Letters to the Editor

From M, spring 2005

Work that matters

The fall 2004 cover article ("Answering the call") was inspiring as well as reaffirming for me. I had asked myself "What do I want to do?" very many times before I quit my job with Google to turn my activism into business.

I...wanted to find a solution to remove styrofoam from our food chain. That's when the idea of printing ads on paper to-go boxes and hence having the advertiser pay for part of the cost of the paper product came to my mind. Thus we made a cost competitive product to styrofoam, which was healthier, biodegradable, as well as cheaper...

To start my business was a scary proposition, but having a solution for a problem I have been fighting for years was very exciting. I had a calm feeling of "Yes, I have finally come to the right place."

I wish I had met Janet Pelto while going to school at U. But then, maybe it would have been too easy.

Piyanka Jain

Feeling hurried

Your winter 2005 cover story in M ("Slow Down Your Life") reminded be of a quotation from Eric Hoffer:

"The feeling of being hurried is not usually the result of living a full life and having no time. It is rather born of a vague fear that we are wasting our life."

Liz Morrison

UMM '75

Future attitudes

Our concern is perhaps a little different than what is usually raised [when people talk about children's full schedules}. The primary focus in families is the children, as perhaps it should be. Parents foregoing their pursuits and pleasures for the convenience of the children, however, instills in the children an idea of pre-eminence that might be difficult for them to shed in adulthood. Many suburban-exurban families are structured in this way. I wonder if any studies have been done [in this area]?

John and Carol Kuntz