Having and Being, Community, and Soap
Apr. 30th, 2007 09:08 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
helwenHAVING and BEING
Every now and then I drop in on No Impact Man to see what he and his family are doing. They live in NYC and are doing a one year project of trying out all kinds of environmentally gentler ways of living. Next week they turn off the electricity. The guy, Colin Beavan, is writing a book on this, and I believe there's also a movie in the works (documentary, I'm assuming) -- yes, I know, they'll make money on this, and use resources for the books, etc. Apparently they're going to use something special for the book material, that isn't paper...
Anyway, while I don't always think much of his attempts at humor, he certainly is out to research and try a lot of stuff, so it's interesting to see what may or may not work, especially in a city. And he's very earnest about the effort -- I liked this blog entry on paving over the planet, building community, etc.: Deeper sickness, better cure"
He's good about referencing other people's work and resources as they pertain to his subject matter as well, and expanding on his thoughts on these things, like here:
"Where once, Having was something that complimented our Being, over the past hundred years, we’ve come to act as though our Being is entirely for the purpose of Having. Since the pleasure of Having is so short lived, we must Have more and more in our attempts to be happy. That means consuming more and more of the planet’s resources and pumping more and more toxins into its water, earth and air."
COMMUNITY
Then he goes on to talk about how "among the roots of the planetary eco-crisis is the breakdown of community". If we don't know our neighbors, or anyone in our community, why should we care what happens to them? Why should people passing by your home care if they litter your property with candy wrappers and such, if they don't know you? Mind you, I don't believe in littering at all -- but it's a sign of people's disassociation with their community and with the environments (societal and natural).
I read somewhere last week about how we are being referred more often to as consumers, not as citizens -- basically just a unit of the market, not people who use the market -- tools instead of users of tools... Of course I don't feel that way, but if someone else views me that way, then when that person and I try to communicate, I'm talking to a person and he or she is talking to a concept or archetype or something.... something not real. What an annoying thought :(
Speaking of community, yes,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
fitzw and I do know a number of our neighbors. We're not close, but we do chat, say hello, occasionally hang out together. This has led to helping each other with snow clearing and various other things. All good :)
Whenever we manage to make it to Ashfield, we'll already know some people sincefitzw has family there, but we'll have to make a point of getting to know more people there, since it's a smaller place than Holyoke. You never know what will come of those relationships, but it's nice to be able to help others out when you're able, and always a pleasant surprise when someone does something nice for you -- part of what makes life worth living, in my book.
SOAP
I've decided I'll put this in a separate post, after all. Have some research to do first, but I want to get the rest of this posted and off my 'desk'.
Every now and then I drop in on No Impact Man to see what he and his family are doing. They live in NYC and are doing a one year project of trying out all kinds of environmentally gentler ways of living. Next week they turn off the electricity. The guy, Colin Beavan, is writing a book on this, and I believe there's also a movie in the works (documentary, I'm assuming) -- yes, I know, they'll make money on this, and use resources for the books, etc. Apparently they're going to use something special for the book material, that isn't paper...
Anyway, while I don't always think much of his attempts at humor, he certainly is out to research and try a lot of stuff, so it's interesting to see what may or may not work, especially in a city. And he's very earnest about the effort -- I liked this blog entry on paving over the planet, building community, etc.: Deeper sickness, better cure"
He's good about referencing other people's work and resources as they pertain to his subject matter as well, and expanding on his thoughts on these things, like here:
"Where once, Having was something that complimented our Being, over the past hundred years, we’ve come to act as though our Being is entirely for the purpose of Having. Since the pleasure of Having is so short lived, we must Have more and more in our attempts to be happy. That means consuming more and more of the planet’s resources and pumping more and more toxins into its water, earth and air."
COMMUNITY
Then he goes on to talk about how "among the roots of the planetary eco-crisis is the breakdown of community". If we don't know our neighbors, or anyone in our community, why should we care what happens to them? Why should people passing by your home care if they litter your property with candy wrappers and such, if they don't know you? Mind you, I don't believe in littering at all -- but it's a sign of people's disassociation with their community and with the environments (societal and natural).
I read somewhere last week about how we are being referred more often to as consumers, not as citizens -- basically just a unit of the market, not people who use the market -- tools instead of users of tools... Of course I don't feel that way, but if someone else views me that way, then when that person and I try to communicate, I'm talking to a person and he or she is talking to a concept or archetype or something.... something not real. What an annoying thought :(
Speaking of community, yes,
fitzw and I do know a number of our neighbors. We're not close, but we do chat, say hello, occasionally hang out together. This has led to helping each other with snow clearing and various other things. All good :)Whenever we manage to make it to Ashfield, we'll already know some people since
fitzw has family there, but we'll have to make a point of getting to know more people there, since it's a smaller place than Holyoke. You never know what will come of those relationships, but it's nice to be able to help others out when you're able, and always a pleasant surprise when someone does something nice for you -- part of what makes life worth living, in my book.SOAP
I've decided I'll put this in a separate post, after all. Have some research to do first, but I want to get the rest of this posted and off my 'desk'.
