Essays Archives - Bluedot Living https://bluedotliving.com/category/essays/ At Home on Earth Thu, 28 Sep 2023 15:18:07 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.3 https://bluedotliving.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/cropped-Bluedot_site-icon-32x32.png Essays Archives - Bluedot Living https://bluedotliving.com/category/essays/ 32 32 Local Eating is Good Eating https://bluedotliving.com/local-eating-is-good-eating/ https://bluedotliving.com/local-eating-is-good-eating/#respond Thu, 07 Sep 2023 17:33:21 +0000 https://bluedotliving.com/local-eating-is-good-eating/ It was the summer of 1996, my first on Martha’s Vineyard as a year-rounder, and I was standing on the worn pine steps outside the kitchen door of a house in the woods of West Tisbury. I breathed in, and, all of a sudden, I was thrown back to 1970, the summer after my parents’ […]

The post Local Eating is Good Eating appeared first on Bluedot Living.

]]> https://bluedotliving.com/local-eating-is-good-eating/feed/ 0 Lawn and Disorder: Battle of the Blades https://bluedotliving.com/lawn-and-disorder-battle-of-the-blades/ https://bluedotliving.com/lawn-and-disorder-battle-of-the-blades/#respond Thu, 28 Jul 2022 15:32:48 +0000 https://bluedotliving.com/lawn-and-disorder-battle-of-the-blades/ Can a couple with competing yard ideals achieve a green new deal? My husband, like so many North American men, loves a lush green lawn. To be fair, our culture has long groomed these men to express their sense of dominion blade by blade. Masculinity is measured in monoculture, by an ability to banish weeds […]

The post Lawn and Disorder: Battle of the Blades appeared first on Bluedot Living.

]]> https://bluedotliving.com/lawn-and-disorder-battle-of-the-blades/feed/ 0 Kilo-what? What’s the Unit for Measuring Eco-guilt? https://bluedotliving.com/kilo-what-whats-the-unit-for-measuring-eco-guilt/ https://bluedotliving.com/kilo-what-whats-the-unit-for-measuring-eco-guilt/#respond Fri, 30 Jul 2021 15:04:26 +0000 https://bluedotliving.com/kilo-what-whats-the-unit-for-measuring-eco-guilt-2/ We just got our Capelight Company energy efficiency report. The graphic shows three lines. The shortest one is chartreuse and says 468 kWh and next to that it says: excellent. The sapphire blue one in the center is 1,054 kwts and next to that are the words in bold: your home. And then at the […]

The post Kilo-what? What’s the Unit for Measuring Eco-guilt? appeared first on Bluedot Living.

]]> https://bluedotliving.com/kilo-what-whats-the-unit-for-measuring-eco-guilt/feed/ 0 My Mother the Pinchpenny (and Early Environmentalist) https://bluedotliving.com/my-mother-the-pinchpenny-and-early-environmentalist/ https://bluedotliving.com/my-mother-the-pinchpenny-and-early-environmentalist/#comments Mon, 24 May 2021 18:11:27 +0000 https://bluedotliving.com/my-mother-the-pinchpenny-and-early-environmentalist/ Her thrifty ways presaged the conservation movement. My mother emerged from the Depression, World War Two, and rationing, as a young woman who believed that it was possible — noble, even — for people to get by with a lot less than they thought they needed. My parents had money, but my father could be […]

The post My Mother the Pinchpenny (and Early Environmentalist) appeared first on Bluedot Living.

]]> https://bluedotliving.com/my-mother-the-pinchpenny-and-early-environmentalist/feed/ 3 The Pleasure Theory https://bluedotliving.com/the-pleasure-theory/ https://bluedotliving.com/the-pleasure-theory/#respond Mon, 24 May 2021 18:06:57 +0000 https://bluedotliving.com/the-pleasure-theory/ The writer believes joy is an essential element in the health of the planet. Her husband relies on hard science. Can a marriage (or the planet) find a middle ground? I just got the most gorgeous wedding invitation I’ve ever seen. The calligraphy on the envelope is hand-done. I know because I spilled some water […]

The post The Pleasure Theory appeared first on Bluedot Living.

]]> https://bluedotliving.com/the-pleasure-theory/feed/ 0