11 November 2008

Dumpster Diva

It's closing in on five months since I wrote Honeysuckle Rose on a very frustrating day, yet yesterday, as my camera and I documented the arrival of greenhab dumpster number one, it felt exactly like the right moment. "The time is always right to do something right," said Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Not to discount our September kick-off or the vital work of the number-crunchers and the financiers, but yesterday's dumpster signaled the public beginning of our project, and for EBDI and our past, present, returning and future residents, that dumpster was a triumph of hope and faith, particularly in light of our close-to-cataclysmic economy. But we made a promise and we're keeping it and after welcoming our relocating and relocated residents, Hopkins employees and students will follow as they harness the $17000 Live Near Your Work incentive. Others having or needing no incentive will also help re-populate this neighborhood that will reflect the collective diversity of every American home, clear up to the Obama family home-to-be. Now, indeed, is the right moment.

This morning, I watched and photographed as dumpsters number one and two changed places. The gutting of what will be the first of two model homes is a microcosm of the EBDI project: remove the unfixable pieces - as much as it might hurt - then put the puzzle back together, prioritizing health, sustainability, and always, the gift of the future. Dumpster number one contained the rotting remains of a home where numerous families found sanctuary and comfort and I had a thought, despite my Judaism, to cross myself as the detritus was lifted onto the truck and covered for its journey and landfill burial. But a few moments later, in my last (alas, camera-less) sighting, the load morphed to glorious and triumphant as it sailed to its destiny past the new Hopkins bio-tech building, where the future is already here.

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