If you haven’t yet, you should really read Joseph Huff-Hannon’s fabulous piece about an order of nuns on a faith-driven mission to live the greenest life possible. Go ahead and click through now, the rest of this post is just me gushing.
Photo by Josh Haner for The New York Times
The story centers around the sisters’ efforts to build an eco-friendly convent and is full of fun scenes, like nuns sitting around a table covered in BlackBerries negociating local food deliveries.
I love this article for a bunch of different reasons. First of all, it is told respectfully. It would be really easy for a piece about city nuns going green to feel expoitative or snarky. This doesn’t.
Second, it takes place in Morningside Heights, my childhood neighborhood and home to the country’s finest journalism school (which I also attended). The farmer’s market cited in the article is just in front of the University gate closest to the J school—a building teeming with ambitious young reporters and veteren journalists alike, all of whom are among the most news-infomed humans on the planet. I love that this reporter—a J schooler himself—lifted a rock so close to home and revealed a world we never knew existed.
Third, it dresses dull waste politics up in compelling details.
Fourth, it covers faith in a fresh way.
Fifth and finally, it was sent to me directly by the author, allowing for a lazy Sunday of blogging from bed, thinking about the old hood and researching green building materials such as concrete visually and structurally enhanced by recycled glass (which the nuns hope to use for thier new HQ).
Thanks, Huff-Hannon. I’ll be looking out for your byline.
Tags: Morningside Heights, New York Times, nuns
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