The Modern 129 (#6-10)

Celebrity look-alike contests, tree planting, trivia, and more.

Welcome to #2 of The Modern 129! For those just joining, The Modern 129 is a new list with curated and researched ideas for how to get a life in 2024. You can read #1-5 here. This is a paid portion so if you’d like full access, you know what to do. If you’re not interested, the original 129 Ways to Get a Life will stay free forever. For proof, you can check out #24. “Learn to Paint.” Either way, enjoy.

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6. Plant a tree (or many).

The world is on fire! Literally, figuratively, metaphorically, politically, you name it. The moral of the story is times are terrifying and to add insult to injury, it was 80 degrees in New York this week. If, like me, you panicked about both the present and the future, tree planting may provide a healthy outlet. To be clear, I’m not talking about the kind of planting that loggers or large companies engage in to offset their carbon count or to distract from the fact they just cut down large swaths of forest.

I’m talking about local community-based tree planting initiatives. The ones in urban areas designed to combat environmental injustice, provide shade, and lessen the burden of an increasingly overheated concrete jungle (where dreams are maaaaaade of).

Where to go to grow?

• The Greening of Detroit

• Trees NYC — I met a guy who was very passionate about this group when I volunteered with the Billion Oyster Project (another great environmental org, but this list item is about trees, not mollusks). He made it clear that he preferred planting trees to picking small shrimp out of an oyster cage on Governer’s Island and throwing it back into the ocean.

  • This offers a “Citizen Pruner Course” which sounds dope as hell.

• Speak for the Trees Boston

• Openlands Chicago

• Tree People Los Angeles

Some papers about paper:

• The Overstory by Richard Powers — Perfect book.

• Tree Planting Is Booming. Here’s How That Could Help, or Harm, the Planet (NYT)

• Trees Need to Be Future Proof (The Atlantic)

• Nature by Ralph Waldo Emerson — Love this guy! And he loves nature!

• The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben

• And of course, The Lorax — A gorgeous film starring the only orange man I will ever respect.

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7. Check out the library.