I worry sometimes

I know, we all do right? Poor me. Maybe I shouldn’t even say “worry”, it’s not the right word, it’s more like I’m “concerned”. The thing is that I’m concerned about things that are, largely it seems, out of my control. Peak oil, food shortages, economic downturns and climate change (to a certain degree) are the biggies. I believe that all of these things are coming or are here (depending on your circumstances) and I “concern myself” with what it is that I as a father/we as a family should do to mitigate the impact that we feel from said changes. Do we go ahead with business as usual? Do we hunker and live spartan ascetic lives? Staying here in Northern UT has its merits; it’s a good place to live, good employment rate, we’re in a comfortable home and we like it here. On the other hand we’ve thought a lot, both in the past and from time to time even now, about relocating to a more rural location. West Virginia perhaps, that’s where A~’s family is located, the land is cheap, there’s little regulation on what you can do on your own land and the ground is fertile beyond description. Of course both possible courses have their cons as well. UT, for all its financial opportunities is a vastly spread out mass of suburbia with large homes, holding large families driving large vehicles. What does this mean to me? Well in a peak oil situation it means that there’s going to be a lot more pressure on the resources that we do have available, gas, fuel, electricity, coal and oil and that means higher costs of living. Already you can almost steal SUV’s from some of the dealerships in the area because there is so little demand and people are starting to talk about which bills they can afford to pay this month. On the other hand, Many of the rural places of the country are among the hardest hit already by the rising fuel prices, and will no doubt be some of the first parts of the country to be taken out of the delivery loop should true shortages begin to appear due to their low population numbers and low income levels per capita. It would not be unthinkable for some of these smaller communities to be less than welcoming to new residents at a time of crisis. In the words of The CLASH, “Should I stay or should I go?” (In case you’re interested in a very informative read, Sharon posted a tremendously good entry about this very issue the other day.)

I’m not at the place yet where I feel pressured to make any major changes to my day to day routine, other than the things that we are already doing to improve our sustainability; use less power, eat less meat, produce more of our own food (fruits, vegetables, chickens, bread.) and bike more often to reduce fuel use. I honestly have to say though that it does run through my mind. I used to be the type of person that sat back and let life happen around me. I was very adept at finding ways to either deny that something was coming down the line or somehow deflect the effect of it from me. I found later in life, that all this does is delay the inevitable impact and it hurts much more on the second time around than just being prepared and doing your best to deal with it to begin with. So now having learned my lessons well, I look to the future as a father, a husband, a son and a brother and wonder what it holds and what I can do about it. At what point do I need to shift gears and either make a major shift in lifestyle, or at least prepare to do so in the near future? For that matter, how much of my concern is based on environment? What I mean is if “we are what we eat” are we then also “what we read” or “what we watch”. The more we learn about some of the things that may happen, the more that we are led to other things. I worry sometimes about being seen as “Jumping the shark”, especially when I talk about my concerns for the future. Do you? I know that a lot of the people that take the time from their busy days to read my blog know about these topics, but I assume that they like I have family and friends that may not, or may not even want to. How do you broach the topic? What are your plans for the future? Am I alone in my concern? I doubt it. One of my (probably yours too) favorite blogs to read is A Homesteading Neophyte. Phelan posted today about her stress and general “funkness” lately. I’ve had a lot of the same thing going on. It’s one of the reasons that I love my second life in the blogoshpere, I get to see that yeah, I feel a little funk in my life, but I’m not alone. I couldn’t have predicted that after the death of my uncle last week that I would have been affected so much, but I was. I think I had a much harder time coming to grips with it than I ever thought I would have, but I had a lot of friends from all over the world wishing me well and sending their regards. It helps. Anyway, I digress.

My point in all of this rambling is to a certain degree just to get it out of my head but even more than that it’s to let anyone else out there who’s having the same concerns know that they’re not alone. I guess that’s the point of community right. Share and learn from each other, support each other and just listen.

Thanks for listening. Hopefully I can get a little more ‘posse’ (possibility) going on and kick this funk.

Till then.

P~