Lights Out, Portland!

A couple of weeks ago David and I saw the movie "Arid Lands"a documentary feature about the land and people of the Columbia Basin in southeastern Washington state. The film was done by a couple of kids (well, they're 20-somethings so they're kids to us) and it is exceptional. It captures, in the inhabitants own words, their feelings about the Tri-Cities in Washington, from the Hanford Nuclear Reservation,to agricultural interests, to sport fishing, to environmentalists.

One of the messages of the film is how the folks in the Tri-Cities feel about Portland. (Not positively). At about 5:00 pm the river levels drop up there when Portlanders go home and turn on their lights. That really surprised me; I had no idea that power usage anywhere determined the water level in the river. (That's an admission that I'm really stupid or something, but whatever: I'll admit it)

Anyway, when the river levels drop up there there are serious consequences, not the least of which are the effects on the fish, or more accurately, smolt. They can die easily if they're stranded on the banks with no water.

Then, I started thinking about what it would mean if people in Portland turned their power off for a day. David and I discussed that it was improbable we'd get many people to join into that experiment. A few days later I saw an event posting in San Francisco. A group has picked a date in March 2008 where they are asking San Franciscans to turn off one light bulb for one hour on one day. If they coordinate this right, and people do it, they figure that they will save 15% of the normal power consumed in San Francisco on a Saturday evening.

Why don't we do the same thing in Portland???? Heck, couldn't we turn off TWO bulbs for TWO hours and beat San Francisco??? What's wrong with us if we think turning off a light bulb for one hour is an inconvenience???

Anyway, I'm on a mission now. Come on, Portland, we can do it. Let's turn off our light bulbs March 29, 2008 from 8:00-10:00 pm - let's get our neighbors to the north in Seattle and our neighbors to the south in Los Angeles to join us. Let's darken the West Coast for an hour or two on a Saturday night and let's see how much energy we can save. I would love to see satellite pictures of the West Coast turning off its lights on March 29, 2008 for an hour or two and save some smolt in the Columbia River, and maybe make the people in the Tri-Cities a little less irritated with us.

Italy Update

My friend Carolyn and her family are back in their routine in Cesena. Recently, Carolyn let me know that her Mom had suffered another setback with her bowel problem, and had been hospitalized again. But all is evidently fine again.

I remember one fall Sunday when my roommate or someone in Munich invited me to go out to Cloister Andechs, a S-Bahn trainride away from Munich. One Sunday we went out and attended a church service, exiting the train and making a trek around a village and up a hill to the castle of sorts. The buildings were right out of the middle ages.

After the service, a monk motioned everyone to go out the side door of the church into a bright courtyard where I was surprised to see a full-service restaurant with a commanding view of the countryside. There were several chickens roasting, a bunch of kegs, and what-not. But what surprised me the most were the kegs of beer. The monks specialized in brewing beer. That blew my North American Protestant mind.

Carolyn took her family to Munich in August and they visited Andechs. Here's a funny picture of Antonio from that trip (and no, he wasn't really drinking beer).

Kindness, People

Yesterday I drove into downtown Portland at lunchtime to do some errand. I was driving behind a van that had a couple of bumper-stickers on the back. I love bumper stickers and was catching up to the van so I could read one. It said: "When everyone yogas the world will be a better place." A bumper sticker on the other side of the van read "Namaste." I was clearly following a yoga fanatic.

Just then, a mercedes pulled out in front of the van, causing the van to swerve. The van driver shouted angrily at the mercedes driver and shook his fist at him, clearly not practicing loving kindness. Oh, well.

When Mahatma Gandhi was asked what he thought of Western Civilization, his response was "I think it would be a good idea." I would add the addendum, as I am guilty of it nearly every day, that civil people everywhere would be a good idea. Starting now I'm going to practice kindness and see how it goes. I will try to think of one thing I can do every day to be kind in an unkind world. It may be more courteous driving. It may be doing the dishes at work. It may be sending somebody flowers unexpectedly. I don't know, but starting now I'm going to try it for a week. I'll let you know how it goes.....