ditching the paper coffee cup

Image: Dino De Luca / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

There was a time when I would buy a cup of coffee almost every day. Sometimes more than one cup per day, and it usually came in a paper cup. It really didn't feel like I was doing anything really bad. I mean, one paper cup won't hurt anything right? Unfortunately, there were millions of other people with my paper coffee cup habit thinking the same thing.

Here's the problem:

• In 2010, an estimated 23 billion paper coffee cups will be used. It takes 9 million trees and enough energy to power 77,000 homes to make these cups.
• Paper coffee cups are lined with a plastic resin called polyethylene, so they can hold hot liquid. With this coating they cannot be recycled. All of these coffee cups end up in landfills.
• In the landfill the paper cups decompose and release methane, a greenhouse gas that traps even more heat than carbon dioxide.
• Most coffee cups are not made of recycled paper, as recycled paper is typically not strong enough to hold liquid.

Suddenly, my coffee has a bitter aftertaste.

My solution:

Well, for starters I'm going to make my coffee at home and drink it from a mug. I've been doing this for a while now to save time and money, and I enjoy it just as much. On the weekends, I will still treat myself to a fancy coffee, but I will do it in a reusable mug. One study found that I'll have to use my stainless steel mug 24 times for it to be more environmentally friendly than paper cups. That's 3 months of weekend coffees for me.

Here's a back of the napkin calculation on savings, because I LOVE to quantify things:

Money saved:

$624 per year

(Making my own coffee vs. 3 lattes and 2 coffees out per week)

Resources saved:

350 cups per year

140 pounds greenhouse gases per year

21.6 pounds of solid waste per year

My coffee habit alone will save one tree every seven years

Sources:

http://www.edf.org/documents/523_starbucks.pdf p.25.

Also see http://www.sustainabilityissexy.com/facts.html for more fascinating and terrifying figures

Football lessons on peace

"You must be the change you want to see in the world." -Mahatma Gandhi

Last night I learned a lesson in bringing more peace to the world from somewhere I never would have expected: a football game. I should say right off that I get the irony, but sometimes inspiration comes from unlikely places. I take it where I can get it.

I was watching the Michigan and Notre Dame football game, which turned out to be an incredibly exciting game. Even more than Michigan's dynamic comeback, what struck me was the way Michigan's new coach, Brady Hoke, talked to his players. He was very calm and respectful to them, even after a player had made a big mistake like throwing an interception that could have cost them the game. The coach didn't shout angrily like we are accustomed to seeing football coaches do. He was serious and meant business, but his body language and the words I could read from his lips made him come across with respect, like he was an ally and a teacher. More "Okay, here's what we need to do to fix this."

Without realizing it, I became infected by watching Brady Hoke's kindness, and it influenced me to be kinder today. This morning my five year old started throwing a fit in a public place for no apparent reason. My first instinct was to give him the stern, "this is inappropriate" talking to. I wasn't feeling angry, but I wanted to teach him the lesson and the stern approach was my first reaction. I think it is the way I've seen most parents respond in my life, so it is familiar - but certainly not the best or only way I could respond.

In the split seconds of deciding how to react, it occurred to me to take a kinder approach, and so that is what I did. I used the same words and taught the same lesson, but I did it calmly and with more kindness. In doing so I felt like more of an ally to my son than an authoritarian, and he responded well to it. On my more mindful days I try to take this approach to parenting, but I am not perfect, and I don't think it makes me a bad parent to be stern sometimes. My point is that watching Brady Hoke's kinder way of coaching had influenced me and reminded me, in those few seconds of deciding how to react, that kindness and calmness were on the menu. Brady Hoke actually crossed my mind.

So witnessing kindness influenced me to choose kindness, just like that. I wonder how many other people watching the game were also influenced that way. What if I infuse all of my interactions with more kindness, compassion, patience, joy, respect, and peace? It is a choice after all. By doing so, I will bring more of these qualities into my life and the lives of others. It will make every interaction better. It will inspire others to be kinder too, and kindness is a form of peace. And just like that, peace spreads. It is so simple, yet so powerful.

My efforts alone to be kinder may not solve all of the world's problems, but it will bring more light into the world. That is a start. It will make our world a kinder place, even if just a little bit, and that is a world I want to live in. A world I want my children to live in. The problems facing the world are daunting, and remembering that my simple everyday actions make a difference is empowering. Especially today.

Kindergarten here we come...

"Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it." -Ferris Bueller

Emerson ready to go to his first day of Kindergarten

How did our baby grow into a Kindergartener so fast? Where did that half decade go? When we brought home our newborn, I was so overcome by love for him I could not imagine him going away to school someday. In many ways that seems like yesterday, yet so much has changed in our lives that it seems like a very long time ago indeed. Fortunately, as that vulnerable, precious baby has grown he is showing us that he is pretty resilient and capable. He's a smart boy who loves to learn and loves to be with friends, and so I know school is the best place for him right now. That makes saying goodbye to him each day so much easier, but it is still bittersweet.

As the alarm went off this morning, it hit me that we had entered the end of an era. The era before alarm clocks. The time of staying in pajamas all day if we want to, reading books together for hours, going for nature walks or to the beach on a whim. The carefree days before school became a regular part of our days. I do find comfort in the fact that we get to return to that each summer, and there is something nice about having more structure to our days now.

I also notice how quiet our house is this morning without the constant airplane noises and questions and the stories that Emerson loves to tell. There is something so solemn about the toys he was playing with this morning laying silently where he had left them on the couch and the floor. Charlie feels it too, and he keeps saying that he wants to go to school. On the first day he insisted on wearing his backpack. Those two are such a sweet duo together.

Emerson and Charlie on their way to school.

I think more than anything I'm just so proud of Emerson. Proud at how brave he is to go to a new place, away from us. Proud at how curious he is and how much he loves to learn. I feel honored and grateful to have witnessed so much of his life so far, and proud of the hand I have had in raising this fine little boy to become who he is.

Overall, I think the hardest thing about going back to school for Emerson, for me, and probably universally for parents and children everywhere, is separating. My sweet little boy explained it to me best last week. I asked him if he was excited about school, and he said "no". I asked him why and he responded by making shapes with his hands in the air: the letter I, the shape of a heart, and the letter U. I heart U. Yes, that sums it up pretty well.