ACTS OF kindness

MINDFUL … HOUSE PAINT?

Mindfulness’ reach into popular culture is now complete: Interior paint company Behr has named Back to Nature, its new “mindfulness-inspired” yellow-green, as the 2020 color of the year. The eco-paint, according to Behr, “encourages us to reengage with the natural world” and adds “peace and tranquility to any space.” students are working hard as “kindness emissaries,” as Wilcox says, inviting those who value kindness to join them. So far, city councils throughout Brevard County, Florida, and in Bellbrook City, Ohio, have recognized the symbol—small yet significant steps to expand the spotlight on kindness.

Sustainable Rubber

Rubber is omnipresent in our lives, from the tires on our cars to the duckies in our tubs. Today many of these products are made of synthetic rubber, a petrochemical. Stronger natural latex rubber comes from Hevea brasiliensis, aka the rubber tree, a native of Brazil. While Hevea is sustainable, demand for non-synthetic rubber has led to pressure to clearcut rainforest land in order to plant more rubber trees.

Latex is present in hundreds of plants (including dandelions!), but one plant shows particular promise as an alternative to both synthetic and Hevea rubber: guayule, a shrub native to Mexico and the American Southwest. Tire company Bridgestone is researching guayule’s potential. Meanwhile, clothing company Patagonia has already begun using it to help replace neoprene, a synthetic rubber product, in its wetsuits.

Foul weather and flight delays had Seth Craven worried he wouldn’t be at his wife’s side when their baby was born by scheduled C-section. Sergeant Craven was traveling from Kabul, where he was stationed with the National Guard, to his home in Charleston, but made it only as far as Philadelphia, which is where he met Charlene Vickers. She was determined to get to Charleston for a conference, and she agreed to take Craven as a passenger on the eight-hour road trip. Craven made it home in plenty of time to see his son be born—and was able to send Vickers a photo of the happy family.

A man in Altoona, Iowa, may have been parched when he held up a sign asking for beer money—and included his Venmo handle—in the stands at a nationally televised football game, but he was soon awash in cash. “I was like, ‘Well, this would be a funny idea. I might make a couple of dollars,’” Carson King told The Daily Iowan. But as donations poured in, “I realized there was something worthwhile I could be doing with it.” King raised more than $2.9 million for his local children’s hospital, and kept just enough to buy his beer.