More than a consumer

This week the elements of the stew that is my thoughts contain these: Reaction to reading the books Littleheathens and Affluenza, a good friend of mine calling me a hippie -- a few times, and starting to read Simple Prosperity, a follow-up book to Affluenza, written by one of the Affluenza writers and local guy David Wann.

I don't mind getting called a hippie. Some of my favorite people in my childhood were the "hippies" my parents hung out with. I think I knew even then that there were different kinds of hippies. And that the make your own clothes/eat out of the garden/be kind aesthetic was shared by hippies and non-hippies. My folks never got into the drugs/drinking/mind-blowing side of it all... they were always more engaged by the build-it-yourself and a hands-off government strains.

Likewise, our great-depression neighbors and our Mennonite neighbors, and our Hawaiian neighbors were never hippies per se, but part of my "hippie" ethic comes from thinking about how Mrs. Harvey would use this, or remembering her massive garden, or weaving rugs and playing cards with the Mennonites.

And still, in the middle of all that richness, the thing I wanted was money. I was the kid with the get-rich-quick schemes, who was out on the sidewalk during the house tour selling lemonade.

The argument of Affluenza is that there's an epidemic disease loose in our culture (and world) that affects our brains so that money, and buying things, becomes the most important thing. We start to think of ourselves as consumers rather than citizens.

I started the book Friday evening, and by Saturday, I was interested in trying to spend a day observing when I was in consumer mode and when I was in citizen mode. I grabbed one of my roommates and we took the recycling to the yard and headed in to the Farmer's market. I bought a couple things I need for the week, then we sat down on the grass with lunch. We sketched and talked about the tuba/accordion duo playing in the distance and after an hour or so, walked a few blocks over and visited the surplus store and a used book store.

I did manage to have some conversations I wouldn't have been open to in the past -- I asked the duo if they could play "The Ma-nah-ma-nah Song"... which they didn't know, but they did do a very playful rendition of the Sesame Street theme. And I found someone who could help me fix a brake cable on my bike. And I talked about my "cool mattress" idea for summer sleeping with a guy who sells the hammocks he makes at a kiosk in the plaza. I think in those ways, I was a citizen -- open to new experiences with people. But I also saw myself defaulting to consumer behaviors. "Oh that's cute, I want one." "Oh I don't have any thing to do -- let's go shopping." "Oh I have this thing I've been thinking about. Let's see if we can find one."

That exercise has extended into the week. I'm fighting the urge to go buy CDs. I'm not listening to CDs at work or in the car, and only rarely at home. I do love my NPR station and the music they play is plenty. But I keep trying to "own" the things I enjoy. As if "owning" them would make the experience of enjoying them last forever. (Baca Beyond is currently delighting my ears.)

So, I have affluenza. And I think I've had it since childhood.

The next wave of thinking is that here we are now, with Colin over at No Impact Man and a hundred other voices in the public square calling for real change in our lives. Ten years ago we had Elaine St. James and "Living the Simple Life." 20 years ago we had Your Money or Your Life. 30 years ago we had Diet for a New America. Is it really taking this long to build up a head of steam? Or are these waves and each time a wave hits, do more of us escape the boat?

Okay, I can't afford to worry about what everyone else is doing. I have to work on my sphere of control (40% energy savings last month over May of last year!), and my spheres of influence (a sit-down dinner last night, with Zombie Fluxx from Looney Labs, with both of my roommates).

And this is where Simple Prosperity comes in. It's argument is that once you know you've caught affluenza, one way you get well is to value the non-financial wealth you have. Social ties, for example. Getting into a flow state with your hobbies and your life outside of them.

I expect to comment further as I read more, but one more story. In high school, I was assigned an essay on "What makes me happy." As part of the course work around that, we learned that Aristotle said you couldn't truly know if you were happy until you had a worthy life to look back on. Wann includes the whole quote in his book:

Happiness consists of a blend of moderation, gentleness, modesty, friendlieness, and self-expression.

I can live with that definition. ;-)

Gather.com

Note: I meant to put this up yesterday, but had a keyboard short, a software malfunction, and an internet outage. Makes you appreciate the days when things just work. ;-)

I've started writing on gather.com along with my posts here. Gather is a social networking site started by American Public Media (distributors of such fine radio programs as Marketplace, The Splendid Table, and A Prairie Home companion). You join the site as an individual and then you can go to groups to watch or participate in discussions. By joining groups, you can post articles (and photos and video) to the general conversation.

I ended up on the Gather site because it's where the future discussion on the issues raised by Marketplace's "Consumed" series is taking place. I signed on because in addition to some really good sustainability information, there's a good community vibe. I feel like it's a more social blogging environment.

I'm also getting to post about some of my other interest.

If you want to know more, click on the orange Gather button on the right. I'm tinyinkling.gather.com.

Frustration

I was going to skip posting today, but I guess if I'm gonna post progress, I should post setbacks also.

• I tried making a haybox cooker this weekend out of a sleeping bag and a cooler. The sleeping bag was a recreational 35 degrees and up bag. The cooler was a Coleman plastic chest cooler. I did a container of rice and a container of lentils. After 6 hours, the containers were still a little warm, but the food inside was crunchy.
• I inherited a container garden from the previous home owner. When I moved in, the back patio had been taken over by four thriving zucchini plants. This year the squirrels got the first set and the re-plants are struggling under temps that have already gotten to 100. Plus I am an absolute beginner at gardening.
• I was quite excited about my new-to-me 1995 Toyota corolla that gets 150% of the gas mileage of my current car and then my roommate mentioned that she was very interested in watching me deal with having an older car and especially the car repairs that go along with it and how maybe having an old car will be even more of an incentive to drive less. Then another friend needed a car to borrow and I loaned it to her and she complained about the age and the broken AC.

But I guess it's not all bad:

• we got two comments this weekend about how cool the house is. We're managing to keep it in the 70's by closing the windows and pulling the blinds about 7 am. It does help that our south-facing windows are shaded in the afternoon (one by a virgina creeper, another by a mature cottonwood tree). I'm hoping a couple folks have some new experiences to apply to their own homes.
• And my 1.5 yr old nephew (AJ) was so brilliant about what he needed to keep him cool at the zoo yesterday. I suggested wetting down his hair. About half an hour later when his dad offered him a drink of water (and his hair was dry again), AJ stuck his hand in the bottle and put his wet hand on his head.

Blogger ate my post

Blogger ate my post yesterday -- twice -- and I'm running around getting ready for a trip today. I am bringing my ancient laptop with me and am planning to update from the road... but if not, I'll be back Tuesday, with a report on my first delivery from Coastal Fields.

I am following through with the initial stages of the CitizenRE ReNU program. There are still lots of hurdles, but I think it makes sense for me, right now, to lease a system instead of buying one. More on that later.

Have a great weekend and if I don't post before then, see you Tuesday!

Y'all are quiet.

So, according to my Google Analytics account, there are about 60 folks who visit here per day, and more than half of you visit regularly. Most of you ended up here through No Impact Man, although more and more of you come directly here or through your del.icio.us account or another bookmark keeping program.

You may have noticed my "neighbors" bar... if you keep a blog on your efforts to reduce your carbon impact, I'd love to add you. Say 'hi' in the comments!

Recommended Practices (so far)

I wanted to do an Earth day post of my top 10 tips... but I haven't tried 10 new things since starting this blog, let alone trying enough to talk about the "Top" 10. So I'm gonna summarize what I've done so far and whether it was worth it.

Change to CFLs - Definitely worth it. Virtually no impact in lighting in the house (my office is cooler without the halogens on and I think my cat misses curling up under the desk lamp) and changing 15 high-use bulbs saved $7 in the first month.
Driving Journal - Definitely worth it. I used a small notebook and wrote down the starting mileage and my destination for every trip I made. I now know I can have a very satisfying life on less than 8,000 miles per year.
Rechargeable Batteries - I think this is definitely worth it for anything I'm changing the batteries in more than once a month. Still up in the air for things that use less. I am considering whether, as batteries burn out, I will start swapping sets around... say one set for my remotes and my wireless game controller and another set for the calculator and adding machine in the office.
Wearing a hat to bed - Definitely worth it. Makes me comfortable enough in a cool bed to be able to warm it up before I get cold. Lets me turn the thermostat down a degree.
Choose to re-use - This is more an exercise in creativity than a specific thing to do. I'm getting more intentional about not allowing anything into my life that I'm only going to use once. I'm now brewing tea in glass jars at work and stashing them in the fridge for when I want a cold and/or caffeinated drink. And I'm using handkerchiefs.
Start a conversation - Definitely worth it. I'm very introverted, so this one is a challenge. But I'm finding that when I come up with a question that's based on my interests, people are interested in answering it from their experience. I've had really nice talks with energy efficiency experts, former farm kids, new farm managers, friends of various backgrounds, a bike renovator, gardeners, and at least a dozen other people I never would have known I had something in common with until I talked to them.

New Template

It's feeling like spring around here and I'm wanting something... greener... for the template. So I'm experimenting. Let me know what you think. I have a post and some beautiful photos from the farm I'm working on as well as a post for Earth Day about what I've learned in my first two months. Thanks for reading!