The Importance of Doing Something

This is Hilda Maingay and Earl Barnhart, who used to run the New Alchemy Institute in Falmouth, MA, and now have a non-profit called The Green Center. They have spent their whole lives doing things. Now their focus is on urine diversion to be used as nitrogen fertilizer because urine is full of nitrogen, and it’s free! This is especially critical in places like Cape Cod, where sewage flows into the ocean and bays, creating “yellow tides” that poison the waters and the creatures that live in those waters — including the ones we like to eat.

Last week, I wrote about the importance of doing nothing. Funny thing, but it wasn’t one of my popular posts. Perhaps we feel uncomfortable with the idea of nothingness and need to feel busy doing something. I feel that too. So I thought I would follow up with a list of things to DO:

• Donate to or volunteer at your local public radio station(s), library, and non-profits.

• Help out or donate to a local food bank.

• If you see someone who needs help, help them.

• If you see something, say something. One of the best things I saw online this week was two ICE guys (masked, of course) trying to kidnap a man of color who was screaming at the top of his lungs and fighting like a maniac. Cars stopped and honked. People got out and surrounded them. No one fought or touched the ICE guys. They just stood their ground and shouted at them and tried to pull the man away until finally the ICE guys gave up and sped off in their unmarked white SUV. It is essential that we remain non-violent! But it’s also essential that we get involved.

• Shop local, from small businesses.

• Turn off the TV.

• Go someplace new and get out of your comfort zone.

• Listen to elders who have seen things and done things. Learn from them.

• Learn new things. While in Woods Hole, we went to see a documentary called Out of Plain Sight. The audience was filled with scientists. And afterwards was a panel with the journalist and filmmaker Rosanna Xia, and two other guys who were involved in the underwater research. In these times of anti-intellectualism and anti-science, it’s really good to understand how science…and journalism!…actually work and the good they can do. I highly recommend the film. You can turn the TV on for that one.

• Consider what a general strike might look like for us all and plan for it.

• Save seeds. And buy seeds for next year’s food garden.

• Share useful information on social media, or in person.

• Talk to people you don’t agree with and listen to their perspective. Don’t try to change their minds, just try to understand where they are coming from.

• But don’t reward mean and awful people with your attention.

• Pee outside, in your garden if you can. You’re fertilizing it!

• Compost!

These are Hilda and Earl’s compost bins, which I think are beautiful and useful. If I didn’t already have a great compost bin system, I would make these. They never turn the pile, just shovel out compost from the bottom. (By the way, I never turn my piles either.)

• Lastly, cook food at home. I was recently away for two weeks, so I had my share of restaurant food, both good and bad. But the best meal I ate was my daughter’s roast chicken and gravy with purple mashed potatoes from her CSA. She used my cookbook, Scratch. It was perfect. We had bought the chicken from a local farm while we were on a pottery crawl. There are a lot of great potters in Falmouth!

Here’s the thing: everything I have mentioned on this list is something we should be doing all the time, even if the world wasn’t on fire. There will always be people doing horrible, terrible things. But there will always be people doing good things, too. Stay focused on doing the good things. Trust what you see in front of your eyes and act on it accordingly.

And while sometimes it’s important (and okay!) to do nothing, it’s also important to do something!