sustainable economy

I wrote this almost a year ago, and it still rings true.

It is hard to tell what we need most these days; the crises are many, and there is much urgency on many fronts.

It is good to give thanks for what we have. This is the quick­est and most potent thing we can do to stem the ris­ing tide of panic, which we may feel per­son­ally, or feel ris­ing around us.

It is wise to look within and feel our place in the scheme of things.  There is not too much to do and not enough of us to do it.  We are each and all equal to the tasks at hand. Even if you do not per­son­ally believe this, did you come one breath closer to it while read­ing that sen­tence?  We have come together at this time of great heart to cre­ate great change in the world and in ourselves.

We can leave behind that which no longer works for us or for the com­mon good.  We can com­mit to a deep con­nec­tion to the energy within us which con­nects us to allkind. Why would you want it any other way?

When Robert Reich addressed the Com­mon­wealth Club in Jan­u­ary 2009, he reminded us of what he had told his stu­dents who had worked for the elec­tion of Pres­i­dent Obama.  He is not done need­ing us.  For the many rea­sons we elected him, we gave him the man­date of the peo­ple.  But the pres­sures on him are many, and his abil­ity to deal with them, while great, is finite.  He needs us to join him in the work, not just with the man­date of the peo­ple, but with the will of the peo­ple. That is what Pres­i­dent John F. Kennedy referred to in another age as, “Ask not what your coun­try can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.”

Enlight­ened self-​​interest is a pretty tough bal­anc­ing act.  But a few things are no-​​brainers:

1. Buy local.  Con­sider our oil inde­pen­dence when we shop instead of ship.
2. Con­sider the health of our food, our farms, our farm­ers, and our bod­ies when we buy local food.
3. Get off the bulk-​​mail merry-​​go-​​round.  How many trees were har­vested, shipped, processed, shipped, printed, shipped, and deliv­ered for those thou­sand unso­licited cat­a­logs sit­ting in the recy­cle bin (or worse, the land-​​fill).  Estab­lish mail preferences.
4. Spend more time with your kids.  There is no sub­sti­tute for you.
5. Turn off the TV, the radio, the iPod, the com­puter, put down the news­pa­per, the mag­a­zines, the books, all of it, at least one day a week.  There is a world to expe­ri­ence out there, and a world to expe­ri­ence inside you.  Make time and space for that.
6. Con­serve water.  There is no sub­sti­tute!  Don’t wait for a drought (and many us don’t have to).  We are all one planet, and right now China is mak­ing plans to ship fresh water from the Great Lakes!  Who do you think will use that resource?  We are all one planet.
7. Reduce your toxic foot­print.  Find cleaner and greener house­hold clean­ing prod­ucts.  Choose safer alter­na­tives for yard and gar­den prod­ucts.  Even if you just do those two things, it will help so much.
8. Con­serve energy.  Turn off lights and appli­ances when not in use.  A ther­mo­stat with a timer can cost as lit­tle as $30.  A sin­gle $10 power strip with an eas­ily oper­ated shut-​​off can both pro­tect against elec­tric surge dam­age to your TVs, DVDs, and com­put­ers, and reduce the con­stant elec­tri­cal drain of even things which are ‘turned off’.  Why would we want to keep com­put­ers turned on ²⁴⁄₇ if they are not in use?  Right now rivers are being dammed, mines are being dug, nuclear power plants are being planned to pay for the lit­tle lights on cof­fee mak­ers and DVRs.  Because it is the planet that pays, far more than we do.
   
9. Take a minute for slow, quiet, con­scious breath­ing.  A lit­tle more oxy­gen can go a long way.
10. Take care of your­self.  Get one more hour of sleep a night.  There is no sub­sti­tute!  Take a half-​​hour nap.  When we have more energy, we have more com­mit­ment to our per­sonal, national, and plan­e­tary goals.

This is how we cre­ate the will of the peo­ple. This is how we cre­ate a com­mit­ment to our goals.

© Denise Schultz 2009

Dona­tions and con­nec­tions from the many to each other,
in even a tiny way, can cre­ate big shifts.
So please share Con­sider This . . .
with any­one else whom you want to con­sider these con­nec­tions and insights.