The Attraction of Demolition

Recently in my city, the demolition of a long-vacant oceanfront highrise building began. The first strikes of the wrecking ball (actually not a ball — but a giant metal mouth perched on a multi-storey-long neck; it actually looked like a dinosaur) were attended by great fanfare: A tent with a microphone had been set up, where city and county leaders made rhapsodic speeches about what a great moment this was. Cheerful volunteers handed out cookies and (plastic) flutes of champagne. At least a couple hundred citizens were there, beaming and talking amongst themselves excitedly.

I may have been the only one there who didn’t share the exuberant mood. How was it, I wondered, that people could come together with so much excitement to watch a building get demolished? Why hadn’t anyone, during the last decade or so of the towering building’s vacancy, gotten excited enough to do something with the building instead of letting it rot?

It used to be a resort inn, and a few of the dignitaries and citizens shared nostalgic memories of honeymoons, family vacations back when the building was in its heyday.

The economics of real estate will probably always baffle me. But the fact is, there are and probably always will be property owners who are rich enough to let huge high-rise buildings on prime oceanfront land just sit until the only thing left to do is tear them down.

And, there may just be something in human nature (or maybe just USA human nature?) that’s irresistibly drawn to the spectacle of large mechanized equipment reducing a building to a heap of rubble.

I’ve heard people express just as much glee over the demolition of much smaller buildings too. The common theme, regardless of building size, is “Oh I’m so glad that eyesore is gone!”

But what gets built in its place? All too often, nothing. You get a longterm empty lot with an Ozymandias vibe: “… the lone and level sands stretched far away” [cue forlorn sound of whistling wind].

When I try to put myself in the mindset of people drawn to demolition, I guess I can understand. It’s a huge, powerful thing to watch. Maybe it makes humans feel vicariously mighty. Maybe, too, the big “fall down go boom” helps people discharge the little daily frustrations that pile up.

And this: Maybe demolition is attractive because it’s easier to tear something down than to create something. The creative process (at least for me — maybe for others too?) often comes with tension and anxiety and vulnerability. It can be easier to just point out eyesores and nuisances, and cheer at the wrecking ball, than put oneself out there and make something new.

I like to imagine that at least some of the materials will be able to be recycled. Also, on my walk home up the A1A, I noticed that a longstanding Mom & Pop hotel had put a sign up, urging people to help them save their cute little hotel from being condemned. If I hadn’t attended the demolition, I wouldn’t have seen the sign offering the public an opportunity to actually save a building. I joined their Facebook page and will do what I can to support them.

And, after all, destruction is part of nature too. We can’t just create stuff all the time; there wouldn’t be space or the demand for it.

That said, I took the day as a reminder to be sure and spend time creating things that I feel will be beneficial, rather than just opposing things I see as negative. As an environmentalist, I sometimes find myself getting stuck in “oppose” mode.

And, serendipitously, my email inbox and social-media feed suddenly served me up a bunch of tidbits related to creativity.

Further Exploration:

“Creating What We Don’t Want” (DailyOM.com). “All thoughts are subtle creative energy. Some thoughts are more focused or repeated more often, gathering strength. Some are written down or spoken, giving them even greater power. Every thought we have is part of a process whereby we co-create our experience and our reality with the universe. When we use our creative energy unconsciously, we create what is commonly known as self-fulfilling prophecy. In essence, when we worry, we are repeatedly praying and lending our energy to the creation of something we don’t want.”

“Meet the TikTok stars using viral videos to save the planet” (Rosie Frost; euronews.com). “The idea for EcoTok emerged in July last year. … Since then it has expanded into a content creation ‘hype house’ with an ever evolving roster of around 20 different diverse contributors. … With more than 80 thousand followers and 1.2 million likes on the platform, EcoTok’s contributors have included the likes of marine biologist Carissa Cabrera, environmental justice advocate Isaias Hernandez and SciAll founder Mile Gil. They say that among their ranks you’ll find everything from scientists to students to activists and civil servants.”

“The Movement for Youth-Led Placemaking Is Growing Up” (Riva Kapoor; Project for Public Spaces — pps.org). “For five weeks, 30 teenagers worked hard to imagine how outdoor public spaces would change if developers, designers, planners, and city agencies valued youth as stakeholders. With this in mind, participants visited DC parks and neighbourhoods and considered what makes a public space inclusive, accessible, and welcoming. … We also examined how young people can be discouraged from gathering in public spaces through unintended or intended design choices, such as metal work that prevents skate boarding, or posted signage banning loud music and loitering. We explored how feeling confident in a public space first requires feeling included.”

• Check out one of my new projects: I have transformed a corner of my yard into a cozy little nook with a couple of concrete benches where anyone can sit and rest.

Easy Peasy Rainwater Collection

Here are some “liner notes” from my TikTok video “Easy Peasy Rainwater Collection.” (If you can’t access TikTok, you can see a photo on my DEEP GREEN Facebook page.)

Tips:

  • Scooping water into watering can is great exercise! I used to spend so much time & money “working out” at the gym
  • “Peace Corps shower” using an old veggie can dipped into a pot of rainwater is a great way to cool off and wash off dirt from feet & whole body
  • Roof of 1000 sf house can collect up to 623 gal of beautiful free cloud-juice for every inch of rainfall! (Homeschool math exercise potential abounds!)
  • Tubs can serve as mini outdoor pools, fun for kids of all ages including you and me!
  • Discourage mosquitoes breeding, and keep insects, frogs, etc from drowning in the tub by keeping the tub covered with screen, and/or using the water promptly
  • As great as rainwater collection in tubs is, the REAL rainwater collection powerhouse is turning your yard into a “sponge” of plants and healthy soil, decaying logs etc. You can transform your yard into a rich cool oasis that requires no irrigation other than what falls from the sky!

Building Frustration-Tolerance

Not long ago, in my online meanderings, I ran across a phrase: “low frustration-tolerance.” Even though I’d never heard this phrase before, I knew right away what it meant. And, that it described me.

The other day was a prime example. I needed to repair the rooftop garden box on my Little Free Library; the box (a discarded desk drawer) had come apart at the corners, and if I didn’t fix it, soil and plants would be falling out in short order. Well, nothing was going right. My fingers felt as nimble as lead baseball bats; the scrap wood was super hard to saw and drill holes in; the nails and screws were rusty and/or just too soft for the wood. I was furious with myself and the physical universe in turns.

Over the course of my life, and particularly in recent years, I have been amazed to find out that certain qualities I had always thought were indelible character defects, obnoxious personality attributes, or moral failings on my part, were actually just a lack of certain skills in the emotional realm. Skills that could be learned and practiced. Skills such as … learning to tolerate frustration.

I actually think our modern consumerist society, collectively, suffers from low frustration-tolerance. It sort of goes with the whole “instant gratification” thing. So it’s no surprise that this phrase would have come into the lexicon of popular psychology in recent years.

Anyway, in case some of you might have experienced this too, here are some things that have helped me build up a bit of frustration-tolerance:

• Notice that this is what’s going on. And saying to myself, “You’re not stupid or inept; you’re just experiencing low frustration-tolerance.” Surprisingly, this by itself often helps.

• Also, responding to negative self-talk with matter-of-fact reminders about the physical universe. For example, if I chide myself for being weak or feeble for taking so long to saw a board or breaking a drill bit in the board, I’ll respond, “You knew this batch of old fence wood is super hard, maybe it just wasn’t the right choice for this project.” Or if I call myself a dumbass who can’t even hammer nails in straight, I might respond, “Next time we’re at the hardware store, we could ask for a recommendation of nails and screws that are good for super hard wood, and buy a few of those to have on hand.” And so on.

• Also: allowing myself to take breaks when I get really overwhelmed with frustration. Taking breaks, as opposed to quitting. For me, a break could be taking a walk, or eating something (hey! I forgot to eat lunch! maybe that’s part of why I got so frazzled!). Another break for me is engaging in some totally easy but useful task. (The other day when I got frazzled by the library repair, I took about a half hour breather by cleaning my art paintbrushes, straightening out my paint containers, and tidying up my landscaping tool bucket. It was very soothing and restorative.)

In the end, my library’s rooftop garden box ended up repaired, though not as squarely and tightly as I might have liked. And let’s just say some baling wire and old bicycle-tire innertubes were involved (two of my favorite fastening materials when nothing else is working)! Part of building frustration-tolerance, for me, is being able to leave a task at an OK stopping point when it really feels like I’ve done all I can for that day — and knowing that I can go back in later on another day when my mind and hands are fresh.

Further Exploration:

Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance; book by Angela Duckworth. I read this book a couple of years ago and loved it! Also check out her gem of a 6-minute TED Talk by the same title.

• “Not Always Easy” (DailyOM.com). “Some of our goals and dreams come to fruition so easily that it is as if an unseen hand has done much of the work for us. When this happens, we say it must have been meant to be. On the other hand, when dreams and goals require a tremendous amount of effort, we may interpret this to mean that our dream is not meant to be. However, difficulty is not necessarily a sign that our hopes and plans are ill-fated. … There is a unique satisfaction that comes to us when we succeed at something that has been a challenge. Our sense of self-reliance expands, and our ability to endure and keep the faith is stronger for having been tested. We learn that we are capable of confronting and overcoming the obstacles in our path, and this empowers us to dream still bigger dreams, knowing that we will not be daunted by the challenges inherent in birthing them.”

“Dr. Becky Doesn’t Think the Goal of Parenting Is to Make Your Kid Happy” (David Marchese; nytimes.com). (Often I have found parenting articles useful in my ongoing work to understand my own mind and retrain it as needed): “Is happiness the goal of parenting? No. Anybody who had a childhood in which happiness was the goal would be predestined for a lifetime of anxiety — life is full of distress! What’s something that’s distressing as a kid? It could be, ‘My tower fell down.’ If happiness were the goal then my behavior would be, ‘Look, we fixed your tower, it’s fine.’ What would I be wiring into my child by doing that? The more we focus on becoming happy, the less tolerance we have for distress and the more we search to feel any other way than how we’re feeling — which is the experience of anxiety. So what’s an alternative response to ‘My tower fell down’? It wouldn’t be me saying, ‘Tough, things happen.’ It’s the accumulation of feeling alone in our feelings as kids that gives us adult struggles. So how would I not do aloneness? Through presence. My kid’s tower falls down? I would try to say: ‘I’m not going to rebuild it. I’m going to stay here with you’; and maybe it’s [sings] ‘Towers fall down and that really stinks.’… [P]arents almost have to think, Where is frustration built into my kid’s life? So that when those frustrating moments come, the kid’s body says, ‘Oh, this is part of living; I know how to do this’ instead of, ‘This should not be happening; I have no skills to deal with it.’ Which is actually very sad.”

Low frustration tolerance (Wikipedia article). “Low frustration tolerance (LFT), or ‘short-term hedonism,’ is a concept utilized to describe the inability to tolerate unpleasant feelings or stressful situations. It stems from the feeling that reality should be as wished, and that any frustration should be resolved quickly and easily. People with low frustration tolerance experience emotional disturbance when frustrations are not quickly resolved. … Behaviors are then directed towards avoiding frustrating events which, paradoxically, leads to increased frustration and even greater mental stress. … Ellis said the path to tolerance consisted of many roads, including unconditional self-acceptance, unconditional other-acceptance and unconditional life-acceptance.”

A Rose By Any Other Name

I’ve often heard people say, “A ‘weed’ is just a word for a plant that’s growing where you don’t want it.”

But that isn’t really true, is it! Think about it: If someone gets a volunteer rosebush or fruit tree springing up on their property (lucky person!), while they might not want it in the place where it happened to spring up, they would still be unlikely to refer to that rosebush or fruit tree as a “weed.”

What a so-called “weed” actually is, is a wild plant whose name and attributes we have not yet learned. “We” being so-called “sophisticated, modern” humans — because for sure whatever that plant is, it has been long named and known by people indigenous to the place where the plant came from.

There’s no shame in not knowing a plant’s name and attributes. Even the real plant experts probably don’t know them all. Where the shame lies is in disparaging and demonizing plants that we have not bothered to learn about. It’s the same disrespectful, throwaway attitude that underlies the whole consumer-industrialist-colonizer culture.

In permaculture design, one of the ethics is “care of people and all other species.” It includes the idea that every species has value and serves its role in the ecosystem.

Does this mean we have to allow every plant that springs up in our space to stay there? No — but I will say the more I learn about the various wild plants I meet, the less inclined I am to want to get rid of any plant that appears in my yard. Of course this doesn’t mean you’re obligated to (for example) allow a plant with huge thorns or stinging hairs to stay right next to your child’s swingset, your dog’s potty area, or whatever.

Want to help decolonize the dominant culture? Learn the names and attributes of plants that grow wild in your area. The ones most people write off as “weeds.” You’ll discover all sorts of free food and medicine, and you’ll start to see beauty everywhere.

Suggested places to start: Look up permaculture guilds, bioregional groups, native-plant societies, wildflower associations, foragers’ groups in your region. You can also try doing a search on “weed walk” plus the name of your city/county/region. If you can’t find such organizations right in your local area, check at the state level.

Speaking of so-called “weeds,” you might enjoy this micro meadow I planted on the roof of my new addition to my Little Free Library. The plants I planted in the little box include blanket flower, spiderwort, wild plantain, and Florida peppergrass. (I dug them up from an empty lot that I knew was probably about to get mowed because it was starting to look soft, meadowy, flowery, and uneven in length. All great sins to the turfgrass industry!) It gives me great joy to showcase the beauty of wildflowers and other wild plants in this way.

Alt-Lifestyle Answers to the “Big Questions” on Health Insurance, Old-Age Security, and More (Part 2)

In Part 1 of this post, I shared a video by Rob Greenfield, in which Rob brings up the “big usual questions” regarding finance, old-age security, health insurance, etc. The questions that a lot of us hear, when we embark on alternative lifestyle paths. If you haven’t watched the video yet, I highly recommend it; think you will find it an excellent use of 45 minutes — and those of you who know me know I don’t say that lightly, as I have low tolerance for sitting through videos when I find it so much more efficient to take things in by reading.

In my life, I have adopted an approach that is very similar to Rob’s in terms of deliberately chosen income level, occupation, property-sharing, health, and old-age security. Here, as promised in Part 1, I’ll outline what these choices look like in my life.

Income: Same as Rob, I’ve chosen to keep my financial overhead ultra low and keep my income level at or below the poverty line. I do this to avoid paying taxes for war (though, unlike Rob, I do file taxes and pay Social Security and other self-employment taxes*). I also keep my income at the minimum level I need because, according to my observations, income inequality is a huge driver of destruction of ecosystems and indigenous cultures around the world. (*Rob does “tax himself” by donating all of his media income to environmentally and socially beneficial nonprofit organizations.) Rob does not plan to collect Social Security at all; I do, assuming it is available still by the time I’m 65.

Insurance; health: Same as Rob, I have no health insurance and I just do my best to minimize encounters with the conventional medical system. I share his conviction that lifestyle choices carry a lot of weight in one’s state of health. Like him, I just pay out of pocket when an emergency comes up (such as last summer when a cut on my leg got septic and I had to go to the ER). Same as him, if a bigger emergency came up than the $1,000 I had to pay the ER and pharmacy last summer, I’d just have to work out a payment plan with the hospital, as anyone else does when they can’t pay all at once. Rob talks about how he was once able to pay a dental expense by doing some social-media work for the dentist. I’ve never actually traded labor for medical services, but one time about 20 years ago an ER doctor bought some of my handmade jewelry that I happened to be wearing, and even though the amount was modest it did help me pay my bill. I concur with Rob’s observation that even people who have health insurance are not immune from getting medical bills that leave them in debt for life. Same as Rob, if I were to get cancer or something I would forgo chemo and all that. Unlike Rob, I am open to getting health insurance if my income reaches the minimum level for me to qualify. In the meantime, I advocate for either Medicare-for-all, or a total dismantling of the health insurance system altogether.

Banking; money: Rob has no bank account or credit cards. I have both, but the credit cards have modest limits, and regarding bank account, my general policy is to keep only a minimum amount of money stockpiled. I do have some money left from my inheritance (after tithing to various nonprofits and community causes), and right now it’s sitting in the bank but I’m engaged in discussions with some colleagues about possible local enterprises to co-invest it in (I’m not seeking financial return, but rather, social capital and helping to produce something beneficial for my community). Before I inherited money, my bank accounts were just portals where I stored tiny amounts of money to pay bills online and such.) Same as Rob, I do not invest in the stock market. The bulk of my inheritance is invested in my house (which also contains my workplace: office and studio); also, I have a share in a permaculture farm/education center here in my home state.

Phone: Rob doesn’t have a smartphone. I do, and consider it an essential tool for my work. I assume he must do his videos and writings and such on a laptop computer.

Property ownership: Rob does not own property (other than a few clothes and work tools etc.), and he does labor in lieu of paying rent. I currently “own” my house (“own” in quotes because I don’t really believe we can own a place even if we have purchased it free and clear as I was able to do) and rent out rooms to housemates to help cover the modest expenses of the house, and to provide people with stable, low-cost housing. I aspire more toward co-ownership though, and like a lot of other middle-aged and older people, am not interested in growing old by myself in a whole house. Regarding property, it struck me that whether a person chooses non-ownership or ownership, either one can include sharing of property, which is highly beneficial for people, communities, and ecosystems. Also: I have been doing some explorations toward making parts of my place “porous,” as in public or semi-public. One longtime element of “porosity” at my place is the Little Free Library I have installed along the fence. I’m getting ready to double the library’s capacity. And, today I’ve opened up my fence at the corner by the stop sign, and am putting a couple of small concrete benches there for anyone to stop and sit in the shade.

Work: Same as Rob, I have chosen a freelance occupation that involves raising people’s awareness of how to live lightly on the earth, regenerate ecosystems, and work for a kind and equitable society. Same as Rob, I don’t ever plan to retire per se, though as the body ages, I expect I’d be focused more on writing and teaching than on the manual labor that is part of my current work mix. (Then again I have seen and met many quite elderly farmers and gardeners, the defining attribute being that they were working on a human scale with hand-tools and a slow steady pace, as opposed to a large scale with industrial equipment and a fast pace.) I share Rob’s faith that I’ll always be able to find some way to make myself useful in community.

Marriage, kids: I am not anti-marriage, but I share Rob’s belief that people can have enduring relationships without an official piece of paper from the government. Also, like Rob, I chose not to have kids, and I share Rob’s view that there are plenty of kids already out there in the world who could use some extra care and attention. However, I know plenty of people who have children and who have still chosen to embark on a path of minimizing their need to participate in financialized sectors. So there’s no need to feel you can’t do this and also have kids.

Dating: Rob’s posts always seem to elicit at least a few negative comments along the lines of, “Who would date this person? How can he find people to date?” [because of his lifestyle] etc etc. I haven’t seen him stoop to answering such comments, which seem to just be petty jabs from trolls or envious people, but I do have an answer to those questions. For people living alternative lifestyles, dating and finding relationships is no more or less difficult than for “mainstream” people. Even “mainstream” people don’t have smooth sailing. Everyone pretty much deals with the same stuff. The challenge of connecting, meeting new people, finding someone compatible. Unrequited love; attractions that fizzle; connections that seem strong at first but don’t stand the test of time. Obviously “alternative” folks are going to tend to gravitate toward other “alternative” folks (though not always! many relationships cross that divide, and last a lifetime). But the assumption that dating and relationships must be harder for those of us living non-mainstream lifestyles is incorrect. Who knows, maybe some aspects are even easier for us, since we have learned not to let money and other material stuff dominate our relationships or override emotional affinities.

Old-age security: Same as Rob, I feel strongly that the best form of security is the social capital we build up throughout our lives by working with people, helping people. I don’t plan on ever needing to be warehoused in a “care facility” that I would not have money to afford. There are other things I would choose first, such as voluntary death with dignity, which is now legal in a couple of states and I hope will become legal in more places. In the wealthy industrialized world, mainstream society has come to see stockpiles of money as being necessary for, and even synonymous with, old-age security. But when we go down that road, we tend to find that no amount of stockpiled money (or stuff) ever feels like “enough” for us to feel secure. What I have found most helpful to my security is 1) reflect on what “security” means, for me. I realized that for me, security is a combination of (A) knowing that I will always have some kind of value to contribute, even if it’s something basic like shelling nuts or tending chickens or watering plants. And of course there’s making art or teaching permaculture design principles or helping people process emotions and so on. And let’s not forget storytelling, one of the best and most overlooked (by today’s society of monetized and centralized entertainment) things all of us elders have to offer. And (B) knowing that I have at least a few friends/colleagues who’d be willing to take care of me if I ever need it. (And if the shoe were on the other foot, I’d be happy to take care of them.) And 2) Another thing that has allowed me to achieve security is always caring about something bigger that just myself and my own needs. A wider focus of caring helps me feel less worried about my own concerns because I can feel them as part of a bigger picture. Like, for example, instead of worrying about “my personal housing security in old age,” I find it grounding and empowering to direct my attention to “working with my community to expand the housing ecosystem to include more options for elderly citizens and people of modest means.” It might seem counterintuitive, but I have found that focusing too much on just my own personal security makes me less secure. Not only makes me feel less secure; but actually makes me less secure. Focusing on the bigger picture, security for everyone, is the rising tide that lifts all boats. An even bigger-picture version of this is to question the elements of modern society that have people feeling so insecure in the first place. Most of it comes down to the fact that we’ve replaced care, connection, and community with financial instruments. And we intuitively know that the latter are very brittle compared with the former. The antidote is simple (if challenging sometimes): Cultivate care, connection, and community! In today’s world, it’s a downright revolutionary and heroic practice.

Death: Rob freely admits that, being only in his 30s, he’s not necessarily the best spokesperson regarding death. As a 60-year-old, though, I totally share his attitude that death is just part of life, and that instead of fearing death and taking extreme measures to prolong life at all costs, we should simply live fully right now, and be ready to die when it’s our time. For me, a big part of being at peace with death is trying to avoid leaving words unsaid with my loved ones. This is a work in progress and can be easier said than done sometimes, but I always just do my best, keep plugging away. Another big part of being at peace with death, for me, is spiritual beliefs and spiritual practice. A lot of people I know have had very bad experiences with church, spiritual “gurus”, and such. But I would say don’t let those bad experiences keep you from cultivating your own spiritual beliefs, your own personal relationship with your notion of a higher power.

Water Is Life

It’s a popular phrase and so true. If a region or society destroys its water sources, that’s pretty much the end of things. And not just because we require water to drink and to water our gardens: Recently I learned that the water cycle is the biggest temperature-stabilizing mechanism on the planet.

Soil is essential to life as well. Kudos to all of you who are working on building healthy soil. Besides growing trees and crops, healthy soil (soil with a healthy population of microbes and fungi) sequesters massive amounts of carbon — even more carbon the huge amounts stored by trees and other vegetation!

Working on restoring the water cycle leads to healthier soil. Working on soil leads to healthier water. You can’t go wrong by focusing on water, soil, or both.

Following is a compilation of some good articles and videos that have come into my inbox recently, about water and the water cycle.

I’ll also dig up some wonderful old standbys that I have often made reference to in my book and on this blog.

I would love for all city public-works employees and elected officials to see these.

New finds:

“West to get 1-2 more climate hits; Study: Wildfires, heavy downpours will become a frequent occurrence” (Seth Borenstein, Associated Press; in Daytona Beach News-Journal). “The one-two punch of nasty wildfires followed by heavy downpours, triggering flooding and mudslides, will strike the U.S. West far more often in a warming- hopped world, becoming a frequent occurrence, a new study said. That fire-flood combination, with extreme drenchings hitting a spot that burned within a year, could increase as much as eightfold in the Pacific Northwest, double in California and jump about 50% in Colorado by the year 2100 in a worst-case climate change scenario of increasing greenhouse gas emissions, according to a study in Friday’s Science Advances. The study said that as humancaused climate change intensifies, 90% of extreme fire events will be followed by at least three extraordinary downpours in the same location within five years.” (This article is written about the Western US but it really pertains to all of us. Cautionary tale of the direction we are headed in with mainstream approaches to development, water stewardship, land management.)

“Turning Cities into Sponges to Save Lives and Property” (Tatiana Schlossberg; nytimes.com). “Imagine a sponge. Swipe it over a wet surface and it will draw up water; squeeze it and the water will trickle out. Now imagine a city made of sponges, or spongelike surfaces, able to soak up rainwater, overflowing rivers or ocean storm surges and release stored water during droughts. Engineers, architects, urban planners and officials around the world are seeking ways to retrofit or reconstruct cities to better deal with water — basically, to act more like sponges. While water management has always been an essential service in cities, climate change, combined with urban expansion into wetlands and floodplains, is making flooding and drought worse at the same time.”

“Reviving Rivers, with Dr. Rajendra Singh” (YouTube video; Water Stories). “We are incredibly excited to release the trailer for our next film, Reviving Rivers. This film is about Dr. Rajendra Singh, also known as the Water Man of India. For three decades, he has helped thousands of villages build water retention features across rural Rajasthan. This work has led to the resurrection of rivers, the reversal of drought, increased rainfall, and water availability for more than 1 million people. This film tells the story of how that all came to be. You can watch the trailer now, by following the link below. The full film will be released on April 27th on the Water Stories Community.” Go here to subscribe to Water Stories YouTube channel and see the film when it comes out. They have many other excellent films as well.

“Hope in a World of Crisis: Decentralized Water Retention” (Water Stories). 11-minute video sums things up concisely. With beautiful, readily understandable animated graphics. This is where I learned that the water cycle is the biggest temperature-stabilizing mechanism on earth.

Wonderful old standbys:

“Planting the Rain to Grow Abundance” (YouTube video; Brad Landcaster). 17-minute TED talk summarizes key principles of rainwater harvesting, stormwater mitigation, rehydration of deserts. Along with being a deeply knowledgeable and incredibly entertaining speaker, Brad is author of the Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond books. (Which I think of as “Rainwater Harvesting for ALL Lands.”) Brad’s website harvestingrainwater.com is packed with visuals and other resources. On a personal note, I actually HAVE done the thing he mentions in his video, running outside at 3am in my underwear to dance with joy when long-awaited rain starts falling and filling my rainbarrels.

Alt-Lifestyle Answers to the “Big Questions” on Health Insurance, Old-Age Security, and More

In this video “Rob Greenfield on Money, Health Insurance, Age and Death,” Rob Greenfield brings up the “big usual questions” regarding finance, old-age security, health insurance, etc. The questions that a lot of us hear, when we embark on alternative lifestyle paths. I’m a longtime fan of Rob’s work and have often mentioned him in my talks and writings.

Rob’s answers to these questions — how he has deliberately addressed these topics in the design of his life — are the closest I’ve heard anyone express to my own philosophy and the resulting solutions I’ve chosen.

No two lives are alike, and Rob has always, throughout his writings and talks, emphasized that he’s not trying to tell us we all should adopt his same lifestyle choices.

Myself, for example, at this stage of my life I have chosen to own a house and live in a fixed location and have a bank account. BUT in the bigger-picture sense, I have adopted an approach that is very similar to his in terms of deliberately chosen income level, occupation, property-sharing, health, and old-age security. (I’ll be writing another blog post soon about what these choices look like in my life, and will share the link here when I do.) Update: Here is the link to Part 2 of this post. http://www.jennynazak.com/2022/04/04/alt-lifestyle-answers-to-the-big-questions-on-health-insurance-old-age-security-and-more-part-2/ (If you get an “invalid link” message, I apologize! Just try pasting the link into your browser window. Or, you can simply reach the Part 2,post by scrolling; it’s just the second entry after this one.)

Rob’s point is that we should live deliberately and not feel hamstrung by the default settings of mainstream “rich industrialized middle-class” society. A lot of the default settings are very destructive to people and ecosystems all over the world. We can and must feel free to create our own lives! Not only for the greater good of all beings, but for our own benefit as well.

Important note: When someone chooses a lifestyle that departs from the mainstream in certain ways (particularly in terms of conventional middle-class notions of “security”), some people’s reaction is to get defensive and try to shame the person, poke holes in that person’s choices. My advice if you feel tempted to do that is to look at the big picture and really see how sane and honorable Rob’s stance is. And see how you might benefit from translating some of his ideas into your own life, goals, needs, & circumstances.

Based on the comments to this YouTube video, a LOT of people are ready to question society’s default settings and participate more deliberately in the design of their own lives. Thank you to Rob for being such an inspiring example!

PS. Rob has tons of videos & podcasts so if you like this one, there’s lots more where that came from.

PPS. If regenerative finance, community, and true security beyond money interests you, I would be remiss in not also mentioning my friend and fellow Florida permie Laura Oldanie, Rich & Resilient Living. She’s an outstanding thinker and writer, and offers a treasure trove of links to many other thinkers & writers on this subject. Here’s her blog! https://www.richandresilientliving.com — and I recommend her TikTok channel too. Today she put out this TikTok video that gives some helpful pointers about the power of our bank accounts.