas. It’s green and ridiculously convenient. We spend way too much time in our cars. The average person spends 50 minutes a day (total) commuting to and from work. That’s a lot of time guzzling gas and listening to talk radio.

Close as I live, I must confess to a great traffic sin that I had to commit to be parked by that time, and nope, it was not speeding. I made it all the way down to soldier field in less than 20 minutes. Then I saw the exit sing and then the enormous line of traffic waiting to park. ugh. I needed to be at race packed pick up by 6:30. There was of course packet pick up the day before, but in my greenness I decided not to make a needless trip into the city twice. So I waited until that morning.

I sat for a few moments in line, way, way back in line. I sat and sat. Looked at my watch and started to panic. If I missed this, I would be livid. No one was moving. So I looked in my rearview mirror. Traffic to the left of me was whizzing by, heading southbound at 60+ miles an hour. Traffic in front of me was stopped. My heart rate started to bump up a notch and my palms got sweaty. I kept looking in my mirror. Cars were flying to the left of me. I looked up one more time and then jerked my wheel to the left and stepped on it. I jumped into the left lane and whizzed by all the traffic that I was just in, now to my right. I flew at least half a mile down the road until the very last moment. Yes, I was so one of those people. I looked and looked. A mini-van driver was spacing out and had let the car in front of her creep up just far enough for me to squeak in. I slammed on my brakes and nosed myself into the right lane. I had just trumped 50+ cars. 

I waved thank you endlessly at the van behind me. I was still sweating and reeling with traffic guilt. I hate people who do what I just did and if you were in that line on Saturday, I am so sorry, but I only had seven minutes left. I also grew up in this big city with a metropolitan area of 9.5 million people, so every now and again I bust out my city savvy jerky driving and consider myself entitled. Which is basically to say that I have no excuse. ugh.

But I digress (what else is new). I ran the race. I ran 5 miles south, away from the city, and then I turned around at the half way mark and saw before me the entire Chicago skyline as the next 5 miles unfolded before me. Lake Michigan was clear and gorgeous. It glistened in the morning sun. The air was crisp, the sky was blue, it was idyllic. And as I inched my way closer to Soldier Field I got all sappy and patriotic. It was Memorial Day weekend. I was at Soldier Field. My Father-in-Law is a Vet. A three purple hearts soldier in vietnam vet. So I got sappy and patriotic. 

Then I got closer to soldier field and ran through the tunnel and up and out onto the field like Walter Payton. I saw myself on the Jumbo-tron. It was ridiculous but I was swept up in it. I was wearing a Bears t-shirt. It was the best. I moved one step beyond patriotic into city-otic. Which I realize is just one step away from idiotic. 

But the moment I crossed the finish line I thought that I lived in by far the best city in the world. Sweet Home Chicago was blaring on the speakers, the skyline was captivating, I was on the 50 yard line at soldier field. Sure, I committed a few traffic sins to get there, but I was there. In the middle of my city feeling like some sort of triumphant sap. I wanted to call Mayor Daley. 

What I loved most though was the sheer clarity of the morning. The clear sky, the sparkling lake, the fresh air in a heavily urban area. It was smogless. Which is great considering us Chicagoans get most of our energy from coal plants. But it reminded me of how marvelous even the inside of the city can be. And Chicago, as far as cities go, is one of the greenest. Mayor Daley just landed on a list of the top 10 green mayors. Sometimes, all this eco-stuff, it works out. And sure, we are an ecological disaster just like the rest of the world, but sometimes you get a chance to see what is possible. And if it is possible to get swept up in something as trivial as crossing the 50 yard line at Soldier Field, then I have hope that we can someday get swept up in something as significant as saving God’s planet. This would make me forever giddy.

But for now I will take a simple morning when the wind is just right and the traffic is light and my lungs can actually breathe and pump and move my legs and my heart into action And when a few green dreams like this come true along the Chicago Lakefront, you get to say “sweet home Chicago,” and mean it.

One week ago Friday it was one of the first gorgeous days of the spring. Almost 75 degrees, sunshine, and lots of flowers in bloom. So I packed my kids up and headed to the zoo. So did the rest of the city of Chicago. We got a late start, sat on the Eisenhower for 30 minutes and then sat in a line of cars waiting to get into the zoo for another half an hour. Once there we waited in line to see everything, including the bathroom. It was nice but it was way,way, way too crowded. We bailed after two hours. The giraffes can wait.

So this past Friday, Arbor Day, I was not to be outdone by all those organized, early moms. No siree. It was Arbor Day, which meant it was a free day at the Morton Arboretum. http://www.mortonarb.org/ One of the greatest little slices of plant and tree preservation I know. Lots of great stuff for the kids to get dirty and splash around on too. So the minute my children woke up I hollered at them to put their socks and shoes on. By 7:30 AM we were dressed, fed, and watching the clock. We packed cheese sticks and yogurt into the diaper bag, slapped sunscreen on, and headed out the door. The weather guy said it would be 85 degrees and sunny. We had to hurry. Those hyper-organized moms were probably already there. They had probably put sunscreen on their kids last night before bed. Darn them.

We arrived at the Arboretum early. Phew! After racing my double stroller (packed with three kids) across the parking lot and to the main entrance, I finally took a moment to slow down and breathe. We were meeting my niece and brother-in-law that day. She’s the most adorable little thing, 20 months old and feisty as can be too. “You go girl,” I always think when I see her. So we had a few moments to wait for them. I looked around. Trees everywhere. Flowers in bloom. My kids were poking at worms and gingerly touching tulip petals. “ooh, these are so pretty” they were saying.

Then they started asking about bugs and about trees and why this day (Arbor Day) was all about trees. So I took a moment to start telling them all about oxygen and carbon dioxide and they actually listened. And then, as if he was reading a tele-prompter, my oldest said “so mommy, what happens when we cut down all our trees? That is bad right?” And I said “yes honey, it is.” And then he said, “oh, wow, then we’d better save them all right?” “Yes baby, we need to save them.”

And on this went for another 5 minutes. Talking about it all. And it actually turning into the sort of idyllic moment I dream about. And then we snapped a few pictures, for which they smiled, and it was just all perfect! And I know what you are thinking, at least if you are a friend of this blog and know anything about me, you are probably wondering when the dramatic moment is coming when this all falls apart. When someone has a diaper blow-out or falls or says the absolutely inappropriate thing, because this is just now how my life normally works. But I tell you, that it did not fall apart on this day. It was as God himself bent down and whispered in their little ears “shhh, now be good and love the trees today okay buddy.”

So, I got all sappy. I teared up. I looked around at this fabulous little slice of the suburbs that had been set aside to love the little earth God made. I saw all these peppy arboretum staff people in their green t-shirts telling people all about plants. I handed out crackers and cheese to my forever snacky kids and I actually cried. I had my sunglasses on. No one noticed. And THANK GOD my brother-in-law was not there yet. Not that he would have cared, he’s cool like that. But how do you explain why you are crying at 9:00 AM on a gorgeous day at the Arboretum? Especially to a guy.

So I wiped the warm tears that had slipped below my sunglasses and mixed with my sunblock, and I the first truly deep breath I had taken all week (actually, probably all month) and then saw our playmates for the day walking up the path. Time to go and check things out. Sappy moment over. Drink the coffee and let’s move on.

So we did, we played and splashed and giggled and snacked and it was marvelous. And then we stopped on the way out at a little exhibit where the kids could make their own paper. Of course I yelped to them “hey you guys, wanna make some paper?” And they said “yeah mom.” Fabulous right? Only I had not bothered to look at how long the line was and what was involved in making paper. 

You see there were blenders and pulp and people and irons and all sorts of other gadgets. Just to make yourself a little piece the size of a coaster. And as I bemoaned my eagerness and jumped into the line, I noticed that there was no need to fret. The kids were willing to wait (that and my brother-in-law was chasing the two babies, this helped too). So we stood in line and I watched my kids stare wide eyed and this woman who helped them manage the pulp and then mix it and dry it and iron it. And it was all earth friendly and made from recycled materials and it was pure Arbor Day bliss. And then we noticed that the kids could decorate their piece and print their names on it and leave it there and it would become part of an international exhibit that would travel the world. How cool would that be, my little peanut’s handwriting ending up in Spain or something? http://www.treewhispers.com/

Of course my selfish kids wanted to take their paper home. Can’t blame them though, they did wait a long time. So much for that fame. But we learned that day how to make paper and recycle stuff like newsprint and construction paper and even repurpose old window screens to filter the water in the paper making process. And did you know you can do all of that from home with your blender? http://www.pioneerthinking.com/makingpaper.html

When we got home that day my two little ones were pooped, they napped like champs. My oldest sat down and colored his little coaster and with great pride stuck it to our display board with a magnet. “There you go mama” he said.

Indeed, “there you go mama.”

Most of the time our little earth lessons run amuck, kids get cranky, it rains, or they just don’t care. I often underestimate how much they can absorb and they never underestimate how many of my buttons they can push. But once in a great while you end up making paper at the Arboretum on a gorgeous day. You talk about why trees matter and your kids actually listen. Once in a rare while it all lines up just fine on a sunny Friday afternoon. Trees, sunshine, oxygen.

There you go mama. There you go.