Monday, June 1, 2009

Transition Handbook, Transition Movement 2

I changed an old post from another blog I used to have now that I have more perspective. This is dated around the time I was speed-reading the book, and the insights that ensued invited a deeper level of my being to become conscious, confident, and loved. I quit a job I loved, so I could more fully embody the wisdom this book aroused in me: wisdom about myself, and about my role in the context of my neighborhood.

If you plan on reading this book, please don't read it alone. Regardless, also, please read the 3 segments in the following order, so your brain doesn't make you top-heavy: Hands, Heart, Head.

Though it's a great thing he did, and I'm very very happy with the book that became my Bible for a year or more, I was never completely satisfied with the causal orientation of it (peak oil, living without oil) (...in fact, noticing the feelings of guilt that came up for me regarding CO2 while reading this book helped me to see the false motivations my environmentalism had been partially based in in the past and let that go.)

Frankly, I was happy at reading the (then) news (to me) of peak oil, since it would cause everyone to be an environmentalist... the thought of which brought me to consider the following issue I find to be both an effect and a cause of environmentally unwise behavior: loneliness (perpetuated by goals to unite too many people to remedy loneliness in one way or another, and frustration to the point of self-isolation).

I think the author has a good point: through collaboration on a local basis, on a manageable scale, guided by common vision, we can transcend the all of issues arising from peak oil and climate chaos without exacerbating either of the 2 aspects... AND I think there is a third aspect... an aspect of human perception very easily exacerbated in cultures where the issue is under-recognized already, an aspect of sustainability that is equally pivotal: the balance of living in both privacy & isolation, uniqueness & loneliness, empowerment & restraint, an image of humanity & a role in the whole, survival & spiritual transcendence, Response-ability & Trust.

I commit to being inspired by the Transition Movement, and embracing it as a wake-up call to my role as an invitation to healthy interdependence on the scale that I can affect, in the realm that I am naturally talented, with an eye for authentic and deep sustainability. I'm not a scientist (anymore). I shouldn't talk about science. I'm a social being. I'll be a neighbor on purpose.

Of course my efforts are part of the global transition, and I am in the 'heart and soul' area described as necessary for a good transition... I just don't want to call it that, and I don't have to wait for someone to host alarming movies in my neighborhood to have the same positive effect. I believe that when my life is a party boat, and more and more people get on it, and they inspire more, and learn how to invite more... there's no need to tell the last few they're on the Titanic. When it's just them, they're bound to get together and find community of some kind... and we'll just keep inviting them to the party... or rescue them out of the water later.