Ripping off other publications (with credit, so its not plagerism, right?) July 10, 2008

I read this today on the Yes Magazine website.  I think it is worth reposting and spreading around.

Has the cash economy swallowed up your life? Here are some ways to extract some of your time and “life energy” from the cash economy.

Reduce debt. If you can’t pay cash, don’t buy it. Practice being mindful about what you buy and why.

Do it yourself. Grow food, pick berries, can and preserve food, make wine, bake bread. Make or repair clothes, furniture, and gifts. Create your own entertainment. Walk, bike, run, or play basketball instead of joining a fitness club.

Share & Exchange. Take care of neighbor kids and elders. Play music, sing, act in local theater, write poems, hold art shows. Exchange haircuts for applesauce, bike repair for massage, language tutoring for babysitting.

Reduce waste & pollution. Weatherize your home or apartment. Reduce your car usage, or get rid of a car.

Buy local. Run buy-local campaigns, print stickers, publish or post a directory of local businesses. Acknowledge business owners who foster the well-being of the environment, employees, and the whole community. Convert public funds from luring outside corporations to supporting local businesses.

Start a new local business. Start a food market, credit union, wifi network, or even an electricity co-op. Explore ownership options like cooperatives, nonprofits, for-profits, or single proprietorships.

Buy Fair Traded when you buy imports. Vote with your dollar for a better world for all.

Book Review: Natural Family Living, The Mothering Magazine Guide to Parenting June 30, 2008

I know I haven’t been blogging as much as I used to.  As we get closer and closer to the Democratic National Convention, my office is getting busier and busier, and I have less free time.  Hopefully the business won’t be lasting too much longer, though.

Today I’d like to tell you all about the book Natural Family Living by Peggy O’Mara, the publisher, editor and owner of Mothering Magazine, and Jane McConnell, former editor in chief and publisher of Women’s Sports and Fitness magazine and associate editor of Mothering Magazine.  I love Mothering Magazine, so I was pretty eager to get this book.  I started reading it when Elijah was about 12 weeks old.  He’s 7 months old now, and I skipped chapters that didn’t apply to me.

Obviously, this book is a monster.  Its the size of a college text book, and is organized like one too.  Also, like a college text book, it is a wealth of strait forward, clearly explained information on Attachment Parenting.  It covers everything from preconception to adolescence, with a forward by Dr. William Sears, the practically worshiped guru of all things Attachment Parenting (in fact, he’s the one who coined the term, Attachment Parenting, in a way he invented it - at least he invented it for industrialized nations, since its the only parenting choice available for indigenous peoples).

First, my complaints with the book.  This book was obviously written for married people who planned their pregnancies.  Yes, I recognize that this is the ideal that we all (allegedly) strive for, but it doesn’t happen to be the common reality.  I don’t think anyone in my entire family planned any of their pregnancies (at least not that they would admit to) and half of them were not married at the time of conception.  I don’t know many people who have.  In fact, when I first announced I was pregnant at work, someone from another office asked me “How long were you trying?” and I replied without thinking “Pssh, who tries to have a baby?” (ooops, apparently she and her husband tried for many years before they got pregnant, awkward).  Maybe its just my world view, but it seems like you’re pretty lucky if you get to plan your pregnancy.  Even married people have oops.  But we are not married.  We are single moms.  Many of us were never married.  This book doesn’t even acknowledge us.

The only thing this book said that seemed to apply to me as a single, never wed mother, was insulting.  On page 6 it says “One study indicates that women involved in stormy relationships run a 237 percent greater risk of bearing a psychologically or physically damaged child.  A pregnant woman needs emotional support, and the baby’s father is often the most important source of that support.”  Gee, thanks.  I guess I was pretty stupid to pay more attention to those dozens of studies that indicate having an abusive, addict father would screw you up, instead of listening to your one study saying fathers were the most important source of emotional support.  Yes, I know they weren’t actually saying that I should have stayed with the drunk bum who knocked me up.  What upsets me is that they don’t say anything about women in my situation.  As if women who inadvertently get involved in “stormy” relationships (because no one does it on purpose) should be ignored, forgotten about, brushed aside to make way for those women who happen to be able to plan their pregnancies with their perfect husbands.  As if its women’s responsibility to fix “stormy” relationships so that she can have a healthy baby.

They could have fixed that problem, that awful impression they gave me, with a very simple mention somewhere in the book that it is better for mother and child to be alone than to be in a destructive relationship.  In fact, the book would do well to recognize those mothers who have never been married, because while the book has whole chapters on divorce and the death of a family member, it has not one mention (unless its in one of those two chapters, because I didn’t read them) of women who either had to leave their partners because they were somehow unfit, women who’s partners abandoned them because they didn’t want the responsibility of a child or women who choose to get pregnant on their own because a descent man hasn’t presented himself to them yet.  The book could do well with an update chapter for women like us, instead of willfully ignoring us and furthering society’s perception that we are somehow unworthy, hopeless and shameful.

Other than that (really, its easy to get past all that scathing stuff I said up there, I promise), the book was great.  I like that it covered issues beyond infancy and toddlerhood, and I particularly appreciated the chapters on discipline, sexuality, public schooling and alternative schooling.  I have a lot of fear about what I’m going to do when Elijah gets bigger and I have to start being a “real mom”.  Of course I’m a real mom now, but with a baby its different.  Babies don’t need to be disciplined or taught, and they’re not really going to remember you.  The interaction is just different now, I don’t know how to explain it.  Anyhow, its not important.

I also enjoyed the chapters on Natural (Drug-Free) Childbirth, even though I had already done it and didn’t really need to read about it, circumcision, even though I already chose not to circumcise my son (and actually, I didn’t really enjoy reading the chapter on circumcision, it really grossed me out, and there were parts I had to skip because I was too squeemish to read them, but it made me feel even better about my choice to leave my son intact) the chapters on healthy eating and alternative medicine, and I really loved Chapter 14, What Makes a Healthy Family.

This book, I have a feeling, is going to be a constant reference for me.  Like I said, I didn’t read every chapter.  I didn’t read the chapters on Homeschooling (since that’s just not an option for me), Handling Divorce (since I’d have to be married first) and Handling Death (I’ll get to it when it happens, if it happens).  I also only skimmed through the chapter on adolescence, since I’m pretty far away from that.  This was a pretty hefty book and by the time I got that far I was just wanting to finish it because I wanted to write a review of it.

In short, despite the despicable neglect of single parent households in this book, I would highly recommend it to anyone interested in natural parenting methods, or anyone who just isn’t sure about the stricter, Ferberization methods that are so popular today.  There are many alternatives to the “cry it out” methods.

A few resources June 18, 2008

I have been out of the office all day (and haven’t been able to pump, ouch!) so real quick here, I’m just going to post a few resources for single parents I recently found.

Single Mothers of Color, Denver Chapter  I read about this in a magazine, and I just skimmed it real quick and thought it said Single Mothers of Colorado.  I thought “Ooooh!  I wanna join!” but when I went to the website I realized.  I’m sad.  I have no color.  Except for my freckles.  But it looks like a great resource.

Single Parent Family Outreach  I don’t know if this is just for Colorado or not.  Hmmm.

Warren Village  This looks like it has serious helpful potential

Obama’s speech on dead beat dads June 17, 2008

I’m registered Green, but I’ve got no beef with Obama.  He has, I think we all have to admit, said some pretty kick ass stuff.  I don’t agree with him on everything, but he’s certainly not a bad guy.  I don’t think he’ll make a bad president (I just don’t think he’d be the best president either).  So when I heard some critical remarks about his Father’s Day speech at my Green Party meeting yesterday, I was a little curious as to what he actually said in his speech.

Here’s what all the fuss is about.  “You and I know how true this is in the African-American community. We know that more than half of all black children live in single-parent households, a number that has doubled - doubled - since we were children. “  That’s what Obama said in his speech that struck a lot of people as racist.  I can see where people are coming from on this one, but really, if you read the whole speech, I think people calling it racist are just searching for something to dislike about it.

This is what I hate about politics and why I feel so jaded about it.  Lets just all refuse to take things in context so that we can find as many reasons to hate each other as possible.  Obama was speaking to a primarily black audience, and that one mention of African American single parent homes was obviously a “This is what this speech has to do with you” addition.

For example, I could make a speech about all the drawbacks of driving a Hummer to a bunch of white, upper middle class people.  The white people might be thinking “What does this have to do with me?  What does this have to do with us as a group?”, so it would be a good idea for me to site some sort of reason I’d be making this speech to this group by saying something like “This percentage of white, upper middle class Americans drive hummers, and it affects us in this way.”  Are white people the only ones who drive Hummers?  Of course not.  Are white people the only ones affected by driving Hummers?  Certainly not.  Does it make the speech more relevant to the listeners if I show them how my topic affects them specifically?  Yes it does.  Maybe I’m misinterpreting his speech, but that’s how I took his one comment about black single parent homes. 

Of course, the racism thing aside, thank God someone is finally saying something about men’s responsibilities to their children in a big, public forum.  There was a time in this country when, if a young boy came home and said “Mom, Dad, my girlfriend is pregnant” the parents said “Well, son, you know what you have to do.  You have to take responsibility and marry that girl.”  Now, the parent’s response is more like “You don’t have to marry her!  You don’t even know if that baby is yours!”

Now, while I’m no advocate of getting married just because of a pregnancy this shows a drastic change in attitude towards unplanned pregnancy.  Where as before society told men (or boys, as the case may be) they had to take responsibility, now society tells boys that an unplanned pregnancy is not their problem, and we dump the full burden of what was a joint decision to have sex on the woman, calling her promiscuous by making accusations and doubting paternity with or without cause.  Society is suffering from this change in attitude, and good for Barack Obama for saying so. 

Most politicians want to ignore the problem of males abanoning their responsibilities as fathers.  Most want to quietly ignore how the pattern tends to repeat itself, and how, as the number of children who grow up in forgotten and unsupported single parent households grows, society starts to change to mimic what the majority of us experience growing up.  Family, after all, is the first society we all are exposed to, and how it functions for us as children is how we function in larger society as adults.

Politicians ignore the repercussions of unsupported single parent households because they, like most parents, don’t want their sons to “make mistakes”.  Its easy for sons to walk away from an unplanned pregnancy, not so easy for daughters.  Society’s sons can go about their lives as if the “mistake” was never made, but it still was.  Not only does this harm society, but it actually hurts our sons more than it helps.  Rights exist only in conjunction with responsibility, and by taking away our sons responsibilities, we have taken away their rights as well.

Women are no more foolish than men are when sex results in a pregnancy.  Both parties can take responsibility for birth control or making the decision to abstain from sex.  We are doing our sons a great disservice by not teaching them how to take control of their own reproductive rights and making them responsible for their own birth control.  We treat our boys like they have no control over where their penis takes them, what a horrible way to dis empower our sons.

When we sweep single mothers under the rug and try to pretend that the problem doesn’t exist, we do even greater harm.  Children do not choose their parents, yet we forget and shame them the same way we do their mothers (as if the mothers are deserving of shame).  Single parents need support, from families, communities, and governments.  Not for their sake, but for the sake of their innocent children who, no matter what you may believe about thier parents, did not choose to be in the situation they are in.  If parents and children do not get the support they need, then society will most likely see their children repeating the exact same actions that their parents did.

So thank you, Obama, for bringing it up and not ignoring the problem like so many others do.

 

 

I’m home! June 13, 2008

Actually, I got home Tuesday night but I’ve been too lazy to write.  Making a 900 mile trip with a six month old is no small task.  I needed to rest up.

First off, I want to say how saddened I am to hear about the passing of Tim Russert.  I literally just heard, and I am seriously, seriously sad.  Sunday mornings are never going to be the same again.  Was he even sick?  My CNN Alert did not tell me how he passed on, so I don’t know.  It just all seems so very sudden.  My prayers are with his family.

Next, I want to say that I feel bad for Missouri bashing.  Its not cool to bash on other people’s states, I get really offended when people bash on Colorado.  But, come on, the place has no sidewalks.  Its baffling.  I know it gets really hot there in the summer time, but I did see people walking and biking, and they have to do that on the sides of narrow, windy, hilly streets that are more often than not surrounded by thick, forresty growth, and thats just plain not safe.  While there seem to be almost no sidewalks anywhere in the state, they do have mile markers every .2 miles on their highways.  I don’t know if I want to live in a place where money is spent putting in a mile marker every .2 miles on the highway, but not on putting sidewalks on streets to keep people safe.  Unbelievable. 

Do you live in Missouri or a place like it?  How do you feel about your sidewalk situation?  Your public transportation situation?  Your bike lane situation?  Your mile marker situation?  I am struggling to understand why people are not completely outraged by what seems to me to be a massive misspending of tax dollars.  When peak oil gets bad St. Louis, and cities like it, are massively screwed.

There are a ton of things I was inspired to write about while I was gone, but I need to get organized before I can write them.  I just feel so scattered.  I can promise up coming posts about natural childbirth, co sleeping, natural household cleaners, and a few book reviews, to name a few.  In the mean time, here are some interesting things to check out.

This is a post from the Organic Consumers Association I just got around to reading today.

SOUTH KOREA BANS U.S. MEAT:
The South Korean government has responded to a rally last week involving more than 60,000 citizens protesting American beef imports. Major Asian markets have upheld a ban on American beef since the discovery of new cases of Mad Cow Disease in the U.S. raised consumer health concerns. Despite international pressure on the Bush Administration, the U.S. continues to ignore food safety concerns and violate World Health Organization guidelines by feeding slaughterhouse waste to animals and refusing to test all animals at slaughter for Mad Cow Disease. http://www.organicconsumers.org/madcow.cfm

This is a cool website.  I’d love to do something like this around here.
http://www.guerrillagardening.org/

Decode eco labels here
http://www.greenerchoices.org/eco-labels/eco-home.cfm?redirect=1

Besides that, here are the weekend plans.

I’m going to an Earth Fair tomorrow at Magna Carta Park in Denver.  I was going to go to Wool Market up in Estes Park, but the friend I was going to go with had to cancel, and to be honest, after the trip to Missouri I don’t know if I can afford to be driving up to Estes Park, so Earth Fair it is.  On Sunday I am going to be sad, because Tim Russert is no longer on Meet the Press.  On Monday, Elijah and I are going to visit a Hindu Temple in our neighborhood.  I’ve always wanted to go in there and see what the Hindu religion is all about.  I know a very little bit, that I learned in a Humanities class the semester before last, but I think it would be awesome to learn first hand.

Thats it for me.  Hopefully I’ll be a better blogger next week.

This is strange May 30, 2008

I’ve eaten a lot of spinach salads the past couple of days.  Do you suppose that’s why my breastmilk has a greenish tinge?

Here are the plans for the weekend.

Tonight I’m going to see Indiana Jones at the drive in.  Snooch!  (I don’t know why, but I’m doing a Jay from Jay and Silent Bob thing today.  It just seems appropriate).  For those of you who don’t know, I am very likely the worlds biggest Indiana Jones freak.  In fact, a week after my son was born I was overcome by incredible namer’s remorse.  I realized that I should have named him Indiana.  Had I thought of it before he was born, his name would be Indiana right now.  I am not even kidding.  The year before last, I went as Indiana Jones for Halloween.  My business cards are written in Indiana Jones font (and under my name it says “Professional Adventurer since 1983).  I LOVE Indiana Jones.

Tomorrow, I was thinking about checking out the Denver Zine Fest, after I possibly go to a Holistic Moms meeting.

Sunday, I have my second cousin’s graduation party to go to.  Then I’m chillin at home (that means doing house work, hopefully, if I don’t get distracted by something else, like a game of peek a boo).

Monday, Elijah and I are going hiking.  For realsies.

You all should totally check this out.  Its a free, online book filled with crazy uses for baking soda.  Can I really make my own Gatoraide?  Snoogins!

Have a fun weekend everyone!

The greatest fear of single mothers May 29, 2008

A couple of weeks after I left my ex, I found out he was dating again.  This news broke my heart, not because I wanted him back, but because I was jealous of how easy it was for him to move on.  I wanted to move on.  I wanted to date other people and forget about the awful mistake of a relationship I had just gotten out of.  Maybe I didn’t want to move as quickly as he was (he had professed his undying love to another girl literally two weeks after I left him), but I wanted to be able to, at least.

The problem was that I was already gaining weight.  I felt like crap most of the time, always exhausted or hungry.  I had terrible gas, my skin was a wreck.  I didn’t feel confident enough to go to work, let alone date.  And even if I had felt confident, I was certain no one would want me ever again because I had been stupid enough to get knocked up by such an obvious loser (they’re all obviously losers when the relationship ends, so much so that we forget how wonderful they made themselves seem in the beginning).  He could move on, sleep around, go about his merry day, but he had ruined me, and I would never be worth anything again.

I was a wreck.  Logic, had I been listening to it, would have told me that none of those thoughts were true.  I was not ruined, and even if I were a pizza face for the rest of my pregnancy, that was still only 9 months.  Truth be told, I probably would have stayed single during that whole period even if I hadn’t been pregnant, to heal from the abuse I suffered in the relationship and to evaluate my mistakes so that I wouldn’t make them again.  But the part of my brain that produces logic had either gone on vacation during my first and second trimester, or had been beaten into submission by my raging emotional side, so instead I had to turn to support groups.

The more time I spent in those groups, the more I heard other girls express the same fears I had.  The difference was that when I heard other people express those fears, it sounded irrational (though natural and legitimate).  Slowly, I came to believe that my fears, though natural and legitimate, were also irrational.  After I came to realize this, I was able to enjoy the rest of my pregnancy.

I am still involved in all those single mother support groups (most of them on line groups) and every time there is a new member, she expresses those same fears.  Who’s going to want me now?  My life is over.  Etc.  Worrying about being able to one day find a man who will love us and our children is perhaps the biggest fear of single pregnant women and single mothers (besides the obvious fear of something happening to our children).  But at the same time that this fear is widely shared by single women, there is a certain shame of expressing it anywhere but amongst other single mothers.

Society teaches us that we should be ashamed for having gotten pregnant out of wedlock.  We were, in whatever way, irresponsible, either by failing to use birth control, or choosing a bad partner, or by having premarital sex, and society says we deserve what we get.  Society ignores those who get away with this behavior, it is easy to pretend that they are still pure even though they participate in the same activities because they do not have the evidence of those activities protruding from their abdomen.  But those of us who got pregnant are dirty, foolish, even considered to be evil, and therefore society says that it is wrong and selfish of us to want the same thing every woman wants; to find a man who will love us and raise a family with us.

Oh, that bias is much more subtle now than it was 70 years ago, when unwed pregnant women were shuffled off to “homes”, but it still exists.  Somewhere along the line we were told that a single mother can never have a social life again, and shouldn’t want one because she is a foolish, disgusting, disgrace of a woman.  It is a lie, of course, but its easy to believe when all your friends slowly stop calling, none of them show up to your baby shower, and a sales clerk, noticing your lack of a wedding ring, has the gall to ask why the father hasn’t popped the question yet.

Too many single mothers believe this lie.  They allow themselves to be ashamed of their pasts and of their children.  They don’t go out and meet new people, they don’t make themselves look nice each day, they don’t attempt to excel at their careers or education.  They only thing they do is take care of their children as best as they can, children who society will probably also shun as bastards, so that it can ignore the incredible disservice it’s done to that child by handicapping his already struggling mother with lies.

I am here to remind you, in case your logic center has taken a vacation, that society is lying when it says that you have anything to be ashamed of.  I am here to remind you that society is lying when it claims that those who did not get pregnant, yet still had sex outside of wedlock, are any more pure than you.  I am here to remind you that you brought or are bringing a beautiful life into this world, and you are doing it all on your own, and that is certainly nothing to ever be ashamed of.  Its something to be DAMN PROUD OF!  I am here to tell you that you are still beautiful, you are still lovable, and as you grow as a mother, you will only become more so.

And most of all, I am here to tell you that you can still be a wonderful, caring, hard working and responsible mother, and date.  That’s right.  Single mothers, like all women, can balance dating and everything else in their lives.  You might not be able to date the same way you did when you were single, and you certainly can’t be dating the same kind of guys, but you can still date.  In fact, the kind of dating you can and should be doing now, will be vastly better than the kind of dating you were doing before.

Don’t let that false shame dictate how you shape the rest of your life, and certainly don’t pass that false shame onto your child.  You have the power to shape a happy and fufilling life for you and your family, whether that involves finding a partner to share your family with, or choosing to go it alone.  When you let yourself become handicapped by societies lies, you handicap your child as well.  Teach your child that you are capable of acheiving anything, and your child will believe the same thing about himself.  Let yourself get bogged down, and you bog your child down with you.

I know that every single mother posesses inside her the power to overcome the lies society tells us.  I hope that together, we can make ourselves heard as real, proud, beautiful women and wonderful heads of families.  I hope that by doing so, we can create a better world for our sons and daughters.

One more thing May 24, 2008

If you guys want, you can check out my facebook page and my myspace page.  The myspace page is private, but send me a message and I can add you.  If you look at my facebook page, check out the group I started, People Before Cars in Denver, Colorado.

Now seriously, I’m going to go do something productive with my day off.  Like washing cloth diapers.  Yeah!

Happy long weekend! May 23, 2008

For those of you who don’t know, I work four tens (four days a week, ten hours a day), which means every weekend is a three day weekend for me. Because I work for the government, they also always give us an additional day off when there’s a government holiday, which means no work for me today! Woohoo! Four day weekend! Anyway, I thought I’d share my weekend plans with you all, in case any of you in Denver would like to attend.

First, I’m going to the Memorial Day Parade tomorrow morning. Ugh.  I’m actually going to be working while I’m there. I have to take photos of all the Guard events. Gen. Edwards is going to be doing a presentation after the parade to remember Maj. Perry Jefferson. He was the Colorado Guard’s last MIA, he went missing in Vietnam 30 years ago. His remains were found and identified last year, and he was laid to rest in Arlington in April. It was very moving, here’s a link to the article about it.

Then, tomorrow evening, I’m going to the Colorado Local First Kickoff Party in Old Town Arvada. It starts at 4 at The D Note (7519 Grandview Ave, Arvada, CO 80002). Its all ages, and looks like it will be loads of fun. I’ll be there with my mom and my aunt, as well as my son in a snuggly. I’ll probably be the only tall redhead with a baby there.  Here’s a link to Colorado Local First.

Then on Monday, I’m running the Boulder Boulder. I use the term “running” loosely. I’ve never been to the Boulder Creek Festival before, but I hear its fun.

That’s it. That’s all my plans. Unless my sister goes into labor, of course, then all bets are off. Have a super Memorial Day weekend, don’t drive to much, and remember to wear sunscreen! I’ll post pictures next week.

Grow your own food May 23, 2008

I’ve written about victory gardens before, so I don’t feel like I need to write too much on my second goal for responsible eating again.  Plus, I’m trying to get a handle on the fact that No Impact Man linked to me in his blog today, and I’ve officially had more hits today than I had in the whole first three months I wrote this blog (for the record, its been almost 4 months I’ve been writing it now).  I mean, wow!  That’s a lot of hits for one day.  And I think it means No Impact Man reads my blog.  Eeeeee!  That’s a girlish squeal, for those of you who don’t know.  I usually only make those noises in emails with my friend Jeff, but I think today my blog needs one.

Okay, so lets go over the fine points of growing your own food, bullet point style (because I like bullet points).

• The price of food is going up because the price of fuel is going up, so its in our best financial interest to reduce the distance our food has to travel to get to us.  There’s nothing closer than your back yard/porch or local community plot.  The price of fuel is also going up because of ethanol (but I’ll blog about that later) and increased meat production doesn’t help (I blogged about that yesterday).
• In addition to hurting your wallet, food that’s traveled a long distance is bad for the environment, for obvious reasons.
• Conventionally grown food is also terrible for the environment, it pumps a ton of petrochemicals into our soil and water (and petrochemical use, because it uses up our dwindling oil supply, increases the cost of gas, which increases the cost of food, see my blog on Peak Oil).  What ends up in our soil and water eventually ends up in us.  Not to mention how those chemicals are directly on the food that we eat!  But organic is so expensive.  Its much cheaper to grow your own organic produce!
• Conventionally grown food is responsible in part for a lot of starvation in the world.  This is a really complicated issue, so for right now I’m only going to direct you to another resource where you can learn more.  Say No to GMOs  Promise to blog more on this later.
• Gardening is great exercise!
• Gardening is a great way to spend quality time with your kids and to teach them about community, health, science, and a variety of other amazing subjects!
• The food you grow is great for you!  And since you’ll have more of that healthy food just lying around, you’ll have less of a reason to snack on unhealthy, expensive, junk food.  Loose weight, keep grocery and health care costs down, and keep your kids strong and healthy, you can’t beat that with a stick.
• Gardening is a great way to connect with your local community, whether you’re gardening in a community plot or in your own yard.  Obviously, a community plot is very social, but a private garden in your own back yard (should you be lucky enough to have a back yard) can still be social because you’re probably going to have more fruits and veggies than you can eat and you can share them with friends and neighbors.
• If you’re involved in a community gardening project, there’s a good chance there’s going to be a man or two there who you know is into health, the environment and community.  And since he eats healthy and gardens, he’s probably going to have a good body.  I’m just saying.  If nothing else, they’ll at least be there for you to admire as they work, possibly without a shirt on.  What?  We’re single, we’re allowed to think these things.  Sheesh.

 I can’t think of anything else right now, but I think those reasons are awesome enough for us all to get started.