She Ain't Heavy - She's My Best Friend

This week I took Linda to the park near our home. It was the first time we have been there together for many months. We were both stoked.

We hiked/rolled through the woods along a short wheelchair accessible trail. The trail is doable, but rough. I had to balance Linda on the back two wheels of her chair so the front wheels didn't get caught in the gravel. 

It is an awkward way to go.

This balancing act while moving along the trail is difficult to do, which might be why I have never seen anyone else in a wheelchair on this trail. Unless one is on pavement, there are bound to be challenges, and there is no pavement to be seen here.

We took breaks along the way to admire the brooks (two of them), and the trees and plants of the Acadian Forest surrounding us. It was very beautiful, and if I didn't get breaks I would surely die of heat exhaustion, or even just plain exhaustion.

Each time we would stop till the biting insects found us, then it was run/roll away again to escape the swarming, hungry hoards of biters.

I was beat, bleeding and battered, but determined. I was going to get my best friend to the scenic waterfall at the end of the trail, and I did.

In my opinion, the trail was much longer and steeper than last time we were on it. And Linda surely was much heavier. Or was it me? 

Age has a way of changing things, and I wondered how long I could continue doing strenuous hikes like this. And it is not just hiking, but all my care giving duties that I ponder from time to time. 

Will I eventually get too frail, like when I am 90-something? Or 100 something?

I know from past hiking experiences, the first time out is not when one should assess one's overall hiking fitness. True to form, by the time we got back to the parking lot, I felt much better, and by the next day I was fully (more or less) recovered.

But I sure did sleep good that night, happily worn out, and content in the knowledge that I could still get my best friend out there. She loved it, and so did I. We are looking forward to a repeat performance some time soon. 

While we still can. 

Think Crazy Good Thoughts

We live in an insane time. Maybe every age feels that way. Is being well-informed overrated, like science, logic, and rational thinking are these days? Is our very sanity overrated?

Miguel de Cervantes said, “Too much sanity may be madness and the maddest of all, to see life as it is and not as it should be.” Do we dare to open our minds and see life as it should be?

One must be mad these days to suggest that there might be better ways of doing things than the current status quo. OK. I will be mad. Be insane. I will continue to think crazy thoughts, like those of NBA reader Alex, who commented on the post "The Environment... is F***ed" from last week.

"Renewable energy needs to be quickly implemented. Cities should be car free zones. The world needs to go plant based. A universal world income should come into force. National parks need increasing in size. A return to primitivism as described by Lao Zi is probably the way forward. Internal cultivation is key."

Or how about these insanely good ideas from NBA reader and house fire survivor, Madeleine, while remaining optimistic and describing that more beautiful world she knows is possible.

"That would be a world where it was so expensive to drive a car that everyone would choose to cycle, walk, or car pool. That would be a world where there were no supermarkets, only farmer's markets and bulk whole foods suppliers, and where one could easily buy second hand and locally made clothing. That would be a world where your town centre housed little shops that repaired everything, from your toaster to your shoes and clothing."

Now that is crazy stuff for sure. Crazy good. Thank you, Alex, Madeleine, and everyone else that contributes such beautiful thoughts and ideas here on our blog. We need more thinking like this to build what Charles Eisenstein calls "The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know Is Possible".

Before this world is manifested, we must be able to brainstorm it, and visualize what that world looks like. We have to think, big, crazy, beautiful good thoughts, and take on the challenge to see life as it should be. As it could be.

Imagine that more beautiful world with an open mind, and eventually, Manifesting becomes Manifested. Despite what some may say, a better world is possible.

Then we can be both well informed, and a little less mad.

"When any of us meet someone who rejects dominant norms and values, we feel a little less crazy for doing the same. Any act of rebellion or non-participation, even on a very small scale, is therefore a political act."

- From The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know is Possible

The Environment?

"The environment? It's fucked."

So declared the cartoon whale on a t-shirt I bought Linda 25 years ago. It really got people's attention at the time, but mostly they just laughed uncomfortably and moved on. Linda recently pulled it out of the place that old shirts go to die, and put it into her winter 2017 collection.

If we are going back 25 years in how we treat Mother Earth, you might as well have some authentic and appropriate clothing from the time. Protest like it's 1992!

The 2017 version of the shirt, if there was one, might say something like, "The environment? It's really fucked". Or super fucked, or fucking fucked. It's not just me and my foul mouth, because lots of people are saying, or at least thinking, the exact same thing.

The shirt's sentiment seems appropriate for a time that has the doomsday clock set closer to midnight than since 1952, when the first hydrogen bomb was exploded into the atmosphere by the USA.

Also appropriate for a time that governments propose allowing resource extraction in parks and other protected areas. When Linda and I lived in British Columbia, about 5 years ago, the business-boosting provincial government there was talking about opening up the parks to industrial activities like logging and mining.

At the time I thought, "That is why the powers let us have those parks in the first place - to save all the resources to be used by big business interests at a later date." Thankfully public outcry was enough to delay this terrible idea. Hopefully it will not catch on anywhere else, because if it does, we are really in trouble.

Will we survive this latest version of environmental mayhem? Many species aren't, and whether humans will make it or not is a hot topic of discussion these days. Just do a search for "will humans go extinct" and check out the distressing results. Or don't.

Just like the whale shirt, things are getting seriously cartoony. Surreal, looney tunes, and dystopian are a few words that come to mind. If we don't get serious about this, how will we help the environment get some much needed healing time?

Resistance, that is how, according to scientist Brad Werner. When he was asked by a reporter, "Is the Earth indeed fucked?", Werner replied, "Pretty much, unless people start a serious global rebellion". I do like the sounds of that. Kudos to this complex systems researcher for a bit of truth telling, a rare commodity these days.

"Resistance is basically when people, groups of people, step outside the culture. They adopt a certain set of dynamics that does not fit within the capitalist culture." 

"An important solution is environmental direct action, resistance taken from outside the dominant culture, as in protests, blockades and sabotage by indigenous peoples, workers, anarchists and other activist groups."

- Brad Werner

I can get behind that, as can many Not Buying Anything readers, which warms my soul. Many of us are already doing it. If not, what are you waiting for? If not now, when?

Resist, resist, resist.

Simplify, simplify, simplify.

Then we can ensure Linda's brand new whale shirt for her winter 2042 collection says:

"The Environment? It's Fixed."

Down To The Seaside

When I look out my window I can see heat waves shimmering over the now golden grasses and last flowers of the season that grow in the fields surrounding our house. Everything is sluggish with heat exhaustion, and even the flies are walking.

Our last home (until last August) on the west coast was right on the water so hot summer days were moderated considerably. It was possible, and sometimes quite necessary, to wear a sweater and wool hat year round.

Our new place up in the hills of south western Nova Scotia is a few kilometres off the water and its cooling influence. Up here it is hot and humid in a way that we still need to acclimatize to before it won't feel like we are a Dali clock melting in a sizzlingly surreal scene. 

While we don't drive much, yesterday it got so hot in the hood that we decided to go down to the seaside for some relief. We discovered a local park that surprised us with its beauty, and only a short drive from home.

Green energy projects like these wind generators on the hillside also take advantage of the steady ocean breezes. 

Immediately upon arrival we noted the cool breeze coming off the water. Ahh - nature's air conditioning. We stayed until we cooled and were solidifying once again.

This refrigerated reality will do quite nicely when heat regulation is required. Stay cool out there.

No Pavement Monday

The original Park (ing) Day temporary green space, Rebar, San Francisco (2005)

Imagine how different our cities would be if even a little bit of the space provided for cars, was taken back for green space. Even if it was just for a moment, it would be the beginning of a new way of thinking. Less car-centric, fast, and smothered, more calm and people oriented.

That is what Park (ing) Day is all about. This year, September 16th is the day to green up the pavement, one parking spot at a time.

"PARK(ing) Day is a annual open-source global event where citizens, artists and activists collaborate to temporarily transform metered parking spaces into “PARK(ing)” spaces: temporary public places. 

The mission of PARK(ing) Day is to call attention to the need for more urban open space, to generate critical debate around how public space is created and allocated, and to improve the quality of urban human habitat … at least until the meter runs out!"

The movement to take back the streets to create pop-up green space has been taken even further by individuals thinking of new ways to stretch the green envelope. Take, for example, the Chicago Pop-Up Park.

3,000 sq ft, a whole block of grey city street, was covered over by soft, green sod. For the following four hours the community took back the street, took their shoes off, and enjoyed the sense of the natural and each other. Then the cars took back their domain.

Chicago Pop-Up Park

San Francisco, birthplace of Park (ing) Day, has recently made the concept a more permanent affair. This coastal city is one of the most densely populated, and in the built-out core, green space comes at a premium.

Enter the 'parkmobiles', bright-red dumpsters, 16 feet long by nearly 6 feet wide and filled with greenery and a bench to sit on.

These parklets are mobile and will be moved every few months to a new location in need of green space - any green space. I am certain that just looking at them when you pass by has beneficial effects such as stress-reduction. Really going for it, and sitting down for a while could make your whole day.

Tiny park in San Francisco, LA Times

Imagine personal automobiles falling out of favour with the general pubic. Imagine renewed green grids, and flowing rivers of life replacing sterile paved-over streets and highways.

Green space would provide habitat and wildlife corridors for a host of creatures, would provide atmosphere-cleansing services, not to mention a sanctuary for the hundreds of millions of stressed out city-dwellers everywhere.

Streets are for people. Let's start converting some of that black top to a green oasis. Celebrate Park (ing) Day, September 16, 2011. Take a moment and enjoy a pop-up park in your town.

Or better yet, create one yourself and host a bunch of weary pavement pounders suffering from nature-deficit disorder. What if a bird, or squirrel came to your park? Whoever, or whatever comes, I am sure they would be appreciative.