In this issue:
-Why I'm Not a Hippie
-Better Than Anti-Everything
-What's New This Month

::WHY I'M NOT A HIPPIE::

I was recently chatting with someone I used to go to school with and I was informed that one of my old friends had become a full-blown "hippie." Now, this was a person I knew when I'd first begun to understand what sustainability really was, and we'd often read the same books and talked about the same issues. But somehow she ended up being "anti-everything" and I ended up being, well, what do you call people like me?

You see, I don't exactly fit into the "environmentalist" box. I care deeply about the state of our environment and more importantly, our place in it, but I don't wear hemp, I'm not a vegetarian (at least not anymore), and I don't even recycle these days. I don't save whales, I don't wear tie-dye, and I'm sure not an activist. In other words, all the stereotypes that come with being an environmentalist are sorely lacking in me.

On top of that, I LOVE much of what civilization has to offer...I love my cable TV, I love nice clothes, I love a warm house, I love swimming pools, I love the flu shot, books, digital cameras, MP3 players, and many of the trinkets and technology and conveniences that the Industrial Revolution made possible.

For a while, I did try to separate myself from these things. I read "Voluntary Simplicity." I tried to accept that caring about the environment would mean being poor for the rest of my life. But it didn't work. I didn't like being so dishonest with myself.

I guess what separated me from my old college friend and sent us off in different directions was the fact that I couldn't AFFORD to be a "hippie" or an activist or an environmental saint. You can't "volunteer" to "live simply" when you don't have a choice in the matter. Environmentalism as we know it is a luxury, available to those of us who have the spare time and money to buy tofu or call Congressmen. Not something you can reasonably expect 6 billion people to embrace eagerly.

::BETTER THAN ANTI-EVERYTHING::

Being in the position that I was gave me a unique perspective. I was just privileged enough to have the time and the resources to think critically about our relationship with the environment. But I wasn't quite at a level where I could afford to devote any time or money to doing the typical things associated with environmentalism--at least not without a hell of a struggle. It made me wonder, how effective are those things, anyway? And are they worth the trouble?

More importantly, it made me ask myself: Why do I want things like laptops and sandals and antiques? And why do I feel guilty for wanting them?

Rather than just denying myself these desires and becoming "anti-everything," I was able to realize that while some of these desires were fueled by a consumer-driven society, many of them were perfectly reasonable. The problem lay not in what I wanted, but in how those things were created and acquired.

For example, there's nothing wrong with wanting to live in a large house, but I don't blame anyone for feeling guilty and conflicted when they find out the wood used for the floors came from a once-living forest, or that the vinyl siding caused hundreds of cases of cancer, or that their house is rapidly guzzling up oil and slowly degrading the surrounding environment. But if we could build houses that used renewable energy, nurtured the land around it, and emitted oxygen into the atmosphere, would the environmentalist movement still be urging us to "live simply?" If everything was like that house, would it still make sense to be "anti-everything?"

My point is that all that time and energy put towards being "anti-everything" and trying to convince others to be "anti-everything" (which is terribly unlikely to succeed) could better be spent creating a world where no one has to be "anti-everything." Instead of aiming for a world where everyone has succeeded in bottling up their desires, I'm going for a world where everyone can pursue their desires in a sustainable way. A little idealistic, maybe. But much more enticing--and realistic.

::WHAT'S NEW THIS MONTH::

Okay, so I'm not your typical environmentalist. Who else mixes personal finance, business jargon, ecology, formal education, and The Matrix with sustainability? This month I'm asking you to put aside any anti-corporation feelings you may have and check out The Fifth Discipline, which I finally reviewed. If The Ecology of Commerce didn't convince you that businesses have the potential to be much more than evil perpetrators of environmental damage, maybe The Fifth Discipline will. While it doesn't directly touch on sustainability, it IS a great introduction to systems thinking, which Daniel Quinn wonderfully illustrated in Ishmael (and many of his other works).

And if you can't get enough of my rambling reflection, I've gone ahead and published archives of the monthly newsletter. Feel free to explore my mental adventures in sustainability, inspired by cursing pizza men, vicious alley cats, and many other seemingly unrelated situations.

Enjoy the holidays!

Till next year,

Krystle C.

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