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A permie friend asked:

“I often am torn between the beauty of art and music, and then pondering how that energy could have been applied to figuring out how to grow food and live sustainably, helping to restore and revitalize ecosystems so that our descendants have a planet where they CAN do art and music?”

My take:

(TL; DR: Meditation and comfort, transcendence and taking joy in beauty, are arguably functions that are essential for human life. We are more than just biological organisms.)

For the entire history of humankind, even societies that seem to live hand to mouth have always had art. I think we need the arts (including music) to make life worth living.

Not only do I think we can have both; I am pretty sure it’s mandatory.

When I was a bit younger, I used to beat myself up. I thought of myself as frivolous for being called to art and humanities. I reproached myself for not having the skill or discipline to study hard science and know how to do plumbing and build bridges and stuff. But then the insight of a couple paragraphs up suddenly occurred to me. About how even the most hand-to-mouth societies have always had art and music in some form. Hmmm, I thought, So maybe the arts aren’t so frivolous after all!

I think it’s possible that USA American colonizer society is the only society in human history that has ever tried to treat music and the arts, and beauty in general, as optional. I think the results speak for themselves. The most materially wealthy society in history is desperately poor in all the ways that matter.

If the arts and music didn’t exist, I couldn’t get motivated to get out of bed in the morning, let alone lift a fork to my mouth, let alone scrabble in the soil to grow the stuff that goes on the fork.

This brings to mind a quote attributed to Winston Churchill. When someone said we have to cut the arts for the defense budget, he supposedly said something along the lines of, “Well if we cut the arts, what are we fighting for?”

I would say the same concept applies to the permie obsession with growing food. Which of course is necessary, but all too often with us white permies seems to come at the expense of all else, including building community, living near our loved ones, and working for the upliftment of all fellow humans and other fellow creatures. The extreme obsessive focus on physical food-growing feels like a big cognitive drain.

Divide and conquer! Except in this case, it’s us voluntarily dividing ourselves, by willingly going out into BFE with just one or two other people, and grubbing potatoes or whatever. When all over the world and throughout history, people have done that collectively in community.

If all we do is grow food in our own backyards or some remote acreage, what the heck are we growing food for? Just for our own biological survival? This is not what permaculture is about. And it certainly won’t make a sustainable society. It feels to me like a voluntary descent into hardscrabble times.

I might even go far to say that a society that devotes all its resources to practicality at the expense of beauty — a society that treats beauty as optional — is ultimately a society that is … impractical!! Which is definitely unsustainable.

<insert image of American Gothic painting, that iconic painting of the dour-faced farm couple (by Grant Wood; 1930>

PS. Art and music lift us to other realms. Remind us that other realms exist. As another commenter put it, art and music “help us realize the palpable aspects of other dimensions.” I think that might be why some super strict religions are against music and art, at least music and art that are not directly religious. Because it poses a threat to authoritarianism by allowing us to travel to other dimensions in our minds.

PPS. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Artists — including poets, novelists etc. — serve as a BS detector and moral compass for society. It’s surprisingly easy for a cloister of linear, factual, literal-minded people to go off the rails very quickly and lose their BS detectors. I have seen it firsthand with some of the sharpest science-brainy people I know. I have lost count of the times when I’ve been like, “Holy cannoli!! How does this person who’s so science-sharp and so much fact-smarter than me not see that the guy talking right now is obviously ‘off’ even though the sentences he’s putting together have internal validity and make grammatical sense?” In this sense the arts serve a physical, biological survival function for society too.

(This post grew out of my response to someone in the Deep Adaptation group who posted that they have basically given up family proximity for land. It’s a common thing in capitalist culture for people to think they need a bunch of land, and lots of people in the collapse-aware circles have gone to drastic extremes, moving away from strong community and close-by jobs to secure “ownership” of large pieces of land. This mother feels like she has to sacrifice the present to secure her children’s future.)

7 acres sounds really daunting and lonely, especially if it’s only going to be you guys having to do all the work. 3 acres sounds a little less daunting.

And the “eye-watering mortgage,” I’m so sorry. <broken-heart emoticon>

I sometimes feel that places like that are really unsafe compared with the safety of the people we love, and also of neighbors who can share the load. Also, loneliness and isolation are way underestimated as a factor in failure to thrive.

Have you met any of the neighbors? Do they have kids? Will you be homeschooling /unschooling? (Actually although I’m a city dweller, if I had kids right now I would totally want them to be unschooled, with various elements such as neighborhood service projects, working at family business, and online courses.)

I always worry when people who have not grown up in rural areas suddenly move out to rural acreage. Feels like having no other contact or minimal other contact with other people.

But, I recognize that people have different levels of wish for community / social interaction. I’m actually an introvert and yet I could never thrive in a suburban or rural area. I would actually feel more scared and vulnerable. Plus the sheer amount of work, And having to reinvent the wheel, such as teaching yourself how to grow everything, and failing by trial and error when people have been growing food, fiber, fodder, and fuel in community for thousands of years.

Well, I do know that people find a way. And I wish you and your family much joy, abundance, and beauty in your daily lives. It could be that you will find some elders and other community in your new place.

I do feel like our hyperindividualistic western industrialized culture underestimates the importance of community in resilience. And we seem to have maybe some ancestral programming regarding the idea that we can find more safety by moving out onto acreage. It’s the pioneer mentality, and I feel like we are doing a second injury on top of the injury we already did by colonizing this country. We are basically re-colonizing rural areas.

By the way, everyone in this group, whether or not we ever meet IRL … I so appreciate you all for the deep, authentic conversations we have in here on a daily basis — conversations that as we know are not to be taken for granted, as we can’t necessarily have these conversations with the people in our immediate IRL circles. I consider you all part of my wider family and community, and I wish you all health & joy as we stumble & experiment toward building resilience, whatever that looks like for each of us!!

If you are an activist / educator in the sustainability realm, almost every moment of everyday life can be an opportunity to extend our beneficial influence; share inspiring and useful information.

Even having a contractor visit your house to give an estimate for new windows etc.

Every little interaction you have, even if it’s by phone, you can be mentioning your various resilience things. I have actually worked rainwater collection and my solar oven into idle chitchat with bank tellers and computer tech support while we were waiting for a website to load.

So don’t underestimate the possibilities here!

I read in my local paper-newspaper that the Barbie movie has sparked a fad for vintage dolls. Along those lines, how might we in the low-footprint movement drive an anti-consumer fad?

What sort of movie characters, book characters, plot, and so on might spark a massive and glamorous anti-consumerist trend?

There could be some hilarious character who has a neurotic hatred of single-use plastic. Or a very refined, elegant, possibly sexy character who has the same hatred.

There could be a superhero whose kryptonite is single-use plastic.

There could be a villain who has a fetish for giant, tank-like cars that burn as much petroleum as possible.

There could be a really cool character who can’t stand to keep any money around and is always just putting it out into the community. And the character is joyful and carefree.

Just shallow musing off the top of my head here. There’s lots that could be explored.

Some of my favorite city scape depictions are from the solarpunk movement. I think tall Hong Kong or Tokyo-esque skyscrapers covered with vegetation and all manner of organic beauty.

Special note for fellow boomers: our generation is very very large in number, plus we have a lot of spending power. We started many many fads back in the day, and I hear we are still driving a lot of hot trends even in our geezerdom. So, how might we spark a massive craze for all things simple and anti-consumerist?

Another angle is super creative green. Like in my post “jenny’s corner” the other day I was imagining how I’d love to see our whole city be one giant rain-fed waterpark. With the slides and rides and attractions totally interlaced with, and overlaying, all the houses and shops and other buildings.

That might not be obviously anti-consumerist, as there would be an investment required in infrastructure. However, in the long view, it would be anti-consumerist, as people would be very nourished both physically and emotionally, which would probably stave off cravings for less beautiful, less joyful and soul-nourishing, and more fleeting pleasures.

If something like this waterpark-streetscape came into being, it would raise the bar for beauty and joy, while being ecologically beneficial. I can see it sparking a lot of popular trends.

My experiences living in Tokyo / traveling around Japan in the 1990s, traveling around the UK in the 1980s and a bit of continental Europe, were incredibly mind-expanding and life-changing to me.

I admire how so many of the people I met in other countries are so mindful in their use of resources. And live joyfully and luxuriously with so much less.

People raising whole families in apartments that are probably smaller than one of our cavernous, spooky-white USA kitchens. And they do it in style!

And how beautiful the cities and towns and villages are. The streetscapes.

This might sound like deprivation in relation to the typical big, shiny, everything-pressure-washed USA lifestyle, but in fact I found it elegant, warm, and beautiful.

That’s something that often gets missed by our convenience-centered, USA culture. The sheer beauty and warmth and JOY. I would never trade that for a driveway that’s wide enough to turn a giant tanklike SUV around, or a garage that can accommodate an entire fleet of vehicles. Or free parking, parking, everywhere, at the expense of community and beautiful shaded streets.

People sometimes call people who think like me communist or elitist because we care about the environment, and think certain ways from Europe or Japan or other places are better.

But actually I think it’s the opposite — I think a lot of our USA luxury lifestyle is incredibly wasteful and privileged and elitist.

Also, it can be a lot harder to create close, stable community in the USA than it is in places where people naturally live in closer quarters and have to share resources. It seems like the way we have set up our built environment is not only not conducive to closeness and community and joy, but can be downright erosive of those things.

In my everyday life I do my best to re-create all of the compact elegant beauty I loved so much in Japan and other places I have had the privilege to be able to spend time.

No, I don’t plan to leave the USA. But I do know that things can be a lot better and kinder and more joyous here, and I’m a big fan of taking a page from other countries’ books. And I will never stop trying to help create, everywhere, designs and spaces that are beautiful, warm, and conducive to sharing and connection and joy.

In a post on Facebook this morn, I mentioned that when I was younger I used to just quit a lot of stuff as soon as I hit any obstacle. (The post was about feeling frustrated with myself for not being able to figure out a public library app that I was trying to use in order to participate in our public library’s online book club).

Not long ago I learned there is a name for that aspect of my personality or consciousness. It’s called “low frustration-tolerance.” Kids at a very young age ideally are able to work through this and don’t become an adult who is like this.

However, I am mentioning this in case it might help other people who are in a similar boat.

Even if, like me, you get to adulthood and you’re still struggling with this, it’s possible to reprogram one’s mind and at least sometimes or even most of the time become more willing to sit with frustration and not bail out at the first sign of not understanding something.

I have ended up persisting and fixing or finding solutions to a lot of things that when I was younger I would just have quit or given up.

Many books & other resources have helped me regarding this. One book that helped me immensely is Grit, by Angela Duckworth. Her TED talk (which you can see on her website linked above) is excellent as well.

A blogger whose writings I always find very helpful is David at Raptitude. He writes a lot about navigating discouragement and procrastination. Also, he teaches courses; you can find the info on his website.

Sometimes it’s enough just to know that other people are navigating the same things and are succeeding.

Exercises I have found very very helpful are the Will exercises and Attention exercises of the Avatar Course materials. The exercises in many cases only take a couple of minutes or even a few seconds, so they are very helpful in extricating myself from stuck patterns such as self-berating.

Each month at my neighborhood watch meeting (Beachside Neighborhood Watch), I do a segment called jenny’s corner, which the group leader invited me to do as a regular feature. I try to fit it into three minutes, and try to combine practical advice with encouragement. People seem to enjoy it.

One of the other big neighborhood watch groups, Midtown Neighborhood Watch, now has me do a segment at their meeting too. I was very honored and delighted to be asked to start doing it. Many of us attend each other’s neighborhood watch meetings now. The community is definitely becoming more cohesive.

I am posting this month’s BNW edition of jenny’s corner here, in case it might be helpful to other people who might want to start a similar environmental awareness segment in their neighborhood groups.

Hi everyone! Sorry I can’t be here with you guys tonight, as I’m attending the meeting on gun violence. Thank you Amy or whoever is reading this on my behalf.

I’m glad to be able to attend the very important meeting about addressing the gun violence in our community.

On an environmental note: Studies have shown that extremely hot weather can lead to increased violence, including gun violence.

Extreme heat is one of the top threats to public health and safety in general. This threat can be expected to increase as time goes by. A lot of cities are appointing Chief Heat Officers. And some are planting shade-tree corridors to help people safely get from one place to another.

Each and every one of us can help too, by turning our spaces into cool pockets. When you’re walking on the sidewalk, you probably notice there are some cool pockets, usually near the trees and shrubs.

Speaking of trees, check out the flyer about how to properly care for our state tree, the Sabal palm. We’ve been spreading the word that excessive pruning is bad for the tree. It also jeopardizes our precious shade canopy and beachside beauty. If you want to help spread the word, please take a flyer (or take a picture of it with your phone). Thank you.

We thank the city of Daytona Beach for setting a good example of respecting the Sabal palm and other trees.

Another thing that helps cool things down is water. I have this crazy idea of turning my whole neighborhood into a waterpark, fed by nice cool fresh rainwater, all the way to ISB. I would totally volunteer to have a giant waterslide coming down from the roof of my house into a tropical pool!

Also I have an idea for a pirate-themed condo where they have canals instead of streets, and there’s a pirate boat running all day as a shuttle service for the residents.

We could have floating gardens growing all sorts of delicious fruits and vegetables. The ancient Aztecs had these floating gardens called chinampas. Some of these gardens are still around today! You can see pics and descriptions by googling.

Cool ideas involving water are fun to imagine in the hot summer. And who knows, maybe some of them might even come true in some form!

Peace and love everyone! Try to stay cool. And stay hydrated. Thank you all for caring for Mother Earth and our unique beachside environment.