For the beauty of the Earth

It's the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day!

Go out and do something today: take a hike, a bike ride, sit outside in the sun, plant a tree, smell a flower...

Here's a great idea from Frederick County Government: 20, or so, simple things to do in 20 minutes or less (click on the link to the press release, and it'll pop up as a pdf). Take the Choose 5 Challenge, by picking 5 things on the list to do today (or 6, or 7, or...). Frederick County residents who enter the Challenge can win prizes!

Shepherdstown Presbyterian Church, where Karis and I attend, had its annual Earth Fest on Sunday. And the 2nd Annual Panhandle Earth Day Celebration is this Saturday, April 24, 2010 from 12PM - 9PM at Morgans Grove Park (off Rt. 480 Shepherdstown, WV).

Last One In Is A Rotten Egg

"I like to play indoors better

'cause that's where all the electrical outlets are."

- A Fourth-Grader in San Diego

On Wednesday there was a water main break in town, so Karis' afternoon classes were cancelled. We decided to go to Borders and use some gift cards we had; she got a John Grisham (The Broker) and I got Last Child in the Woods - which actually took us a long time to find, did you know Borders has a parenting section (apparently contained within the "Self Help" section)?

I'm about a quarter of the way into it and I think it's great. I could probably talk about the book for a few hours (and have talked more than a few hours about it to Karis already), but instead of writing an essay, or two, I'll briefly mention some highlights:

Richard Louv's thesis is basically that children need to be outside more, playing, exploring, imagining, he points to several studies, but it's not a "science" book (or an "environmental" book, he cares more about children being outside in the trees than the trees themselves).

He points to 5 general trends for today's society:

1. a severance of the public and private mind from our food’s origin
2. a disappearing line between machines, humans, and other animals
3. an increased intellectual understanding of our relationship with other animals
4. the invasion of our cities by wild animals
5. the rise of a new suburban form (one with even less open space and with covenants that keep people from having overgrown yards or gardens)

His answer isn't simply more education, he points out that people know more about the outdoors even though they are outside less (or at least they know more about the rainforest/tundra/himalayas but probably less about their own backyward). And the answer isn't just preserving open space, open space is often to be seen but not touched these days.

His call seems to be a very simple one: leave no child inside.

He isn't a Michael Pollan, Bill McKibben, or Annie Leonard (honestly, I like him more), but I see him talking about the same sort of thing. Really, I see him advocating a simpler life, one more connected to the Earth and to each other, but I also see him advocating a fun life, one of scrapped knees, child-like wonder, and dreams.

I would definitely recommend it for parents, teachers, environmentalist, recreationists, etc...