Lent is a time that Christians spend focusing on their relationship with God by stripping down to the essentials.  For many of us, this means giving up chocolate, alcohol or smoking.  This can also be a time to dedicate to volunteering and helping others.

In this spirit of the season, I saw an interesting story on Fast Company entitled “British Bishops Call for Carbon Fast During Lent”.  A group of British bishops ran a successful “carbon fast” last year and they are calling on followers to again reduce their energy usage.

Over at The Daily Green, they offer “9 Things You Can Give Up For Lent That Will Help The Environment”.  Here are their suggestions:

1. Give up plastic (and paper) bags
2. Stop buying bottled water
3. Stop receiving unwanted catalogs
4. Give up conventional detergents
5. Give up the clothes dryer
6. Give up conventional toilet paper
7. Give up paper towels
8. Give up 2 degrees
9. Give up dry cleaning

Sometimes committing to these actions for a short period of time can result in long term changes to our consumption habits.  So go ahead, give up the wine or chocolate, but also give up a few habits that waste energy.  You will improve your own wellbeing, the struggling economy and the health of the planet.  If you could share a few rides, that would ne nice too.

photo credit: jezobeljones

With Bruce Springsteen playing the Superbowl halftime show, I thought; why not feature one of his songs this week.  I have been fortunate enough to see Bruce play live a dozen or so times and he always puts on a tremendous show.  In searching for a song to feature, I found this acoustic version of “Reason to Believe”

Struck me kinda funny
Seem kinda funny sir to me
Still at the end of every hard earned day
People find some reason to believe

It is interesting to see how Bruce re-interrupts his own music.  This version is close to the original, although he added some nice slide guitar for spice.  When I saw him on the Magic tour, this song was transformed into an all out rocker complete with Bruce playing harmonica on a bullet microphone and guitars that sounded like ZZ Top.

You see, there are many ways to perform the same song and it just takes some vision, desire and work.  For me, there is reason to believe that we can redesign the way most of us commute.  As we struggle through our current difficulties, what do you find at the end of your hard earned day?

The more I research this idea, the more I am amazed that this can not be easily implemented.  Look at all the technological advances we have made in Science, Medicine, Electronics and Computers.  I am humbled by the human spirit.

So why is it so difficult to share rides?  We are currently:

• Investing billions of dollars in new research
• Risking further damage to our fragile ecosystems
• Facing increased Global Warming and Climate Crisis
• Suffering quality of life while stuck in traffic
• Ignoring crumbling bridges & highways

But we can NOT figure out how to get several people to ride together?

Be a hero, save the earth!