In Friday’s post, I told you about the American Standard Green Envirohome. In the process of inviting the owners to speak at Green Earth Expo 2008, I had an amazing, 40-minute conversation with Nonnie Chrystal, pictured in Friday’s column. Wow! It’s not every day that I encounter someone with my passion and zeal for environmental issues, especially the holistic approach of not just consuming less but healing the earth whenever possible.
It turns out that the story in USA Today which led me to Nonnie in the first place only tells half the story. As I described in my last column, Nonnie’s and Mark’s family was impacted severely by the rapid-fire hurricanes of 2004. However, I came to learn that the devastation of the next year’s hurricane season hit them hard as well. In fact, Nonnie is an alumna of Tulane University in New Orleans and has strong ties to the Crescent City. That is why the arduous journey of designing and building the American Standard Green Envirohome, in collaboration with multiple companies and governmental bodies, is like a Hurricane Katrina Poem in Concrete and Steel.
Nonnie was driven to tears during our telephone chat as she related to me how 2004 was the first punch, then her father’s heart attack while in Louisiana in the summer of 2005 was the second punch. The beating didn’t stop there, though. No, Hurricane Katrina was the third punch and then, earlier this year, Nonnie’s husband Mark suffered a horrible warehouse fire here in Florida which should have been the knock-out punch.
IT WASN’T, HOWEVER!
No, for the last three years, despite near constant battles with adjusters, clerks, naysayers and regulators, Nonnie and Mark have remained steadfast. The result? When the ribbon cutting for the American Standard Green Envirohome occurs in the early days of 2008, I will be present and will relay to you my impressions of what will be a fire-resistant, flood-resistant, mold-resistant, highly wind-resistant and virtually hurricane-proof home right along Hurricane Alley on Florida's Atlantic coast. The fact that it will be so efficient as to need little if any juice from the local electrical grid merely will be the icing on the cake.
Nonnie's lemons-to-lemonade story strikes me as poetic. Hearing Nonnie elaborate on the painful journey which she and her family have walked to arrive at this point lifts the words of the poem off the page and gives them life. The fact that one of her main goals in building the American Standard Green Envirohome is so that she won’t have to worry about losing her home again to hurricanes is a unique allegory which, if I were a Katrina survivor, would strike me as very uplifting, from which strength and perseverance can be drawn.
Considering the numbers and depths of wounds yet to be filled from that catastrophic time 2 years ago, Gulf Coast evacuees, refugees and survivors can use all the camaraderie and perseverance available.
Sustainable Justice For All!
Corbett Kroehler
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