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We threw the dice and we won the jackpot and elected a black guy with a Harvard degree, the middle name Hussein and a sense of humor he said, “I’ve got relatives who look like Bernie Mac, and I’ve got relatives who look like Margaret Thatcher.” The French junior minister for human rights said, “On this morning, we all want to be American so we can take a bite of this dream unfolding before our eyes.” When was the last time you heard someone from France say they wanted to be American and take a bite of something of ours? Ponder that for a moment.

The world expects us to elect pompous yahoos, and instead we have us a 47-year-old prince from the prairie who cheerfully ran the race, and when his opponents threw sand at him, he just smiled back. He’ll be the first president in history to look really good making a jump shot. He loves his classy wife and his sweet little daughters. At the same time, he knows pop music, American lit and constitutional law. I just can’t imagine anybody cooler.

It feels good to be cool, and all of us can share in that, even sour old right-wingers and embittered blottoheads. Next time you fly to Heathrow and hand your passport to the man with the badge, he’s going to see ” United States of America ” and look up and grin. Even if you worship in the church of Fox , everyone you meet overseas is going to ask you about Obama, and you may as well say you voted for him because, my friends, he is your line of credit over there. No need anymore to try to look Canadian.

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A Tale of Two Countries: Japan, China, and the Low-Carbon Economy

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Office Depot Kicks Off Small Business 'Green Office Makeover' Contest

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P&G Reformulating Herbal Essences to Limit Toxins

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Water-Saving 'No-Mix Toilets' Get Rave Reviews in Europe

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Nike's Sustainability Journey: 15 Years and Going Strong

When Nike first began incorporating sustainability into its business practices, the risks and opportunities we grappled with seemed distant  indeed, even non-existent to most businesses. Fifteen years later, the risks and opportunities that businesses face from environmental and social challenges are more obvious than ever.

The Olympic Gold Rush Has Only Just Begun

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Getting a Green Brand on the Customer's Radar

New products aspiring to be labeled green should be preoccupied with passing muster with the arbiters of what's green, be they NGOs, consumers, or ratings agencies. The reality, though, is that many green brands wish they had the problem of being scrutinized, at least by consumers.

Richard Branson Aims to Rock the Boat for Green Shipping

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Unilever Cleans Up Soap With Algae Oil

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Big Oil's Slow Road to Sustainability

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How to Embed Sustainability Into Your Company's DNA

"The 21st Century Corporation: The Ceres Roadmap for Sustainability" makes the business case for why companies should be rethinking their corporate structures, processes and performance, while also offering advice and case studies of how companies are putting these practices to work.

NASA's Latest 'Launch' Focuses on Water Sustainability

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Zero Net Energy Live/Work Showcase Opens Doors to Public

A LEED-Platinum rated zero net energy live/work unit opens its doors to the public today before a deal closes to buy the unique property near the Oakland Estuary.
 

The Evolution of Innovative Green Brands

As consumers, we define ourselves by the brands we keep. We believe in them, yet they seldom give us new reasons to do so. But that's changing now as we find ourselves in the early stages of a new industrial revolution.

Support for Green Building, LEED Slip Slightly But Remain Strong Despite Downturn

Support for green construction and LEED certification dipped slightly in 2009 but remains strong across the past three years despite the recession, according to the latest green building survey by Allen Matkins, Constructive Technologies Group and the Green Building Insider.
 

4th Annual Green Building Survey

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SunChips Stacks First Compostable Bags on Canadian Shelves

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Inside Cisco's Sustainable Packaging Project

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How Cisco's Packaging Diet Saves $24 Million a Year

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Rwanda Turns to Trapped Methane For Electricity, Growth

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Bovis Lend Lease Teams with 1e to Cut Energy Use by 90,000 kWh

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eBay Sells 'Green' Used Goods with Rainforest Reward

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'Outsourcing' Emissions Hides Countries' True Carbon Footprints

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Eco-Dentists Aim to Clean and Green

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Walmart, Tesco Vendors Get Supply Chain Help from Five Winds

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Three Simple Checkpoints on the Road to a Clean Energy Future

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Greenhouse Gas Management for Medium-Duty Truck Fleets

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Businesses Want Clarity in Face of Climate-Law Uncertainty

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Amazing Gadgets for the Poor

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Solar Systems for Cheap from Sungevity, TXU Energy

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What Your Employees Know About Green Innovation That You Don't

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The Truth About Millennials

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Peerless Coffee Brews More Efficient Waste Management

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The Unintended Consequences of Corporate Transparency

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Toxie Awards Name Worst Chemicals of the Year

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The Toxie Awards' Bad Actor Chemicals

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Networking the Green Economy

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Green Jobs, Green Technology in the Spotlight in New Report

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Don't Sweat the Trickle of Stimulus Funds

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Anyway, I feel lucky to have grown up in the mid-west with my parents at in their mid-point of life. I had a lot of opportunities to spend quality time with Dad, sailing on Willy Wispe, hanging out at the Detroit Boat Club, and traveling on vacations all around the country and world.

But, there was something special about cruising on the sailboat. I think it was because Dad was at such peace when he was on the water. I’ll never forget summers cruising in the Georgian Bay and North Channel in Canada, where we would go for days without seeing another boat, anchoring at uninhabited islands, and filling the water tanks right from the lake (you can’t do THAT in salt water!)

The longest time Dad and I spent together was taking the boat from Michigan to Maryland after he retired, a trip which took an entire summer between high school and college. It was such an amazing journey. From Dad, I learned the joy of timelessness, where each day blended into the next. It was an adventure- we never knew what to expect. I remember circling around a buoy in the fog in the Thousand Islands for an hour. We didn’t know exactly where we wanted to go because Dad refused to spend money on charts for a place we’d only be once in our life. So we used a Texaco ROAD map as our guide, which didn’t clue us in as to where the shoals were or the location of the next buoy. But sailing the Thousand Islands with a road map made the trip that much more fun.

A really important lesson I’ve learned from Dad is that you can keep growing and enjoying life. He LOVED his retirement. It was so smart for him, especially now as I look back, to retire in his fifties. He got more than 10 wonderful years with mom traveling to cool places, visiting family and friends, and hanging out in their new home in St. Michaels.

But then events surprised us all. The family script, as I remember it, was that mom was supposed to live into her 90s, and dad to die earlier. Historically, men in the Foster family were not long-lived. But mom died in 1991 at the age of 69, and I have always been thankful Dad didn’t wait to retire until he was 65.

Mom’s death was devastating to us all. But Dad KEPT his sense of adventure and desire to learn new things. He continued his travels and adventures THEY had once BOTH enjoyed. I was lucky to go to the Galapagos with him on his first big trip after Mom died. Dad’s nature was to remain receptive to what life had to offer. (pause)

And then, the best “tip” he got from his financial advisor, Judy Werbitt, was Diane Keane’s phone number. In Diane, dad found a fellow widower with a zest for life who wanted to share the adventure. I saw their relationship grow in love and admiration over the years, and I want to thank Diane for bringing so much happiness to my father the last years of his life. I saw him grow and change at an age when many people are bent on remaining the same.

THAT is one of the GREAT GIFTS he has given us…. The lesson that life is to be lived to its fullest. No matter what your age, growing older doesn’t mean you stop growing.

I’m the baby of the family, but even I am quickly approaching the mid point of my life, and my siblings, I hesitate to say, crossed that mark a little while ago. But if we have learned anything from Dad, it’s to enjoy life to the end.

DAD…. WENT…. QUICKLY, which in many ways, as hard as it is for us, was a blessing for him. I believe he’s now in a place that’s like sailing in the St. Lawrence on a foggy day. And if I know Dad, he’ll circle that buoy for a while, but it won’t be too long before he changes course and goes where the current takes him.

Good bye dad, I love you.

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But when I return to my little world
To make the preparations
I forget the reality of that intense love
When I acquiesced.
Eventually, I return to the sanctuary
Calculated to miss the promised time
Having forgotten about the ceremony
And the Beloved must start over again.

My preference is to arrange
A fling with the Divine
I have secretly married my little world,
Vainly believing I have foiled the Supreme
I arrange discreet encounters
When I have a moment to spare

I convince myself it’s not my fault
That our relationship is not fulfilling
Because the Beloved
Hasn’t succumbed to the dictates
Of my terms.

I have lost count of the promises I have made,
When in the midst of your embrace.
Yet, in a blink of an eye
I have already forgotten

I pray that some day I will realize
That the separation between
The Divine and my little world
Is merely my own illusion
And unbounded love and joy
Are mine for the taking
When I walk down that aisle
And say, “I do”.

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Throwing Rocks through windows
Using my own head to ring
Great bells

Pulling out my hair
Tearing off my clothes
Tying everything I own
To a stick
And setting it on
Fire

What else can Hafiz do tonight
To celebrate the madness
The joy

Of seeing God
Everywhere

– HAFIZ –

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It’s not just a contract

It is the result of my desire

to give you an unconditional love

For me this is a big step

To stop hedging my bets

Keeping my options open

Love is not something to do half-way

To contain

It is the ocean with boundless depths

It is reality

So let’s jump in together

Into it’s warm embrace

So sign on the dotted line

And we shall win and lose everything

together

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