So I volunteered at Sunday's Earth First! meeting to start camping a few times a week at the Bonneville Dam to see who it is that is attacking the sea-lions while they are sitting in cages waiting to be transported to Sea World. Something fishy is obviously going on at the Bonneville Dam (read http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2008/05/375706.shtml for a great article for the craziness going on there,) anyway, so the idea is that a couple Earth Firsters will camp at the Bonneville Dam several times a week with a camera (hopefully a video camera,) to either catch the perpetrators on film or have our presence be enough to deter them from harming any more sea lions.
So I'm really excited to get started on this; I've been wanting for a while now to be involved in some direct action that will benefit the earth and the creatures of the earth...at twenty-six, I think it is about time I go busy standing up for what I believe in, but I also feel a little conflicted. The first reason I feel conflicted is because there is this boy....
I'm starting to feel excited whenever I go to an Earth First! meeting because I know that boy will be there...he's incredibly cute, deviously passionate about saving the earth, and full of passion and energy...in short, he's a lot like me. But is is wrong to look forward to something like an Earth First! meeting because I've got a crush on someone there? I feel like saving the earth is an important/serious endeavor, and it feels somehow wrong to feel lusty about a fellow activist...I feel like my mind should be on more important matters when I am at meetings. But I can't help myself; am I not a primate? Isn't part of loving the earth loving yourself with all your humanness, including lust? I mean, Earth First! is really the only time during the week when I see men at all, other then my roommates, so naturally, I have developed a crush on one of them...but I've been scolded in the past by activists for letting my passions override the work that was suppose to be getting done...so I guess I'm a little hesitant now..
Anyway, that and I'm not vegan...this seems like it could be a major problem. I'm not even vegetarian anymore; I have been, at various times in my life, but I always end up feeling malnourished and anemic, and I try my best to listen when my body wants something. But it feels weird to be working to save sea-lions and other living things, while eating their brothern; especially perhaps factory-farmed brothern...I cry when I read about factory farms, but I continue to eat meat...I wish I had a gun so I could insure all the meat I ate was wild venison...I think I'd feel better about that...maybe I should stop eating meat until I learn to hunt...
Love ya,
Carrot
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The boy is not the only reason you go to the Earth First! meetings, since you met him there, so your reasons for going are pure. If a relationship between you doesn't interfere with the work you come to do, then there is no reason to feel ashamed about it. It sounds like you would both encourage the others' goals and that is certainly a good thing.
As for the meat, I'm not sure. You continue to eat meat because that is what has appeared to be best for you. You could get your meat only from local farmers since they treat the animals better and it has less hormones and such anyways.
Good luck with your endeavors.
http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/tricia0711
Most local farms do treat the animals with much more respect than factory farms. Have you tried using a diet analysis program to find out what you weren't getting from your vegetarian diet? You cna get all essential nutrients from a vegetarian diet, but many people have a hard time knowing what coponenets they're lacking. B vitamins are a common deficiency in vegetarians, and you can fix it with a supplement.
F*** Religion. Read more here:
http://www.progressiveu.org/020528-f-religion
But when I was vegetarian, I got terrible cold sores all the time. I have always been susceptible to them, but they were so much worse the whole time I was veggie. I was lacking lysine and getting too much arginine from nuts and soy products. I took lysine supplements religiously, and they did no good. Once I started eating locally, but adding meat once or twice a week, they went away magically. I also got sick less often over the past year. So I eat meat for health reasons. I just do it as ethically as possible. Local, organic, grass-fed, free-range, etc.
http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/ediblewoman
I'm starting to feel excited whenever I go to an Earth First! meeting because I know that boy will be there...he's incredibly cute, deviously passionate about saving the earth, and full of passion and energy...in short, he's a lot like me.
So Green Underbelly, have you been going to Earth First meetings? Fess up!
lives in Montana...and besides, you have no idea how many cute passionately devious boys exist...once you start traveling in activism circles, you start realizing how not alone you are...
Love ya,
Carrot
We're a-plannin' on damaging a few tracts of coal-bed methane minerals. You down?
Coal is to shaving as nuclear power is to waxing. For the time being, they are both relatively cheaper options, and each is a fast fix to the energy problem. Now, factor global warming back in --"Hairy Sustainability" by A-squared, a ProU blogger
or is that a joke I'm too slow to get? I'm guessing its a joke...
Love ya,
Carrot
No you caught on real quick-like. I'm not currently involved with that group. Just thought I'd reply with venom to jack's comment (he owns coal-bed methane property).
I recently read an article about the types of sexual violence that come to breed in groups like Earth First! (http://www.chrisjordan.com/current_set2.php?id=7), although it seems like leaders have recognized the problem and are doing their best to inform and negate those sorts of goings on. After all, that's really not what communes and environmental groups are about. Keep up the good fight, C-rot.
my documentary...
Wanna smile on the spot?
That link did not appear to go to the article you referenced, but WOW! That is some cool stuff! EVERYONE! Check out these super cool photos. Very consciousness-raising.
http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/ediblewoman
This is the only article I could find right now, although there was a more compelling story I'd read earlier... might take some digging, but worth yer while. Cheers
my documentary...
Wanna smile on the spot?
http://www.earthfirstjournal.org/section.php?id=6
This might be the article you where refering to Green Underbelly, although I am not sure...
Love ya,
Carrot
Well, if you have a crush, you have a crush. I think it's awesome that you could develop a relationship with someone who shares your interests. Where else are you going to meet people anyway? I'm thinking your not going to bars so much these days since the hopper...
I'd just back off the lusting. What kind of lusting are we talking about by the way? Probably not cool to imagine your friend naked while he's talking about saving the sea lions.
www.progressiveu.org/blog/americangirlinchina
which is a good thing....I've got better things to do with my time! I guess I'm not lusting too much, since I don't picture him naked or anything, mostly I look at him and try to picture what the rest of his life is like, outside of Earth First! meetings. I wonder what he does for a living, and if he's a vegan, and if he travels by bike everywhere...things like that...
Anyway, I'm assuming at this point that he's with someone, until I get evidence that he isn't...'cuze he's really cute, and I can't picture him not being with someone!
Love ya,
Carrot
If you wanna get to know him better, then just go for it. If he has a girlfriend, then he's taken. No biggie. You make it sound like there's quite a selection of guys that are your type in Portland... I'm sure you'll find someone if Mr. Earth First is not the one.
www.progressiveu.org/blog/americangirlinchina
Will you post that link again? As Ediblewoman said, the link doesn't seem to work, but yeah, those pictures are great! Even my very Earth-conscious household brings home an alarming # of paper and plastic bags, food containers/trash, plastic and glass bottles, etc.
It's shameful....even though we recycle all these items, recycling wastes a lot of energy too...and we know this, and yet we continue to bring home items in packaging...
We are working on this, however. We remind each other to take our own bags to the grocery store, to shop at food co-ops where you can take your own glass bottles/bags and so forth and fill them with bulk food, we buy milk in recyclable glass as well often...
We are also talking about a humanmanure project, where we will compose our own pee and poop rather then flushing it down the toilet and make it into fertilizer...of course, human waste has to really, really be composed to be usable as fertilizer, especially poop which is full of nasty bacteria (pee is sterile, but it is full of uric acid that has to be broken down as well.) So we are doing what we can to try and change things around our house...there is always more to be done!
Love ya,
Carrot