The top is further from the bottom

I recently read the following bit of data. In the past three decades the average pay for CEOs has gone from 40 times the average worker pay to over 400 time what workers earn.

Is that astonishing? Why aren’t US workers staging sick ins, marching in the street, singing protest songs, or writing letter to the editors? In addition to many other reasons, I think one basic reason is that our society it so big and power seems so far away from ordinary people that we’ve sortof given up. Not entirely, but regarding the rich, I think the fight has been mashed out of us. Clearly our politican system is as flawed as any other, our leaders as corruptible, the rich working to get richer, and whoever the average worker is just gets left by the side of the road.

This isn’t to say that I want to be rich. Quite the opposite. I got into voluntary simplicity and found many benefits. What I think is sad is that people get sucked into the over-consuming lifestyle, defining themselves with their designer handbags (do you know what some of them cost!!!?), exotic cars, enormous homes, and so on. Those things don’t actually fill one’s heart and spirit.

Soon I plan to write about genetic roots of greed. Until then I say, pity the rich and powerful. Camel, eye of needle, you get the drift.

Towns Will Feed Themselves

I recently read two articles in the British press about two towns in which the citizens had decided they wanted to become as food self-sufficient as possible. I don’t have the links at the moment, but will try to post them when I find them.

I love the concept. A group of citizens coming together to talk about feeding their town from their own land and labor. I’d love to know if there’s more of this happening and where. According to a recent piece I wrote for the Oregonian blog, the loss of cheap energy will require the US to find/create/train Fifty Million new farmers in order to feed ourselves. Maybe in Britain, where they suffered food shortages and direct danger (unlike the US) in WWII, they can see more clearly that food will soon be a very big issue. Growing your own is such an obvious, straightforward solution. Hurrah for those gardeners!

Series of Disasters

The scale of destruction in Myanmar is beyond my ability to grasp and I am deeply saddened by the misery and destruction. As rich as the US is, we were unable or unwilling to restore New Orleans and the other Gulf coast areas impacted by Hurricane Katrina. I don’t know the math, but the Myanmar losses appear to be many times larger than ours in the Katrina aftermath and if a rich country can’t fix the damage, what will become of the tens of thousands of homeless in Myanmar?

I know there are millions of committed people around the world each contributing to some aspect of sustainability, but huge disasters like this leave me feeling overwhelmed and powerless. I’m afraid that as global warming continues, we’ll see more and more lowland destruction, leaving the survivors not only homeless, but suffering disease and hunger as well.

Before I could even post something about Myanmar’s disaster, the big earthquake in China hit, Florida faced fires, and US tornado season was becoming a record-setting one.

I remember a friend telling me in the nineties that there were prophecies about the first decade of the new millennium being characterized by more frequent and more deadly disasters. At the time it sounded unlikely (but not unbelievable, given what we suspected about global warming) and attributable to her high “woo-woo” quotient. Now it sounds like spot on prediction.

I think each of us needs to listen for our own inner voice, find a way of helping to move toward a sane, sustainable future, and always aim at expressing our own personal best. Some of us will travel to disaster sites to help in person, some will give money or goods, and others will pray. Perhaps we will reach out to local needy populations, help someone learn to grow their own food, or share useful information. No matter how daunting the obstacles we need only reflect on how many hands are reaching out along with our own, giving what they can, helping others. Generous caring hearts are everywhere.

Cross-continental Writing Workshop

I spent last week flying coast to coast to attend a writing workshop. It turned out like a Crackerjack box full of prizes. The entire week met or exceeded my expectations, with a surprise bonus of snow in the Berkshires. My Oregon winter had been snowless and a brief, civilized exposure to snowy winter woods was just right. A final sigh of winter before the weather actually warms up.

The reason I was able to go to the class is that a dear friend decided she wanted to go and wanted to have me come with her, so she offered me a scholarship. In other words, she paid my way. Is that great or what? So in addition to a good workshop, we had a chance to spend some girl-time together, which we’ve never done before. What a treat!

The workshop was led by Gillian Kendall, a reader for the Sun Magazine and resident of Australia. She blended exercises to stimulate our right brains with skill building ones like writing dramatic scenes. There was plenty of gentle critique, reading our own or each other’s pieces, and the pleasure of hearing the work of other good writers.

I encouraged Gillian (pronounced like “Jill” and not with the hard ‘g’ of garage) to submit a proposal for a class at the Willamette Writers’ conference here in Oregon. I’d love to have a chance to take another of her classes. The cherry on my sundae was winning one of three free critiques from Gillian. Now I have to push to get a piece of my novel-in-progress to the point that I’d want her to read it.

 

Can We Do It?

Daniel Quinn, author of books that include a philosopher gorilla, comments about the futility of expecting humanity to act better than it has. I think he actually says that there’s no point in creating a society based on the hope that humanity will act in any way better or different than we have in the past.

I find this thought depressing, because as I struggle with what a sustainable society might be like, I keep thinking that we need to find ways to change human behavior. We’ve tried prisons, death penalties, endless variations of religions, new years pledges, the power of positive thought, and what do we have? War, greed, poverty along side unconscionable wealth, drugs, gunslinging kids in schools, and lots of unsung kindness and creativity.

There are too many of us, and the style of over-consumption that the US promotes is now taking hold in places like China. It’s beyond my imagining: so many millions of people striving to have SUVs and credit cards while oil production is not increasing (and will dwindle away) and the world food system may be headed toward catastrophe (not enough arable land, droughts, etc).

I’ve read a lot of fantasy and science fiction and an image of a shape changer comes to mind. If humanity could, like magical, fictional creatures, transform itself just a split second before a fatal encounter, into a completely different being we could whisk away from peril. The world would be a better place, pollution would be gone, and … hmmm. Maybe better to look for mundane little changes, and not expect miracle, eh?

New Opportunity to Write - for the Oregonian

My first piece on the Oregonian blog has just come online at: http://blog.oregonlive.com/oregonianopinion/community_writers/susan_clark/

I’m one of 15 Community Writers who will post opinion pieces for 3 months - the larger audience is both a thrill and daunting. Come see me there for a while. As usual, I’m writing about sustainability.

Lame TV Suggestions of How to Survive the Economic Troubles

Last night I heard a nationally known newscaster read a list of suggestions about how to survive financially during these troubled times. Here’s one: bundle your phone, internet, and cable.

For those of us who’ve already faced joblessness and over-extended debt, I don’t think “bundling” is even on the right level of reality. If you’re trying not to lose your home, you need to consider things like this:

• get rid of cable
• cancel all subscriptions (use the library)
• cancel internet (use free wifi spots)
• turn that thermometer way down (wear sweaters, leg warmers, and so on)
• STOP using credit - now (cut up the cards unless you’re the rare pay-off-monthly type)
• start putting at least a tiny percent of income into savings (to be used instead of credit)
• stop recreational shopping (buy only what you truly need, shop in second hand stores)
• follow the triple motto: reduce, reuse, recycle
• stop giving purchased gifts - learn to make things, give certificates for back rubs, walks in the park, etc.
• eat at home - pack lunches, cook on weekends for the whole week, share cooking with another family
• get creative!
• Save money by buying food as unprocessed as possible - not little packets of cheese, crackers, etc.
• Make your own fun - sing, play games, do puzzles, learn to play an instrument
• Businesses have worked hard to create markets for their goods - learn to dig beneath the clatter of ads. Do you really need to get new drapes, a new car, or a bottle of wine?
• Evaluate where your money goes and take a severe look at what you can cut.

Is Sustainability Doomed?

Sustainability is getting an avalanche of attention now, but I wonder if it is just another doomed concept of a better future. I’ve written and read quite a bit about how human activities need to change in order to build a sustainable society, but keep hearing a warning chirp in the back of my head.

The chirp originated with one of Daniel Quinn’s books in which he warns that any attempt to improve society that is based on better human behavior is doomed. He asserted, as I recall, that human beings are unlikely (and perhaps unable) to stop being selfish, greedy, short-sighted, aggressive, judgmental, careless, and stupid.

Although we can imagine ourselves being better, when it comes to daily choices people will go on being pretty much what former people were: flawed, imperfect, and unlikely to change.

I don’t think Quinn meant that there was no hope for improvement, and surely individuals can change, but a sustainable society would need beliefs, structures, and penalties to help direct choices and actions. It wouldn’t be able to count on people doing things differently to benefit each other or the planet. Some would, some wouldn’t.

The U.S. was based on an idea of a better future, and when I listen to the news I can see how far from the ideals our country’s practices have drifted. Communes had high ideals, but most didn’t last very many years before adherents left for the brighter, over-consuming, highly mortgaged outside world.

A new TV show features the premise that robots of the future decide to wipe out humanity. There are times I find that decision easy to understand.

Public Says, “Give Us Trains!”

Parade Magazine recently asked readers this question: “Should America Invest More in Trains?” An amazing 97% of responders said “yes!” Trains are not only a relaxing way to travel, but efficient in transporting people and goods. In his book The Long Emergency, Kunstler promotes trains as the sustainable choice for an oil-scarce society.

Are our leaders ready to follow the public? It doesn’t seem so. Amtrak has struggled for years, even facing a Congressional requirement that they become self-sufficient financially. In a country as spread out as ours, that isn’t going to happen. That doesn’t mean that trains shouldn’t be enthusiastically supported. After all, trucks are effectively getting government subsidy when they use Federally maintained highways.

Consuming the Earth

Have you heard that someone is reported to have figured out how to burn salt water? Departments of Energy and Defense are interested, and if that isn’t scary in several ways, I don’t know what is.

So, rather than cut consumption and deal with what sustainability might actually look like, (consuming less, for instance) we’re going to actually consider consuming the oceans. Human bodies are mostly salt water, too, but I’m sure that isn’t what the Defense Department is thinking of.