SuperForest

Good Morning, SuperForest!

For some of you, the name Jon Marro may not immediately ring any bells but the fact of the matter is, it is very likely his work has had an effect on you sometime in your life. For me, I believe the first time I was introduced to his work was when I was waiting in a car for someone and out of a moment of boredom pulled out Jason Mraz’s “Mr. A-Z” album and started flipping through the CD package design and the album artwork. I was amazed at the degree of detail and the pure creative genius that went into its design. Later on my exposure to him would continue through several show posters, through Bushwalla’s “Autodidactical, Freestyle and Radical” album, and of course, Blend Apparel. I’m sure you can imagine the degree of my shock and excitement when I realized the artist behind all of those pieces was one in the same!

That is when I realized Mr. Jon Marro is a quiet hero of sorts. The beauty of his artwork and more importantly, the messages of his artwork, had subtly sneaked into my every day life (the t-shirt on my back, the CDs lying around in my car, etc). I’d always been grateful for the wonderful work, but it wasn’t until much later that I was aware of who to be grateful toward.

Ever since, I’ve had much respect and appreciation for the work of Mr. Marro. I knew that behind every piece of work he created, there was also a great deal of love. And the power of love in business is exactly what he talks about in this audio interview he gave The LOVE-olution! In addition to that, he also discusses “how to create a new world rather than saving the world” and “how to be love regardless of what’s going on around us” Mmmmm!

You can listen to it here!

And I highly highly recommend you do. It’s a gem! And despite the fact that it is a little lengthy, it is worth every second.

As a side note, I still flip through that same Mr. A-Z album artwork and still find interesting things to look at. (How many of you noticed the Blend Apparel liquid paper on the Mr. Curiosity and Clockwatching page?!)

Have a great day!

Carla

P.S. If you want to check out more of his work, you should click here! Who knows? Maybe you’ll have a crazy “That was him?!” moment, too!

Hello SuperForesters!

Thanks to the creative genius of our fellow humans, it’s getting easier and easier to eliminate plastic from our lives. You may have already traded in your plastic shoppings bags for fabric ones, and ditched your plastic hangers in favour of the cardboard variety. But my guess is your toothbrush is still made from plastic (not to mention packaged in it too). But this is simply because you’ve never had an alternative. Enter the Environmental Toothbrush by Dr Nat (Nat, if you’re reading, you’re the coolest).

The downlow:
It’s completely biodegradable. The body is made from environmentally sustainable bamboo, and the bristles are made from a polymer derived from renewable plant feedstock. They come in packs of 12, each brush individually wrapped in plant-based wax-lined paper [how good is that?!].

I’ve only just heard about this invention and don’t own one of my own, so I can’t say anything of its usability, but you can read a pretty in-depth review here. And you can purchase them here.

Brush ‘em, brush ‘em, brush ‘em,
April

Andrea Galvani via notcot

There was once a planet. On this planet, there lived a lot of creatures. Some big, some small.
Some lived on the land, and some lived in the sea. But they were all of them in trouble.

The land had been polluted, as had the sea. The people of the land fought amongst themselves. The land and the sea were running out of energy. The people needed too much. It was a very hard time.

In the city, one day, there lived a small girl.
She heard someone on the TV talking about the environment. She saw pictures of polar bears, and a forest being chopped down, and an ice cap melting.

The little girl was sad. She wanted to fix the environment. She thought maybe she could do something to help.
She lay down to sleep that night and she wished to herself that she would dream of an answer.

That night, she dreamed of a happy, green world. She dreamed of a land where everyone was kind and just, and treated one another and the land and the sea fairly.
When she awoke, she felt very happy, and decided to carry this dream with her in her heart from then on.

She leaped out of bed, and cried to her room, You are my environment! She spied in the corner some dirty clothes. Swoosh! The clothes flew into the hamper. Flash! The bed was made. Scooch! The drawers closed, and the night table was straightened. In moments, her room was spic and span.

She then marched to the bathroom, brushed her teeth (and wiped down the sink.) Had a nice shower, (not too much water, and folded her towel after,) and left the bathroom looking cleaner and tidier than when she found it.

Over breakfast, she told her mother and father, brother and sister that she loved them, and that they were great. At the unexpected compliment, everyone smiled. Mother said, I think you’re great! And Father laughed and grabbed her and kissed her. It was a wonderful breakfast.

At school she told all of her friends how much they meant to her, and how totally awesome they all were. She said this with total honesty and love in her heart. Everyone smiled. Wow, you’re being very nice today, said one of her friends. I’m trying to save the environment, she replied.

You can’t save the environment! said all of the friends over lunch that day. It’s too big. It’s too late. But the girl only smiled.
I had a dream last night, she said. I dreamed a wonderful dream of a green, happy world. And best yet, I dreamed exactly how to make that world become real, and I’m going to share it with you…

(Continued in Part Two…)

Hello Superforesters!

Isn’t it amazing how connected our world really is sometimes? How things or people you are reading about or following in some way come together? For me this happened in the last 24 hours. About a week ago I started reading a book I’ve been wanting to read for a while called Me to We: Finding Meaning in a Material World by Marc & Craig Kielburger. This book has been inspiring, emotional, thought-provoking and revolutionary and I can’t wait to finish it. All while I have been reading it, I have been thinking that it is a perfect book and concept to discuss on SuperForest: changing our approach to life so that we live “we” and not “me” oriented, which I think many of us are trying to do already, or there probably wouldn’t even be a SuperForest! One person really can make a difference and that is what We Day is all about.

Photo Credit: fernando from flickr Also in the last year, like many of you, my ears have been taking in as much Mraz music as they can possibly hold. Not only is Jason Mraz a talented singer/songwriter but I believe many of us have responded to him because he is one of many faces and voices that we can identify with as socially conscious individuals. We want to change the world in our own little way, and we get inspired by people like Mraz who have the ability to use his public platform to discuss issues that mean something to us.

Last night I learned that Jason Mraz is participating in We Day this year, and this morning I read his blog post regarding his involvement. This partnership just makes so much sense! Craig and Marc are unbelievably inspiring people and they have worked hard to make change in the world, and they are not stopping anytime soon! I guess it was only a matter of time that all of these inspiring activists would band together.

Photo Credit: BenedictW from Flickr As a Canadian, I’ve been reading and hearing about Craig Kielburger for many years in newspapers and on television. It all started when he was only a child himself, and he actively responded to the issue of child labour. Since then he and his brother Marc have started Free the Children, an organization run by youth that is striving to free children all  over the world from poverty; and after writing the book, they created We Day. Held over 3 different days in the next month in Toronto, Vancouver and Hamilton (near Toronto), this year’s We Day speakers include: Jason Mraz, Mia Farrow, Craig & Marc, Jane Goodall, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Robert Kennedy Jr. and Michel Chickwanine, a former child soldier.

Photo Credit: Craig’s Facebook Profile For anyone who has ever watched Oprah, you might also know Craig and Marc through her Angel Network, where together with Free the Children they opened over 58 schools in Africa and created the “O Ambassadors” program for students. Once I am actually finished the book I will do another post on it, and of course I will post on this evening’s live televised event broadcast from Vancouver. Unfortunately I won’t be able to attend We Day this year but I am heading to Toronto mid October and I am going to try to track down someone from Free the Children to see if we can get an interview on SuperForest! Wish me luck! You can see Jason’s post about Me to We here, and listen to him talk about it in this video (he even references the SuperForest Humanifesto!)

So on this We Day, check out the website at www.metowe.com and raise those 3 fingers up high! Yours in social change, Superforester Heather

This was from Ukraine’s Got Talent, via SuperForester Michelle Bonfils

About one and a half years ago I discovered a new musician by the name of Brett Dennen. Anyway, I know it’s a tangent, but one of the first songs I listened to was “There is So Much More”. You can listen to it here:

All superfluous praise aside, the song continues to amaze me; remind me of what it means to live a privileged life, and what it takes to accomplish peace — deep introspection. The lyrics, yet deeply profound, are very simplistically written, and I understood them fully for the most part except a fragment:

“I heard about a women who lives in Colorado.
She built a monoment of sorts behind the garage door,
where everyday she prays for all whom are born
and all whose souls have passed on.”

What a cool fragment. I encourage you to the listen to the song, but I DIGRESS. I hadn’t known what he was alluding to for the longest time, until I took the time to google “colorado monument of salt”. Then it became crystal clear: It is this:

Imagine if there was a place where every single person alive today, without exception, was actually represented and recognized both as a unique individual and as a member of the human family. Imagine too, if every day there was a welcome to greet each individual infant in the world on the day of their birth, and a way to say goodbye to each person in the world who died that day. When calamity or tragedy struck anywhere in the world, there would be a way to express our grief and caring together. When there were joyful victories for humanity, there would be a place to join in celebration. It would be a place where we could experience the reality of our world village.

Allusions are that much more beautiful when you understand them. The Salt Monument, which you can read about in more detail HERE, is something that takes account for every person on the planet. In a beautiful glass case, kept in a house, is filled with a very precise number of salt grains: the amount of human beings on the planet. Each day a precise number of grains enter the container, and each day an exact amount of water is added to dissolve a precise number of grains, representing the amount of people entering this world, and the amount of people whose souls have passed on.

So simple, and so poetic. The two often go together. 151,000 people will die today, around 30,000 of those children under 5 due to poverty related illnesses. When you die, a grain of salt, a mineral found in your tears and blood, will be dissolved in your memory. Sad, yes, but consider this: for each human who enters this Earth, a grain of salt will be funneled into the monument. A testament to humanity.

I encourage you to check out the website. The language is much more beautiful than mine, and the information much more in depth.

With Love and salt,

Chris

Here’s a quote that, when I first read it, got me very excited about all the things I want to achieve in life. There’s so much I put off (I’ll get to it later, the inner dialogue goes), which - when I really pause to think about it - is probably due to a fear of failure. The ideal “me” would be less fearful of failing and more excited about getting my hands dirty, stumbling and falling, then getting back up and yelling “Yee-ha, let’s go again!”. But enough about me. Enjoy the quote.Chase those dreams SuperForesters,
April

Huzzah! SuperForest has just officially registered for Blog Action Day 2009! Every year, bloggers from around the world unite in an effort to spread awareness on a particular issue. On October 15th of this year, that issue will be climate change.

This isn’t the first time SuperForest participates in blogging unification efforts.  Last year, SuperForester Jordan contributed to Blog Action Day 2008 with a inspirational post on combating poverty! Back in March, SuperForester Jackson wrote a very informative (and er, cheeky) post on Ada Lovelace Day. And, we cannot forget to mention our very own blogging Save-A-Seed Coalition!

All in all, we speak from experience when we say collaboration blogging is a riot! The feeling one gets when participating in something so grand and inclusive is unreal and knowing that a bunch of you SuperForesters are bloggers too, I figured I’d give you all a heads up and encourage you to participate in Blog Action Day 2009 with us!

October 15th, don’t forget!! You can find all the details you need here! <3

With Love,

Team SuperForest

“When from a long-distant past nothing subsists, after the people are dead, after the things are broken and scattered, still, alone, more fragile, but with more vitality, more unsubstantial, more persistent, more faithful, the smell and taste of things remain poised a long time, like souls, ready to remind us, waiting and hoping for their moment, amid the ruins of all the rest; and bear unfaltering, in the tiny and almost impalpable drop of their essence, the vast structure of recollection”

Good Evening SuperForest

I wanted to share with you a quick little story illustrating the weird unexpected nature of memories. Back in February Jackson posted some nifty pics of hand painted painted hands of unknown origin. I came across the post whilst browsing the SuperForest archives and was immediately struck by a certainty that I’d seen exactly these before, years and years ago, in an issue of National Geographic “World” magazine (the precursor to National Geographic Kids – yeah, I’m old skool). And lo! on visiting my parents and digging through the old pile of magazines:

The answer to Jackson’s query is that these are the work of the late Florence based artist Mario Mariotti (1936-1997) a conceptual artist who transformed his hands into a variety of cool looking things from wildlife to tiny footballers (SuperForester Julius linked on the original post to a great retrospective slideshow in La Repubblica) and published a number of books of the same.

Having given my weird little brain a mental high five for the recall, I got to thinking about the memory itself. The date of the magazine I found them in? February 1988…I was five and I can’t say I’d given them any conscious thought since. And yet, one image triggers this extraordinarily specific memory.  I don’t think I have a good memory – I certainly don’t have any continuous narrative of memories from a young age – and sometimes I feel bad about it, as though I lost the recall of my early years through carelessness. But maybe they’re not all gone after all, just hiding under the surface ready to bob up?  waiting for their Proustian madeleine moment?

“If a little dreaming is dangerous, the cure for it is not to dream less but to dream more, to dream all the time.”

I Love Humans

P