Volunteering

Why I love volunteering

Habits / SIDCHAs / Volunteering

Why I love volunteering

A few people commented on my delivering food yesterday at the hottest part of the day. The temperature hit 101F (38.3C) while I was pulling around 80 pounds of food in a cart, according to my phone's app . People often also flap their gums about not having time to volunteer. I never hear them say they don't have time for social media or other screen time, yet Americans average over 5 hours of screen time per day. I rarely spend that much time volunteering per week. And, depending on the volunteering task, I count some as cardio work. Plus my food delivery volunteering leads to free food. I help neighbors. I reduce waste. Volunteering as an auxiliary police officer helps make my neighborhood and…

June 25, 2025

Watch me cooking my famous no-packaging vegan solar-powered stew at a workshop at Drew Gardens, Bronx NY

Fitness / Hands on Practical Experience / Nature / Volunteering

Watch me cooking my famous no-packaging vegan solar-powered stew at a workshop at Drew Gardens, Bronx NY

I just found a video of one of the workshops I led at Drew Gardens. I can't believe I thought I lost it. If you've wondered how I make my famous no-packaging vegan solar-powered stews, watch the workshop: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZeLiAAapjzM Some Reviews Read more reviews here, but some examples: When Josh first invited me over for stew, I didn’t jump at the opportunity. I recall thinking that a quickly prepared meal of some legumes and fresh vegetables heated in a pressure cooker would at best be bland. After decades of consuming processed and improperly cooked vegetables that needed seasoning with plenty of salt, spices and fats, I didn’t appreciate how much natural flavor could be found in the garden. Josh skillfully mixed lentils with fresh farm…

May 8, 2025

Volunteering warmed my heart on a cold spring day

Habits / Stories / Volunteering

Volunteering warmed my heart on a cold spring day

I wrote the following to my newsletter and thought after finishing it that it would work as a post, so here it is. I forgot to mention that volunteering has come to replace time I used to spend watching TV or on social media. Since Americans average over five hours of screen time per day and I don't have a TV or use social media, I spend less time per week volunteering than the average American spends on screens per day. Maybe I should volunteer more, but I'd prefer Americans spend more time away from screens. I don't see the latter happening any time soon. Artificial intelligence will increase it. If you think otherwise, please bet me so I can have free money. Do we…

March 31, 2025

Honoring fallen auxiliary police officers

Freedom / Hands on Practical Experience / Volunteering

Honoring fallen auxiliary police officers

I'm approaching one year training for and participating in the NYPD auxiliary police program. I wrote earlier about mustering for the September 11 service. Tonight I walked in the annual memorial service for two auxiliary officers who were killed on duty on this day in 2007. I took this picture as we were starting. Here's a picture another auxiliary officer took from inside the group. I'm not sure if I'm in front of or behind the picture-taker, but one of those hats may be mine. As I've served more, I'm not learning as big things as fast. I've learned that a lot of police work includes standing around or waiting. Sometimes after standing at a post not doing much, when I walk away, I say…

March 14, 2025

On delivering food to a soup kitchen on Christmas

Habits / Volunteering

On delivering food to a soup kitchen on Christmas

When I deliver food to hungry people, people say I'm nice. When I avoid polluting, they call me extreme. Yet both actions come from the same place in my heart and mind, which I can best characterize with the phrase "love your neighbor as yourself." Whether you're Christian or not, that advice has stood the test of time for a reason. Acts of love for neighbors are rewarding. I just got back from delivering a big load of food that would have been thrown away to the Bowery Mission---a soup kitchen on the lower east side that feeds the hungry. People call me lucky that I have time to volunteer, often disparagingly or condescendingly implying I'm privileged---note: not privileged relative to the people I'm serving…

December 25, 2024

Ten days before Christmas people are already throwing away their Christmas pagan trees.

Habits / Nature / Tips / Volunteering

Ten days before Christmas people are already throwing away their Christmas pagan trees.

Ten days before Christmas people are already throwing away their Christmas pagan trees. Regular readers know I post pictures of how much people throw away trees they paid for being cut down. They're following a pagan tradition grafted onto one branch of Christianity. They probably try to believe some self-serving lies that the trees are grown or harvested sustainably, but we know they know. This year I told myself I would post fewer posts of the pictures, but then Sunday I saw the first tree of the season in a garbage can! How could I not comment and post on the depravity of this tradition? We created the tradition. We can change it to something more sustainable, or sustainable at all. If you haven't bought…

December 17, 2024

The Thanksgiving Day Parade from inside the barricades

Addiction / Doof / Education / Volunteering

The Thanksgiving Day Parade from inside the barricades

I served in my first Thanksgiving Day parade this morning. The role of an auxiliary police officer at a parade for families and kids isn't to keep the peace. I saw it as more for structure. A little to keep order, but more fulfilling a civic role for kids to see government in a peaceful role. I enjoy fulfilling civic duty, so despite the cold rain, I enjoyed playing that role. People in the crowd thanked me, asked me to pose for pictures, and offered me coffee. I found the content of the parade, however, gross because nearly all the floats were commercial, aimed to attract and hook kids. The parade was mostly commercial. There were a few marching bands and one small track that…

November 28, 2024

Hear me on America Out Loud: “How sustainability led to protecting and serving the community” and “From sustainability to law enforcement”

Audio / Choosing/Decision-Making / Volunteering

Hear me on America Out Loud: “How sustainability led to protecting and serving the community” and “From sustainability to law enforcement”

You've heard me on the America Out Loud network's podcast After Dark with Rob and Andrew before. They hosted me again (just Rob these times) to ask about my becoming an auxiliary police officer. Here's the first of two episodes, "How sustainability led to protecting and serving the community": Rob was very interested in my motivations and my concerns: why didn't I tell people about it until I finished? What response did I expect or fear? I had asked these questions but not really answered them. You'll hear I'm still figuring out the answers, but Rob's questions help me pursue. Here's the second episode, "From sustainability to law enforcement": Here are the show notes for the first episode: Author and speaker Josh Spodek recently returned…

October 21, 2024

Serving in Uniform Podcasts and Pictures

Leadership / Visualization / Volunteering

Serving in Uniform Podcasts and Pictures

I was at first nervous about sharing about my new major life volunteering community project, hence made the podcast announcing it, number 781, longer than most solo episodes I put the important information at the end. Still, if covers comprehensively my process in starting volunteering as an auxiliary police officer. Partly I wanted to make it hard to learn, so only genuinely interested would listen. Instead, everyone reacted positively. I've overcome some of my hesitancy to share about it. Below the podcasts are pictures of my, some classmates, and one of our instructors after graduation. Participating the the September 11, 2024 memorial service in one of the precincts closes to ground zero led to some deep thoughts on responsibility, civic duty, and more, so another…

October 15, 2024

I attended my first natural building workshop today and recommend it.

Education / Volunteering

I attended my first natural building workshop today and recommend it.

Last week I announced Emily Wang’s Own Workshop on Sustainable Building 9/14. Today I attended it and learned more than I expected to, which happens when you get your hands dirty from digging into clay. Here's Emily in the structure we helped build, a chicken coop at none other than Drew Gardens, where I hold my twice-annual cooking workshops in the Bronx. If you read Emily's blog, which I recommend, you'll see she refers to me sometimes, including her taking my sustainability leadership workshop learning the Spodek Method. She's in the video on this page describing her experience in the workshop. You might guess I connected them. You'd be right. It happened after Emily started taking natural building workshops and asked if anyone in the…

September 14, 2024

Images illustrating our culture today

Visualization / Volunteering

Images illustrating our culture today

I keep coming back to three images that illustrate our time. I'll add more if new ones arise. The first is someone sitting on a beautiful beach scrolling on their phone through images of other beautiful beaches, wishing they were there instead. (Only the beaches are covered in litter too). The second is someone riding a Citibike through traffic, one hand on the handlebar, then other holding a disposable cup of coffee. If you ask the person why they're drinking coffee while riding, why not drink it while not riding, they might say something like, "I don't have time. I'm not so privileged to sit around. I have to earn money." But people who stop getting disposable and switch to drinking it at a cafe,…

September 9, 2024

New Yorkers: Join Workshop Graduate Emily Wang’s Own Workshop on Sustainable Building 9/14 or 9/15!

Education / Volunteering

New Yorkers: Join Workshop Graduate Emily Wang’s Own Workshop on Sustainable Building 9/14 or 9/15!

UPDATE: Emily posted about the workshop. Check out A Smashing Week Building with Cob in NYC. Lots of pictures, descriptions of cob building, and matching my appreciation for Drew Gardens. I attended, though don't appear in the pictures since I rode my bike there and knew I would ride back, about 90 minutes each way. The post referred to me, but not by name. See if you catch the reference. As one example of a graduate of the Sustainability Leadership workshop's implementing what she learned, Emily Wang is leading two workshops in natural building, here in New York City, in particular, in the beautiful Drew Gardens. Register here If you're like me, you've heard about cob, adobe, and other natural building terms more and more.…

September 8, 2024

Volunteering: I just helped deliver a mammoth summer load of vegetables to the community fridge

Habits / Stories / Volunteering

Volunteering: I just helped deliver a mammoth summer load of vegetables to the community fridge

The community fridge where I volunteer by bringing food (and doof, sadly) stores would otherwise through away for anyone to take recently coordinated a deal with the Union Square farmers market to pick up what vendors don't sell. Half a dozen of us picked up and delivered our first load. Several of us made two trips. It was the most volume and I'd say highest quality of any load I helped deliver. These pictures don't show how much and how glorious the produce was, all local. Redistributing food so it doesn't go to waste solves an immediate problem. I still can't see how to solve the systemic problem of overproducing. In the meantime, at least people got to eat this food instead of it being…

July 2, 2024

A Triply Awesome Weekend

Art / Relationships / Stories / Volunteering

A Triply Awesome Weekend

I don't usually just talk about what I did, but sometimes things work out enough and I feel great about how major life choices I've made work out. Last Saturday, Sunday, and Monday were great times. I'll share Monday first since it's not visual so might get lost following the other two. Monday: Einstein and Nobel Prize winners Monday I met with a physics professor who mentored me in college and graduate school. We've stayed in touch since then, which was the early to mid-1990s. I told him I remember knowing professors who had met Einstein and Feynman, but couldn't remember which. He had met Einstein. I asked if he saw him speak at a talk, colloquium, or event like that. He told me the…

June 4, 2024

Volunteering recognition from 1993

Education / Habits / Stories / Volunteering

Volunteering recognition from 1993

I've been writing about volunteering. Then last month I found this certificate for distinguished service in college in 1993 cleaning out my father's basement and had to share the story behind it. A church near Columbia on 114th Street and Broadway served a soup kitchen. I volunteered there every Friday. I just went on my own. Partly I consider activities like it as civic duty. Also I find it rewarding. I meet people in my community. Independently, Columbia had a program called Community Impact that motivated students to volunteer and participate in the community. So other students often volunteered. None of the students who volunteered through Community Impact attended as regularly as I did, so Community Impact invited me to join their strategy and planning…

February 16, 2024

See videos of my low-waste cooking workshop at Drew Gardens

Habits / Volunteering

See videos of my low-waste cooking workshop at Drew Gardens

I've shared about my annual cooking workshops in Drew Gardens. Last time people recorded videos. Recording was impromptu, so I didn't bring a good microphone, so sorry the sound isn't great, but you can see something of the experience. https://youtu.be/X2lmbTrc7tk https://youtu.be/OVOJ8Fj8Kpg https://youtube.com/shorts/4qYbEfH0-og Some students from Fordham University were making documentaries of Drew Gardens as a class project and I ended up in them: https://youtu.be/qip5I8h9e0c https://youtu.be/FO74Mp7Wrfw EDIT: Here's a news clip of Drew Gardens reopening to the public in July 2025:

January 4, 2024

More pictures from volunteering, delivering farm fresh vegetables.

Habits / Volunteering

More pictures from volunteering, delivering farm fresh vegetables.

These pictures are from volunteering delivering surplus food to the community center a couple months ago. I don't usually take pictures so when I do I sometimes post them here. I like alleviating suffering. I don't like watching TV or scrolling social media so I volunteer instead. I don't understand how people find so much time for social media when we can volunteer.

December 1, 2023

See the Daily Show’s segment on me: “Is it Possible to Live “Off the Grid” in Manhattan?”

Creativity / Habits / Leadership / Nature / Volunteering

See the Daily Show’s segment on me: “Is it Possible to Live “Off the Grid” in Manhattan?”

Here's just the segment with me: and the whole episode (I appear about 11:10). https://youtu.be/MQrpXEF3pZE I liked it more than the New Yorker piece on me, though that's not saying much. I laughed out loud several times, partly since I remember the recording. For example, after she put the Skittles in the kombucha, we saw their dye run off and they turned an unnatural ghostly white. I wanted to share about doof, since the concept is so important, but how much can you fit in a few minutes. I was glad to see they showed me volunteering, delivering food to the community center, and picking up litter. You couldn't tell the volunteering exactly, but it added depth. They linked to a couple of my four…

November 29, 2023

More of: I eat food homeless people throw away

Fitness / Nonjudgment / Volunteering

More of: I eat food homeless people throw away

I wrote a couple years ago about how I end up eating food that homeless and poor people throw away when given lunches. Like if you give them a bag containing a sandwich, bag of chips, and a piece of fruit or bag of baby carrots, you're going to find a lot of uneaten fruit and carrots discarded on the street. Picking up litter daily, I can't miss it. Today, I'll give another example. Regular readers know I volunteer, bringing food stores would throw away to a community center where people can get it for free. Many others volunteer this way too, so every day the center sees lots of food. Yesterday, when I dropped off, I noticed a few cabbage leaves in a pile…

October 25, 2023

Attend my third annual Cooking Sustainably workshop in the Bronx THIS SATURDAY, with special guest: My Mom!

Events / Fitness / Nature / Volunteering

Attend my third annual Cooking Sustainably workshop in the Bronx THIS SATURDAY, with special guest: My Mom!

Come to my third annual cooking workshop at the wonderful Drew Gardens in the Bronx THIS SATURDAY. My mom will attend to share about organizing food coops. Click for all the logistics: Everyday Choices, Big Impact: The Power of Sustainable Living Drew Gardens is one of New York City's great gems. I love it there. You will too, along with my famous no-packaging vegan solar-powered stew. About the Event: Are you interested in learning how to live a more sustainable lifestyle? Join DCG and Joshua Spodek for our THIRD ANNUAL WORKSHOP and learn how making sustainable choices can help to: Protect the environment: Our planet is facing a number of environmental challenges, such as climate change, pollution, and deforestation. Living a sustainable lifestyle can help…

October 9, 2023

Pictures of recent volunteer deliveries

Habits / Volunteering

Pictures of recent volunteer deliveries

A practice in the volunteering I do is to take a picture of what we deliver and post it to a message board. People thank each other and it makes everyone feel better. It builds community. I haven't posted many pictures lately. I like just delivering the food and the thanks of the people who receive it. Still, the pictures end up on my phone. I usually delete them since the reward has already happened, but for some reason this time I sent the pictures here. Here are some pictures from recent deliveries to the community fridge. They're in no particular order. One or two might be from a different volunteer, but I think they're mostly mine. I recommend volunteering. more

September 13, 2023

Selected New Experiences, September 3, 2023

Fitness / Habits / Nature / SIDCHAs / Volunteering

Selected New Experiences, September 3, 2023

I've been posting Sundays about the books and movies I finished that week. This week I didn't finish any new books or movies, but I did a few new things. A New Vegetable for Me: Jicama I discovered a new vegetable this week, jicama: I'd never heard of the vegetable, but I saw a bunch of them in the food scrap bin when I dropped mine off. They looked like radishes, turnips, rutabagas, or odd potatoes so I took them from the scraps and brought them home. They were mildly sweet, but I couldn't identify them. I showed them to Evelyn from the spring workshop and she immediately identified them. I looked them up and now I'm enjoying them without abandon. By the way, the…

September 3, 2023

Petty Authority

Humor / Leadership / Volunteering

Petty Authority

Regular readers know I volunteer to deliver overstocked perfectly good food from stores that would throw it away to a community fridge and pantry for anyone to take for free (there's a fair amount of doof in it). I do it mainly to reduce waste to landfills, with feeding people as a bonus. It replaces watching TV, browsing the web, or feeding a social media addiction. I don't understand how people devote so much time to such things. I wish I had the spare time they do. The group coordinates through a chat, which has moderators. Two people moderated for a year or so. Someone new started the role. When a volunteer delivers, we post a picture to the chat. Recently someone posted this picture,…

August 26, 2023

My sidchas, standard procedures, and preferences

Fitness / Freedom / Habits / My Favorite Posts / SIDCHAs / Volunteering

My sidchas, standard procedures, and preferences

I meant just to list all my sidchas in my post Freedom exists in structure; it’s not chaos, randomness, or luck. Here’s my structure and freedom, but I made a mistake. I included standard procedures with sidchas. I didn't think of the distinction. One is habits. The other is the best way to do something. I've written about sidchas. What about procedures? If there's a better way and worse way, why do the worse way? Choosing a best way saves mental effort on top of the benefits of doing something better. Doing it consistently allows for continual improvement and increasing self-awareness. For example, living on the fifth floor, I could take the elevator or stairs. I decided once and for all to take the stairs.…

May 6, 2023

See Reuters Video on Me. The headline: “New Yorker lives sustainable life off electric grid”

Leadership / My Favorite Posts / Nature / Volunteering

See Reuters Video on Me. The headline: “New Yorker lives sustainable life off electric grid”

The video shows me cooking, fermenting, climbing, setting panels up, volunteering, picking up litter, and more. They recorded hours of footage. I like what they edited and only wish they could include more. For example, pulling the cart, I was bringing overstock, perfectly good food to the community center for people to pick up free. My favorite moments they couldn't include: When the interviewer tasted the famous no-packaging solar-powered vegan stew I made while they recorded. She said she liked it a lot. When I shared my three main goals: To alleviate suffering of people kicked off their land and on the receiving end of polluting and depleting, and minimize directly contributing to it. To lead leaders: you can't lead someone to live by values…

April 22, 2023

End of content

No more pages to load