【推荐2】Love is one of life’s greatest motivators. That is exactly what inspired Zack to design a fully electric off-road wheelchair for his girlfriend suffering from paralysis (瘫痪).

Like most wheelchair-users, Cambry has always been restricted to the pavement for most of her adult life. Aside from that, using a wheelchair across long distances makes her shoulders ache. Zack Nelson, her boyfriend, wanted to give her the ability to explore more places conveniently, so he made a special wheelchair for her, which would make it possible.

Zack began by combining two electric bikes and installing a seat in the centre. It worked! Cambry experienced a whole new level of freedom using her new “ride”, and she couldn’t be more grateful to Zack for coming up with it. Fast forward to a year later, Cambry and Zack tied the knot. They also began mass-production of the special wheelchair. Throughout that time, they improved the original design to make it a more reliable off-roader.

While similar vehicles already exist in the market, they said they’re either slow or cost as much as a car. Cambry and Zack wanted to build something quick, light, super long-range, and affordable at the same time. However, coming up with that kind of electric off-roader wasn’t easy.

The toughest challenge when developing the special wheelchair is the price. “We wanted to create something that is affordable for everyone. Finding quality components, and a simple enough design at the cheapest price possibly took quite a bit of time,” said Zack. “But I think we have something now that everyone will be able to enjoy, at a fraction (少量) of the cost of other ‘off-road wheelchairs’ currently on the market.” Another great thing about the vehicle is that it’s silent. Its rider will have no difficulty chatting with their companion while using it. Cambry and Zack are very happy with the fully-electric machine, and they hope that other wheelchair-users will also benefit from it.

【推荐3】Live with roommates? Have friends and family around you? Chances are that if you’re looking to live a more sustainable lifestyle, not everyone around you will be ready to jump on that bandwagon.

I experienced this when I started switching to a zero waste lifestyle five years ago, as I was living with my parents, and I continue to experience this with my husband, as he is not completely zero waste like me. I’ve learned a few things along the way though, which I hope you’ll find encouraging if you’re doing your best to figure out how you can make the change in a not-always-supportive household.

Zero waste was a radical lifestyle movement a few years back. I remember showing my parents a video of Bea Johnson, sharing how cool I thought it would be to buy groceries with jars, and have so little trash! A few days later, I came back with my first jars of zero waste groceries, and my dad commented on how silly it was for me to carry jars everywhere. It came off as a bit discouraging.

Yet as the months of reducing waste continued, I did what I could that was within my own reach. I had my own bedroom, so I worked on removing things I didn’t need. Since I had my own toiletries (洗漱用品), I was able to start personalising my routine to be more sustainable. I also offered to cook every so often, so I portioned out a bit of the cupboard for my own zero waste groceries. Perhaps your household won’t entirely make the switch, but you may have some control over your own personal spaces to make the changes you desire.

As you make your lifestyle changes, you may find yourself wanting to speak up for yourself if others comment on what you’re doing, which can turn itself into a whole household debate. If you have individuals who are not on board, your words probably won’t do much and can often leave you feeling more discouraged.

So here is my advice: Lead by action.

What can we infer about the author?

【推荐2】In 1916, two girls of wealthy families, best friends from Auburn, N. Y. — Dorothy Woodruff and Rosamond Underwood — traveled to a settlement in the Rocky Mountains to teach in a one-room schoolhouse. The girls had gone to Smith College. They wore expensive clothes. So for them to move to Elkhead, Colo. to instruct the children whose shoes were held together with string was a surprise. Their stay in Elkhead is the subject of Nothing Daunted: The Unexpected Education of Two Society Girls in the West by Dorothy Wickenden, who is a magazine editor and Dorothy Woodruff’s granddaughter.

Why did they go then? Well, they wanted to do something useful. Soon, however, they realized what they had undertaken.

They moved in with a local family, the Harrisons, and, like them, had little privacy, rare baths, and a blanket of snow on their quilt when they woke up in the morning. Some mornings, Rosamond and Dorothy would arrive at the schoolhouse to find the children weeping from the cold. In spring, the snow was replaced by mud over ice.

In Wickenden’s book, she expanded on the history of the West and also on feminism, which of course influenced the girls’ decision to go to Elkhead. A hair-raising section concerns the building of the railroads, which entailed (牵涉) drilling through the Rockies, often in blinding snowstorms. The book ends with Rosamond and Dorothy’s return to Auburn.

Wickenden is a very good storyteller. The sweep of the land and the stoicism (坚忍) of the people move her to some beautiful writing. Here is a picture of Dorothy Woodruff, on her horse, looking down from a hill top: “When the sun slipped behind the mountains, it shed a rosy glow all around them. Then a full moon rose. The snow was marked only by small animals: foxes, coyotes, mice, and varying hares, which turned white in the winter.”