The Times are Changin' Tuesday 7-21

The first week of this series and then again last week I outlined problems that I’ve been seeing locally dealing with the rising cost of fuel and how the cost of living increases have caused people to begin stealing recyclables. As I thought about this weeks update, I was conscious that I didn’t want to give the false impression that I am hopeless or fatalistic about the changes that I see coming down the pike; this couldn’t be further from the truth. With this in mind I wanted to share an observation that I made this week that I found to be very encouraging. Through the week, for some reason that is escaping at the time of this writing, my wife and I had the discussion of whether our parents generation had been able to enjoy some of the things that ours is. A~ was commenting that she felt like ours was really the first generation that has never know a time when things like oranges and bananas were not common, but we weren't sure.

Saturday afternoon we headed into town to my Aunt and Grandmothers house to pick up my son. As we sat and visited, the conversation turned to the economy and rising costs. We talked about some of the things that I had posted here on previous Tuesdays, and about what type of changes we had seen around town. This conversation offered the perfect opportunity to open the dialogue about what things had been like when my father was growing up since four generations were represented. They did get oranges it seems, at Christmas time and they had to share. Bananas were something that was seen far less often. We discussed whether we thought that we enjoyed having access to these fruits all the time or if they were more enjoyable only getting them once and a while. To a person we all agreed that having something only in season definitely makes it taste better, but there was some debate on whether is allowed us to be healthier to have this type of access. I can't answer definitively on that, but I have my ideas.

What was special about this, was the fact that it was one of, if not the first time, that I remember having a conversation of this sort. My family is not anti-green by any means, but to have a conversation about things people are doing to lighten their footprint or to cope with the rising cost of living is not the norm. I find also that I am engaged more often in conversations about the same thing at work, and "over the fence" with neighbors. No Impact Man posted an interesting question today on his blog and it got me to thinking. The question was what thing would you tell a friend that was asking about a good first step they could take to help the environment. The big point here I think is that this is happening more and more today than it ever would have only 6 months ago. For that matter, take a look around the blog world for a second. Nearly a year and a half ago when I first began this blogging adventure of mine, there were only a handful of blogs relating to many of the lifestyle changes that we are making, or to the sustainability movement at all. Now, it seems there's a new blog popping up every hour.

So as the times are changin' so is the context of our dialogue with the people around us. People are asking questions, looking for direction or just probing around perhaps; trying to learn about this movement going on around them. I encourage you to take the opportunities, if they should arise, to share your experiences with others. Many of us are already doing this anonymously through our writing, but taking time to sit down and listen to others and discuss things is one of those things that can't be replaced.

As the times are changing around us, I hope you'll not get to preoccupied with all of the negative press out there. Mind you things may get worse, but within all those clouds there are some silver linings.
The best to you all...till next time.
P~