• picture
  • picture
  • picture
  • picture
Public Radio's Environmental News Magazine (follow us on Google News)

Gift Ideas from Listeners

Air Date: Week of

Our listeners respond to a call for holiday gifts that are environmentally friendly and gentle on the human spirit.

Transcript

CURWOOD: Last week we asked you, our listeners, for your suggestions of holiday expressions that are environmentally friendly and gentle on the human spirit. First we have to say thank you. A lot of you have called or written, and we wish we could put all of them on the air, but we'll share as many as we can. A listener to KSMF in Ashland, Oregon, begins our first sample.

CALLER: What I'm doing along with a couple of my friends is we're giving mathoms. I believe it's spelled M-A-T-H-O-M-S. What they are is they're gifts that one has already owned, like something that's special to me that has value, that I give away to somebody. And along with it, this is my little addition, is to write a little note as to the importance of why I'm giving them something used instead of buying something new.

CURWOOD: Renee Marion of Livingston, Montana, likes to give away gifts from her green thumb.

MARION: As my houseplants reproduce I stick the cuttings in pots of dirt and give them away. I use the offsprings from my grandmother herb plants in the garden the same way as gifts. And any extra basil or other herbs I dry from my garden I put in little jars and give away as gifts. And I use the abundance of school paper that comes home for packages.

CURWOOD: And Yan Sturrmun of Bainbridge Island, Washington, wrote us this prose poem:

STURRMUN: An alternative to the Christmas frenzy. Imagine if on Christmas morning we all gathered in groups of 2 or more, between us an apple, a knife, maybe a candle. In quiet veneration we slice slivers of crisp, sweet fruit, and tenderly lay them on each other's tongue. Feel fingers briefly, touch lips. The taste, the texture, chew, swallow. And the fruit becomes my flesh, stillness. Maybe, briefly, eyes touch eyes as I offer apple to you. Just for a moment, reverence. That's all we ask, in a spell of intimacy, the human to human apple communion. What simple, ecstatic joy would resound forth across a land, this earth on such a day. I believe then we would re-enter the Garden of Eden. So that's a thought on Christmas. Thanks. See you later. Bye bye.
 

 

Living on Earth wants to hear from you!

Living on Earth
62 Calef Highway, Suite 212
Lee, NH 03861
Telephone: 617-287-4121
E-mail: comments@loe.org

Newsletter [Click here]

Donate to Living on Earth!
Living on Earth is an independent media program and relies entirely on contributions from listeners and institutions supporting public service. Please donate now to preserve an independent environmental voice.

Newsletter
Living on Earth offers a weekly delivery of the show's rundown to your mailbox. Sign up for our newsletter today!

Sailors For The Sea: Be the change you want to sea.

Creating positive outcomes for future generations.

Innovating to make the world a better, more sustainable place to live. Listen to the race to 9 billion

The Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment: Committed to protecting and improving the health of the global environment.

Contribute to Living on Earth and receive, as our gift to you, an archival print of one of Mark Seth Lender's extraordinary wildlife photographs. Follow the link to see Mark's current collection of photographs.

Buy a signed copy of Mark Seth Lender's book Smeagull the Seagull & support Living on Earth