When I was in college in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the first Earth Day was celebrated. I was at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio, an Appalachian setting in Southeastern Ohio. An activist on campus wanted to start a recycling operation in the dormitory complexes on campus.
The dorms at Ohio U. were organized into groups called "greens" because dormitories were clustered around grassy courtyards. There was a West Green, An East Green, A South Green etc. Activists and organizers were pulled together and an operation of 100 gallon metal barrels was implemented in the basement garage areas of the dormitories on all the greens. Several metal barrels were deployed to collect glass and newsprint,mostly, as the plastic water bottle had not been quite born yet.
Volunteers like myself were scheduled and assigned to sort and process the recyclables. I most vividly remember processing the glass jars and bottles. In order to reduce the bulk and volume of glass jars and bottles, the glass had to be broken. To do this, we donned safety goggles and gloves, and took a brick and repeatedly dropped it into the barrels holding the glass until all the bottles were broken down. Very dangerous, but, quite necessary.
Once full, our oil barrels were transported by pickup truck to an empty unused airport hangar at an old airport outside of town. Sometimes, I was scheduled to work in the airport hangar warehousing facility as well. From there, purchasers of our materials could easily drive up and load what they were interested in onto larger trucks for transport.
Within a year of operation, this ancient, simple, primitive recycling system was generating revenue for the town of Athens, Ohio and the entire operation grew to such a point, that the town took the operation over from our motley crew of college kids who started it off and proved it was possible.
Its amazing to see how recycling is done today from those primitive beginnings we had around the time of the first Earth day. CLICK HERE TO WATCH A SHORT VIDEO OF SINGLE STREAM RECYLCING TODAY
View from my Home in Vermont
Bennington Battle Field Monument
Wednesday, January 29, 2014
Wednesday, January 08, 2014
SEEKING THE CITY YET TO COME
"WE HAVE HERE NO LASTING CITY"..... Bishop Sheen quoting Hebrews 13:14
"For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city which is to come." Hebrews 13:14
A Lasting City? A place of permanence? A place well known, familiar and comfortable?
For me, this just wasn't meant to be. It must not be God's will for me because by the time I was 17 years old I had already been moved 5 - 8 times depending on what you define as moving or staying somewhere temporarily.
I was born in Detroit Michigan when my father, a World War II veteran was going to the University of Detroit on the GI Bill. After Dad completed his degree and got his first mechanical engineering job, we moved around Detroit a couple of times between Mom and Dad's first apartment, my maternal grandparents home, and other apartments in Detroit.
My Dad got a better job in Cleveland so we began a relocation when I was a couple of years old where Dad sent me and Mom to Cleveland first while he finished things up in Detroit. Me and Mom lived in Cleveland a while with Dad's parents until Dad could join us and find us a home in Cleveland. I don't have a memory of these first early moves, so, I count on Mom and Dad to relate them to me.
The pace of moving around only accelerated the older I got.
I sat down the other day and listed out all the physical addresses that I had lived at in my life and at some point in time had called "home". From the time I was born, to age 62 I counted 26 distinct, separate, mailing addresses.
This scripture above from the New Testament has resonated more and more with me and been a source of comfort as I have continued to move way too many times late in my life. The scripture reminds me that I am on a journey, I am a pilgrim, I have no permanent place. All is temporary.
A girl I had a crush on in high school said to me one day: "Andrew, you will go far". I thought to myself: "but, but, but, I don't want to go far, I want to stay here with you". Some of my grade school classmates are still in Willowick or Eastlake or Euclid where I went to elementary school and middle school. I envy them that they still live in the same neighborhood where, as kids, we learned every nook and cranny of our block and knew every crack in the concrete sidewalks we played on.
When I say "been moved", I mean moved somewhere whether I want to go or not. So many times it seems I have so little say in the matter of whether to stay or move. The last six years alone, I have moved three times: from Vermont to Maryland, from Maryland to New York and from New York to Ohio.
Sister Joan Chittister, a Benedictine nun from Erie, Pennsylvania writes about "Our need for roots". I just shake my head in disbelief when I see or hear that trite proverb: "bloom wherever you are planted". Bloom? Hell, I don't even get to put down a root or make a leaf or a bud that can become a flower as I am ripped up and transplanted again and again.
This scripture comforts me. It reminds me I am a pilgrim on a journey. I am just passing through this valley of tears. My ultimate destination is yet to come and all the stops along the way do not necessarily constitute any personal failure on my part.
"WE HAVE HERE NO LASTING CITY"
BLESSED BISHOP FULTON J. SHEEN on PILGRIMAGE
Bishop Sheen, perhaps one of the first televangelists, had a TV show in the 1950's, that time long ago when there were only 3 TV Stations broadcasting.
In one of his episodes entitled "The Ages of Man" Bishop Sheen made reference to this scripture and unpacked this scripture for us. When I say "unpacked", this is a process called EXEGESIS.
Exegesis is critical explanation or interpretation of a text or portion of a text, especially of the Bible. I like to think of this like an onion where we can peel back layers upon layer off of an onion getting to its center or core.
On his show, Bishop Sheen said this: [ keep in mind this was from late 1950's early 1960's]
"Life seems to be a kind of pilgrimage. <Selah> A pilgrimage. We have here no lasting city.
Ever notice how much that is in boys? Boys do not want to stay in their own homes; they want to build a tent, go up in the trees. And, after all, I wonder if we Americans are not the most mobile population on the face of the earth. One out of every four Americans moves every year; he's on pilgrimage. <Selah> He just has no lasting city. Dreams are an indication of a kind of pilgrimage because we move in dreams. We seem to have goals and destinies. "
"And, all of the Great Literature, is the literature of pilgrimage. <Selah> One Thousand Years before Christ, Homer wrote the Odyssey. And then there was Chaucer, his Pilgrim Tales. He said every man has it in his heart to be a pilgrim.
There was a work in the Middle Ages, which was "The Story of Everyman", going through life, going somewhere, he's not fixed [in place] here. Perhaps one of the most famous of all was Dante, under the leadership of Virgil; Dante was on pilgrimage through Purgatory and Inferno.
And then, John Bunyon, was seven years in prison when he wrote that very remarkable work, Pilgrims Progress. Pilgrims! Our great feast in the United States is a pilgrims' feast.
"For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city which is to come." Hebrews 13:14
A Lasting City? A place of permanence? A place well known, familiar and comfortable?
For me, this just wasn't meant to be. It must not be God's will for me because by the time I was 17 years old I had already been moved 5 - 8 times depending on what you define as moving or staying somewhere temporarily.
I was born in Detroit Michigan when my father, a World War II veteran was going to the University of Detroit on the GI Bill. After Dad completed his degree and got his first mechanical engineering job, we moved around Detroit a couple of times between Mom and Dad's first apartment, my maternal grandparents home, and other apartments in Detroit.
My Dad got a better job in Cleveland so we began a relocation when I was a couple of years old where Dad sent me and Mom to Cleveland first while he finished things up in Detroit. Me and Mom lived in Cleveland a while with Dad's parents until Dad could join us and find us a home in Cleveland. I don't have a memory of these first early moves, so, I count on Mom and Dad to relate them to me.
The pace of moving around only accelerated the older I got.
I sat down the other day and listed out all the physical addresses that I had lived at in my life and at some point in time had called "home". From the time I was born, to age 62 I counted 26 distinct, separate, mailing addresses.
This scripture above from the New Testament has resonated more and more with me and been a source of comfort as I have continued to move way too many times late in my life. The scripture reminds me that I am on a journey, I am a pilgrim, I have no permanent place. All is temporary.
A girl I had a crush on in high school said to me one day: "Andrew, you will go far". I thought to myself: "but, but, but, I don't want to go far, I want to stay here with you". Some of my grade school classmates are still in Willowick or Eastlake or Euclid where I went to elementary school and middle school. I envy them that they still live in the same neighborhood where, as kids, we learned every nook and cranny of our block and knew every crack in the concrete sidewalks we played on.
When I say "been moved", I mean moved somewhere whether I want to go or not. So many times it seems I have so little say in the matter of whether to stay or move. The last six years alone, I have moved three times: from Vermont to Maryland, from Maryland to New York and from New York to Ohio.
Sister Joan Chittister, a Benedictine nun from Erie, Pennsylvania writes about "Our need for roots". I just shake my head in disbelief when I see or hear that trite proverb: "bloom wherever you are planted". Bloom? Hell, I don't even get to put down a root or make a leaf or a bud that can become a flower as I am ripped up and transplanted again and again.
This scripture comforts me. It reminds me I am a pilgrim on a journey. I am just passing through this valley of tears. My ultimate destination is yet to come and all the stops along the way do not necessarily constitute any personal failure on my part.
"WE HAVE HERE NO LASTING CITY"
BLESSED BISHOP FULTON J. SHEEN on PILGRIMAGE
Bishop Sheen, perhaps one of the first televangelists, had a TV show in the 1950's, that time long ago when there were only 3 TV Stations broadcasting.
In one of his episodes entitled "The Ages of Man" Bishop Sheen made reference to this scripture and unpacked this scripture for us. When I say "unpacked", this is a process called EXEGESIS.
Exegesis is critical explanation or interpretation of a text or portion of a text, especially of the Bible. I like to think of this like an onion where we can peel back layers upon layer off of an onion getting to its center or core.
On his show, Bishop Sheen said this: [ keep in mind this was from late 1950's early 1960's]
"Life seems to be a kind of pilgrimage. <Selah> A pilgrimage. We have here no lasting city.
Ever notice how much that is in boys? Boys do not want to stay in their own homes; they want to build a tent, go up in the trees. And, after all, I wonder if we Americans are not the most mobile population on the face of the earth. One out of every four Americans moves every year; he's on pilgrimage. <Selah> He just has no lasting city. Dreams are an indication of a kind of pilgrimage because we move in dreams. We seem to have goals and destinies. "
All of the Great Literature, is the literature of pilgrimage.
Bishop Sheen continues:"And, all of the Great Literature, is the literature of pilgrimage. <Selah> One Thousand Years before Christ, Homer wrote the Odyssey. And then there was Chaucer, his Pilgrim Tales. He said every man has it in his heart to be a pilgrim.
There was a work in the Middle Ages, which was "The Story of Everyman", going through life, going somewhere, he's not fixed [in place] here. Perhaps one of the most famous of all was Dante, under the leadership of Virgil; Dante was on pilgrimage through Purgatory and Inferno.
And then, John Bunyon, was seven years in prison when he wrote that very remarkable work, Pilgrims Progress. Pilgrims! Our great feast in the United States is a pilgrims' feast.
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