Natural Woman

Editor in chief, Natural Home & Garden magazine.

Working under the tagline "Living Green, Living Well," our magazine's mission is to show mainstream America that living lightly doesn't mean giving up a thing -- that they don't have to go live out in the hills in a yurt or a home built out of mud -- and that in fact there's a lot to gain by creating an environmentally friendly home. We want everyone to see the benefits -- what's in it for them -- of a green lifestyle, so we present information, inspiration, and resources to help them achieve this.

Right now I'm doing a ton of radio, TV, and print interviews to promote the relaunch of Natural Home as Natural Home & Garden. As the official "voice" of the magazine, I'm stepping out into the world to manifest our mission in a more personal way. It's fun.

It took me a long time to find this ideal combination of passion and proclivities in my career. I lived in quiet desperation for many years as I covered business (computers, then advertising and media) in New York as a young journalist. It felt empty and shallow, but I was convinced that people just did what they did to make a living, then lived out their dreams elsewhere. I think that came from growing up with a dad who was an incredible furniture maker and wood carver but worked unhappily by day in a bank. He was doing what he had to do to feed four kids, but my idea of "career" was based on watching him put on that suit and tie every day.

56. I work from home most days, so email is both my lifeline and the bane of my existence. It's such an easy diversion when I don't feel like focusing on writing or editing -- I check it way too often.

I was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Now I live in Boulder, Colo. I love it here. My mom says it's the weirdest town she's ever been to.

I worked at the daily newspaper for all four years while I was in college, and when I graduated I thought I was burned out (at the ripe old age of 21!), so I "sold out" and took a job in the public-relations department at MCI in Chicago. I was basically a secretary (despite what the job description said), and one day I had to write memos from my boss to all the department heads about distributing baseball tickets. When I got to my boss's name, I figured I could just walk into his office and hand him his tickets -- but he told me he needed a memo, too (for the files). So I found myself printing out a memo that said "To: Ed Herbert, From: Ed Herbert." It was a silly yet quintessential moment for me, as I stood looking at that wasted paper and thinking, "Is this really what my life is for?" I quit soon after and took a lesser-paying job on the night desk of a newspaper.

Every minute of my job as editor in chief of Natural Home & Garden. It's my dream job; I couldn't ask for anything more.

When the Bush administration announced that we weren't going to sign the Kyoto treaty, I was stunned. I'm just so blown away by our unwillingness to deal with global warming. What's it going to take for our society to see that we're on the verge of catastrophe?

I meet and mingle with environmental heroes every day -- they're everywhere. From my son's fourth-grade teacher, Mr. Mohseni, who's teaching the kids about composting and recycling (and spearheading a zero-waste project at their school), to my neighbors who ride their bikes everywhere, to the readers of Natural Home & Garden, who hold themselves, each other, and us to such high environmental standards, there's no shortage of people who are walking the talk out there.

George W. When he was reelected this year, I was so tempted to just hang it all up. I wondered how I could go on telling people that not flushing their toilets or changing their light bulbs made a damn bit of difference in the face of the devastation that's to come in the next four years. It's not only his policies I abhor but the co-opting of language in initiatives such as "Clear Skies" and "Healthy Forests." Evil.

I'm constantly amazed at the generosity and cooperative spirit of the green building community. When I first started as editor in chief of Natural Home, I knew very little about the movement. I just started calling around to the movers and shakers, and everyone I contacted jumped in to help without hesitation. You know, they really could have responded with a "who the hell do you think you are?," and not one of them did.

I believe individual action and cultural change will inevitably lead to political change. My motto comes from Buddhist master Chogyam Trungpa, Rinpoche, the founder of Naropa University in Boulder, who once said that "the only way to implement our vision for society is to bring it down to the situation of a single household."

Skiing. I know all the atrocities associated with it, and I still love to do it. And eating meat. I fell off the vegetarian wagon when I was pregnant with my daughter, and I've never been able to get back on. And again, I know all the atrocities associated with that. And I still love a good free-range, hormone-free, organically raised steak.

Aside from the huge stack of magazines (from E to Metropolis), I always have three books by my bedside (and in my carry-on bag -- I live in fear of being stuck on an airplane without enough reading material!) -- one spiritual or growth-related (navel-gazing), one work or passion-related, and one novel. So right now I'm reading The Way of Zen, by Alan Watts; The Restoration Economy: The Greatest New Growth Frontier, by Storm Cunningham; and I'm just finishing Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, by Susanna Clarke. Waiting in the wings are The Essential Ken Wilber; Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed, by Jared Diamond; and Old School, a novel by Tobias Wolff.

Depends on the time of year and where I am ... I love connecting to the season and to place through food. There's nothing better to me than biking to the Boulder Farmer's Market and creating a meal out of what's available there. One of the highlights of my annual visits to my hometown in Iowa is a summer meal of thick Iowa pork chops, green beans cooked all day with bacon, and just-picked sweet corn and tomatoes. I know eating all that pig isn't politically correct, but God, is it good -- and totally Iowan. (My mother-in-law's authentic Italian lasagna is a great reason to visit family in Chicago.)

I drive a Honda Civic Hybrid. I had a bumper sticker on it for a while, right after 9/11, that said, "Real Patriots Drive Hybrids." I'm a little bit obsessed with my car being a political statement.

There are so many. The high desert serenity of the foothills just behind my house in Boulder. The lushness of Iowa in August. Both coasts -- in particular, the cliffs near Point Reyes, Calif., and the craggy shores south of Boston (Marblehead, Mass., is probably my favorite spot in America).

I believe we're just beginning to reach beyond the "core" -- the choir -- and bring others who could help us into the fold. I'm happy to see organizations like Global Green USA tapping into Hollywood star power to get the message out. I think we're beginning to see that it's OK to use whatever muscle we have available to us -- that we're not being shallow or pandering by making our message palatable and desirable to the mainstream.

We need to have more fun. Our message is so often dour and somber and sincere. We all know that global warming and pollution and water shortages are major, important issues -- but no one's going to buy into doom and gloom. Most people really don't want to take on suffering and sacrifice to be an environmentalist.

I would reverse the current system of financial incentives and tax breaks, eliminating subsidies for pollution-producing industries and products and implementing them for sustainable alternatives such as solar and wind power and hybrid and fuel-cell cars. We can talk all we want about the hidden costs of subsidizing the oil industry, but the bottom line is that most people will change their ways when it saves them money.

I've always had really eclectic taste in music -- and my favorites rarely make it onto the Top 40 charts. When I was 18, I was listening to Bob Marley, Oingo Boingo, Willy Nelson, and lots of old Joni Mitchell.

It is, and always will be, The Graduate.

My kids. They're amazing, spiritually clear beings who will change the world. I look at them and their friends, and I know there's hope for all of us.

Recently I tried to talk the NH&G staff into creating a campaign to have everyone stop flushing their toilets every time they go. They thought I was crazy, but it seemed to me a light-hearted yet impactful "starting point" -- something we could have fun with. (Nobody but me thought it would be fun to recite "if it's yellow, let it mellow ... " in public.)