On my volunteering run, I saw this person shooting up on Waverly, just off Sixth Avenue. Don’t look if you’re squeamish, because the needle is in the person’s arm. Normally I don’t take pictures of someone in the act if they or their comrades would see me, but this person was alone with nothing identifying to indict or take away their dignity beyond what our addictive culture has already stomped[…] Keep reading →

The cops have cleaned Washington Square Park somewhat of its heavier drug use and dealing. I’ve talked to a few of the cops and they aren’t all from the local precinct. Some came from elsewhere in the city. I talked to one from the Bronx. It sounds like word got around the city that it was worth it to act on the lawlessness, though I’ve heard there’s plenty extra lawlessness[…] Keep reading →

I read Holly’s book because I see us as a society and individuals addicted to what pollution brings. What can we learn from someone who overcame a different addiction? Holly’s book is the opposite of a downer. It’s spirited, researched, personal, and engaging. She reveals with infectious anger how society profited at wrecking her life, telling her poison was normal and good. Most of all, she shares how before stopping[…] Keep reading →

A few small ways I avoid the cell phone causing craving. One: When I’m walking and feel the urge to check something on my phone, instead of getting it out, I pick a spot ahead and tell myself I can get it out of my pocket and check it there. I usually pick a distance of a block or two, sometimes more, which means a minute or two later, sometimes[…] Keep reading →

A couple weeks ago, in a hurry to meet someone, I passed by one of the few addicts I’ve seen regularly in the northwest corner of Washington Square Park, in fact, enough to have had a few conversations with him. He was passed out on Sixth Avenue, looking close to death. I had seen him the evening before a couple blocks north, on the steps of the library, appearing to[…] Keep reading →

“Sanitize” means to make something healthy or clean. When waste and dirt like our poop used to contain germs like cholera but when processed became compost or food for plants, to “sanitize” it made sense. We made what was unclean clean, what was unhealthy healthy. Not a Sanitation Issue. A Too-Much-Production Issue Situations like the picture below are increasingly normal. People call them sanitation issues, but no sanitation department can[…] Keep reading →

Yesterday’s post, What is right amount to pollute? Zero is the only answer that sustains human life, puts most sustainability efforts in a new light. Articles suggesting “ten little things you can do to help the environment” seem woefully out of touch. Think of great atrocities and wars of the past. Would “ten little things you can do” have helped stop them? Our failure at sustainability is a failure of[…] Keep reading →

People call me extreme for not flying, taking years to fill a load of trash, and unplugging my fridge, but compared to most how people lived for almost all of human existence, I’m approaching normal. Refrigerators, for example, barely existed one hundred years ago and cost nearly double a Model T. For most of human existence, people didn’t have refrigerators. We ate more fresh food. Today people consume doof, increasingly[…] Keep reading →

Do you pick up litter when you visit your parks? What do you find? Do you find syringes and Narcan (an emergency drug to resuscitate someone who overdosed on opiates)? I do. Here’s some of what I found in Washington Square Park. Before you look, be sure to read after the pictures so I can explain why I keep posting about all the drug paraphernalia I find there. Why I[…] Keep reading →