Responses to “How did you get here?”

#CrankyEnvironmentalist #GreenSmackdown

Compiling a list of answers to this question I get (mainly from my fellow old white ladies, and interestingly enough it’s mostly the “liberal, eco-minded” ones asking this).

(Warning: Some of the answers might get a bit salty. You have been warned.)

• Magic carpet.

• The same way I always get here.

• Alive and in one piece, thank Goddess!

• My private jet.

• The way I got here was I decided I wanted to be here, and I made my transportation arrangements accordingly.

• There’s no way I can answer that question; any answer I have will be wrong. If I say I arrived by car, you get to use that to justify your decades of unquestioned car-dependent lifestyle. If I say I arrived by bicycle or foot, you get to go into your song and dance, coo and exclaim how much you “admire” me and how I’m so “unique” blah blah blah — in short you get to continue to marginalize me, treat me like a novelty or zoo animal. As opposed to a real live person who is modeling resilient, viable, practical options.

• But enough about me! What’s your transportation plan for your old age? How many more years do you plan to keep driving?

• I got here as best I could, given that our me-generation focused on our own individualistic convenience and comfort, and didn’t do enough to dismantle our society’s car-dependence and other structural oppression.

• Wrong question! What are you really asking?

• You might enjoy my upcoming workshop. It’s especially for us middle-aged women. On how we can stay independent and avoid becoming dependent in our old age.