on stamps and due dates

Shavuot is a time to be awash in words. So, to oblige this tradition, and to be well tucked in for the holiday with a riotous companionship of words, I paid a visit to the Johns Hopkins University Eisenhower library.

One of the things I like most about the place, besides their enormous collection, is the way they check out books. They have a hand-held dispenser that adheres a tiny tag with the due date right on the back of the book. The most obvious advantage to this triviality is that you know when the book is due at a glance. Once upon a time, this piece of knowledge was available on any library book. You could look inside - or more recently outside - any borrowed book and know when it was due. It was stamped right there with the date. The convenience of this no doubt was unheralded but nonetheless welcome. I dare say it may also have aided the timely return of borrowed books. Unlike today, when even a thorough inspection of most public library books will not reveal the secrets to avoid overdue fines. Instead, the due date is most likely crumbled up somewhere on that little tasteless receipt that substitutes for the satisfying plunk of a stamp. At best the receipt is lost in a sea of papers at home or more likely lying wounded and discarded in the landfill with other tossed receipts for cold medicine and gum. How ignoble a fate for a badge of borrowed wisdom, a prod to keep one's promise, and a symbol of communal trust and belonging.

For that is what libraries and their stock in trade, books, represent. To borrow a book is to temporarily be entrusted with a piece of communal wealth, whose use we are granted, serially and individually, just for the moment. When we are done, we are return the book, no worse for the wear, indeed perhaps better infused as it is with our spiritual patina, so it may be sent on to the next member of society. Libraries are symbols of this bonding we have, one with the other, a shared ownership that reveals - or at least hints at - shared interests, with at least a few others in the neighborhood.

The record of due dates could tell us that. We could see how popular the book was, how often it was taken out and how frequently. We could imagine this book in other hands, on other laps, playing in the imagination of other minds. We would know that this book had a life before we handled it, that someone read and took care of it, and then passed it back so we could enjoy it too. And we would know that we too are not the last to lay claim to this book but that we must tend well to it and send it back so that others after us may take it home for a while. We would be reminded of this all because of the quiet cascade of dates on the cover.

Today, we check out a book with the same heartless routine with which we purchase a consumable: scan the UPC and get a receipt. A transaction solely between consumer and machine.

JHU library, on the other hand, still affords that bit of humanity in checking out their books. Past due dates are visible on the back of the boks. These bits of seemingly disembodied information place us not only in physical communion with our neighbors and their appetites, even if only in our imagination, but they also remind us of the value of communal structures. No one of us could readily possess all those bounded volumes of words and graphics. And even if they did, what good would it be to hoard them?

I learn five lessons of life and sustainability from this quaint tradition of stamping due dates on books.

(1) It reminds us that we are all in this together. That all property is in some sense common property, that it all comes from a common source and will return to the common source, no matter how long we ardently profess to exclusively possess it. We therefore have the obligation to treat it well, not to degrade the principal, so that others after us will find stocked shelves just as we did.

(2) We may not always know when the due date is, but there is always a due date. We must always ultimately relinquish our "books" back to the source.

(3) That just as the wisdom and generosity of others built the library, so we must continue to add and build for others.

(4) That hoarding - be it knowledge, wisdom, possessions, wealth of any nature - is not only unkind, it is wasteful. What good are all those books if they are locked on the shelves? What value has knowledge or wealth if it is not used for the benefit of others?

(5) There must be some commonly-agreed upon, artful mechanism for sharing, returning, borrowing and organizing, else all would be chaos, fighting ensue, and great potential would be squandered. Though not everyone can have everything all the time, neither do we all need everything all the time. Therefore, we would not feel compelled to personally possess, and hoard, so much if we knew there were good stewards, whom we supported and guided, who were taking care of these precious, shared resources. Both for our generation's use, and for those who come after us.

All this from a silent witness to our shared source of plenty, if we but keep its trust: a running list of dates of when this book is due.

William McDonough

Sarah Saxon is a senior at Roland Park Country School working as a BJEN intern this spring. She authored this guest entry.

In 2006, a man named William McDonough came to speak at my school. I have to give some credit to him on this blog, because his speech introduced me to the world of environmentalism, and he had a very profound impact on my way of thinking.

There are two main things I remember about his speech (Besides the fact he is a very persuasive speaker):

1. “Waste is Food” – This is one point that William McDonough mentioned multiple times. He talked about the cycle of stuff. And by stuff, I literally mean stuff. McDonough talked about a circular pattern off stuff instead of the linear pattern that exists today. This is both in the technological world and the environmental world. McDonough’s idea is that we should eliminate the idea of waste all together (not just reduce it). For example, why shouldn’t we be able to use our TV until it is too old, go back to the TV supplier, turn it in, and say “I would like a new one please?” Then the supplier could use parts from the old TV for something else.

2. “All children of all species for all time” – The other thing that McDonough mentioned that really stuck with me, is that the point of making the world better isn’t just about helping humans, it’s about creating a safe place to live for “all children of all species of all time”. To me, this pretty much covers it. If we strive to make a place that is safe for all children of all species of all time, we haven’t let anyone out.

In the time since McDonough spoke at my school (3 years ago), I like the rest of the general public have become a lot more aware of the environmental issues that exist today (besides global warming and greenhouse gases). I have also become a lot more aware of the political side of “saving the environment”.

I have learned more about William McDonough and his effort to help the environment. He talks about “remaking the way we make things” (in his book Cradle to Cradle) and “the Second Industrial Revolution”. McDonough states that the first industrial revolution was what got us into this mess and second one will be about getting us out of it. Both, he claims, are simply about design.

If you don’t know or haven’t heard anything about William McDonough, I suggest looking him up. He is very insightful. You may not agree with everything he says; he is very strong willed. However, I think he has a lot of good things to say.

LEED Certification

Sarah Saxon is a senior at Roland Park Country School working as a BJEN intern this spring. She authored this guest entry.

When I was brainstorming with Rabbi Cardin about some of the things I could talk about as a guest writer on the blog, we came up with the idea of the new athletic complex at my school. In particular, the new types of landscaping and water management systems that have been employed. When my school reconstructed the building and surrounding area, they made sure it was LEED certified by the U.S. Green Building Council. Some examples of LEED criteria involve storm water management, building orientation, irrigation and use of potable water, and resources involved in building construction.

The interesting thing about our athletic complex is how we went about dealing with some of the criteria. First of all, I have to say that the school did not just reconstruct our gym. They took the two grass fields next to the gym and turned them into turf fields. Also, they did a lot of new landscaping. And, second of all, the school had to do all of this keeping in mind that there is a natural habitat (which we call the back woods) that exists behind the building.

Here is the # 1 coolest fact about the new landscaping – it does not require any irrigation. What most people don’t realize is that if you plant flora that is native to the area in which it is being planted, it does not need to be watered. It is already acclimated the natural climate.

Here is the # 1 coolest fact about the new storm water management system - the two turf fields I mentioned above, both have cisterns underneath of them. When it rains, the storm water is absorbed by the fields, filtered, and then stored in the cisterns. The cisterns then release the storm water slowly out into the back woods over time.

Landscaping and storm water management are both very important when considering a building’s effect on the environment. Non-native landscaping uses a lot of unnecessary water that comes right from the municipal water supply. And, poor storm water management can lead to serious soil erosion and runoff.

Bittersweet Truth

Sarah Saxon is a senior at Roland Park Country School working as a BJEN intern this spring. She authored this guest entry.

My parents recently cancelled the newspaper. Their decision to do so was mainly because the paper was becoming more expensive yet contained less material by the day. They also cancelled the newspaper because these days you can find everything about the news online.

From the environmentalist’s point of view this great! Today’s progressive society is constantly coming up with new and improved ways to reduce the use of natural resources; such as the trees that go into making a news paper. However, this triumph is bittersweet.

What about the traditions that we lose? What about being to wake up every morning, opening the newspaper (with coffee cup in hand), and reading the comics?

Sometimes I feel like because we are in the “age of technology”, we lose sight of the simple things in life that make it quirky and unique. Environmentalism doesn’t necessarily have to be such a serious business. These days it is so easy to get caught up in changing your everyday life for the greater good.

So my advice is: don’t lose sight of the simple things. It’s good to keep the environment in mind when buying something or wasting something, etc., but it is not good to lose sight of what makes you happy. If you like reading the newspaper, then read the newspaper. Just make sure you recycle it. Don’t change to an online paper because you think you need to, change because you want to.

Blackle

Sarah Saxon is a senior at Roland Park Country School working as a BJEN intern this spring. She authored this guest entry.

Recently someone told me about a new website called Blackle. The site was created by Heap Media, and it is powered by Google. Basically, it is a more sustainable form of Google. Why? You might ask. Well, instead of having a screen that is all white with black writing, the screen is all black with white writing. This is more sustainable because it conserves energy. According to Roberson et al., “Image displayed is primarily a function of the user's color settings and desktop graphics, as well as the color and size of open application windows; a given monitor requires more power to display a white (or light) screen than a black (or dark) screen”. The amount of energy conserved can be seen on the site’s main page. It says that presently, 1,256,001.441 Watt hours have been saved. Although this is a small amount, it is one step in a larger action to reduce energy use.

What you can do to help:
Heap Media claims that Blackle was created in order “to remind us all of the need to take small steps in our everyday lives to save energy”. Heap Media encourages users to set Blackle as their home page. “This way every time you load your internet browser you will save a little bit of energy”.

In order to learn more about Blackle, you can go to the website http://www.blackle.com/ and click the “About Blackle” button on the bottom of the page. You can also find out more about how to save energy and stay updated about the site.

my apple trees

It is easy to feel noble, even righteous, when you plant a tree. Trees herald the beginning of things. The Garden of Eden began with trees; the Israelites were bidden to plant trees upon entering the promised land; we welcome a child with the planting of a tree.

Trees also call us to generosity. Unless you are young when you plant, most of the value of the tree will extend well beyond your lifetime. To plant a tree after 50 is to cast yourself gently into the lives of those yet-to-be. A sapling today is a message in a bottle drifting to those on a distant shore: I was here, and I was thinking of you.

One of the most famous stories of the talmud teaches us this. It is the tale of Honi the Circle-Drawer and the carob tree. Honi, renowned as someone whose insistent prayers for rain were heard by God, came across an old man planting a carob tree. "Old man," said Honi, "how long will it take for this tree to bear fruit?"

"About 70 years," replied the old man. Honi - a man all about "now" but weak on the future - scoffed a bit and asked if the old man wasn't a bit too old to benefit from the tree?

The man answered, "As my ancestors planted for me, so I will plant for others."

I remembered that story as I worked on my apple trees today. I planted three of them the day before Pesah, on Birkat Hahammah, the day we blessed the creation of the sun. I am hoping that through some miracle of fate and nature, these saplings, no more than 5 feet tall, will grow to be strapping young trees in 28 years when the next Birkat Hahammah comes around. I hope to have my picture taken beneath the spring blossoms of its spreading bowers. The caption will say: from 'Birkat Hahammah to Birkat Hahammah'. We will make something very special from the apple harvest that fall. And in the in-between years, my family and I will have enjoyed several seasons of yummy apples for welcoming Rosh Hashanah, for the apple pie for Thanksgiving, and applesauce for Hanukkah.

But today, I had to give up that hope for one of the trees. It is dead - who knows why. The other two trees are doing fine, thank goodness. But the fragility of an apple orchard, what with the deer, the rain (though this past month has been rather good), the transplanting, random disease, etc. is evident in this one loss. I also planted over 40 apple seeds erev Pesah - only 3 remain. Out of the early batch (apple seeds taken from the detritus of our haroset), only half sprouted and all of those collapsed after growing valiantly upwards three inches. Clearly I was doing something wrong. So I am now trying different planting techniques to see if I can coax new seeds to sprout and grow. (In case you are curious, about a gallon of applesauce yields a heaping tablespoon of seeds.)

Meanwhile, today I gingerly unwrapped the deer netting that I had draped directly on the branches of my three trees, and placed it instead on stakes encircling each tree. The hope is that this way, the netting will continue to keep nosy nozzles away from the blossoming and leafing little trees and still leave the trees sufficient room to grow.

Perhaps one day I will need to create a more substantial barrier around the entire perimeter. But that is an investment I cannot afford at the moment - for in my mind it will have to be a split-rail fence enclosing enough land to nurse nine mature apple trees, and room for a rustic bench tucked underneath where I will sit while my grandchildren play, or read, or draw in the orchard.

That's the way it is with trees. They bring out the dreamers in those who plant, and forge a hopeful, peaceful, verdant vision of our future. Perhaps that is why, when draping the netting over the trees, it felt like I was veiling a bride. Today stood for work and promises that will bring fruit at the end of a long path of tomorrows.

Hopefully, Honi - the petulant prophet of the power of "now" (as in, "God, make it rain now") - learned a similar lesson from that wise old man: when to press for the imperative of "now" and when to build up and celebrate the patience for "tomorrow".

Perhaps if Honi could learn it, it is not too late for Wall Street.

Fledglings

Sarah Saxon is a senior at Roland Park Country School working as a BJEN intern this spring. She authored this guest entry.

This morning I was having a conversation with my friend, and we got to talking about college (We are both High School Seniors). That got me thinking about how humans are some of the only animals that live with their parents for an average of 18-20 years of their lives. Take birds for example: some birds are independent the moment they hatch from their eggs. Even birds with longer fledging periods only stay with their parents for up to 20 months.

So while I was thinking about college and birds and preparation for my future life, I began to also think about progress. I started to wonder: if humans are so well-educated and so well-prepared for our future, and we have the most brain capacity of all the animals on this planet; why do we use the least amount of brain power to do some of the most insignificant things? There are plenty of things that we have accomplished in the history of the human race that we should be proud of. However, there are also plenty of things we have done to be ashamed of.

When I brought this up with my friend, he agreed with me. He said, “Look what humans do. They argue, they hate, and yet, they also have the innate ability to love”. What a contradiction. We constantly argue and fight over this planet and yet we claim that we love it. We destroy the environment while, at the same time, we advocate for it. How can we do all these things at once?

The answer is, it’s easy to have beliefs, but it is so much harder to act on those beliefs. How many people do you know that say they care about energy conservation but won’t even buy just one LED light for their house? So what I think is: if you have a belief, stick to it. An action is less meaningful without a belief behind it. However, if you do care about something greatly, you should act on it.

Speaking of actions, I think I’m going to ask my parents to buy more LED lights for our house.

Pimlico Race Track - Park or Office Park?

Sarah Saxon is a senior at Roland Park Country School working as a BJEN intern this spring. She authored this guest entry.

Last weekend was the Preakness. On the day of the race, I was in the car with some friends. While thinking about the fact that the people who owned the track were considering putting it up for auction, I absentmindedly said, “I think they should turn it into a park.” To which one of the passengers replied, “Oh yeah, that would be a good place for an office park”. I said, “No, like a real park”. In turn the passenger said, “Who do you expect to pay for it? The city already has enough parks. Why not just plant some trees?”

I’m not trying to make the passenger out to be a bad guy who is against environmentalism. On the contrary, he’s absolutely for it. However, I don’t think he understood the nature of my comment. Just like office buildings, parks are a part of industrialism, and they definitely require the use of natural resources. Unlike office buildings, however, parks sustain two types of life. Of course they sustain the environment (at least better than office buildings), but they also help sustain human life.

I think sometimes when people consider sustainability, they cut humans out of the picture and just look at the environment. But, sustainability isn’t just about the environment. It requires a balance between environmental issues, social issues, and economical issues. You cannot ignore people when you are trying to better the Earth. Advocating for the environment shouldn’t just be about scolding humans for progress and industrialization; and advocating isn’t just about spending all of your efforts on the environment because humans are such a huge part of the global environment.

So maybe one day, the owners will take Pimlico Race Track - a place where people gamble and get drunk - and turn it into a park (not an office park), where people can exist in equilibrium with the environment.

First National Jewish Sustainability gathering

This past week was a turning point for the American Jewish community. Quietly, without much fanfare, representatives from 17 national Jewish organizations gathered at the Pearlstone Conference and Retreat Center to explore the compelling urgency of sustainability and what [more] they can do to move their organizations and membership to embrace it. The common element among these organizations is that their membership (JCCs, day schools, camps, Hillels, synagogues, and the like) own and/or operate millions of square feet of real estate across the country. Even more than being participants in this watershed moment, however, all the organizations were co-sponsors, underwriting not only their representatives' travel and lodging expenses, but also the expenses of the gathering as a whole. This is a remarkable statement of engagement, recognizing that the sustainability train is leaving the station, and we all need to get on it.

It was also a recognition that through their collective actions, these organizations can both significantly reduce the ecological footprint of the organized Jewish community, and affect the attitudes and behavior of the millions of Jews and fellow travellers who are affliated with or otherwise connected to them.

These organizations spent 26 hours together, learning and imagining what a green, sustainable society could look like. And at the end, they developed a dream scenario for their own organizations.

Such visions included: energy efficient buildings powered by renewable resources; green transportation; reduction of all waste including paper, disposables, and food; buying, recycling and composting materials in the same way that nature reuses waste as energy; transforming fossil fuel- and water-intensive lawns into regionally appropriate landscaping, orchards and gardens; using green cleaning supplies; and engaging in membership education and motivational campaigns.

Several individuals who were at the gathering have already scheduled meetings within their organizations to share what they learned and explore how to begin to implement these ideas.
This is a remarkable beginning, which we hope and expect will gather steam and move the American Jewish community as whole in a direction it has until now largely ignored.

For the record, and to acknowledge the commitment and vision of those who participated, here is a list of sponsoring organizations:

American Jewish Committee
Association of Jewish Aging Services
Federation of Jewish Men's Clubs
Foundation for Jewish Camp
Hillel: the foundation for Jewish Campus Life
JCC Association
JCPA (Jewish Council for Public Affairs)
Jewish Reconstructionist Federation
North American Association of Synagogue Executives
Orthodox Union
PEJE (Partnership for Excellence in Jewish Education)
Rabbinical Assembly
Religious Action Center
Union for Reform Judaism
UJC (United Jewish Communities)
United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism
Women’s League for Conservative Judaism

The gathering was organized by COEJL, with a little help from BJEN!

Thanks go to the wonderful folks at Pearlstone, who make it easy to put together a smooth, efficient and seamless gathering. And of course to all the participating organizations for their support. Kayn Yirbu - may this effort bring forth much fruit.