#Being Better Checklist: Ten Ways to Live More Sustainably Right Now

#Being Better Checklist: Ten Ways to Live More Sustainably Right Now

Guest post for WhyWhisper by Nicole Caldwell, co-founder and CEO of Better Farm and author of Better: The Everyday Art of Sustainable Living

Responsible stewardship of the land and sustainable living are crafts. Living green is an art form requiring no formal training; in fact, we already innately know how to do it. Humans are natural leaders, natural innovators and have always been naturally resourceful. But we've misinterpreted our role on the planet. As a culture we've determined that the Earth is here for our use, and we've in turn treated the environment like a commodity.

But our higher level of consciousness allows us to protect. Our ability to take care of each other - not our might - is what sets us apart from other living things. It is our responsibility, not our gift, that distinguishes us.

How Big Ag is Using Water All Wrong

How Big Ag is Using Water All Wrong

The story of California’s water shortage is the story of Manifest Destiny in the US. It is the story of our belief that resources are limitless; that we could and were "meant" to stretch our civilization from coast to coast; that humanity had the right to dominate the natural landscape and bring it to its knees in servitude of Our Way of Life. The American Dream: to enjoy boundless growth, unimaginable luxury and to always have the ability to do and have more.

Suffering Will Make You Better: Why Pain Can Be Good for the Soul

Suffering Will Make You Better: Why Pain Can Be Good for the Soul

“A smooth sea never made a skillful sailor.” – English proverb

By Nicole Caldwell for Elite Daily

We go out of our way to avoid hurt, dodge danger and prevent hardships. Yet, it is the triumph over frailties or challenges that define us as strong, resilient, mature and experienced.

Contrary to popular belief, it appears a little suffering may be good for us. It forces us to solve problems creatively, think differently and explore our own vulnerabilities.

When Obstacles Become Our Partners in a Car Chase to Enlightenment

When Obstacles Become Our Partners in a Car Chase to Enlightenment

Perception transforms experience. How one looks at the world, alters that world wholly.

In the Better Theory, what most people see as the negative—pain, struggles, mishaps—are actually tools to enlightenment. Crisis teaches us cool. Pain teaches us pleasure. Loss teaches us love. Every negative we face is a potential guide we are wise to pay attention to.

We generally consider hardships to be disadvantages—experiences to be loathed and avoided at all costs. With this conventional wisdom, anything that is difficult or painful works against us. Yet history tells a different story:

Albert Einstein didn’t start speaking until he was four. Benjamin Franklin dropped out of school when he was 10 because his parents couldn’t afford his education. Ella Fitzgerald—along with other celebrities like Halle Berry, Jewel, Dr. Phil, Jim Carrey, Harry Houdini and Charlie Chaplin—experienced homelessness. Stephen King’s first novel, Carrie, was rejected 30 times. Oprah Winfrey was sexually abused as a child and became pregnant at 14. Beethoven lost his hearing at the peak of his musical career.

Playgirl Interview with Starship Trooper Star Casper Van Dien

Playgirl Interview with Starship Trooper Star Casper Van Dien

Casper Van Dien is hot. His sizzling acting career boasts more than two dozen movie credits (Starship Troopers, Tarzan and the Lost City, Sleepy Hollow) and more than five dozen roles in television (“Beverly Hills 90210”, “Saved by the Bell”, “Monk”). He's starred in his own Lifetime TV reality show “I Married a Princess”, acts as ambassador for Egard Watch Company, and is now making his directorial debut with an adaptation of the classic fairy tale Sleeping Beauty—which he also has a role in. Another directorial credit follows soon after with A Patient Killer. On top of all this, he recently wrapped up work with his wife Catherine Oxenberg and her bestie Gabrielle Anwar on Sexology, a documentary that reexamines the state of female sexuality and arousal in the 21st Century.

While there are many people comfortable in the spotlight, few look as good while they're in it. Van Dien is distractingly handsome—it's no wonder he scored the title "Sexiest Soap Star" from People Magazine back in 2000. Of course, anyone who saw the Starship Troopers shower scene—or has so much as taken a look at this man—already could have told you that. Know this: The years have done nothing to diminish his sex appeal. Van Dien sat down with Playgirl to give us his insights on male beauty, his favorite acting role, and full-body orgasms.

Giving Dignity to the Needy

WATERTOWN, NEW YORK–A man walks through a set of doors next to an archway with a sign: “Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread.” As he gets a shopping cart, he’s joined by an employee who points out new products, and calls his attention to posters depicting portion allotments based on family size. The man pulls a bag of rice, a bottle of juice, a loaf of fresh-baked French bread, shampoo, produce from a local garden, and a can of tomatoes. He is walked to the front of the store, checks out, and takes his bags of groceries home to his family.

Aboard the Hound

Aboard the Hound

Patrick turns his head in my direction as the Greyhound bus quietly bumps its way through the middle of Texas. It's night, I don't know what time.

Interior bus lights are turned down to a dim glow.

The low hum of the engine has lulled me mostly to sleep with my eyes partly open; but I pick up my head when I see this man across the aisle pivot to face me.

"I like Schlitz." He says it like he's answering a question; as if we've been mid-conversation and he is just now punctuating a previous point. I stare at him blankly. Waiting.

"My family lives in a trailer," he continues, "so I’m already white trash."

Ronnie, Patrick’s friend sitting behind him, chuckles.

"If you can fall off a horse without spilling your beer,” Patrick says, as if by explanation, "you’re alright."

He shrugs and turns toward his window, considering the pitch-black world outside.

Reclaiming the Pussy: A Modern-Day Woman's Manifesto

Reclaiming the Pussy: A Modern-Day Woman's Manifesto

The pussy is the first wonder of the world.

That labially adorned chute is the portal through which all life hitchhikes onto this mortal coil. That muscular mass is solely responsible for so much arousal; its pink and tan and brown and bluish velvety folds so welcoming and soft as to bring knights in armor to their knees. The fertile crescent—that hotbed of humanity that spawned the human race and nourished it on its uphill climb to the top of the proverbial food chain—refers explicitly to fertility. To womanhood. To the pussy.

Sexology: TV Star Catherine Oxenberg Takes on the Female 'O'

Sexology: TV Star Catherine Oxenberg Takes on the Female 'O'

It's surprising, to say the least. In a world where many consider feminism passe—where you can purchase a vibrator or dildo just as easily as you can a pair of shoes—roughly one-third of all women have never experienced an orgasm. In 2014, a half-century after the so-called sexual revolution, women are still very much strangers to their own bodies. Unable to access our own innate sexual energy, we allow sexuality to be equated with promiscuity, ejaculation with penises, and sex itself with intercourse and penetration.

Holy Night

Holy Night

There's nothing glamorous or holy beyond everything; which is both: this holy paper. The holy drunk slouched over the bar. The holy Caribbean sunset. Even the magical can become mundane; fame's a bore. This holy moment. Everything in the here. The now. Can you see the holy bird? The enlightened moon? The silvery fish, the helpless chick? Everything is already here.

Love Letter

The little old men at the Redwood Tavern agree: the Winchester Model 12 is the greatest shotgun ever made.

When the cows come home, pigs fly, Hell freezes over, and the music dies, you can bet there will be a handful of old coots parked in rocking chairs on front porches holding their Winchester Model 12s across their laps. These guns are going to be Redwood’s ticket out of the apocalypse, I’m told: Oil spills in the Gulf, terrorist attacks, alien invasions, plagues—you bring it, the Winchester Model 12 will smite it.