Sustainable Families – An Introduction

Let me start by saying this. Education is NOT just for the elite. Awareness is NOT just for the elite. Knowledge is NOT just for the elite. It is for the well informed. It is for the innovative free thinkers who question and invest NOT just money but their time and mind towards a better way of life.

You do not have to have a million dollars, 1000 acres of land and a PhD to live a sustainable wholistic life. I’m not just talking green. I’m talking big picture.

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What you do need is creativity, ingenuity, common sense, determination and a little bit of curiosity.

Access to information and knowledge might not be readily available but if you dig deep enough, invest the time, inconvenience yourself just a little bit, you will find yourself exposed to more than you thought possible.

I was not born with a silver spoon in my mouth. I was born into a violent neighborhood on the south side of Chicago where extended family members participated in gangs, drugs, abuse and all sorts of other things. I was raised in a cult like church for the better part of my childhood and I attended public school. That is until my mother decided to home school me for high school. I am a survivor of childhood sexual abuse.

Despite my humble beginnings and with the help of my immediate family, with the intuition to take advantage of every opportunity, and with an inquisitive mind that always wanted to know more, I became a student leader, a community activist, an avid volunteerer and more. This led to a full paid scholarship of over $125,000 for college because of academic excellence and community leadership.

That opportunity led to more which led to more and my life has continued to build off of the previous moment. In one part of my professional life, that led to a manager asking me to find “corn cups” which led to a year of avid scholarly research…using 90% free resources. That year of research led to certification in Green Business. It led to business connections, a deeper understanding of sustainability and a better understanding of myself. I had and still have companies asking to pay me for my research and educational binders. You have no idea!

And this didn’t happen because I was born into a rich family in some plush suburb. This happened because I was surrounded by people with loftier thoughts. Because I always wanted to know more and didn’t just settle for what was spoon fed to me. This happened because my mother doesn’t settle for anything less than the best, (which can be overwhelming at times but is better than the opposite.) This happened because I tried, because I failed, because I questioned, because I searched and took advantage of every opportunity afforded to me.

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You cannot be complacent. Everything is not convenient. No, the educational and financially rich are not going to just hand you their secrets. But you can get those secrets!

In the coming weeks or however long it takes I will be doing a series on Sustainable Families. It is my goal to offer the light dosing of what my research has revealed to me. Each tip and thought could be expounded to be a post or article on their own but I can’t make it that easy for you. You have to Google stuff too! And after googling things for a deeper understanding, you need to “Google scholar” stuff and find information in academic journals. Wikipedia doesn’t cut it.

But I know some people do not have the time and resources to invest in that, and therefore I want to offer what I can.

Some of the sections that I want to cover are food, education, trash/waste, energy, water, and consumerism. There are a few more topics I am fleshing out and it is my hope that others would send further suggestions on what they would like me to feature.

Keep in mind; I do not know it all! I am a life student. There is always new innovative information being revealed each day and I doubt my research has even touched the tip of the iceberg. That’s if the iceberg is even still there since its all melting away.   You may have more ideas or know where more ideas can be found. You may find that my suggestions are not realistic, are too crazy or radical or just plain stupid. Let’s dialogue about that. Too many families…too many people are uniformed willingly. And I’d love for there to be many resources easily accessible for people to learn more.

I look forward to doing this.

The first subject coming up is Sustainable Families and Food. Before I publish that post, let me first start with this.

I don’t believe there is a disparity between races when it comes to food consumption. I believe the disparity is between financial classes. Those with lower incomes are not eating as well as those with better incomes. But I do not believe it’s only due to having less money. I believe it’s because they have less resources. And perhaps because they are not thinking big enough. I will explain that later.

When I began writing the post about food, I immediately thought of Dave Chappelle’s video on “ Grape Drink.” Have you ever heard of it? Now before you click the link, keep in mind its Dave Chappelle. He uses profanity. (I do too!) He also can be offensive to some. But if you go beyond the first 100 levels of offensive comments, you will find a deeper truth behind his jokes. He is very wise and it’s no wonder the system started screwing him over.

If you think it might be too much for you, let me just highlight some things. Instead of the scenario he uses where he speaks about a black person versus a white person, let us change it to a rich person and a poor person. Rich can mean financial, educational, mentally, spiritually. It’s not just about money!

At one point Dave talks about a black [poor] person being in a grocery store and wandering over the where a white [rich] person is.

The [rich] person says, “Chicken and giblets are over there. You must be lost. These are vegetables!” (How many of your children eat fried food, hot dogs and couldn’t tell you what spaghetti squash was? ~SLY)

Dave leaves the characters behind and then he says to the white [rich] people, “I know what you drink. Grape Juice. A lot of black [poor] people don’t have the privilege of knowing about Grape Juice because they have Grape Drink.  It’s not the same formula that you get. Ain’t no vitamins in that shit.”

Dave then uses the scenario of a black [poor] person going to visit a white [rich] person’s home.

The white man says, “Todd would you care for a glass of grape juice?”

The black man says, “What the fuck is grape juice? I want some grape drink baby.”

Later on the white man says, “I have apple juice.”

The black man says, “What the fuck is juice. I want some apple drink.”

Is your kid asking for juice or drink? What exactly are you putting into your children’s mouth and even your own mouth? Chicken or Meat fillers better known as chicken nuggets and big macs? Take a deep look into your kitchens and really figure out what you have in there. It’s time to take stock and educate ourselves about “juice” and get off the “grape drink.”

Stay tuned for Part One, “Food” in the Sustainable Families series.

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