Growing Pains

I am trying, and stumbling badly, to reduce my environmental impact. It involves changing the way I look at and do almost everything. It is only recently that I finally got "organized" and started feeling like I had my act together, and now I have to re-learn everything all over.

For example, to reduce water consumption, I am following the "if it's yellow, let it mellow, if it's brown, flush it down" philosophy. Yet, I screw up several times a day. Do you have any idea how difficult it is to remember NOT to flush? It is just automatic. Another example: I have sworn off plastic bags for groceries. I have two large cloth bags. Sometimes, I even put them in the car, but then, when I carry them back in the house, they never make it back to the car. Then, when I stop to pick up a few things on my way home from somewhere, I don't have them with me, and I resort to plastic. Then I get mad at myself.

I literally have to take on these habits one at a time. If it takes me several weeks to master a new habit, it is going to take 5 years to cut my emissions! I look around my home and I realize that there are lots of things I could do. I could make my own: bread, ketchup, mayonnaise, pickles, salsa, crackers, cookies, granola bars, yogourt, and french fries. I could grow a lot of food in my back yard. I could become vegetarian. I could ride my bike to work. Each one of these
items requires learning a new skill or making some kind of re-organization in my life. Riding my bike would involve fixing it first. Do I spend money to have it fixed, or do I learn how to fix it
myself? Becoming vegetarian would involve learning at least 5-10 new recipes that the family enjoys, which means trying out at least 10-20 new recipes. Even at one per week, it would still be 6 months before we could be primarily vegetarian.

It is all so HARD.

I hear all the time how "homeschooling must be so hard." Homeschooling is NOT HARD. Homeschooling is easy. It is easier than childbirth, easier than nursing, easier than life with a toddler, easier than life with an infant and a preschooler, and it's easier than sending the kids to school. Learning how to do everything you have ever done before to make it more earth-friendly is HARD. It involves cultural and personal reconditioning, and consciously thinking about every action you take all day long. It is HARD.

If this is hard for ME, a person with an education, and some money, and some free time, and a somewhat supportive husband, and a passionate desire to do BETTER, then how hard is it going to be for the average family who is simply trying to figure out how to handle the latest rent increase?

Is there hope for our planet? Can we do this?

Real Wealth

All this reading about global warming, peak oil and the impending end of the world as we know it has me thinking about the meaning of wealth.

The way I was trained by my parents, by my favourite authors (Robert Kiyosaki, Robert Allen), and as a financial advisor, being wealthy involves having enough money invested so that you can live on the income it generates. It can be invested in the bank, in the stock market, in mutual funds, in real estate, or in business. It doesn't really matter, so long as the income it generates is enough for you to live on. If your investments generate 10% return per year, and your lifestyle costs $50,000 per year, then you need $500,000 invested. You can tinker with the formula by either reducing the cost of your lifestyle or improving your investment returns. You can fiddle with it endlessly by playing with tax rules and tax shelters and so on, but that is the essential formula for achieving financial independence.

Of course, there are other kinds of assets, and it helps a lot if you can keep those at the top of your mind. Examples include physical health, mental health, spiritual faith, family, and friendships. I also rely on my personal assets, like strength, creativity, resourcefulness, adaptability, and grace under pressure. I frequently remind myself that it wouldn't matter one tiny bit if I lost everything I own, as long as I still had my family, my health, and my
"inner resources." Everything else can be replaced, and probably isn't all that important anyway.

I've been reading a blog about peak oil and reducing your dependence on oil, and becoming more self-sufficient in general. It's at: http://casaubonsbook.blogspot.com/index.html

Those ideas really turn the whole idea of wealth on its head. If oil and gas become so expensive that ordinary people cannot afford to heat their homes, and the price of everything (like food) skyrockets as a result, and massive poverty and civil unrest follow, then it really won't matter how much money you have in the bank. If inflation is out of control, or currencies are crashing, money in the bank becomes irrelevant. The new measures of wealth will relate to how self-sufficient you are: having a yard that's big enough to grow your own food, having a house that is off-grid or able to generate some of its own power, old-fashioned skills in gardening, canning, making your own, and doing without, and most importantly, strong community
connections so that sharing and helping and supporting each other can take place.

This really has me thinking about wealth in general. If it is possible to live very simply, to grow most of your own food, to get by without much electricity, without a car, to make your own products (lotions, soaps, candles), and to make your own fun (card games, singing, walking, cycling), then you don't really need $500,000 in the bank. Theoretically, it should be possible for almost everyone to be self-sufficient. Mind you, in that situation, it would be important for families and communities to work together to meet everyone's needs. Oh my god, that could actually be an IMPROVEMENT!