eeo – design • writing • yoga

about

I’m a writer, artist and designer who thinks way too much, and tries to see the beauty in the world.

On Economics and Environment

In the end, it seems like it all comes down to money. This is something I chafe against, but it is a reality of our current system. But the current system, as I understand it, often teaches business with no mention of climate/environment except as “an externality”. Businesses do not generally factor in the huge impacts of, say, things like their plastic packaging wastes. Because they mostly haven’t had to.

I’m the furthest thing from an economic expert. Or a climate expert, for that matter.

But even I can see the trouble with ignoring the impacts of business decisions on the earth we all share. Data centers are a great example. Right now it’s full-speed ahead, public opinion be damned, public health or quality of life or carbon-footprint, be damned. And as far as I can see, no one in the tech sector is really dealing with reality as they push AI and its data centers on a rapidly heating world.

In the April 4, 2026 Guardian, there’s an article that spells out the scope of the problem of AI Data Centers in a way even a non-tech person like me can clearly see: Google’s new Texas power plant would emit 4.5m tons of carbon dioxide per year, more than that of the entire city of San Francisco!

And that is just ONE data center. They are being proposed, protested and built en masse. Here’s a quote from the article:

“Google’s plan for a partnership with a natural gas power plant that could provide energy for one of its datacenters in Texas was unearthed by new research and confirmed by the company. The move is part of an ongoing about-face for the tech giant, which once pledged to be carbon neutral by 2030 and has long been seen as a pioneer in clean energy.

The gas power plant is slated to be built in Armstrong county, a sparsely populated area in the Texas panhandle. The project is being led by Crusoe Energy, which partnered with Google to develop the datacenter campus known as “Goodnight”, named after a nearby town.” https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/apr/02/google-ai-datacenter

If, like me, you are interested in challenging and changing a worldview that ignores the true cost of what is called “progress”, I have a few suggestions. I read Nick Romeo’s The Alternative a while back and it really helped me understand that change without economic policy changes will keep us from making the changes we need to help heal and sustain our environment.

Another great source of thinking about economics in our time is the UK podcast Macrodose.

Action Alleviate Anxiety. Remember this.

Scott Galloway, professor of Marketing at NYU’s Stern School of Business recommends letting tech companies know how you feel about their practices directly, with a strategy of unsubscribing. He makes a compelling argument that it will save you money, and directly impact the companies that are running roughshod over Democracy (and the planet). So check out his recent podcast appearance with Kara Swisher and take action.

You can make a difference. Pay attention to what’s happening, and spend time imagining a better future. We are all in this together. Let me know your action items in the comments. Always looking for more ways to make positive change!
On empire and war and Mary Oliver.

This poem, published in 2008, is evidence that the chaos and cruelty abundant today has been with us all along. Mary Oliver, more well-known for her awe-filled devotion to noticing the natural world, was clearly not unaware of the perils of our consumerist, dominating culture. Which is also part of our world. The part that is imperiling all of us. This current war, far away as it may seem to some, will not spare any of us, eventually. Those who think this can be “won” are fear-driven fools.

According to LiveScience.com. “Between Feb. 28 and March 14, 2026, the warring parties released almost 5.6 million tons (5.1 million metric tons) of carbon dioxide (CO₂) …For comparison, if these emissions continued at the same rate for one year, they would be roughly equivalent to the annual carbon emissions of the 84 lowest emitting countries in the world combined. And the emissions from the first two weeks of the conflict are higher than Iceland’s annual carbon emissions, which in 2024 totaled 4.7 million tons (4.3 million metric tons) of CO₂ via all sources, the team said.”

It’s past time to declare that the Emperor has no clothes.
May we all work for a better future, even —especially—when it feels futile.

–––

Of The Empire

We will be known as a culture that feared death
and adored power, that tried to vanquish insecurit
for the few and cared little for the penury of the
many. We will be known as a culture that taught
and rewarded the amassing of things, that spoke
little if at all about the quality of life for
people (other people), for dogs, for rivers. All
the world, in our eyes, they will say, was a
commodity. And they will say that this structure
was held together politically, which it was, and
they will say also that our politics was no more
than an apparatus to accommodate the feelings of
the heart, and that the heart, in those days,
was small, and hard, and full of meanness.

© 2008 by Mary Oliver
From her 2008 collection, Red Bird
Published by Beacon Press 2008
Peace and other imaginings

The world is changing at a rapid clip. Whether I like it or not. (And I do not like it!)

And yet—I continue my practice of meditating on peace, even on days where peace seems impossible. Which is every day.

This past weekend, I held another session of the now-monthly Climate Meditation and Writing Workshop. It’s becoming a community, with changing members, but always a handful of returning folks. One of the people who came mentioned that she is trying to notice what leaves her feeling better, and doing more of that. What makes YOU feel more centered, more present, more awake? Notice. And remember to do more of that (why do I sometimes forget?).

For one of the prompts in workshop, I read aloud “Wild” by Maggie Smith, followed by “In a Country” by Larry Levis. Both poems invite readers to consider how to love the world and also, how to imagine the future. As the poems were read aloud, we underlined words and phrases that caught us. And then, weaving in some of the bits we underlined, did a twenty-minutue fastwrite where we imagined a future, simply letting ourselves find flow. Writing our way back to peace, even if fleetingly.

Here’s my fastwrite:

Go on then, said God. And foolishly, we did. We invented a world built of hubris, all teeth
and need. Our own. And now, there will be trouble.

Good trouble, sang the wren from the boughs of her little poem. We all said she’d come to sing
us hope, though she would have said otherwise.

For a while, we seemed to be getting closer. From the crest of the ridge, we could see the fields
unfolded across the hills in neat squares and rectangles, a few trapezoids and triangles—green, gold, brown, striped with budding corn, soy. Through the orderly quilt, a shiny creek snakes, with a soft boa of bushes along the bank.

On occasion, pulled by a child or a dog, we walked out along the creek, where choirs of birds sang in thorny caves of underbrush. Always smoke in the distance. Always, the grinding of gears and spinning of wheels on the road that knifed through the fields, roared over the creek.

Today, it is snowing heavily. Beneath a polyester-spun blanklet printed with deer and pine, birches
and vines, we lie in our dream fields, dreaming of the future. We see washed-up cities greened by trees of heaven and honeysuckle. It is quiet here. Or, if not quiet, a different sort of noisy. No air brakes on overpasses.

A fox tears across a crumbling roadbed, a red comet across a cracked sky.

Geese honk; deer graze.
And the wolf tears open the throat of a fawn. And there are many hungry mouths, as there have always been hungry mouths.

From a heavenly exile beyond describing, we smile and watch the squares we laid out disappear
into soft-edged chaos.
How the screams echo in our hearts…

Not much to say, except that after finger-pointing and denials, turns out that the US is responsible.
It is hard to imagine peace today.
Rise and Fall

On Saturday, February 28, I spent the morning writing with poet friends. I did not read the news beforehand. I was taking a little break. And yet, I wrote about ups & downs; I picked up a brilliant children’s book entitled Rise and Fall, illustrated by the brilliant Peter Allen. When I arrived home from writing and walking, I read the book, made this sketch. The quote is from the introduction in the book.

It was fascinating to read about ancient, thriving civilizations that rose–and fell. Sometimes, historians have an idea of why they fell (often wars are involved, as well as disasters/disease)–other times, it remains a mystery to us.

And then my beloved came home and asked had I heard the news.

Sometimes, it feels as if relaxation or living life and NOT consuming news for a few hours might ’cause’ something bad to happen. Despite having that feeling initially, and getting sucked into a small spiral–I can take a breath, pray for peace, and take the action that I can take (calling those reps, again). We should not be in a war, and yet. Here we are.

Breathe into this reality, and respond.

A writing prompt to try: choose an object (or a living thing, I chose the plant)—study what you have selected. Breathe. Notice the colors, textures, form. What comes up for you, as you observe? Write down a word or phrase that comes to mind, and then write for five minutes. If you like to draw, add a sketch!
Some days peace is harder to find!

I drew this one the morning after the state of the union address (2/25/26).

I’d gone to bed thinking about the Epstein files, about the rise of misogyny (not that it ever ‘went away’). Earlier that evening, while not watching the SOTU, my IG feed was overtaken by a gush of posts celebrating large families, many featuring older women having babies–(sometimes their 12th or 15th) and if that is your path and your choice, I’m all for it.

However, my days of childrearing are behind me. I follow climate news and mindfulness news and current events. I follow warriors for racial justice. Immigrant’s rights. World news. Some humor. Poetry. Plant-based cooking. Musicians. Queer activists. Philosophy. Gardening. Literature (basically every area of study currently on the chopping block at your local U).

There is no logical reason my feed was flooded with posts about the vital importance of staying home with my children. Even a post that seemed to be about a woman working in a corporate environment was slanted by an anxiety-tinged “you should be home, because only you can take care of your child” message. These posts came up immediately after I read about new findings in the Epstein files; they seemed to be…in reaction to that.

After reading about Meta’s practices, I know their algorithmic ways are rarely random.

Time to walk away from “my lover, the phone” and be here in the world, which we can create. Imagine a world of caring. Imagine a world you would like the children of tomorrow to wake to. Whether they are your own kin or not.

What kind of world would you like to leave behind? Imagine it. Write about it. Meditate about it. Change begins with a vision.

Tell me, what would you most like to leave behind?
Today will be my peaceful day.

I watched a bit of good news a couple weeks back. You may have followed the progress of the Buddhist monks from Fort Worth, Texas, with their “Walk for Peace” spanning about 2,300 miles. Every day they held a ‘peace sharing talk’ at lunch, for anyone who wanted to listen. One of the talks really inspired me to adopt a new practice suggested by one of the monks. He suggested leaving your phone alone and not engaging with it until you make your bed, go to the bathroom, and write with pen on paper “today will be my peaceful day”.

Feeling very downhearted the morning I saw this clip, of the Venerable Monk Pannakara and his talk helped me reframe how I want to start my days.

Reflecting on his teachings, I realized peace is not a passive process. This is not an invitation to “check out” and numb ourselves. It is an invitation to feel and think and act from our hearts instead of in reaction to what our phones spark us to react to.

Try it. Peace may be a rare quality these days, but we all have the ability to create and spread peace.
Climate Meditation & Writing Workshop

In May, 2025, the first session of Climate Meditation & Writing Workshop was held at Studio Kroner in downtown Cincinnati. It was part of All Else Pales 2, a month-long, multi-disciplinary exhibition exploring climate change, sustainability, and environmental justice.

From the seed of this opportunity, an ongoing group has emerged!

I facilitate our monthly meetings, which (generally) occur on the 2nd or 3rd Saturday of the month. This free (donation-optional) format includes a guided meditation and guided writing prompts. Both are suitable for any experience level in meditation or writing. Mainly: we build community, sit with whatever feelings arise, and then create together. Sharing what is written is optional–we all listen and support one another. This is a generative workshop! We write in community. Quite often, juicy writing emerges. But the main objective is the practice.

Together we cultivate open-heartedness, awareness, and build energy and/or find solace. The idea is to draw strength so we may all help shape the best present and future that we can, however that looks for each participant. These practices are a great support for anyone concerned about the world we all depend upon and share.

If you’re in the Cincinnati area and would like to be on the email invitation list for the group, contact me. I’ll give you a heads up for the next meeting. Would love to see you there sometime.
Flying Thoughts

Last time I flew Delta, the napkin that came with my little cup of coffee proclaimed the airline had been “Carbon neutral since 2020,” which might lead you to believe they are not emitting carbon; there’s a class action lawsuit pending now, which Delta is fighting.

The writer of today’s napkin blurb stayed in safe territory by touting that the napkin is made from recycled paper. Hopefully that much is true.

Flying adds greatly to the carbon footprints of already heavy-footed westerners like me. And yet, with a sprawling family in a sprawling country with little rail service, I choose to fly sometimes.

But I’d rather not comfort myself with greenwashed fantasies of carbon offsets.

As the plane descends below the clouds, I see curving streets and cul de sacs scarring the earth below, labyrinthine, eerily reminiscent of the patterns carved by ash borers, who are born to consume what sustains them.
Introducing: Climate Journal

May this be a year of questioning and seeing and being and responding to what needs attention.
A year to nurture love, a year to take action.