Personal Sustainability: Tending Our Gardens in the Midst of a Global Crisis
By Elan Shapiro
Personal sustainability is an essential but easily overlooked part of
an effort to create a more positive, life-affirming society. Tending
our own gardens, our outer and inner ones, is a powerful way to
change the world! To understand what I mean by this puzzling
statement, let's start from the concept of sustainability.
Sustainability is about much more than green buildings,
fuel-efficient vehicles, and local foods. It's about fundamentally
redesigning the way our society works and the way we live each day,
so that our life together can flourish rather than further decline.
It's about creating a world that is fair and just, and that sustains
everyone, including the less privileged billions on our planet, the
endangered species and ecosystems we live with, and future
generations.
Yet, when we face vast challenges like global warming, habitat
destruction, growing income inequities, rising fuel and food costs,
and social fragmentation, it's easy to assume that policy changes are
the main way to deal with the problems. It's also easy to feel
isolated, overwhelmed, and "too-busy-to-deal-with-it-all;" unable to
afford the more expensive aspects of green living; and trapped in a
culture where our car, computer, and media dependencies encourage us
to live at a frenzied, self-destructive pace. It's easy, in short, to
feel powerless.
So what does "personal sustainability" have to do with all this and
what difference could it make? Personal sustainability includes the
elements of self-care and fitness that are familiar to many people,
but the "self" that we care for is more connected and less isolated
than the one we usually mean. It includes, as part of its identity,
the diverse community and the nurturing place we are all part of.
Personal sustainability assumes that to live a healthy, balanced
life, we need to reconsider what we're living for and make choices
throughout our day that feed both our own and our community's
long-term well-being. In this way, it's a necessary complement to the
commonly linked trio of social, economic, and environmental
sustainability that are considered essential for community health.
It's a way of taking responsibility for our part in creating a
positive future, and it's also a way to make sure that how we're
going about this is reasonably balanced, healthy, and, well,
sustainable.
This shift of attitude and behavior often goes against the grain, so
it takes courage and persistence to adopt. But the rewards are
tremendous. When we listen carefully to our needs and values, we
become a little more spacious, relaxed, and less prey to the
frenzied, wasteful pace that has become the norm. Our walking,
bicycling, gardening, and visits with friends and neighbors help us
feel more connected and less stressed. We make sure to leave time for
resting, playing, and just letting ourselves be. We become a force,
however modest and occasional, for mindful, life-affirming living.
And as more of us inspire each other in this challenging but
ultimately sane and compassionate effort, we also become a powerful
force for policy changes, because our efforts come from the
conviction of lived experience. Policy changes that are positive and
progressive usually come about through sustained pressure from
aroused and committed citizens.
Still sound too exhausting, too much? The good news is that many of
the highest leverage steps of living more sustainably bring us back
into the cycles of nature in our bodies and around us, as well as the
community of people in our area. So even though it takes time to
share with neighbors, water the garden, arrange carpools, bike to
work, and meditate or pray, the benefits not only build community and
true security in our lives, they are also gentler on our bodies and
our pocketbooks. And each time we break a cycle of disempowerment and
fossil-fuel dependence and replace it with one that builds health,
community, and self-reliance, we make it that much easier to take
other steps that re-establish patterns of wholeness and inspire other
citizens and communities as well. As more of us take these steps, it
becomes more of a joyful movement and a less of a struggle.
Is this still just the domain of the elite, irrelevant to the broader
population that doesn't have the time or money for such indulgences?
As the global energy and climate crises accelerate, more and more
people are creating opportunities and changing norms in a way that
can work for everyone. Cooperative Extension's subsidized CSA program
has made great strides this year in connecting more low-income
families with fresh local farm food and fun local foods cooking
classes. TCAT's brand new vanpool program makes it easier to get to
work inexpensively without a car. GIAC and Southside Community Center
have recently started garden programs where kids can learn to grow
food and use the harvest in their center's food programs. Ithaca will
soon have a reuse center that carries a full range of goods. Reused
clothing is becoming more fashionable, thanks in part to the efforts
of Sew Green. Sustainable Tompkins has partnered with groups like
IthaCan to create a skill sharing and networking program on food
preservation and local self-reliance on July 10; and local
congregations, through Interfaith Action for Healing Earth, will work
with Sustainable Tompkins on a program about Personal Sustainability
and Spirituality on September 11. And that's just the short list.
Yes, it's still a scary journey, and the outcome is uncertain, but
it's good to find ways to take care of ourselves that also connect us
to one another in a worldwide movement of hope.
For more related information contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
or www.sustainabletompkins.org.
--
Elan Shapiro
Sustainable Tompkins Community Partnership Coordinator
Sustainable Living Associates, Principal
Frog's Way B&B
211 Rachel Carson Way
Ithaca, NY 14850
607-275-0249 607-592-8402 Cell
"We must be the change we want to see in the world"
Mohandas Gandhi
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