Thoughts and Musings

A good week in Chicago

I’ve said it before – I love airports.  There’s something about the random humanity that fascinates me. I’m in an airport as I write this – Chicago O’Hare, to be exact – at some concourse restaurant grabbing a hot dog. Aptly titled “the Chicago.”  I like the way my waiter pronounced it when he brought it to me – “CHI-cago,” not “SHI-cago” like us non-residents are prone to say.  I gladly stand corrected.

I’ve spent the past week in the Windy City at McCormick Theological Seminary.  You know those people who have elaborate plans to tour all major league ballparks?  A few years back I decided to do the same thing with Presbyterian Church (USA) seminaries. I know, not as exciting; but as I'm proving at this very moment, you can still get a hot dog. Anyway, there are nine or ten of them, depending on how many you count in the mix; and including the three I attended for formal schooling I’ve been to six: Union (Richmond, VA), Columbia (Decatur/Atlanta), Pittsburgh, Louisville, Austin and now McCormick in Chicago.  I’m always amazed by the diversity of the schools and the people associated with them, but also all the things they share in common. Every school in their own unique way is making a difference.

I usually try to attend some specific event, like a conference, but if that’s not available I’ll spend a few days just studying and reading.  The latter was my intention when, back in the summer, I pulled up McCormick’s web site.  And then my eyes caught a little blurb about their brand new Certification in Environmental Ministries and Leadership.  Anyone who knows me can certainly understand my immediate interest.  I was getting spousal permission and plane tickets within days.

The program is spearheaded by four faculty and involved ten participants from all over the country and beyond (a gentleman from north of the border joined us).  We met for three days, two of which were seminar-style discussions and one “field trip” day to a local conservation.  Lots of incredible conversation and insight.  In many ways its getting back to some of the core Biblical and theological emphases on "creation-care" that we seem to have lost in recent years - captured quite eloquently in a comment I remember someone making in our local curbside recycling brouhaha last spring: that "God loves people, not the earth" (there's this little thing called John 3:16 you ought to check out...)  It's helping me fine-tune my perspectives and passions on the issue so I can do my part to help the faithful  reclaim an important conversation that's been sorely neglected.

Anyway, this was part one of two trips - we’ll be back in early 2012, after which we’ll have a project to complete. And as much as I enjoyed the program itself, I also fell in love with Chicago.  The seminary is located in Hyde Park, on the south side of town.  I came to love the neighborhoods and my daily walks through the University of Chicago campus to some friends who graciously opened up their guest room for me.  It was also cool to reconnect with some old Mount Airy peeps (and a former Mediocre Bad Guy band member) who moved up here a year or so ago.  Hyde Park is a fantastic place, bustling with activity amidst old-school buildings and homes, ornate trees, and two – yes, TWO – organic coffee shops.  Take that, Starbucks.

Lots to think about as I board my flight home in an hour – including my strategy on how to get to my parked car as quickly as possible so I can to book it home in time to make a Mediocre Bad Guys gig.  Enjoy the pics that follow, and pay special note to the incredible rainbow that greeted me this morning as I prepared to depart.  I'll take it as a sign that this week was time well spent.

  Downtown Chicago skyline via Grant Park on a gorgeous day

 

Chicago Harbor. Bet this looks different in January.

 

Home of a certain famous Chicago residence who currently resides at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington DC. About two blocks from the seminary. Pleasantly waved to the Secret Service guy parked across the street before snapping this pic.

  Went on a jog one morning and headed six blocks east to Lake Michican. Got there in time to see the sunrise. Add this to my collection of awesome sunrise running pics.

 

Our Certification group visiting Glacial Park about two hours outside Chicago

 

So I was walking to my last class Saturday morning with suitcase in tow right in the middle of a rainshower. Kind of a pain, until the sun came out and I stopped at 55th Street to see this. If it's not a sign of the promise, at the very least it's a Starbucks PR dream.

"What is the Internet, anyway?"

Was 1994 really that long ago??

Favorite quote, other than the obvious: "...and it's getting bigger and bigger all the time."

(click HERE if you can't see the video clip)

Trashing the Biodegradable Sun Chips bag

If you haven't heard the news about the Sun Chips bags, that may be because you haven't heard much of anything since you last opened one.  They were, of course, the biodegradable packaging brainchild of snack-maker Frito-Lay.  The deal was that the whole bag was compostable - meaning it was made out of plant material that would break down over a few months.  This is in contrast to other snack food bags, and all plastic bags in general, that are petroleum-based and take anywhere from 500-1000 years to degrade, so the scientists tell us.

Now let's shoot straight here - ultimately this was nothing more than a sales gimmick.  It worked on my family.  I mean, we've always liked Sun Chips, but we bought more of them when they made the bag change.  The fact that they restricted the use of this bag to the Sun Chips product - the supposedly more natural/healthy option in their snack food arsenal (yes, you may snicker here) - seemed to prove this point.

Nevertheless, they did in fact do what they claimed to do - as the compost in my backyard has become the final resting place for many a Sun Chips bag, where they wind up looking much like the picture to the right.  So regardless of their motives, it was nevertheless a bold move and at least indicated that a company-for-profit might actually be growing a conscience; might just be thinking about something other than the bottom line.

Might.

That changed this past week, when Frito-Lay trashed the biodegradable bag option - all because consumers complained that they were too noisy.

And make no mistake - they certainly were.  Freakishly noisy.  I mean, plastic snack bags will never be described as "quiet."  They have to be made out of a crisper plastic to keep moisture out, lest your Cheetos or chips become soggy, which would be a travesty.  But these bags - my gosh, you could tell when your neighbor across the street was taking them out of their pantry.  No snack-sneaking here, folks!  One study showed that they elicited 100 decibels of bag-crinkling noise, compared to the sound of a lawnmower (90) and a New York subway (94).  Facebook groups popped up, like: Sorry But I Can't Hear You Over This Sun Chips Bag and The 100% Compostable Sun Chips Bag Is 110% Annoying (the latter demonstrating that creating a Facebook group doesn't mean you have to be good at math). 

So yes, they were noisy. Loud. Obnoxiously so.

But here's the thing: is loudness really a legit reason to ditch a decent sustainability initiative? Do we really want to include that among the excuses we've concocted for avoiding the more environmental-friendly option - a list that already has:

• "It's too expensive" (cities like mine refusing to offer curbside recycling, people not switching to greener technology in general).
• "It's not convenient" (not hauling recycling to a center when the city won't do it).
• "Our economy will always be oil-based, so why change" (not driving hybrid or electric vehicles).
• "It's too much of a hassle and I don't have time for it" (not growing food in your own garden or setting up a recycling station in your home).

Do we really want to add "It's too noisy" to that list??

I have this image in my head that I can't shake.  It's America fifty years from now.  That's when many studies suggest that all our landfills - those big holes in the ground we never see where all our trash goes - will be completely full.  As in, there is no room for the 4+ pounds of garbage produced by every American every day (not counting commercial and industrial waste, mind you).  Which means we will have resorted to burning it, dumping it on some third-world country, burying it deep in the ocean, or even launching it into space - all of which will wreak even more havoc on our environment.  I'm trying to imagine what they (read: our grandkids) will think when they learn that we nixed a compostable snack food bag simply because it was too noisy.  Don't you think that's going to come across as more than a bit petty?

At some point we North American consumers are going to have to accept the fact that things must change; the first being our habits and our attitude.  I'm not saying that the fate of the world rests in the balance of an obnoxiously loud Sun Chips bag.  I'm simply saying it might be a good thing to look at the big picture for a change, despite what our ears may tell us.

R.I.P., Biodegradable Sun Chips bag. You will be missed by some of us.