Making Cookies To Make A Difference
At age 9, I was a fish, and it had a profound impact on me. My parents had sent me to an Audubon Society camp, where one evening activity was group skits. My group enacted the DDT cycle, with each of us playing one part of the ecosystem. The DDT insecticide was sprayed by a person, and then moved around our circle from creature to creature, harming each, ending with me, the fish, being consumed by a person. The EPA was created and DDT banned in the US two years later, but DDT still remains in the soil, and in fish, and the acute awareness of the world’s interconnection still remains in me.
When I was 11 my parents took me to Haiti for vacation. They wanted us all to experience the beauty, food, culture, and fun, and they also wanted to expose me to the reality that despite the plenty I had, much of the world struggles with poverty and disease. I wrote a poem there about my grappling with whether to give a coin to a begging child. Would it make a difference? Would other kids take it from him? What could and should I do to help?
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When I was 11 my parents took me to Haiti for vacation. They wanted us all to experience the beauty, food, culture, and fun, and they also wanted to expose me to the reality that despite the plenty I had, much of the world struggles with poverty and disease. I wrote a poem there about my grappling with whether to give a coin to a begging child. Would it make a difference? Would other kids take it from him? What could and should I do to help?
More...