Of the many immodest proposals I have floated,
the notion of "red wiggler worms in every kitchen" is the most challenging.
Even more than the equality of women, the idea of sharing our intimate personal space with invertebrates strikes many as beyond belief.
Yet that is what I am asking you to do.
Kitchen composting is an incredibly satisfying pursuit: its everydayness,
ritual quality fills an enormous empty space for those of us living in dense,
urban places who have wished to find a direct way of caring for the earth.
Picture yourself after dinner.
It has been a hard, demanding day in the City.
But now you descend into the dark...touching the rich, dark vermicompost that releases the memory-filled odor of damp earth-taking you into forests and the prehistoric past.
You offer up your coffee grounds, finely-cut vegetables,
crushed egg shells to a corner of your compost box
and know all is accepted with pleasure by the hundreds of non-judgmental,
bisexual eisenia fetida (red wiggler worms).
Or, it is time to add layers to the worms' bed so you rhythmically tear sheets of newspaper,
dampen it, lay the strips in patterns across the top of the box.
This is artistry. All of us are artists.
It is only art that will save the planet.
Welcome, artists!

Naomi Dagen Bloom 1998