Out of the grave
This is the end of the world. The world is already burning in drought and war and drowning and blowing away. The resurrection of humanity is the coming of consciousness that heaven is here, kinetic in many forms and full of potential; and it is up to us to save ourselves from suffering by devotion to the truth - which requires that we open ourselves to accept that it may be other and more that we had believed. Heaven is the earth and moon and sun and all the stars beyond; it is every pure breath, every wild flower, every curling wave and every look of loving eyes. It is a first frost, a warm darkness, a sunrise, a song, a downy cheek, a good job well done. The new age comes as we transcend the fear that manufactures what we fear; the anger that does what has made us angry; the lack of forgiveness that prevents our healing; when we arise from holocaust that we have been making and take part in the creation of heaven.
Losing time
Changing to a more healthy and green lifestyle may seem stressful at first, but even the initial period of reorganisation can be fun, and the awareness of how worthwhile it is for ourselves and our children gives us determination and a sense of satisfaction. The kinds of things that constitute a green lifestyle are actually the kinds of things, which, if we let ourselves enjoy them, are generally de-stressing – unlike our old habits. They provide many opportunities for healthy exercise, fresh air and quality time with family and friends.
For example; walking to the shops is a good time to talk with children; to ask them what they have been doing at school, what songs or rhymes they know, about their friends, to play a game like ‘I spy’ or to learn about surroundings. So much is missed in cars. There are often good places to walk; foot paths and back lanes and short cuts that people in cars do not know are there. These need to be reclaimed for the community – and this is done by using them. We might even stop to talk for a while like people used to do in the olden days of yore.
There are often interesting historical things tucked away and there is always some beauty of nature to be found in the freedom of the sky above and of the earth beneath. Not trapped in traffic and by being in a noisy machine, one can stop and look, feel the wind, hear the birds, catch a scent of the season. If it’s a rainy day, children get great pleasure from dressing up in waterproofs and wellies and splashing in puddles – then they are not squeamish about it when they are older either – and it’s much healthier and cheaper than car insurance and Disney land. There are just some wet clothes to get dry. Time to talk and to play is invaluable.
Some of our damaging habits only seem to be more convenient and to take less time – but actually take about the same amount of time as a green alternative. There are a lot of things that have to be done to run a car for example. And even if a green alternative does take more time in the short term, it is more likely to be time enjoyed, and will also be time well spent in terms of preventing time consuming problems occurring in the long term. These could take a lot more of our time. I’m thinking of time lost due to personal ill health, and I’m thinking about the time that will be lost if the environment goes into melt down.
To see the world in a grain of sand
And heaven in a wild flower
To hold infinity in the palm of your hand
And eternity in an hour.
William Blake: Auguries of Innocence
Expensive Full Metal Jacket.
Beyond the frenetic consumerism of the supermarkets, the streets of the towns and villages are empty. – Except for rows of cars – moving through the centre and lodged on the curb. They assault all the senses. They obscure the atmosphere with their noise and fumes, and they squat, ugly and lurid, obscuring the shapes and colours of the street and any gardens that have not yet been turned into places to park. For them, village greens have been tarmaced over. They are the circus in town – but with all he fun taken out. Cold metal, where children used to play and people of all ages would meet. They have taken over the meeting grounds and the playing grounds, and the learning and resting grounds of old and young. – We drive as fast as we can, complaining as we go, about the lost youths on the corner, who for a while try, without help or guidance, to have a community – but soon follow us away in cars of their own – away on the road to self annihilation.
The children did not make themselves lost - the adults have lost them, as they were lost, in the busy but empty and unsatisfying, destructive and distressing capitalist system.
Sustainable technology
Every sane person would agree that they want good development; the benefits of technology, peace, and a beautiful world. But is this what we are getting? We have to ask, do we have real quality of life? - Or do we in many cases have a false impression of this made by misusing technology and by ignoring the reality that we are actually destroying the environment and causing war?
The development of technology, but most importantly
the way it is used in capitalism has driven fast population movements, and the growth of cities. The large scale loss of continuity in communities and the different lifestyles produced in capitalism have resulted in an increase in artificial separations from each other and from the environments that actually sustain us. We forget them and even scorn them; complaining about the rain even though we have just had to run through it from the door of our house to our car in the driveway. Getting hysterical about bees. Thinking that the insides of fish are disgusting.
If you walk through the rain for a while, it is a chance to feel it and everything it does. When you know where honey comes from, and about pollination, you grow flowers for the bees; you look for the golden sacs on their legs and appreciate all their good work. When you see the dappled fish in the river, swimming gently into the current so it stays where it wants to be, just touching the sand between some shiny brown stones and some weeds, in clear water - living; pumping blood and digesting food like you - then you are fascinated by the fish and the stones and the weeds and the sand and the clear water.
Many of us live in artificial environments, believing that we can always control them – but in fact - they depend on what is beyond – they depend upon the nature that we have sneered at and turned away from, and which we now need rediscover if we, and the many other species with whom we are connected, are to continue to exist.
For good development our use of technology must be sustainable, which must include social justice, or equality. The systemic, or institutionalised or government sponsored injustice that we get in capitalism will inevitably cause the breakdown of good development. This is happening now on a global scale. However, just because something is happening does not mean that it will inevitably continue. Similarly, just because revolutions have failed in some ways in the past does not mean that they always will. Human beings have not actually existed for very long yet, in evolutionary terms, and have only just begun to be conscious of their global unity. Linked to this we have information available as never before, helping us to learn the lessons of history, to appreciate nature, to work together and to create healthy development for all humanity. - And one of our distinguishing features is the ability to adapt ourselves within a life time, without having to rely on the more time consuming processes of natural selection.
This is the end of the world as we know it - we have the chance to make a good world.
A book: This Common Ground: Seasons on an Organic Farm by Scott Chaskey
AND
From Sustainable Dave:
Leftovers (When the Abnormal becomes Normal)
I was interviewed on the radio last Friday about my 365 Days of Trash and an interesting thing happened. I was talking about some of the things that I started doing last year (and still do) in order to waste less and the subject came around to eating out at restaurants. I mentioned the simple ones–try to stay away from fast food, tell them you don’t need the straw, don’t order more than you think you’ll eat, and then I mentioned doggie bags.
My wife and I have two young kids, so more often than not we are left with food on the table. So, assuming we knew we were planning to eat out, one of us will usually bring along a small Tupperware type container and put it in there. As I explained to the gentleman interviewing me, this allows me to save the food that would otherwise get trashed, but negates my need for a Styrofoam take out container.
Now I’ve been bringing my own for a while now, so it pretty much seems like second nature, but the radio host saw it a different way. "Really?" he said, "Isn’t that sort of embarrassing?"
This isn’t the first time I’ve heard that kind of reaction and I’m sure it won’t be the last so I wasn’t taken aback, but it did get me thinking. Why is the idea of standing out, of being so different, so scary?
Now I know that there’s human nature, the desire to not be seen outside of the herd and all. My guess is this comes from not wanting to be eaten first by predators or some such subconscious remnant from our pre-wheel, spear-throwing times (as an aside, it fascinates me then that loud Hawaiian shirts are so popular). But no one at Bo’s Bar and Grill is looking for any human flesh these days so it seems like Tupperware shouldn’t be that scary?
I know I’m rambling a bit here, but bear with me for a second. It seems that my generation has sort of woken up over night and discovered that something is very wrong. We were brought up in this pre-packaged, single-serving, don’t-sweat-the-ramifications-of-what-you-are-doing-because-someone-else-will-take-care-of-it society and suddenly (well it started 20 years or so ago) we are beginning to realize that it doesn’t work so well. We are beginning to wake up and recognize that we need change and we need it fast.
So maybe what we need now is for more people to act differently, to make some noise, to risk being embarrassed. And maybe by doing so, enough people will see what we are doing, follow our model, and then we won’t risk being embarrassed anymore, but will once again be able to disappear into the herd as we pull out our take home containers and pay our checks.
And while we, the "adults" struggle to change our ways and try to do what’s best while still fitting in, maybe we’ll realize that this is a short term problem. Because as we start to make a stand and change our ways, our children will be watching. And if we show them that what we are doing is "normal"–that Tupperware take-home is "normal", that steel water bottles are "normal", that turning the lights off and walking to the store are "normal", maybe that’s just what they will eventually become, normal. And then we’ll have done something.
So what am I getting at? Don’t try to hide your Tupperware, or your water bottles, your reusable bags, or your travel coffee mugs. Walk to work and let your co-workers know you did it and why. Challenge the status quo and throw it out there that what you are doing is not embarrassing, but empowering. And let your children know that being different isn’t something you should be embarrassed about, but something you should be proud of, because you are doing it for them.
Trust me, as the father of two girls who think that scrap paper should be given to the worms in their composter, I can assure you that when abnormal becomes normal, it’s pretty cool.
Dave Chameides is a filmmaker and environmental educator. His website and newsletter are designed to inspire thought and dialogue on environmental solutions and revolve around the idea that no one can do everything, but everyone can do something. "Give people the facts, and they’ll choose to do the right thing."
http://365daysoftrash.blogspot.com/