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Sheriff Vernon Betts has an idea he thinks could cut down on car break-ins and gun thefts downtown.

Missouri high school students with an idea that improves their community are invited to enter S. M. Wilson’s 2nd annual SKILLED Awards competition. Sponsored in partnership with the Missouri School Board Association (MSBA) and the STL Works, the goal of the awards competition is to inspire the local community and provide an opportunity for the […]

At first glance, The House of Joy is a dazzling utopia. But when a new guard joins the emperor’s army, she discovers it’s more prison

The post House of Joy – Repertory Theatre St. Louis appeared first on Explore St. Louis.

Why Don’t We is an American boy band consisting of Jonah Marais, Corbyn Besson, Daniel Seavey, Jack Avery, and Zach Herron. After forming in 2016,

The post Why Don’t We: The Good Times Only Tour appeared first on Explore St. Louis.

The one singular sensation that exhilarated Broadway for over fifteen years returns to STAGES! Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and 9 Tony Awards,

The post A Chorus Line – Stages St. Louis appeared first on Explore St. Louis.

Enjoy St. Louis Cardinal baseball at Busch Stadium.

The post St. Louis Cardinals vs. Milwaukee Brewers appeared first on Explore St. Louis.

An increasing number of high school women and men are finding that paid apprenticeships in the skilled trades which support the construction industry are leading to life-long, interesting, essential and well-paid work. Southern Illinois high school students can explore those paid, job-training apprenticeships at Construction Careers Expos set for Belleville and DuQuoin. Each student will […]

A 16-year-old and 9-year-old were shot on Monday afternoon. Both victims are in critical condition, but they are stable.

The UP Companies (UPCO) proudly announces the promotion of Paul Renaud to include the expansion of his duties to General Manager of all Square UP Builders’ operating divisions. Renaud was previously the General Manager of Square UP’s Drywall Division which was established in 2018. His scope of responsibility as GM will now also include Square […]

James "Tim" Norman took the stand in his own murder-for-hire trial.

Elizabeth Fournier always wanted to work in funeral service. She was drawn to the service in this profession, and fascinated by its technical skills. Today she works "for a better living" - with Nature's tech - and she's proudly known far and wide as The Green Reaper.

       

Fournier is a national advocate for Green Burial, practices that are changing her profession's enviro impacts, and helping her fellow humans better connect Life to our Earthly nature, at Life's end.

She compares the importance of ecological funerals to our society's everyday efforts to decrease human impacts - by supporting renewable energy, by driving hybrid or electric cars, by eating healthy foods, by promoting sustainable agriculture, by using their own cloth bags at the grocery store, and so on. Fournier celebrates how the ideas of a green lifestyle are carrying over to how we handle the dead.

Fournier's Cornerstone Funeral Services, outside Portland OR, makes her the Undertaker of Boring (OR), her tiny rural town. She serves on the Advisory Board for the Green Burial Council, and lives on a farm with her husband, daughter, and many rescue goats. Her 2018 Green Burial Guidebook details the practical changes she champions. 

THANKS to Andy Heaslet, Earthworms audio engineer, and to Jon Valley of KDHX Production.

Related Earthworms Conversations: Greenwood Cemetery: History, Community, Profound Restoration (Jan 2018, - update April 2022)

Walking Sacred Ground with Robert Fishbone, artist of Labyrinths (Sept 2019)

In the Company of Trees with Forest Bathing advocate Andrea Sarubbi Fareshteh (Jan 2018)

Earthworms Host Note: After years of learning and talking about these sustainable options, I attended a Green Burial this summer. Bellefontaine Cemetery and Arboretum, a venerable St. Louis historic site, is a national leader in advancing Green Burial. Their service for a dear friend's sister, Mary Ann, was simple and moving. Her body was wrapped in a linen shroud, so her physical form was right there with us. She was a tall woman.

Gracie, one of Bellefontaine's staff I know through Green work, led her crew in bringing Mary Ann's body to the grave site, drawn on a wooden cart with big metal wheels. A wreath of flowers lay over her heart. The open grave was shallow, maybe only three feet deep, lined with a profusion of plant matter! In the center of the mass of pine boughs, prairie grasses and all kinds of flowers was a circle of sunflower blooms. 

After the simple service, Bellefontaine staff lowered Mary Ann's body into the grave with long fabric straps. No machinery, no concrete, no elaborate box. Simply a human body, laid gently into Earth. Three huge urns of flowers and leafy branches were waiting by the grave.

Everyone joined in covering Mary Ann with these beautiful plants, and then we could take turns adding shovels from the pile of soil removed from the grave. The stuff of Earth will energize Earth's processes of decomposition, over time. No chemicals, nothing toxic. Everything formerly living, returning to Earth.

I noted the trees around the gravesite Mary Ann had chosen. Oaks, the mightiest hosts of insect life, supporting and restoring bonds in the Web of Life our species works so hard to break. Elements of Body, Mind, Feeling and Spirit - all there, in a quiet and simple way. What a gift to be there on that summer day.   - Jean Ponzi

 

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Links: Greeenwood, Forest Bathing, previous Green Burial?

Major League Soccer's newest team, St. Louis City SC, now has a team store open for business.

Auto parts shops say finding anti-theft equipment is dependent on supply & demand. Several North St. Louis County municipalities are trying to help their residents.

Summer is nearly over, but, for many politicians, destructive tech regulations are always in season. Congress is back from recess, and the American Innovation and Choice Online Act (AICOA) is once more under consideration.  Senator Amy Klobuchar’s “antitrust” pet project would crack down on the five biggest tech giants — Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, and […]