A Good Read

Rare two in one day post but I have to share about the book I am reading. More that I need to share about the author Gary Paul Nahban. The first book of his I read was The Geography of Childhood, a book of essays that he and Stephen Trimble wrote about children in place. It was a cold solitary winter when we were living outside of Mancos. This was years before we were even married or thinking about having children. But the book effected me deeply, it was in part how I became interested in the concept of place, and the importance of rootedness in a person's life. Since that book I have found authors like David Orr, Wendell Berry, Ron Miller and Mary Sojourner.

Then the other day while I was looking for a book online, Coming Home to Eat popped in to my view. It's he take on the importance of local eating and the process of eating within 250 miles of his home in Arizona. Sounds a lot like the Kingsolver book Animal Vegetable Miracle, actually they lived in the same region or years, but his came out in 2002. The point is that as with all his writing I was completely drawn in, and I can't wait until I have a few minutes to pick it up again.

Dolores LaChapelle

The following is my next article to be published at Travels in Paradise.

The first winter I was in Colorado I took an avalanche course at Hesperus Ski Hill, a one lift hill where cows grazed in the summer. It was not the full course that they gave up at the Silverton Avalanche School but it was a solid start for someone who liked to cross country ski in the backcountry. Among our instructors was a married couple who were full of stories of the old days of backcountry skiing. As the years have past the memory faded. Until the other day when I was reading a magazine and there was an obituary for Dolores LaChapelle. In thinking about what I know about her life I believe the couple was her and her husband.

LaChapelle is among a group of environmental writers who shared a philosophy known as Deep Ecology. As Alan Drengson of the Foundation of Deep Ecology explains Deep Ecology is "the long-range deep approach involves redesigning our whole systems based on values and methods that truly preserve the ecological and cultural diversity of natural systems."

Dolores focused on the sacred connection between people and the natural world. She explored this through ritual, backcountry skiing and the sacred connection between the earth and women. Her writings were hefty and academic and her ideas we spiritual in nature. She felt that "If we are to truly connect with the land, we need to change our perceptions and our approach more than our location." LaChapelle lived out her philosophies in Silverton Colorado where she divided her time between writing and directing the Way of the Mountain Leaning Center. In her spare time, Dolores also skied the back country.

As a mother I find myself looking for spiritual connections more often. LaChapelle's belief that ritual as a form of connection to the earth and ones community has infiltrated our life. She saw the connection between our lives and the planet we live on in a feminine way. How was I to know who the funny old woman with her tales of teaching members of the Army Corps of Engineers how to detonate avalanches in the seventies had so much more to teach.

As a family we are creating our own rituals, we hike in the canyon with the apple trees every spring when they are in bloom to welcome their sweetness. As my son is drifting off to sleep I sing him songs of the mountains and seas. When choosing our wedding date we decided to coincide it with Lammas which is the celebration of the first wheat harvest in the Celtic tradition. To recognize both our marriage and Lammas the spot where we were married has a garden that blooms around that time.

It is my understanding of the importance of these rituals that we seek out that is the gift that the words of Dolores LaChapelle gave me.

One of her articles is here

For more information on Deep Ecology you can find it here

Multi-person bikes

I was just reading Blue-Skies-Farm blog and found this great post about multi seat bicycling. It reminded me why we have a bike trailer and only one car. Most of our families don't like the fact that only have one car, and they don't believe us when we tell them that there are many days that it doesn't get driven.

I can understand Kevin's family who is from a semi-rural area but my family is from New York city where they use their cars about once a week. We have most stuff we need in walking distance from our house and most of our friends live right along the route of the bus that stops two blocks from here.

While we can take the bus, it is expensive ($3 round trip) which is more than parking at the main library. But now that we have the bike trailer I feel that Alder and I have a lot more freedom to go exploring. In fact we're off in about an hour down to the river trail.

Car Dependency of Varying Amounts

The environmental and personal economic impact of one car per adult is high. When you are living in a city where most places you need to be can be reached by foot or bus there is no need for a second car. We have made it for most of the past seven years with one car between the two of us.

When we first met we each had a car but a year later my car's engine block was cracked. We considered getting me a car but never did. To begin with my record with cars is bad. I've only had one accident in all my years of driving but I just seem to cause problems with cars (I've had two alternators go out on me while I was driving). We functioned fine in Durango with only one car for a few years.

I did briefly buy one for a trip to New York because at that point it was cheaper to buy the car that I did than fly. Of course there is the debate about which is more damaging to the environment flying cross country or driving. This one time I chose not to weigh the sides to experience the trip. So for almost six months we were owners of two cars (both over ten years old).

Then we moved to Paonia to live and work on the same property and soon sold my car and kept Kevin's. "Joey" served us well for years until right before we were getting married when he gave up, a good effort for an almost twenty year old car. At that point we were gifted an old mini van for our wedding "Rosy" we named her. She has been great, reliable, sturdy and great in the snow. But she is big and uses lots of gas. In some ways she is a great Denver car, since we rarely drive in town and when we go out of town it is great to have the space for things like skis or boats. Of course we are still leaving our trail of emissions but they are less often than most.

So here we are living in a public transit friendly city with one big car that doesn't get used too much. I guess we are leaving a fairly small carbon foot print, not as small as we'd like but since we can not afford to get a new car, well you know.

And then this two week came upon us. Happily, Alder and I were getting ready to drive to meet friends for a while before we went down to Colorado Springs for the night. But Rosy would not go. Through some wonderful friends we managed to get to the Springs for my dentist appointment but since then we have been car less.

At first we thought this would be no problem. We even contemplated not fixing her for a while, going the bus pass-bike route. Except with a small child that's difficult, especially when you don't have a bike trailer. We've done the best we can, but it's hard to shop for food when it's limited to what you can put in your backpack and the bottom of your stroller. Alder and I have also been stuck missing activities because the bus rides would have been so many and long that it was not worth going.

While we strive to live as green as possible we still rely on a car, more than we thought. In fact last night we went to a Seder across town. The bus ride there was fine, we walked to the stop and literally jumped on the bus. But dinner ended at 9:15 the bus was seven blocks and five minutes later, instead we had over an hour to wait. It was okay since we were in a good mood and decided to walk around the park to a different stop for entertainment. But if it had been raining or Alder had been upset it would have been miserable.

So this morning Kevin took the commuter bus to Colorado Springs to pick up a lender car from his family. A smaller, leaner car. Not our Rosy but then closer in line with our green hopes for ourselves.

All of this has made me wonder about how dependency on vehicles happens. I grew up in New York City where many of my friends did not have cars in their families, many still do not have a car. Groceries were either carried or delivered and there never was anything you couldn't get home on the train or a cab. My family did have a car. We used it every two weeks or so to go away for the weekend. But it was a luxury not a necessity.

I did not even get my licences until I was twenty one, and only then because I had to get somewhere by car.

When in the last fifteen years did I become dependent on a car?

I've been doing a lot of thinking about our move this summer. I was all about moving to Hudson for a while. It's very cute and very much like that dream town I have where life is sweet, diverse, and busy. I pictured us living in a little farm house with a lot of land for Alder to wander on.

From Urban Draw

As the weather in Denver stops being as snowy I've been really enjoying walking around Denver and getting places. Kevin and I like going to see good films and being able to get a cup of coffee at ten pm if we want to. These aren't things you can do in a place the size of Hudson.

From Urban Draw

From Urban Draw

It has also occurred to me that in the ten years that I have been in Colorado that Denver has been the best place we have lived. I love that we can do all those things but also be on a hiking trail in a half hour (which by the way is shorter than reaching most hikes in Durango). I've also meet the people I've liked best here. They are a mix or artists, outdoor folk, and just other people loving their life.

From Urban Draw

From Urban Draw

From Urban Draw

From Urban Draw

From Urban Draw

In a city whose social is partially focused on which coffee house you go I find myself at home. To an outsider Denver seems "suburban" but but if you get out of your car and avoid the downtown that's when you will find the real Denver with it's history and it's plans. Too bad there are too many acupuncturists already here otherwise we would stay.

Where does that leave us with out move then. Well we are starting to look at small cities. Currently our focus is on Portland Maine and Albany New York. I still want to be East at this point in my life. Both those cities are small but close enough to "the country" that our need for a great deal of nature in our life is met.

I have been reading "Last Child in the Woods" by Richard Louv who is basically rehashing many of the ideas of biophilia in a more accessible read. One of his major points is that as people move to the cities and suburbs they are loosing their contact with nature. I would add that the children who are in cities (really towns and villages also) where they don't get every place by car actually have more interaction with nature than their suburban counterparts. This too is part of the draw to these small cities.

Alder will have more chance to explore parks, coasts and rivers when they are part of the immediate walkable (or at least bikeable) vicinity. Yes nature is everywhere but if you spend are always in a metal box going form one place to another you will miss it. This of course leads us to another reason that we like the idea of a walkable city, we are happy only having one car. I don't like the idea of leaving a larger pollution imprint than necessary and as it is here in Denver there are many days neither of us use the car.

After living in Paonia we realized that urban living was much more environmental and I continue to hold this opinion. Matching this with our want for an actual cultural life to the place we live, and of course a bevy of coffee shops, it seems that a small city fits more with our needs than a town like Hudson where things seem to close down at 5pm.

I guess I'm more a funky front porch in the city sort of woman.