Category Archives: Choosing/Decision-Making

I can’t wait for when I can go into a store and buy any food for sale without packaging or being shipped far or otherwise hurting people.

on September 26, 2024 in Choosing/Decision-Making

Yesterday I shared how the only food among what I normally eat my doctor says I can eat for a week before my colonoscopy is tofu. Normally my coop sells tofu unpackaged that I can take home in containers I bring. It turns out they were out of stock, with the next shipment expected next Thursday. Chinatown wasn’t far, so I walked there. Plenty of tofu for sale, but none[…] Keep reading →

Things I Don’t Know

on September 6, 2024 in Choosing/Decision-Making, Nonjudgment

I was thinking about some things I don’t know. I’m confident humanity is better off with less plastic in the ocean, litter on the ground, and PFAS in our blood, but I don’t know: When a human sperm and egg become an independent human life the law should protect The optimal number of and amount of access to guns for self-defense, to protect against government overreach, to defend a community,[…] Keep reading →

“I want to be more sustainable, but I’m not ready to start yet.” … You never will be until after you start.

on August 20, 2024 in Choosing/Decision-Making

I was talking to a friend who considers herself more sustainable than most, someone who feels she cares. She said something many people say: “I want to be more sustainable, but I’m not ready to start yet.” This statement illustrates the problem with nearly every approach to sustainability: they’re based in book theory, not practical experience. Without practical experience, they don’t know that acting more sustainably brings liberation, joy, and[…] Keep reading →

On considering when to decrease my daily exercises started over a decade ago, now in my 50s

on August 3, 2024 in Choosing/Decision-Making, Exercises, Fitness, Habits, SIDCHAs

I’ve meant to write this post for years. It may be the longest past due. Why? Because it relates to many parts of my life and involves decisions that will affect me the rest of my life. I’ll stick with the basics to put the main thoughts on paper, so to speak. When I started doing burpees daily, it was ten a day for thirty days with a friend in[…] Keep reading →

If you build or buy a home in Phoenix, AZ, your claims that you “need air conditioning” lose credibility, as do your claims to others’ resources.

on July 16, 2024 in Choosing/Decision-Making, Leadership, Nature

The title says it all, but for clarity, I’ll generalize: if you choose to do something that requires polluting, depleting, or plundering, you don’t get to claim your life requires living unsustainably. You don’t get to then make claims on others’ resources. A life requiring hurting others is not liberty. Its’ the opposite: it’s destroying other people’s liberty. Why don’t I spend all my money and then claim you have[…] Keep reading →

What I think of when I think of Taylor Swift and her jet

on June 22, 2024 in Choosing/Decision-Making, Leadership

Is someone criticizing Taylor Swift’s flying lately? People talk to me about it all the time. In the past few days, a few people told me she was in the news for flying a few miles on her jet. Today, I turned the corner from Sixth Avenue onto Waverly and saw the scene below. I didn’t want to include identifying pictures so didn’t take it from their front, but what[…] Keep reading →

How to fail at transitioning from fossil fuels

on May 2, 2024 in Addiction, Choosing/Decision-Making, Nature

First, let’s imagine solar, wind, hydroelectric, fission, or fusion were “clean,” “green,” or “renewable.” They aren’t, but for the sake of understanding, we’ll imagine they are, so if we transitioned to them from fossil fuels, society could live indefinitely on them. What Doesn’t Work Everyone is acting as if we can ramp up “clean,” “green,” and “renewable” energies until we don’t need fossil fuels, then we can ramp down fossil[…] Keep reading →

My latest life-changing rule for visiting web sites

on February 26, 2024 in Addiction, Choosing/Decision-Making, Freedom, Habits, Tips

I used to waste three or four hours a day browsing social media sites, generally Reddit at the time, but others too, in particular after telling myself not to spend that much time on sites. I found some useful guidelines to reduce wasting time on screens. Not all time on screens is wasted, so I wanted to reduce wasted time but maintain productive time. Existing rules that have served me[…] Keep reading →

Which is worse, blowing smoke in a someone’s face (say, a baby) or burning tons of jet fuel?

on August 21, 2023 in Choosing/Decision-Making, Nature

The title asks it all, but I’ll make it more poignant. Say I blow cigarette smoke in a baby’s face. Shocking, isn’t it? Horrible. Unconscionable. Probably criminal, like assault. But if I burn tons of jet fuel to visit the Amazon under the guise of ecotourism, people seem to view it as healthy. How is this difference possible? You could say because blowing smoke in someone’s face is directed. Still,[…] Keep reading →

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