Showing posts with label peace. Show all posts
Showing posts with label peace. Show all posts

Friday, June 24, 2011

Clearwater Festival, Day 1

We had an amazing time at the Clearwater Festival this year, and even managed to bump into some homeschooling friends, which, in a crowd of probably 15,000 people, is fairly amazing luck.

If you love peace, planet Earth, and music, there is no better way to spend a weekend. And there's even science. The Clearwater Discovery Tent and the Tidewater Tent feature aquatic animals including amphibians, fish, crustaceans, insects and reptiles. There are tanks of live specimens, and microscopes to examine the tinier critters with. Mikro had a blast looking at mosquito larvae under the microscope, as well as cranefly and dobson's fly larvae. He loved all the animal encounters, and it was hard to pry him away to find seats for the musical performances.

His favorites were Pete Seeger and the Riverkids, Tom Chapin, Joanne Shenadoah, Sarah Lee & Johnny, all the Clearwater Generations performers, and the reunion of Sloop Singers at Circle of Song (where he got a big high five from Sarah Underhill for his enthusiastic participation). My favorites were Pete Seeger and Arlo Guthrie, Joanne Shenadoah, Riverkids, and the Sloop Singers. There were so many performances going on simultaneously that it was impossible to see everyone you wanted to, and we missed seeing some personal favorites, like Magpie and Roger the Jester, but wow, what a line up! We also enjoyed the tales of Eshu Bumpus, Kay Olan and Margo Thunderbird at Story Grove. We signed petitions in the Activist Area, shopped the craft booths, and watched Mikro run around on the playground, making instant friends with other kids. And we sang, tapped our feet, and in Mikro's case, danced in the aisles. What a great time!















Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Think Peace

This is a podcast episode from Read Write Think's Chatting About Books, with book recommendations on civil disobedience and nonviolent protest:

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Peace Day with Dr. Jane Goodall



Dr. Jane Goodall runs an amazing organization called Roots & Shoots. It is sort of like scouting, but focused on service projects to help humans, animals and the earth. Every year they celebrate the United Nations' Day of Peace by flying giant peace doves at events worldwide. NYCHEA, one of our homeschool groups, has a Roots & Shoots club, though it is geared towards older kids. (One of my mama friends and I will be working on starting something up for the younger kids soon.) So Kev, Mikro and I attended the NYC event, which Dr. Goodall participated in. She gave a lovely speech and was warm and wonderful, with the kids especially. After the proceedings at Bowling Green, including making peace doves, recording pledges for peace, singing the Peace Dove song and marching in a parade around the park, we all boarded a ferry for Liberty Island and had a peace rally around the flagpole. Dr. Jane posed for pictures with the clubs, and Mikro was lucky enough to have Dr. Jane sign one of his books, Girls Who Looked Under Rocks, which profiles her. Roots & Shoots is a perfect fit for Mikro, who takes very seriously the idea of kids saving the earth. I have to get him involved in it.







I am just amazed that in the span of a couple of months, my kid has met and learned from E.O. Wilson and Jane Goodall, two of the premier naturalists in the world. Life can be full of amazing blessings and inspiring heroes. And the world would be a better place if more of us tried to emulate them. I am very proud to say, I think Mikro will. Whether in big ways or small, the boy will try to make a difference. He cares too much not to.