Circular Economy

Last June I had the great pleasure to spend a few days in Paris with two deardear friends from high school. Meeting thenm, one flying in from Montreal and the other from Goa, in this amazing city was a fantastic experience. Each day we made discoveries. Many of them were fun (being part of the crowds of people watching the Paris Open on live stream at the Eiffel Tower), inspiring (Rodin’s garden) and some even made my brain go into overdrive (a Gregorian chant sung in the Notre Dame Cathedral during an evening concert). 

One discovery was as provocative as it was disturbing. The above is a photo of a window display in a chic clothes store. It shows purses made from frogs. Posing the question what can you do with the rest of the frog who is killed for l'escargot? 

This is a long way of presenting the topic of "circular economy" and doesn't quite do it justice. So, please please watch this panel discussion, "Can materials innovation save the world?" It is well worth taking the 30 minutes and let your brain go on overdrive. The people in the panel persuasively argue how the greatness of materials innovation lies in its simplicity.

Art Lover

Dripped from ChezEddy on Vimeo.

To all of you who love art...

Fireworks in the brain!

Doesn't this video make a sound argument about why all of us should play a musical instrument?

Unfortunately, I do not , but my dear husband plays his guitar numerous times daily. Now, I know why! Fireworks.

Love the visuals.

25 years later

(Do go and watch the google doodle!)

It is 25 years since the Berlin Wall came down. A momentous occasion that none of us who were there willever forget. There have been perhaps five such occasions in my life like this: as a child living in California – President Kennedy’s assassination and the moon landing, as an adult living in Germany – the fall of the Berlin Wall, Nelson Mandela’ release from prison, and 911.

My first reaction to all of these moments was one of disbelief and trepidation. Knowing I was a witness to living history. Not knowing what it all meant. It took hours and days for my brain to assimilate the enormity of the occasions.

Whether tragic or joyful, each of these events radically changed my sense of what is possible. 

When the Berlin Wall fell, everyone living in East and West Germany was immediately affected. Lübeck, where I lived, was a “border” city and instantly flooded with East Germans. The disbelief and trepidation we all experienced seeing the first cars coming over the boarder was quickly replaced by elation. 

So much has changed in the last 25 years, some good, and some bad. I would not have missed one moment of it though. I was a witness and participant in all the ensuing events.

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The good thing about the internet is...

The good thing about the internet is the people you meet along the way. More particularly, the people you would not normally meet and once you have met them, they marvelously expand your perspectives on life and living. I am not talking just about the online friends who I've met through blogging or other social networks. Those friendships would take many posts to explore and explain.

Today I just wanted to mention one person, Alys Fowler, whose videos have filled my life with all sorts of joy and imaginings about how living a life with a garden could be.

(Sorry, if this video posting is a copyright fauxpas, I can't find another possibility.)

The greatest gardeners I have known have been my paternal grandfather, my sister, my friends Maria, Sonja, Tine and Andrea. Even though I have rubbed shoulders with numerous master gardeners, I do not have a green thumb at all. Actually, I am a couch potato gardener and will most likely remain so.

Yet, they taught me many lessons about gardening, which can be used well in life. Lessons about patience, planning, beauty, hard work, modesty, humility, artful endeavor, and a feeling an underlying tenderness about all of their plants. To Alys and my gardening family and friends, thank you so very much.