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those of you who have been following me for a while know that I provide tips and resources for people seeking to reduce their footprint. But sometimes, many times actually, a person who is just as far as long as I am in some category assumes that I am somehow way further along.

Which in this case is definitely not the case. Avoiding single-use plastics and other single-use crap feels like a blood sport at times lol! Anyway her comment is in the screenshot, and my response is pasted below.

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This extremely well-meaning individual is beating herself up trying to so-called to “get to zero,” and I guess assuming that I am somehow at zero. There is no such thing as zero. There’s a reason why one of my favorite groups is called journey to zero waste.

The plastic thing is something that you just can’t beat yourself up about. The retailers and restaurants and everyone pretty much shove it down our throats. Sure, do what you can, but probably all the tips I can offer are things you have already thought of. And please don’t think I’m anything close to zero in this department!

Some things that help: buying from local farms, buying from a local dairy that still uses milk bottles including exchanging them, and buying from a local retailer who is super on board with avoiding plastic. Also, always remembering my cloth bags when I shop, and always remembering my reusable takeout containers when I go to restaurants. And always remembering to not ask to ask for no straw. That said, I don’t always remember, and even when I remember they sometimes still stick the straw or the plastic utensils or whatever in there. Hope this helps! Also, do you belong to any of the reuse and recycle groups here on Facebook? They are super inspirational and lots of emotional support. I wouldn’t be able to function without them, because I sometimes drive myself crazy about the plastic!

I share your aspiration about not wanting to send it past your yard, but honestly, reading the level you’re at, it doesn’t sound like I’m any further along than you are. We do the best we can. And as we normalize speaking up about this, we might help shift the envelope in our area. For example, if 10 customers in a day walk into a retailer and then they refuse to buy something that’s packaged in plastic, it might have an effect. Especially if it’s a local business as opposed to a big corporate supermarket etc.

I’m a huge advocate for personal responsibility and doing something everything we can as an individual, but that can only take us so far. The next step is speaking up about it and influencing the people around us. Which can be hard, because one gets a lot of pushback and condescension, as you have surely discovered yourself!

PS. And on a meta note, social media can be very misleading as we know. We only see peoples outside’s that they present. As an influencer, even though I’m just a micro influencer with a micro following, I have in recent years become acutely conscious of how I have unintentionally contributed to people being demoralized. I’m doing my best to remedy that going forward.

PPS. If You have been following me for a while, and I am still the only environmental educator/inflencer, or even just the main one that you know, please start following other people, such as the many whose work that I share in here and on my other platforms. Many many people are a lot further along than I am. And can help you!

LIVE on Sunday December 8, 3pm
on my Facebook page DEEP GREEN book by Jenny Nazak

FREE AND OPEN TO ALL; all levels welcome

Along with the “official” topics, we will be addressing various pitfalls and misunderstandings regarding permaculture so that you and your community can get the most out of this class.

email me jnazak@yahoo.com
for outline & supplemental materials list

SPECIAL BONUS! To complement the Facebook Live, I’ll host a realtime informal q&a chat via zoom at 7 PM the following Tues (Tuesday December 10). Bring your snack, coffee or tea etc., and let’s connect!

For those who might want to go on to take an extended class, I will also be offering my top recommendations of who i consider to be the best courses & instructors of the full Permaculture Design Certificate course

My PERMACULTURE CONDENSED class is free and open to all.
However, if you would like to support this work financially, you are welcome to buy me a snack or coffee at any point before, during, or after the course.
CashApp $jennynazak ; Paypal jnazak@yahoo.com
(When I end up with extra money beyond my needs, I share it with local businesses and community members doing good work.)

Short answer: Try another approach.

Longer answer: Keep the same worthy goal, but try a different approach.

For example, let’s say you’re trying to convince your local government officials of the importance of vegetation in mitigating floods and heat. Let’s see you’ve been doing this for years, and it doesn’t seem to be working.

This is a real life example ha ha. I say ha ha because I’m the one who has repeatedly tried this and it seems to not work.

But this is the point where people want to give up and say, “I tried to get local government to take some simple steps to help stop flooding in my local area, but it didn’t work.”

When instead, we should be saying, I tried emailing Public Works about this, and no one answered.

Or people nodded and said good idea, but kept doing the same things they had been doing.

So then, I tried participating in my local tree advisory board. A lot of people nodded and said good idea, but our actions still didn’t change.

So then, I tried writing a fiction story that is set in my city. (This one is a work in progress! I’ll let you know what the results are.)

The fact is that even when things don’t seem to be working, ideas are percolating into the public consciousness. Not long after I started speaking up about the connection between de-vegetation and flooding, more of my fellow citizens started talking about this in citizen comment period at the various board and commission meetings as well.

Our work is to keep finding the next step when we’re not getting the result we want. It’s not to abandon the very worthy and essential goal. Abandoning my efforts to do my part as an educator-activist to reduce flooding in my city and bioregion is not an option. There’s too much suffering happening.

Do you have an example from your own life? How’s it going? What has worked, and what hasn’t? Have you ever been tempted to give up? If so, how did you keep yourself engaged?

1) You might need to get out in your community more. 2) And-or you might need to broaden your definition of like-minded.

I’m not being flippant here.

Some of the biggest blowups and betrayals are among communities of supposedly “like-minded” people. The whole concept of “like-minded” is very prone to turn into chasing something that doesn’t exist.

Meet your neighbors. I don’t have a dog, but a lot of people find like-minded people just by being out walking their dogs. I certainly find a lot of like-minded people by being out in my garden. When they see me out, they start talking. I could not have looked at them and been able to tell, “Oh, that’s a person who shares my views about gardening and community!”

Neighbors can be online neighbors as well.

Also, being an introvert is no excuse. I am an extreme introvert despite being a public speaker and teacher. Introvert can be quite good at finding people, because we’re not as able to do it by the more obvious channels.

The other point, regarding broadening your definition of like-minded. Everyone wants clean water, and everyone wants a good life for themselves and their family. If that’s too broad a definition for you, experiment with narrowing the definition.

And if you’re not finding your (close-enough) like-minded people, experiment with broadening the definition until you do. Not finding them is not an option. We can’t live without community.

What works for me is to define what constitutes like-minded (for me). A lot of times it’s situational as opposed to a constant.

Sometimes like-minded might just be everyone who’s concerned about a certain issue in the neighborhood. Could be overpolicing, could be local government spraying herbicides, or over-trimming trees, etc. And maybe we sit together and drink coffee, or maybe we get on our Facebook group, and talk about what to do next.

If you believe, as I and many others do, that we are in a state of biospheric collapse and planetary emergency, you are going to feel some cognitive dissonance watching the mainstream world go on around you.

People driving to Home Depot, shopping on Amazon, complaining about the price of gas, continuing to buy new furniture, buying so many new clothes even though our closets are jammed, accepting single-use plastic without question, flying, engaging in purely leisure travel, continuing to invest in 401ks/ Wall Street — the list is endless; these are just a few examples.

But if you truly believe we are in a state of emergency, yet you don’t act as if we are in a state of emergency, you’re going to be experiencing a whole nother level of dissonance.

Acting according to your beliefs even if it’s going against the mainstream can be really uncomfortable and you can be ostracized and all sorts of things. Even the milder versions of ostracism like the fake churchy side-eye smile get really exhausting and sad and lonely after a while.

So you have to stay focused on your core awareness if you want to stay the course. I feel it’s a good deal. There’s less cognitive dissonance if you go ahead and act on your beliefs, than if you let the world around you catch you up in the BAU flow of things. A certain peace of mind ensues; it’s priceless and will carry you through the tough times.

There are other prizes as well. Starting with your wallet. And newfound skills. And genuine community. Freedom from being panicky when consumer supply chains break down, electric power goes out, etc. Focus on what you’re gaining, not what you’re giving up.

Oh, and as more of start living deeply in accordance with our knowingness about the planetary state of emergency, We will be creating an ever larger and more visible stream. Which will make it easier for others to act in accordance with the state of planetary emergency.

I am an educator so it’s part of my work to keep plugging away. I have had people block me on Facebook, and there are a person here and there who I ended up having to block. But for the most part I’m just continuing my work which means being connected with lots of different people. Continuing to try to educate people on the connections between capitalist/colonizer society, the climate crisis, and why everybody is feeling so economically crunched.

Fortunately most all of my close real-life friends, and my immediate family, are mostly on same page politically.

(A question someone posted in one of my groups.)

I am not going to say I’m confident. But as a Boomer I’m working to keep a level head because the young people & more vulnerable people need me to. It may sound strange but it feels like I’ve been training for this my whole life, as a child I always read stories about people living under oppressive regime.

And before this, my whole life, as a person raised by her parents to love & protect ecosystems, I feel like I have always been in training for the climate crisis.

And really, it’s all connected. For example, every drop of gasoline we can conserve is one drop less that goes to feeding oppression. Same goes for other consumption, because energy goes into everything. Many experts have written about the connection between energy demand and wars, fascism etc.

I am sort of a prepper, but in a community way. And I share tips and info with people to help everyone get prepped for whatever.