why live deeply

       Living deeply is about creating a meaningful life.  It's about putting the quality back into life by creating win-win scenarios.  This requires a shift in values, away from "profit above all," quantification, and our usual win-lose scenarios, to a value-based culture that is cooperative, sustainable, compassionate, and transparent.  It's about creating a good-for-all, not just a good-for-some, culture.       

      Any reason not to want this?

 

it's ok

I am so frustrated with these compostable trash bags.  They rip easily, humidity seeps through them, I can only fill them about halfways before they fall apart, and many times I need to double them up before bringing them out to the trash can.  Yet, I bought a big box of sixty twice - out of guilt, figured I couldn't give up so easily.  The environment is really important to me, I want to be responsible, be a good example, and do my share to save the world.   Plastic is an environmental

           I am so frustrated with these compostable trash bags.  They rip easily, humidity seeps through them, I can only fill them about halfways before they fall apart, and many times I need to double them up before bringing them out to the trash can.  Yet, I bought a big box of fifty twice - out of guilt, figured I couldn't give up so easily.  The environment is really important to me, I want to be responsible, lead by example, and do my share to save the world.   Plastic is an environmental nightmare that never (well, at least almost never) decomposes!  It swirls the Pacific in plastic islands the size of Texas, plastic shopping bags hang from our trees like rags and fly across roadways and fields, softdrink loops ensnare fish and seabirds, and fish and marine mammals ingest plastic bits and pieces that float in the ocean.  I don't want to be yet another contributor to this horror show. 

            Remember the days when we didn't care because we didn't know?  But sometimes life, and practicality, takes over and I think I'm done with these compostable trash bags because they just don't work and I really have tried and done my very best. For now I will settle for sturdy bags that are made from recycled plastic (at least something good), but, alas, are not compostable.  And I think the world will survive, and I will be ok.  What are your thoughts?

complex shopping logistics

             Thirty, forty years ago things were simpler.  You'd go to the big supermarket to one-stop shop for most things.  We weren't worried about pesticide residue, we didn't think much about where our foods came from,  we didn't see the bigger picture of the conflict between profit and growing food sustainably, and the Western Diet hadn't blown up in our face yet.

            Nowadays I spend quite a bit of time running around to different places to fulfill my many food philosophies:  local food from local farmers to support the local economy and get the freshest possible food, produce that has not been sprayed or at least as little as possible, foods that are grown sustainably, pasture raised meat and sustainably fished seafood, eating more vegetables and lots of greens, and of course being cost conscious of the higher cost these types of food command.  It creates an intricate and more time consuming web of food related errands. 

            While we still do eat meat we eat a lot less of it and every few months I stock the freezer at a local farm where the animals graze outside all year round.  We get our raw milk and yogurt from a farm that is twenty-five miles away and have organized with several other families to take turns picking it up for the group so each of us only has to drive every other month.  Eggs come from the family whose place serves as the local weekly milk pick-up point.  Once a month our buying club gets a grocery and produce delivery from our food coop - we buy in bulk and share and save.  Some of the things I buy from the coop are bulk legumes, seeds and nuts, bulk tea and spices, condiments, nut and seed butters, also some personal care items.  Since the coop produce only lasts for about two weeks I fill in from a whole bunch of local farmers, and sometimes the supermarket.  I buy my recycled paper goods at Trader Joe's, where I also get some other organic basics such as vinegar and oils, chocolate, frozen organic spinach, and organic canned tomatoes.  Most of our supplements I order online as well as some specialty items I cannot readily find locally or through the coop (like our favorite smoky tea lapsang souchong, which our daughter humorously calls lapsang sooch).  And, believe it or not, I recently found a 5.5lb container of organic chia seeds at Walmart of all places (yes, I admit that I go there, too).

 

 

 

 

 

 

the new values

         A few years ago we hired a bright young man who left our company after only three short months.   He decided that he didn't want to work as much, and proposed to work less hours for less pay (which didn't work for us at the time). 

            There is a new set of values around, and it's quality-of-life based.  The younger generation, of which many did not vote in this past election because they did not feel heard, has a different set of values from the profit-based, fast-paced, career-track oriented hustle for the next promotion and bigger salary of the twentieth century.   The new values are not about chasing the next buck, but about a better quality of life, sustainability, trust and transparency, as well as sharing, cooperation and creating community.

            We get a glimpse of these new values in the many grassroots movements that are popping up everywhere:  deeper awareness about food issues (such as veganism, reduction of food waste by way of redistribution, organics, the local food movement); increasing awareness of social values (fair trade movement, raising the minimum wage, shorter work hours); the many environmental organizations, whether awareness raising or preserving land for future generations;  transparency (such as promoted by Wiki Leaks) and pricing information available on the internet; free sharing of music, education, and information on the internet.  Skills and things are shared and swapped, without the exchange of money, in hour exchanges, seed exchanges, repair cafés, tool libraries, cooperatives of all kinds, clothing and book swaps, and via Freecycle.  Some communities are experimenting with local currencies, some employers with job sharing, flex time, paternity leave, summer hours, and more time off.

            In an earlier blog post I introduced the Cultural Creatives, the name Ray and Anderson gave to these people, including myself and many of us, who share these values.  Know that these impulses are glimpses of a new cultural-economic model breaking through from underneath.  It's incredibly exciting to know we are part of something bigger, and that we are experiencing this shift to new values in real time. 

learning to lose

         It is time to move aside and consider the rest of our planet's inhabitants.  It is time to shrink our economies.  It is time to leave some nature unraped. British philosopher Alan Watts wrote

".......a permanently victorious species destroys, not only itself,

but all other life in its environment."

 

        We depend on all other life on this planet.  Without trees for oxygen, without plants for food, without wood and fiber for building and clothing, without water for drinking, without the animal kingdom for balance of our ecosystems, we do not exist.  We have already destroyed so much of life on earth, let's not keep winning to the bitter end.

 

where do you draw the line?

           A few years ago I bought a lovely linen summer dress at a second hand store for about $20.  I still like the dress but noticed that two seams were coming apart, which made it look a bit shabby.  I brought it to the local alterations seamstress, a lady from Europe who does superb work, because fixing it entailed a bit more than simply going down the seam with the machine.  She looked at it and said "Well, I don't want you to be surprised when you pick the dress up, but I have to undo both seems almost to the top, take the material in and then resew the seams, and it'll cost $60."  I thought that was a lot.

            Where do you draw the line?  Some things do, unfortunately, boil down to money.  I decided not to spend $60 to fix an old dress I bought for $20.  But it's a shame that fixing something should cost so much more than buying something new (since I buy a lot of my clothes at thrift stores I'm not used to $200 dresses).  When do you stop supporting your local business and watch out for your wallet?  I have the same issue with our local independent bookstore.  I support them however I can, but sometimes I just can't.  When a book costs just a few dollars more I'll buy it there, even if they don't have it and need to order it.  But what if I need to buy a bunch of books they don't have and would need to order, which would take at least a week, and their cost would be at least $30 more than if I ordered the books through a huge famous online store? 

            Where and how do you draw the line? It's a quandary.