All through-out out this country we have Hand-dryers in rest rooms. A great way to save on paper waste but is it really helping the environment?
Let’s think about the more common ones. In most places you have your hand under the dryer for close to a minute. The reason being, you have to run it twice. Still when you walk away from the apparatus in most cases your hands are not as dry as you would like them. In addition to that in some places they also have paper so you take a piece of paper towel to finish the job.
Does this make sense? Of course not, the best decision is to have either a hand dryer that can do the job in 30 seconds or a paper towel that you only need one sheet. Believe it or not, both of these items do exist.
I was in Knoxville airport a few weeks back and after having washed my hand reached for the paper towel. The paper was so absorbent it only took one piece. Last week I was at a restaurant in NYC that hand a hand dryer that only took me one time and I actually think it may have been less than 30 seconds.
In the end it is all about the cost. Some buy the cheap paper or less expensive dryers thinking they are saving money. However in the end the amount of paper used is three times more and the energy used with the poorer quality dryers is also about three times.
In the end analysis the old axiom applies. You get what you pay for. For those of us using the rest rooms in public places we just wish the people behind these decisions were not so short sighted. The less time in these bathrooms the better.
Tag: Life
Simplify Life and Enjoy the Moment
As I get older I realize that there is no reason under the sun to have to rush around. Now I am not saying to do the opposite and take your sweet time about things. But there is a balance between being over exuberant and under enthusiastic.
Take for instance going to pick up some take-out food. Last night I realized that to where I was going there are two options. I can take the highway and get there fast or take the back-roads and get there a few minutes later. What is the difference?
I had to weigh the options. The highway I would have to deal with hostile drivers and be on the offensive myself. The other route
does not demand either from me and in fact keeps my more aggressive tendencies at bay. This means that I am able to relax put on some relaxing music and simply enjoy the moment.
I chose the back-roads. The restaurant was on the highway so I had to traverse the road for a short time. Yet choosing the back roads made the experience pleasant. This little life tweak I believe puts me in a better frame of mind and all the day to day worries are not compounded with the stress of putting myself in more demanding situations.
I guess what I am trying to say is that sometimes it is the simple decisions we make that can better enable us to cope with the more difficult problems we have in our life. It seems that everything in life is on a scale. When one side of the scale gets to heavy we need to add to the other side. If we do not learn to do this the scale will tip and all we have worked for will come to naught.
A Couple of My Favorite Chesterton Quotes
“According to most philosophers, God in making the world enslaved it. According to Christianity, in making it, He set it free. God had written, not so much a poem, but rather a play; a play he had planned as perfect, but which had necessarily been left to human actors and stage-managers, who had since made a great mess of it.”
― G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy
“An abyss of light”
There is at the back of all our lives an abyss of light, more blinding and unfathomable than any abyss of darkness; and it is the abyss of actuality, of existence, of the fact that things truly are, and that we ourselves are incredibly and sometimes almost incredulously real. It is the fundamental fact of being, as against not being; it is unthinkable, yet we cannot unthink it, though we may sometimes be unthinking about it; unthinking and especially unthanking. For he who has realized this reality knows that it does outweigh, literally to infinity, all lesser regrets or arguments for negation, and that under all our grumblings there is a subconscious substance of gratitude. That light of the positive is the business of the poets, because they see all things in the light of it more than do other men. Chaucer was a child of light and not merely of twilight, the mere red twilight of one passing dawn of revolution, or the grey twilight of one dying day of social decline. He was the immediate heir of something like what Catholics call the Primitive Revelation; that glimpse that was given of the world when God saw that it was good; and so long as the artist gives us glimpses of that, it matters nothing that they are fragmentary or even trivial; whether it be in the mere fact that a medieval Court poet could appreciate a daisy, or that he could write, in a sort of flash of blinding moonshine, of the lover who “slept no more than does the nightingale”. These things belong to the same world of wonder as the primary wonder at the very existence of the world; higher than any common pros and cons, or likes and dislikes, however legitimate. Creation was the greatest of all Revolutions. It was for that, as the ancient poet said, that the morning stars sang together; and the most modern poets, like the medieval poets, may descend very far from that height of realization and stray and stumble and seem distraught; but we shall know them for the Sons of God, when they are still shouting for joy. This is something much more mystical and absolute than any modern thing that is called optimism; for it is only rarely that we realize, like a vision of the heavens filled with a chorus of giants, the primeval duty of Praise.
Reason to Rejoice
I was walking on a trail in the Watchung Reservation with my three dogs. It was a hot day and this is the best time to go into the woods were the temperature is typically 10 to 20 degrees cooler. There were very few people in the woods, most likely because a Saturday in August draws people to beaches and pools. It was a pleasure and though we did see others in the woods it was very quiet and I felt very isolated.
I sat for a few moments to give the dogs a rest and to watch and listen to nature unveil itself around me. I sat on a log and I was able to spot some deer about a tenth of a mile away. I also spotted a woodpecker. Later while walking I would see some other birds but most are skittish and once they hear me they move so fast I can’t identify them.
Still as we walked through the woods I couldn’t help but wonder how many persons walked through here. I thought back to the times of George Washington and his men and how they probably passed through here on the way to the battle of Union. I thought about the local Indians and how this was their stomping grounds.Then I looked at all the tress that lovers and travelers carved their initials on.
So many people have passed through here. Some may have thought themselves important. But nature always brings you back to reality as the awesomeness raises my own awareness of my mortality and lack of importance. I am humbled as I walk among the trees many that may be as much as one hundred or more years old.
It dawned on me. Life is a gift and the short time we are here we need to appreciate and use to the best of our abilities. By working towards the greater good with a true love for life and the life of all around us we become a very important part of the life of the world. We become givers of life to the next generation and to those that live around us. Now that is an important function and responsibility.
We all have a responsibility to live to our fullest. That is the gift we call life. So I left the woods feeling invigorated and joyful.
I wish all my walks were as productive!
Have a great life!
Miguel Perez-Santalla
Die for Truth
Over the centuries there have been people willing to courageously speak the truth. Even when the path of least resistance would have secured their own prosperity. The path of least resistance, silence, when one looks at the history of man is the road that allows evil to have its way.
Slavery of the masses has always been achieved by the powerful minority through the ascent to evil by silence and inaction. The threat of punishment or being cast out has been enough to keep people under control. Political correctness is that same ploy used throughout human history. Sadly many would rather bite their tongues when they see evil rather than risk retribution.
Then of course there are those that will risk all to make change that is just and proper. To the men and women who throughout history have stood tall in the face of injustice and tyranny I have the greatest admiration. I pray that if such a challenge were placed before me that I have the courage to do the same. I feel it is better to die with love of truth by our words and deed than to live with complacency towards evil and cowardice in the soul.
NO- A Good Word
NO is not a bad word. It is an affirmative and confirmation of a direction. I like the word very much, the words I don’t like are “maybe”, “I’ll get back to you” or “I’m not sure”. Yes is equally a good word and for the same reason. Any other response that is not yes or no is often a delay tactic. Of course there are times that we may not have an answer and it is legitimate to say you will respond later but the goal should always be to come back to someone with an affirmation either in the positive or negative. Any other type of answer leaves the other person in limbo and is quite rude if we perpetually keep them in the lurch because we lack the resolution to say “NO” or “YES”. In other words, don’t waste your time or anyone else’s by putting off something that could be answered right away. This is why I say I like to hear NO even if I don’t want it, it gives closure and enables me to move on.
Eternally Onward
The age of reason
Has come and gone
Deceit and pleasure
Are number one
Young I thought
Life is long
Now times goes by
A passing gong
The thrill of life
Is in the learning
Living on the edge
Lacks all discerning
Wisdom comes
Too late for most
The body is weak
Our soul’s host
Truth and beauty
Sounds like a chime
Yet evils lurks
Throwing on it
Lies of slime
To seek true joy
In life, ain’t easy
The right path
Not for weak kneed
Many go wrong
With thoughts
Of second chances
There is no going back
No happenstances
Cherish the beauty
Open your heart
To love
Then it will lift
Heart and mind
Way up above
In an instant
This plane is gone
Only good spirits
Spring eternally on
By- G. Miguel Perez-Santalla
Copyright 2015
The Metamorphosis of Life 