Dumpsta’ Divin’

   Every time I watch a documentary I end up pouring my eyes out, quivering my lip, and looking around the room to catch the gaze of someone just as anxious to change the world as I am. When I read what the movie “Dive” was about, I was excited because I didn’t know much about dumpster diving at the time. However, the call to action is statistically alarming, and nothing prepares you for the reasoning and the heart that many divers have. Understandably, when something is unfamiliar or unknown, we’re afraid and don’t always display our best selves. Reading this, I’d like you to keep an open mind while I share with you my experience, information on diving and its importance.

  My two best friends are a couple of hippies that walk barefoot to Burning man, swear by medicinal marijuana  and believe that buying food from the grocery store is supporting a dictatorship. One day they rang me asking if they could prepare a meal for us in my kitchen. Excitedly, I agreed. They strolled in with Winn Dixie bags full of eggs, cheese, bacon, spinach and the likes. They started to make quiche; an egg and cheese pie dish. Moreover, they casually explained that they’d received this food for free. I thought to myself, “Of course they did, they probably grew it, along with all the other Mother Teresa acts they like doing”. My friend raised an eyebrow, watching me drink a 6 dollar coffee, and raised her lips to form a smirk and said , “We got it from the dumpster!” Not knowing what to say, I over exaggeratedly yelled back “Oh! COOL!” While I cracked the egg that now looked more like poison than an edible treat, I decided I’d have to eat this meal: there was no getting out of it. I wasn’t one to seem like I was better than anyone else, so I smiled, ate, and helped washed the dishes.  So, as a skeptic myself, who reserved dumpster diving meals for the homeless, I encourage everyone to try it. But don’t just dine with a fork and spoon; make sure you serve it up with some knowledge, too.

  Scavenging; or dumpster diving, is a growing trend in the hippie community. It’s also a source of food for homeless and a hobby for binners, freegans and conservationists. Basically, there’s something in dumpster diving for everyone. Supporters are typically anti consumerism and all about saving the world, and some still think of scavenging as dirty and reserved for the homeless. When in actuality, it’s reserved for those who are knowledgeable about how much food we’re actually wasting. In the Film “Dive”, Seifret scavenged dozens of whole chickens, steaks, eggs, potatoes and strawberries in one dive. So much that he had to freeze it so it didn’t go to waste (Dive!).  Although divers don’t limit their quests to just food, many search for anything that’ll serve them a purpose. “Binners” search for recyclable materials in dumpsters, and exchange the scraps for pennies on the dollar. Then there are “freegans” who want to reduce their ecological footprint by living only from dumpster dived goods (Pickup). When divers start reusing food and other resources that were destined for land mills, it becomes a lifestyle; or an environmentalist quest. Arguments against dumpster diving often focus on the cleanliness aspects of scavenging. Some divers are even against the actual meaning that some give the activity; and just use it as a way for survival. Meaning, they’re not worried about cleaning up after themselves or taking more than they need. These divers are the black sheep of the community, often not abiding by law enforcements and giving a bad representation for everyone.

  So, why should you care about reusing things or even eating from the garbage? With over 3,091 active landfills in America, and over 10,000 old municipal landfills, that’s a ton of trash going to waste (Lee). And according to the Environmental Protection Agency, in 2008 one person produced on average, 4.5 pounds of waste. To put that in perspective, Discovery Channel states that the total accumulation of trash in one day from America equals 6,750 blue whales (Planet Green). So why not be resourceful and live by that quote, “Another person’s trash is another person’s treasure”? What we dispose of speaks volumes as to who we are as people, and so does what we do with it.

  Although I was hesitant to bite into something expired, I learned that there’s a purpose behind dumpster diving, and that it’s not just for the homeless. Instead of scavenging being an environmentalist quest, it should be a human quest. Until everyone in the world has food in their bellies and landfills are disappearing, I think dumpster diving may be the only way to help clean up our planet.

References

• Dive! Jeremy Seifert, Compeller Pictures 2012
• Lee, Fred G. “Landfills: Hazardous to The Environment, January 2007, Retrieved from http://www.zerowasteamerica.org/landfills.htm, March 2013
• Pickup, Oliver. “Meet New York’s Freegans…”August 2011, Retrieved from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2022338/New-York-Freegans-enjoy-worlds-cheapest-barbecue-food-salvaged-entirely-dustbins.html, March 2013
   
• Planet Green members, “Pollution” April 2012, Retrieved from http://curiosity.discovery.com/question/america-produce-trash, March 2013

Dumpsta Divin'

Every time I watch a documentary I end up pouring my eyes out, cracking my knuckles, quivering my lip, and looking around the room to catch gaze with someone just as anxious to change the world as I am. When I read what the movie was about, I was excited because the topic of dumpster diving and waste was really familiar. My two best friends are a couple of hippies that walk barefoot to Burning man, swear by medicinal marijuana (Even though they’re as healthy as an Ox) and believe that buying food from the grocery store is supporting a dictatorship. Are they dramatic Ralph Nader supporters? Sure, but their heart belongs in the right place. Anyway, the two of them rang me one day, asking if they could prepare a meal for us in my kitchen. Excitedly, I agreed. They strolled in with Winn Dixie bags full of eggs, cheese, bacon, spinach and the likes. They asked if I’d had quiche before, and I said no, so they explained to me what we’d be eating. Moreover, they explained to me ever so coyly that they’d received this food for free. My friend raised her eyebrow at me, watching me drink my 6 dollar Starbucks coffee, and with a smirk exclaimed “We got it from the dumpster!” Not knowing what the hell to say, I over exaggeratedly yelled back “Oh! COOL!” While cracking the egg that God knows how long had been sitting out in the 80 degree weather, she asked if I was okay with that. Heck no I wasn’t, but I wasn’t one to seem like I was better than anyone else, so I smiled, ate, and helped washed the dishes. All the while wishing I’d known how to do that fancy, throw-your-food-over-your-shoulder- trick. The food wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t good; maybe it had something to do with the fact that I couldn’t get a dumpster out of my head all night. Point being, the most valuable thing I learned from “Dive”? If you take eggs from a dumpster, put them in water, and if they float, have at ‘em. If they sit at the bottom…RUN. More importantly, this documentary showed me just how valuable our food is and where it comes from. Additionally, it showed us just how many people go starving and why it’s so insane that not everyone has food on their plate. Knowing I’ll never step foot near a dumpster, I’ve made plans to go with my hipster barefoot friends to a food bank at Baptist Church this Sunday. I can’t wait to feel like I’m actually making a difference instead of just being moved by another documentary.

American Dream Essay

American Dream: Work to play or play to work? 

What does America have to offer? Millions of people with billions of dreams and passions; some that end up in boxes and some that stay plastered on faces. You’ve got the men with the finest suits, baring lavender bouquets and diamond wrist watches, galloping on their horse to the best street in the best city. Are they happy? What did they dream of as a kid? Was he supposed to be an astronaut or did he have prodigy fingers that touched the flute? Was I set out to be just like him?  Was he an extension of my mispurposed goals and farfetched dreams? I listen to my mother as she delicately explains the path she’s intended for me before I could even talk. Without tripping over one word, she delivers a fool proof map of my proposed life. I am to finish school, enter a nursing program, find a boy that can afford to let me throw away my degree and take care of our two kids. I shift around in my seat choking back daggers, ready to break down that solid wall of expectations that keeps closing me in. Call me gullible, but I think I’ve got it figured out. I want my life to have a complimentary balance of passion, love and money. It’s these three things that leave me torn and struggling between what my mother wants for me and what I want for myself. Do I work to play, or do I play to work?

Passion & Love

As I sit, scanning the newspaper for entry level nursing jobs, I question if this was all I’d ever amount to.What about art, writing and my love for traveling? Okay, so I haven’t step foot out of North America and my paintings resemble crude analogies that depict sloppy teenage love. And I appreciate that my writing falls short, but why these can’t be turned into a 9-5 is news to me. For many, life is valued based on earnings, status and consumption. While a healthy dose is required to be an active member of society, it’s not worth throwing the dreams and desires away that mold us as individuals.  I enjoy the idea of having a career that makes life easy and pleases my family, but I’m not willing to jeopardize my passions for momentary gain. Cal Newport, a science professor at Georgetown, claims “Growing up, we were told…to ‘follow our passion.’ This advice assumes that we all have a pre-existing passion waiting to be discovered. If we have the courage to discover this calling and to match it to our livelihood, the thinking goes, we’ll end up happy. If we lack this courage, we’ll end up bored and unfulfilled — or, worse, in law school.” (2). Although I do feel fortunate to know with certainty what my “calling” is, I also know that my passions most likely won’t help to fulfill my dreams. Instead, it’s more plausible that they’ll hinder them. I’ve seen with many, that your passion is no longer your passion when it’s your work because it sucks the creative process out of it. So do I follow a career passion or let it follow me?   

Money

Part of happiness is stability and knowing that financially you can make ends meet. Money can be a devastating truth that leads to hiccups in our life plans. Ideally, I’m able to comfortably profit from my passions and focus on the enjoyment that my “work” brings me. Unfortunately, your chances of seeing pigs fly are higher than seeing an artist that isn’t starving. The Census Government Bureau states from 1997 to 2002, paid artists, writers and performers salaries have only gone up by 2 percent.  It’s said that once you make your passions your source of income, it strips them naked, leaving carcasses that resemble, but do not embody what you once started with. Money gives you the building blocks to play and contort, and while your muse can not be bought, your sanity surely can be. All of the stressors that come with struggling financially are not glamorous and are not necessarily worth sticking to your creative morals. A nursing career would offer a routine with guaranteed income and designated days for play. The Bureau of Labor Statistics found that job outlook in the next 7 years is at a 26% increase, and median pay is 65 thousand a year. Statistically a nursing career is a smart choice on paper; but is selling myself to restrictions giving up, or is it growing up? 

                                                                  Sacrifices

So do I thrive without a dutiful title, aimlessly wandering and waiting for life to start? Or do I own up and make something of myself, and more importantly make my family proud. Everyone has enjoyed something so much that they wanted to make a career out of it, no matter how much the odds are stacked against you. The only thing that’s bigger than the diversity of this melting pot we live in is our dreams. We have the opportunity to become greater than our idol’s, but at the cost of walking to the beat of our own drum. Ultimately, survival is a necessity and our passions may not be. Do those movie stars and painters just have a remarkable combination of luck and talent or did they all fight for it, too? Hypothetically, I sacrifice my pride, money and well being to pursue something that has no tangible benchmark, but is more self satisfying than any financial security could provide me.

Conclusion

Have you thought back to what you were supposed to be? Is your life full of passion, love and money? Anyone who’s ever dreamt of pursuing their passions but has tucked it away for a bite out of the American dream doesn’t necessarily have it all wrong. It’s my understanding that there are many types of happiness; material, family, work, self and purposeful love. I’m starting to believe that the ultimate goal is making sacrifices along the way so you will forever be passionate and love what you do and who you are. Whether you want to be a movie star with pink hair and an agenda to change the world, or follow in the footsteps of your father at the used family car lot; what matters most is what you do once you make your choice. 

 Works Cited

Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2012-      13 Edition, Registered Nurses, 29 March. 2012. Web. 4 March 2013 <http://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/registered-nurses.htm>

Newport, Cal. “Follow a Career Passion? Let it Follow You.” New York Times Magazine, 29 Sep. 2012. Web. 2 March 2013 <http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/30/jobs/follow-a-career-passion-let-it-follow-you.html?_r=1&>

United States Census Bureau, 2007 Economic Census, Industry Statistics Sampler, 4 May. 2011. Web. 4 March 2013 <http://www.census.gov/econ/industry/hist/h711510.htm>