Questions from Pam Stucky

Pam Stucky is amazing.  She is an accomplished author, blogger and all around fun person.  Check out her stuff at pamstucky.com or follow her on twitter @pamstucky.  She asked me to answer some questions and I think ya'll will enjoy my answers.  Okay bye. :P


Q: Three adjectives that describe you?
  funny, compassionate, curious
Q: What are your passions in life?
> reading, writing, people, gaming, making a difference
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> Q: You do work with Sustainable Seattle [correct name?]. What is that, what is your involvement with it, and why?
> I am a board member of Sustainable Seattle because I believe that the only way to move forward is to focus on the needs and desires of people.  Sustainability has an automatic connection to environmental concerns, but it misses the most important part of meeting our needs, meeting the needs of the people.  We are an organization dedicated to collaboration, stewardship and social justice.

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> Q: Part of the Sustainable Seattle project is the Seattle Area Happiness Initiative. How is did happiness get bundled up with a sustainable city project?

Happiness is not just a feeling; it is a sense of wellness and true contentment.  We as a society have never really looked at contentment and wellness as real goals.  We are too concerned with material goods and "keeping up with the Jones's."  This is why we have such a huge disparity between the rich and the poor.  The rich think that if they got their next million they would finally be happy, but with that next million they are still unsatisfied.

Only through looking at happiness as a collection of different domains: psychological well being, material well being, community vitality, cultural vitality, health, governance, environmental quality, time balance and education can we get to a place that leads to real contentment.

  Q: What are the elements of a happy life? What makes you happy? What can other people do to make themselves happier?
> A happy life is one that is first and foremost about building and maintaining healthy relationships.  Relationship with others, our environment and the most neglected relationship, with ourselves. 

What makes me happy is helping others live up to their potential.  What makes me happy is knowing that I have been a part of something that helped others.  What makes me happy is dancing, music, spending time doing nothing with people I care about. 

First step in becoming happy is to choose to make your own happiness a priority in your life.  Happiness is not a feeling, but a state of being.
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> Q: You are also an author. Tell us about your works, past, present, future. What are you working on most right now?
> I wouldn't call myself an author since I do not follow the number one rule of every writer I've ever read, "Not a day without writing."  I am working on mostly a novel about a group of high school teens in a very atypical neighborhood based on my hometown.  It is a story about what real friendship is all about and an experiment in writing without editing.

I'm only editing grammar, spelling and consistency.  I'm letting the chapters and story flow in whatever shape it wants.  I have chapters that involve gaming, love, homelessness, education reform, evil PTA's and a founding of a town.  It is really fun and I'm writing it to prove to myself that a novel is something I can complete.  I'm actually really enjoying the process and the characters are so much fun to write. 

I'm at the point where I cannot just throw them around anymore.  I have to sometimes stop myself from making a character say something that would not come out of their mouth, or if it does I write the reactions from the others to reflect the strangeness of what they just said.  I'm having fun and that really is what writing is all about.
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> Q: Where do you get the inspiration for your stories?
My stories come from my reading, my life, and my imagination.  I've been making up stories and characters all my life.  My brother and I used to play "choose your own adventure" stories when I was younger.  He was the game master and their were no rules and most of the time I ended up getting squished by Grimlok the Transformer T-Rex.
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> Q: What one book do you wish you'd written, and why?
The one book that I wish I had written would most likely be "The Outsiders."  The book is timeless because it deals with the fundamental question of humanity "What am I worth?  Where do I belong?  What really matters?"  I must have read that book 30 times.
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> Q: Describe a favorite childhood memory.
> One day I was climbing a tree and I must have been 20 feet up easily.  My mother was upset because I hadn't cleaned my room before I went outside.  She was at the bottom of the tree yelling at me to come down right now.  "Right now?" I said.  "Now!" she said.  So I jumped out of the tree.

Q: Music you're listening to these days?
  Coheed and Cambria, Lapfox, Muse, Lady Gaga

 Q: Hobbies, secret talents, goals, dreams?
Hobbies: gaming, reading, cooking,drawing, dancing and singing. 
Secret talent?  I can understand where almost anyone is coming from.  I can see their intent even when I disagree with their actions. 

Goal: To live a life worth living. 

Dream:  To live a life day to day that is meaningful, fun and never looking forward, but being fully present at this very moment.

Flow 5/1/2011 Issue 8

                                                     

Flow is based on Sustainable Seattle's Happiness Initiative and is inspired by Vinyasa, which means one leading to another. Flow gives small, but important steps that can improve one's contentment amongst all nine domains of happiness. Flow is a weekly jolt of inspiration, pragmatism and a collection of local events that will raise our happiness. This month of May we are taking a look at some simple actions we can take to get our mental health on a better path.  First before we get started, this month is not meant to replace professional psychological advice nor should it be used as a substitute for seeking assistance for serious problems such as depression.  Psychological Well Being Issue 8 I’m a huge believer in taking actions to affect our attitude.  We sometimes get so caught up in our minds that we do not make significant changes, but wallow in our emotional problems.  We are going to be looking at actions that can help change our emotional states from the outside in. Use the mornings as a time for yourself.  Set the alarm fifteen minutes early and enjoy the silence of the home while eating a healthy breakfast, exercising or meditating. Make lunch for the next day in the evening and when eating said lunch get out of the workplace whenever possible.  Find a place of beauty and calm, or a place filled with people whichever makes you happier.  Never cram food in your mouth while you sit at your desk. Make connecting with friends a priority.  Nothing beats face to face interactions no matter how “busy” we claim to be.  We need to make that choice to spend time with people we care about. Choose to read, write, draw, or dance as a way to not only be creative, but also to be active.  Active minds are more resilient. This week slow things down and take time to appreciate all the things in your life that are going quite well.  Health, employment, love of family or friends, safety, all these things we take for granted.  Choose this week to pay attention. Lastly, and I can’t recommend this enough, is to keep a very safe, secure journal.  Journaling allows us to get things out of our heads, explore ideas, and reconnect with ourselves.  There are only three rules to journaling: never let anyone else see it, write consistently about whatever pops into your head, and NEVER let anyone else see it. Journaling is raw thoughts that do not need to go through our usual filters of society.  It is extremely important that others do not see these thoughts as we are nowhere close to that amount of honesty in our relationships.  This journal is for us to reflect and think and organize, not to show and tell.  I would also recommend not to do this online or in the form of a blog.  Once something is out in the ether of the internet, it cannot be withdrawn. Nathan Jackson Recommendations This week’s website recommendation is: The #happiness Daily This week’s book recommendation is: Pocket Sudoku by Will Shortz Sign up for the weekly newsletter. Support Flow		Flow Suggests: 5/1-5/7 2011 Climate Change and Grass Roots Organizing Environmental, Psychological Well Being, Community www.sustainableballard.org Monday, May 2, 2011 4:45-7pm   Visualization Tools for Sustainability Environmental, Community Tuesday, May 3, 2011 9am-5pm www.sustainableseattle.org Susan Freinkel: Plastic, Plastic Everywhere Environmental, Cultural, Material www.townhallseattle.org Wednesday, May 4, 2011 | 7:30 – 9pm

Stand Against Racism Day

This is the article I wrote for Sustainable Seattle for YWCA's Stand Against Racism Day.  It is a call to action to green people to widen their cause to include and feature social justice.

Environmentalism and Social Justice

by Nathan Jackson

The environmental movement is at a crossroads.  The message of protection and stewardship of the environment has penetrated most levels of society with recycling bins in every corner of the nation from the Emerald City to the great state of the Hoosiers.  The message of human caused climate change with a few exceptions is generally believed and most people accept at least the concept of climate change.  At this time in history environmentalists need to overcome the next and biggest change in their approach to protecting the planet, protecting the people.

Social justice, a sense of equal treatment throughout society, is the biggest challenge and opportunity for environmentalists and other caring people.  

Climate change, though scientifically proven, is still for most people an idea of future change and damage to the natural environment.  However, the effects of climate change are being felt right now by the people that society has forgotten or tried to ignore, minorities, the poor and the working poor.  

The disadvantages many people face is a product of what is called institutional racism.  Institutional racism is the past unfairness of laws and rules that have made many minorities have a harder time building and maintaining wealth and opportunity.  When people are stopped from buying homes, entering higher education or gaining access to good paying jobs because of federal, state or city wide laws they cannot in large numbers be a success.  Individuals through extraordinary effort, luck and circumstances may become a success, but if you look at minorities as a group you get a better view of the extra challenges they have to defeat.

So what does this have to do with environmental groups?  Environmentalists are missing an opportunity to focus the attention of climate change on the effects to humanity.  The same people who face the additional challenges to a successful life are the same people who living everyday with the toxic effects of harmful business practices, pollution, illegal dumping, and industrial waste.  Those who live with the effects are the ones with the most to lose and the most to immediately gain.  The chance to combat two major problems, inequality and climate change is a chance that environmental groups need to seize in order to make the lasting change necessary to protect the environment and humanity.

Environmentalists should be walking the neighborhoods that are polluted not only to observe but to reach out to the people who have little or no choice in living there.  They should be seeking out the neighborhood councils and breathing the air that many people have to breathe every day.  They would see that the movement to fight for the planet needs to start with stopping the more local pollution and damage that hurts people right now.

In Seattle, one can predict with surprising accuracy how long someone will live, what they will do for a living and how they will die based on their zip code.  In historic Central District across the board those living there have shorter life spans, and more breathing related problems due to air pollution and industrial waste.  The rate of asthma amongst children is much higher and adults who live in areas stricken with poverty are twice as likely to have breathing problems.  

When it comes to other environmental problems associated with human causes one can do no better than looking at the poisoning and pollution of the Duwamish River that has been going on for a hundred years.  Industrial waste and dumpage that includes PCB’s, arsenic, and dioxins have made the river one of the most polluted sites in the United States.  The fact that the Environmental Protection Agency made it a Superfund recipient proves that the damage has been intensive as only the most damaged areas received federal funding.  Fortunately some environmental groups have shown some forward thinking and have partnered with local populations and minority groups affected by the pollution to work towards solutions.

The Duwamish River Cleanup Coalition is an organization made up of environmentalists, local Native American tribes, business leaders, and local populations to finally bring about a sustainable change to the river that will allow it be clean for human use, safe for salmon and other animals and be an example of rethinking industrial choices to include environmental and human considerations.  The group is reaching out for public comment, meeting groups where they are and listening to ideas from the people most affected by the problem.

Environmental Justice is the term that focuses on the immediate damage that people face if they are in areas where laws and tradition place factories, garbage dumps, toxic waste disposal sites and electrical lines.  The idea behind Environmental Justice is that new laws and rules should “even out” environmental damage by making companies and organizations move their factories and dump sites in a regulated way.  The idea is that if everyone gets the “benefits” of these services then everyone should “pay the price.”  The problem with Environmental Justice is that it does not get to the root problem of inequality.  Without those hard fought regulations that sometimes take years of court battles to enforce, the factories and dump sites will move right back into the “poorer” neighborhoods where they will stay until another dynamic leader fights again.

The environmental movement has an opportunity to broaden their message and gain valuable allies in their fight to protect the environment from human caused problems and restore the natural habitat.  The groups need to reach out a group of people that they have historically ignored and fight by their side to lessen the damage that they are suffering from industrial choices made by the rich and enforced by institutions and instead give real actions to real problems from which they suffer.  Health concerns, fewer choices in jobs and careers, lack of quality education, crime and equality are all causes that social justice is concerned about and the environmental movement should broaden its concerns to include the more human side to climate change.  

Until the story changes from “Save Mother Earth” to “Save your fellow man” the environmentalists will be fighting a wave against strong and wealthy opponents and many people who simply do not care.  By redefining environmentalism in human terms, people will see that they have real here and now reasons to get involved with the environmental movement.  People will connect their son and daughter suffering from asthma to our bad business practices.  People will see that their cousin’s diabetes and heart disease stems from a lack of walkable, breathable neighborhoods and a steady diet of cheap, yet unhealthy fast food.  People will see the benefit of clean rivers and streams when the water that comes out of their tap is not poisoned.  

Make the fight to save the planet practical and connected to lives here and now and we will have a nearly endless stream of supporters and activists who can make real, life affirming differences in their neighborhood and beyond.  We will have a group of dedicated, passionate people who can when their own backyard is stable and safe can broaden their boundaries and their views to include a wider spectrum of challenges.

Flow 4/17/2011 Issue 6

Flow is based on Sustainable Seattle's Happiness Initiative and is inspired by Vinyasa, which means one leading to another. Flow gives small, but important steps that can improve one's contentment amongst all nine domains of happiness. Flow is a weekly jolt of inspiration, pragmatism and a collection of local events that will raise our happiness. Health  4/17/2011-4/23/2011    Issue 6 This week we are focusing on Health and more specifically physical health habits.  We are going to learn some basic steps someone can take to give their body a better chance at getting the nutrients and exercise it needs to ease our minds and raise our happiness.    The most important step when taking on a change in habit is to start small.  Habit change takes time and it takes small victories to achieve lasting change.  So, the first step I recommend is a small one, but vastly important, eat breakfast. A balanced breakfast will have some sort of whole grain, fruit, and calcium source.  Examples of simple, yet effective breakfasts are: 1. Whole wheat bagel with jam, glass of milk and a banana. 2.  Whole grain cereal with milk, yogurt and a few apple slices.  3.  Fruit smoothie and whole grain toast. 4.  Morning Sandwich with whole grain bread, tomato, lettuce or spinach, lean protein and a glass of milk. Breakfast can be premade at night in case any of you are thinking: who has time for breakfast?  I plan out my breakfasts before I go to bed and have the ingredients ready to go for the morning.  Once again it is not about huge changes, but smaller important changes. Studies have shown that a healthy breakfast has many benefits such as: better concentration and mood, more strength and endurance, and weight control.  People who eat breakfasts have fewer cravings before lunchtime, healthier metabolism and energy to get their day started without a eleven o’clock crash that coffee and high caloric foods for breakfast can induce. An additional tip for this week is to get rid of your snooze button alarm clock or disable your snooze function on your phone or computer.  Getting up just ten minutes earlier will give you the time to eat breakfast and gather your thoughts before the start of the day.  If you have planned out your breakfast the night before, you can use the extra time to have a pleasant beginning to your day instead of a harried, hurried rush. Recommendations This week’s website recommendation is: Nutrition.gov This week’s book recommendation is: Good Food, Great Medicine by Miles Hassell M.D, Mea Hassell Sign up for the weekly newsletter. Support The Flow Campaign		Flow Suggests: Peter Kahn: Technology as a Poor Surrogate for Nature Community, Cultural, Environmental www.townhallseattle.org Wednesday, April 20, 2011 | 7:30 – 9pm   Beyond Empire: Peace and Sustainability Community, Governance, Psychological Health www.compassionateactionnetwork.com Thursday, April 21, 2011      7PM  - 9PM   Earth Day Dance Community, Culture, Health, Environmental www.sustainableseattle.org Friday, April 22, 2011 7:30 PM

Just a quickee

Just a stream of thoughts today I'm afraid.  I've been so busy lately and when you are working as basically your own boss, sorta, the time really does start to become the most valuable commodity you have. It reminds me of why my work with the Flow Campaign is so important.  I have really taken the lessons I've been learning from this work to heart.  Time is the premium.

Yesterday I did some initial shooting of a site visit for the Sustainable Rain project for Sustainable Seattle.  The location was on the corner of MLK and Union in a formerly vacant lot that was overrun by blackberries, brambles and broken furniture.  Across the street is a Grocery Outlet, a cafe espresso stand, and a series of houses with no fences, dogs and comic book readers who flip through superhero hijinks while taking drags off of early morning cigarettes.

The neighbors are all behind the new project that is being lead by a fiscal sponsoree of Sustainable Seattle, Green Plate Special.  The project is all about teaching youth about healthy eating, cooking and urban agriculture.  It takes youth who have not had the training and examples of a well rounded diet or even the baseline knowledge of where food comes from or what it takes to bring that food from farm to table.

The Flow Campaign 4/3/2011 Issue 4

4/3/2011-4/9/2011   Issue 4

Environmental Quality The truth of the matter is that we cannot wait any longer for our leaders to make the tough decisions in regards to environmental quality.  Elected officials can only follow what their constituents are already taking steps to address.  Our individual actions can have a huge positive impact on our surroundings. This week we will focus on some small steps that we can take as individuals to improve our own environmental quality in the form of energy use reduction. First the things we can do around the house that are simple, but practical to both reduce our energy use and reduce our energy bills. 1.     Turn off lights and electronic equipment when not in use. 2.     When a light bulb burns out replace it with a Compact Fluorescent Bulb. 3.     Turn your heat down to 55 degrees or less at night or when you are not home. 4.     If you have access to your water heater, turn it down to 120 degrees. 5.     Shut down computers when not in use. 6.     Always wash full loads of dishes and clothing. Next let’s talk about the main problem which is over-consumption.  We cannot completely rule out buying material goods as we do have legitimate needs and desires when not overindulged are a good thing.  Let’s focus on a few ways we can reduce our consumption or make some fundamental changes that are practical. 1.     Wait 24 hours before buying something you see in a store that was unplanned. 2.     Do not buy “Green” products when the materials you have are still perfectly functional. Only buy new products to replace defective or broken items. 3.     We cannot buy our way out of climate problems; we need to reduce our material accumulation. 4.     When purchasing materials try to purchase in bulk or purchase items with less packaging. 5.     Buy local products when you can to reduce amount of travel for the item. 6.     Make a shopping list and stick to it.  If you see an item that you really want add the item to your shopping list for your next trip.   Recommendations This week’s website recommendation is: Seattle Public Library Events This week’s book recommendation is: The Lazy Environmentalist on a Budget by Josh Dorfman Sign up for the weekly newsletter.		Steve Koonin: America’s Energy Challenge Environmental, Governance www.townhallseattle.org Monday, April 4, 2011 | 7:30 – 9pm   Disaster Preparedness Training Community, Material www.sustainablewestseattle.org April 7, 2011      6PM  - 7 PM   Plate of Nations Community, Culture www.plateofnations.com Through April 9,2011