A Holiday Meditation on Death

A brief candle; both ends burning
An endless mile; a bus wheel turning
A friend to share the lonesome times
A handshake and a sip of wine
So say it loud and let it ring
We are all a part of everything
The future, present and the past
Fly on proud bird
You're free at last.

Written by Charlie Daniels en route to the funeral for Ronnie Van Zant.

I had a brush with death the other day, and it was scary. Am I prepared for my own death?

The elderly neighbour that lives in the unit above us had been going through chemotherapy for several months. Her last days were a struggle with weakness and blackened, painful fingers.

We were home when her relative came by to do a regular check. The relative discovered that our neighbour had passed on. Her little dog was at her side. The relative was overcome with an immediate wave of shock and grief. She sobbed the woman's, and the dog's, names over and over.

Later, I thought of my death. I looked at Linda and imagined life without her after 22 years of being best friends. I thought of my friend who is dealing with the loss of his dog Willy. A couple nights later we watched Marley and Me. Everything we hold and love and cherish will be taken away.

I was forced to consider non-attachment, and how difficult it is in a world full of material possibilities and instant gratification.

The Dalai Lama recommends meditating on death for a short while every day. This prepares us for the inevitable, and helps us to be mindful in the joy of life.

My neighbour's death was a powerful reminder of the fate that awaits us all. Her passing has reminded me to squeeze the bubbles of the past and the future into the bubble of the present, and enjoy the magic moment we are existing in. All we have is the here and now, and each moment is a precious jewel.

I am going to enjoy as many of them as possible. I want to come to terms with death so I can live. Life is uncertain - do not hesitate.

While making your living, don't forget to live.

Are Conspicuous Consumers The Next Smokers?

At one time an individual's choice to smoke in public was based on purely personal considerations. Either you felt like having a smoke or not. Not so much any more. Taking into consideration the greater effects of public smoking, many jurisdictions have created laws restricting it. Attitudes are changing, and it is considered socially unacceptable to light up indiscriminately in public. Is conspicuous consumption next on the list?

The unintended effects of one billion people consuming 35 times more everything than the rest of the planet are monumental. We are living in the second hand smoke of our smoldering scorched earth lifestyles. We are destroying everything the enemy can use, and the enemy seems to be the very planet itself.

Not only do we see that there ARE limits to what nature can provide us, but we are nearing some of those limits. We are witnessing the limits of atmosphere and ocean, forest and farmland, flora and fauna. On a finite planet with an ever-increasing population, I can only see this going one way, and it is not a vision of excess.

There are current examples of consumption laws. Some are health related such as restrictions on consuming cigarettes in public, while others deal with resource depletion such as rationing water in a drought. My own community has water rationing every summer during the dry season and it is the main limiting factor in the development of this area.

Fines are associated with breaking consumption laws, and when we opt to hit people in the pocketbook you know we mean business. Society reminds us in this way that our decisions are no longer bound by purely personal whims, and the greater good will be preserved. Such "extreme measures" become ingrained in our lives and before long we adapt, and perhaps even wonder how things could have been the way they were previously. It is what happens when you choose to live with less - you wonder what all that stuff you used to have was for. You don't miss it. You welcome the empty space it has left behind.

According to the law of diminishing utility increasing consumption does not translate into increased happiness past a certain critical point. It is possible that the less we consume, the happier we will become. Will we need further laws to help us overcome the initial fear as we move toward a sustainable existence?

Our current high-consumption lifestyle is leading to obesity, chronic stress, climate change, and a widening gap between rich and poor. Are we going to limit our own self-destructive behaviour, or will we need to be dragged kicking and screaming to do the right thing? It's not just personal anymore. We all share the same planet.

Tis The Season For Hibernation

Living simply allows me to live at my own pace. Cast out the clocks and calenders and experience rubber time - a bendy and flexible way of living that allows you to ebb and flow with personal and seasonal cycles. Circadian rhythms. Sunrise, sunset. Tide coming in, going out. Moon phases. Length of day.

We are just a few days shy of winter solstice. It is prime hibernation season, a time of introspection. Temperatures are plummeting, and we are retreating to our caves to rest and look within. It is time to regenerate as we move from the frenetic pace and growth of summer into a recovery/assessment phase. Now is a good time to treat yourself. Do less, rest more. Conserve energy. Ask yourself, "How am I doing? Am I achieving my special purpose? Am I becoming a better person?"

The Sun is getting thin and lethargic, and so are you. By 4:20pm it has disappeared completely. Plunged into the cold dark of the winter night we naturally seek shelter and rich foods. A hot bowl of soup, warm fresh bread, and a friend to keep you warm.

It is essential to let yourself slow down and think any time, but especially now. Where are we all going? What is the overall plan, and are we manifesting it effectively? Are we improving life on Earth? These are things I can think about as I rest and recover.

Then it is time to just stop. The puffy warmth of that 30 cm thick down comforter never looked so good. A good nap or solid nights rest is wholesome, healthful, and mother nature-approved.

The simple life provides time to rest, assess, and recharge so that come spring we are ready to cash in on the fecundity of nature and our own creativity while the cycle continues.

Good night. It is time to channel my inner bear. Zzzzzz...

10 Steps Toward Mindful Consumption

"Aware of the suffering caused by unmindful consumption, I vow to cultivate good health, both physical and mental, for myself, my family, and my society by practicing mindful eating, drinking, and consuming." - Thich Nhat Hanh, Zen Buddhist monk

Unmindful consumption has created many problems. Even if I don't consume a lot, I am still consuming. All of my purchases have repercussions throughout the supply chain. Are my hands clean? How can I become a more mindful consumer?

We are questioning our purchasing habits. As we become aware of the externalities involved in the things we buy, we can choose products and companies that cultivate personal, environmental and social well-being.

The following are 10 tips I use to become more mindful in my consumption habits:

1. Don't panic. Many purchases are unplanned and based on emotions. Pause. Think. Then buy, or not. Often by the end of a waiting period we have ceased to desire the item altogether.
2. Beware of emotional foreplay. Don't be seduced by consumer culture advertising/programming that appeals to lower brain functions and promotes reflexive behaviours. Beware of PPD (premature purchase disorder).
3. Do research to increase awareness. Consumers can increasingly access information that will assist in making ethical purchasing decisions. Webs sites such as GoodGuide, SkinDeep, and EnvironmentalHealthNews offer a wealth of information for the concerned consumer. Also, check labels on products to find information such as point of origin, potentially dangerous ingredients such as unhealthy fats, high fructose corn syrup, MSG, diacetyl, suspected carcinogens etc.
4. Support Fair Trade and Organic Certified products. Fair trade products promote equity and well-being throughout the system by helping consumers make ethical choices. Entire cities are designating themselves fair trade zones.
5. Be aware of the lifespan of products. 90% of a laptop computer's impact is when it is made and disposed of. Vinyl shower curtains off-gas in landfills for decades. Plan for the entire life cycle of things you buy.
   
6. Choose non-toxic alternatives. If there are aren't any, ask why.
7. Buy local. If there is a local, healthy alternative, support your community.
8. Plan ahead and make a list. Know what you need and limit yourself to those things.
9. Buy quality and make things last. With proper use and maintenance quality products can be made to last, reducing the overall price per use while saving resources.
   
10. Question your desires and promote good health when desires are met. Being aware of what motivates your consumption habits will make you more mindful when making purchases. You will be doing the least amount of harm possible, and that in itself promotes personal health.
    

Buy Nothing Day... Week... Month

Some people think that we can shop our way out of the ecological corner we have jammed ourselves into. I am not one of them. Therefore, groups that are helping curb consumption get my attention. Adbusters is one such group.

Based out of Vancouver, B.C., Canada, Adbusters is a "global network of culture jammers and creatives working to change the way information flows, the way corporations wield power, and the way meaning is produced in our society." Through their website, magazine, and organized activism, Adbusters questions, investigates, and reports on existing power structures and the way we do things on our shopping mad planet.

For a couple of decades they have been promoting Buy Nothing Day, a day when we are asked to question our purchasing decisions by making a conscious effort to spend no money. That is not as easy as it may sound. For 2009 the Buy Nothing Day organizers are proposing the following:

This November 27 (November 28 in Europe and overseas), we’re calling for a Wildcat General Strike. We’re asking tens of millions of people around the world to bring the capitalist consumption machine to a grinding – if only momentary – halt.

We want you to not only stop buying for 24 hours, but to shut off your lights, televisions and other nonessential appliances. We want you to park your car, turn off your phones and log off of your computer for the day.

We’re calling for a Ramadan-like fast. From sunrise to sunset we’ll abstain en masse, not only from holiday shopping, but from all the temptations of our five-planet lifestyles.

They are definitely banging that Ramadan drum hard, and like the drum, it is a wake up call. What might a Buy Nothing Day look like? A bit of activism, perhaps, mixed with:

• sleeping in
• focusing on local rather than global
• taking a walk
• playing board games/cards/dice
  
• getting creative with music and art
• running and playing (ask a kid - they know how to do this)
• listening to each other
• channeling your inner Gandhi
  
• flying a kite (after making a kite)
• going on a cycling adventure
• testing your emergency preparedness plan
• sitting under a tree/on the beach/in the park
• snuggling with someone
• doing nothing (you could make it a Do Nothing Day)

When we try new things doors of possibility are opened. Anything could happen. Buy Nothing Day could begin to transform us from consumers into something completely new. It could transform us into global citizens where, as American philosopher Thomas Paine said, our country is the world and our religion is to do good.

Give not buying anything a try this Friday. You might like it. You might like it a lot. Who knows - you might be moved to try a Buy Nothing Holiday Season this year. We're here if you need support with the withdrawal symptoms.

Natural vs. Artificial Desires And Wealth

In responding to a comment on my last post, found here, I realized that the length of my response was getting a tad unwieldy. I decided to post the comment and my response here in order to share it with a larger audience, and perhaps illicit further comments on this topic. The comment was in response to Evolving Past Narrow Definitions of Wealth:

Why would someone have to not want something to be wealthy? It is a natural drive of human beings to want, to know they can get and achieve. Real wealth is seeing something, knowing you can have it and then freely deciding whether you want it or not. It's the ability to choose. That is freedom, when a person knows they can have, but is free to choose not to have, rather than being forced not to have or thinking there is something to gain from self-denial. I agree that it is unfortunate the our society has evolved into the perception of a person's wealth as their possessions. That is a game that individuals can choose to play or not to play. The way to not be effected by it is to realize one's self worth and develop one's confidence... from there they can freely choose to possess or not to possess.

I thank Shannon for her thought-provoking comment, which represents a "be careful what you wish for" moment for me. Like most in the blogosphere, I enjoy reader comments and want to encourage them. And then you get a comment and it is, "Argghh, this person is making...me...think." It is challenging work representing. But if you can't pull it off, it is time for a change. Here is my attempt to do this comment justice:

Being forced to do something is not good, you are right. However, some self-denial can be a powerful character builder - it is why we send kids to rustic summer camps. It is why we feel good when we can go a day without spending money. One can get carried away, however. Self-flagellation, for example (literally or figuratively).

I know from personal experience that the more I choose to unburden myself from things and endless entertainment, the healthier I feel. With fewer distractions I am more able to cultivate the conditions that add to my inner wealth. Thomas Aquinas made a distinction between natural and artificial wealth.

Natural wealth results from the fulfillment of natural desires. Such desires are common to all of humanity: the desire for food, shelter, love, community, freedom, etc. Fulfilling these adds to our sense of contentment. Not fulfilling such desires has a detrimental impact. We need natural wealth.

Aquinas said, "...artificial wealth is that which is not a direct help to nature, as money, but is invented by the art of man, for the convenience of exchange, and as a measure of things salable." The desire for artificial wealth is a result of cultural conditioning. Such desires vary from person to person, and culture to culture. Not meeting them will not harm you, and yet it is possible that meeting them may yield harm to yourself, those around you, and the planet.

Presently we have a preoccupation with our infinite artificial desires, the attainment of which defines our wealth, as well as our place, and perceived value in society. We can meet all of humanities natural desires, but not its artificial ones. As Gandhi said, "There is enough to meet every one's need, but not every one's greed." We can not all possess everything, but we can all feel good about ourselves as we boldly and freely explore the magic of life. Such natural wealth is freely exchanged, and all benefit.

Attaining natural wealth leads us to experience enduring personal health and well-being. We all desire love, security, and adequate food, shelter, and clothing. It is also natural to desire a sense of self-worth and belonging, as well as a feeling of achievement. When we reduce our desires for fleeting artificial wealth we can concentrate on attaining the enduring natural type Aquinas speaks of. He also warns that even natural wealth is simply a means to an end.

Evolving Past Narrow Definitions of Wealth

We usually define wealth by how much money a person has, or by what possessions they own. William Henry Channing (1810-1884), American clergyman, writer, philosopher, and early supporter of the socialist movement, described his alternative view of wealth in "Symphony":

To live content with small means;
to seek elegance rather than luxury,
and refinement rather than fashion;
to be worthy, not respectable,
and wealthy, not rich;
to listen to stars and birds, babes
and sages, with open heart;
to study hard;
to think quietly, act frankly,
talk gently, await occasions,
hurry never;
in a word, to let the spiritual,
unbidden and unconscious,
grow up through the common--
this is my symphony.

This affirms my belief that wealth is not what you have and what you can get, rather it is what you can live without. Real freedom lies not in desiring things and experiences, and having the riches to get them. Rather, it is in not desiring them in the first place.

Real wealth is what each of us carries inside. It is obscured by desiring things in the material world that only provide temporary, hollow relief to our ongoing inner struggle. Contentment brings peace and a calm, unhurried state; a secure feeling of having enough. Since consumerism is based on cultivating unending need and desire, contentment provides a vaccination against it.

Those who experience contentment, balance, and inner peace have true wealth.

Our money, stuff, and pace of life are preventing us from realizing this wealth. But we can sacrifice our negative habits and addictions to the forces of evolution that are constantly urging us to grow beyond our current incarnation. We can give up the distractions in our lives. We don't need them.

There is poverty in desire and riches. We are waking up to the wealth of contentment and enough, and we are evolving together. W. H. Channing said,

"The highest products of human achievement, such as language, law, civilization, religion, and ethical development, are the results of social growth, and not of individual attainment."

Real wealth accumulation, like evolution, is a cooperative activity; we are all on the same team.

The Fear And Panic of Not Having Enough

Look out folks, Extreme Shopping Season (E.S.S.) is about to begin. Black Friday refers to the first Friday after Thanksgiving, and marks the beginning of the retail Christmas season. The term also has origins in that many businesses will begin to turn a profit around this time, and thus are in the black. With all the advertising pumping us up, it is hard not to feel excited. Or is that fear and panic I feel?

Retailers use this time of year to launch major sales, often using deep discounts to lure in shoppers with money to burn, or at least credit cards to melt. Stores often open early, and encourage consumers to line up hours before to build anticipation (fear and panic). Frequently, people are hurt. Occasionally, people are smothered in a chaotic stuffalanche of consumers, shopping lists, and merchandise.

Last year during the E.S.S. event there were both injuries and deaths at retail centers as a result of frantic shoppers lusting for cheaper things. A WallMart greeter in New York was crushed to death when a mob of shoppers broke through the glass doors before the store's scheduled opening at 5:00 am. A pregnant woman in the same incident was injured. Many more minor injuries occur every year while shoppers struggle over rapidly diminishing stacks of popular toys or gadgets of the moment.

Consumer psychologist, Professor Joe Priester of the University of Southern California, commenting on the situation said, "I think it ties into a sort of fear and panic of not having enough."

Enough what? And when do we have enough of whatever it is? When can we stop?

Most of the shopping done during the next few months will be for things no one needs. Things that will break down on cue thanks to planned obsolescence. Things that will generate enormous waste. Things that will create social and environmental harm. But, the corporate world has convinced us that their products will soothe our basic feelings of fear and panic of not having enough, and please don't think about the consequences. Cash or credit?

To help increase your security further, advertisers have infiltrated your favorite social networking sites. They want to make sure you have enough of whatever they sell.

Dan de Grandpre, editor-in-chief of dealnews.com, said retailers are smart to use social networking sites because shoppers probably will stick around as followers of the company even after the sale.

"Twitter and Facebook are now major ways to disseminate information," Grandpre said.

One in five shoppers plans to use the sites in their holiday shopping this season, according to Deloitte Research.

And the fun won't end Nov. 27, traditionally seen as the day that the holiday shopping season launches.

After that, an iPhone application from dealnews.com that now tracks Black Friday deals, for instance, will show sales for the following Monday, now known as Cyber Monday because it's the first weekday after the Thanksgiving weekend and many consumers shop from their desks that day. http://www.newsday.com/business/holiday-shopping-notebook-holiday-tweets-1.1584374

I guess I will have to finally give in and join Facebook so I can follow some companies, get in on the fun, and save money on their distractions, and distractions from distraction. On the other hand, with recent economic events perhaps now is a good time to re-evaluate the whole consume-or-die way of life that has pushed us to the brink and made 1% of our population disgustingly rich, while over 1 billion of our human family goes to bed hungry every night.

I look forward to "Buy Nothing Day" on November 27, 2009, although here at Not Buying Anything we try to make every day a buy nothing day. I am prepared to miss the "fun" of fear and panic. I am not afraid. I have enough.

A Consumaholic 12 Step Program

What is the most difficult addiction to kick? Some say heroin. Cigarette smokers will tell you nicotine is the hardest to beat. Will our consumaholic tendencies be more difficult to recover from than both of these? Our sickness is leading to obesity, cancer, and depression. The planet is the enabler and it, too, is suffering. We need help, and quick. The situation requires a speedy shift in mass behaviour. We need to kick the habit.

We all consume in order to survive. Over the past few decades we have become addicted to over- consuming. We make our purchases not to survive, but to satisfy other less visible and rational needs. We need a program to get us back on the healthful path of sustainability, limits, and contentment.

If someone is addicted to a drug you don't tell them they are harming themselves and their family so, "JUST QUIT!" The problem is bigger than that, and 12 step programs such as Alcoholics Anonymous reflect this fact.

An addiction-afflicted individual may require a program and a supportive community to assist in recovery. Consumaholism is a sickness. It is larger than any individual person. It will take time to recover from past mistakes. We need to be understanding and supportive of one another. Along this vein, I adapted the 12 step program to see how it might apply to our addiction to over-consumption.

A 12 Step Program for Consumaholism

• Step 1 - Admit we are powerless over our addiction to consumption - that our lives have become unmanageable
• Step 2 - Believe that Nature, a power greater than ourselves, can restore us to sanity
• Step 3 - Make a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of the Earth as we understand the Earth
  
• Step 4 - Make a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves, and our stuff
  
• Step 5 - Admit to the Earth, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs
• Step 6 - Be entirely ready to have Nature remove all these defects of character
• Step 7 - Humbly asked Nature to remove our shortcomings
• Step 8 - Make a list of all persons, other life forms and natural systems we have harmed, and become willing to make amends to them all
• Step 9 - Make direct amends to such people, life forms and natural systems wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others
• Step 10 - Continue to take personal inventory and when we are wrong promptly admit it
• Step 11 - Seek through thought and meditation to improve our conscious contact with the Earth as we understand the Earth, asking only for knowledge of Nature's will for us and the power to carry that out
• Step 12 - Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we carry this message to other consumaholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs

We have been mass mainlining consumerism for several decades, but we can, and will get better. I am hopeful that we will recover from our addiction to things, and the work that supports the continuance of our disease. I look forward to the coming cultural shifts that will sustain our recovery and return to healthful, balanced relationships with our planet and each other.

Low Carbon Travel: Slower, Not As Far, Less Often

It seems like all the good stuff is somewhere else. It makes a guy want to pack a bag, fire up the tricycle and hit the open road. On the other hand, what is up with this obsession with anywhere other than where we are at? The exotic is always advertised as someplace else, and there are plenty of businesses ready to whisk you there for an extremely low price (plus taxes, fees, and additional levies). Is all this travel to learn about other cultures and make the world a better place, or is it just to help us keep boredom at bay and make ourselves feel 'successful'? Life changing events, or distracting ego strokage?

Regardless of why we do it, there is an environmental cost to all this moving from here to there with near-instant efficiency. In addition to climate change, we are at, or close to, peak oil meaning the end of cheap energy. Remember how you felt filling up at the pumps when crude was at $147/barrel? How attractive was the cross-country voyage in the RV then? We are destined to see those days again.

It will be a huge challenge for the world to adapt to such rapidly declining fuel supplies. So from a probabilistic standpoint, there is no arguing with the actual oil production statistics, they show that it's happening -- it's real and it's happening now. http://energybulletin.net/50578

Low carbon travel is a reality that we currently face. Get ready for the slow road to somewhere close, serviced of course by slow food restaurants.

Given that fuel efficiency decreases markedly with higher speeds, an enforced 60mph speed limit on motorways could save around 1.9 MtC a year. Even enforcement of current limits could achieve significant reductions in emissions. In France, in 2004, strict enforcement on main motorways reduced CO2 emissions by 19% as well as cutting crashes by 30%. http://www.sustrans.org.uk/about-sustrans

We will either find alternative energy sources, dramatically improve the efficiency of our modes of transportation, or do without. Since we are not getting very far finding viable energy alternatives any time soon, and our vehicles are still only about as efficient as Henry Ford's Model T, it's looking more and more like we will be doing without.

For the past five years I have been limiting my travels to local areas that I can access by walking, riding, or paddling my canoe. It gives me great pleasure to execute a local carbon-free adventure. I live in a rural area known for its scenery, but I can honestly say that I have never lived in a place that did not have its own gifts.

When I lived in the city parks provided much-needed breaks from the built environment surrounding me. Even in cities nature finds a way. Office towers in many cities across North America host peregrine falcons. In many cities one could bike downtown to view one of the fastest creatures on earth hunting in the concrete corridors. Empty lots and fields are reclaimed by pioneering species attracting wildlife to seek shelter in them. Many cities have developed areas that are beautiful in their own right. Chances are there are tourists from afar checking your city out. Why not be a tourist in your own town?

Phillip Croft, a west coast naturalist, highlights the joys of his own West Vancouver neighbourhood in his "Nature Diary Of A Quiet Pedestrian". This amazing book chronicles Croft's 25 year ritual of a daily walk from his home, through a wooded park, and to the beach. He takes the reader through the seasons with wit, keen observations, and his own watercolour illustrations. It is a wonderful example of someone recognizing the exotic in his own back yard.

Due to a variety of ailments globalism is crashing, and it is taking speedy global travel with it. Flying aluminium sausages are out, 6 month trips around the Horn of Africa on a creaky sailing ship are in. Road trips in a personal internal combustion vehicle are out, road trips on your bike are in.

Travel to 'exotic' foreign lands, or even the next province or state, is changing, and for good reasons. People are traveling slower, not as far, and less often. Local is the way of the future, and eventually we will discover that what we are looking for can be found wherever we are. Learning about ourselves, our neighbours, and our own locality may be the biggest, most beneficial low carbon trip of them all.