SO I finished another documentary last night and seriously, at the end, I was very "doom and despair".
I must be gullible. I reread my last post this morning and had to do a little self calming.
*breathe in, breathe out* Cup of coffee, some more reading time. This time focus was researching "Peak Oil Debunked".
One case in point, that I missed, is that most of this hype I am just now reading about was years 2004-2008.
Well folks, it's 2010. 'Nuff said right?
Then I was reading about politicians using Peak Oil as a scare tactic. (It works really well too, might I add.)
Bottom line, I still believe that this oil crisis COULD be a valid scenario. But now I want to discuss the "Rule of Anyway". I have taken the term from "Depletion and Abundance", however it is something I have long since believed and practiced, just never had a name for it.
Think of it in this term:
I read some crazy survival blog the other day that had this hype growing for saving nickels (the reasons being that it will be a good source of currency in the future for reasons listed in this particular blog). So I said to John, "Why don't we start saving nickels?" He responded in a manner of saying I'm nuts. :) So I responded by pointing out one little fact.... "If we save nickels and this scenario pans out we win. If it doesn't, well shit, we have a crap load of nickels saved, cash em in and we can take a vacation. We win again."
That's how I define the "Rule of Anyway".
SO if I keep Peak Oil in the back of my mind, and still move forward with a more simple lifestyle, how can we lose???
Most of the steps that doom and gloom people say we should change, are actually just common sense things that could benefit us in the end.... here are some awesome examples:
1. STOP DRIVING (Peak Oil Suggests)
-- How is this a bad thing? Start walking, start riding bikes, start staying home more often.... positive results with OUT regard to Peak Oil? We become more healthy, we lose weight, our hearts work more efficiently, we save money by not spending it on expensive vehicle repairs and upkeep, we save money by not buying gas, we save money by staying home, period.
2. START LEARNING TO GROW YOUR OWN FOOD (Peak Oil Suggests)
-- Start learning about vegetables, fruits, grains, and all things that we can make for ourselves. Again, not a bad thing either way right? We are educating ourselves about food, it's nutritional value, and how much work goes into the substances we put into our bodies. It's obviously more healthy for us as well. In the end, we are smarter, more capable, more healthy, and we save money, again. You can not argue with the fact that a pack of seeds is much more cheap then buying 1 tomato! I have 5 tomato plants right now. It cost me roughly $1.00 to plant them. I use recycled rainwater, our own compost, and free sunlight to nourish them. And they will provide me with an overabundance of tomatoes to feed my family with. How is this not better then driving to the grocery store and paying OVER $1.00 a pound for a non-organically grown tomato?
3. START LEARNING TO LIVE WITH LESS ELECTRICITY, WATER, AND OIL. (Peak Oil Suggests)
-- Once again, not bad for us at all! Did you know that you can recycle rain water? Did you know that it can cut the costs of your water bill drastically? We use ours so the kids can have water gun fights, so that we can water our garden and flowers, to clean our feet off, etc. etc. Also, cutting back on AC and using natural heating methods in winter... AWESOME for saving money on bills, which in term reduces our dependency on Big Bad Companies. How can we lose? Really?
4. START LEARNING BASIC SURVIVAL SKILLS (Peak Oil Suggests)
-- Well this one is a no brainer. Why NOT learn basic survival skills? Why shouldn't we teach children or ourselves how to start a fire from nothing? Why not learn basic first aid? These are all things that at some point in our lives, may become a very useful piece of information to have on hand....
5. START LEARNING HOW TO BUILD THINGS OURSELVES (Peak Oil Suggests)
-- This is just important period. We take for granted every day the fact that whatever we WANT, poof! Drive to the store and it's available. Well why? Why don't we take the time to learn how to construct or build with our own two hands? There is something to be said about human ingenuity and imagination. It is in fact, how we have found ourselves in this little dilemma no? The human brain, the capacity for learning and using it, is infinite. I know that I certainly don't want my children growing up thinking the world can just be handed to you, it makes the brain stagnant. Use it, or lose it.
Well, there's 5 for now. I could go on with a huge list but in the end, the "Rule of Anyway" is a good rule to live by.
If we, as a society, could start functioning in a less needy and more intelligent way of living it can do SO much for us! So many things that plague us could be eliminated if we get back to the core relationships between us and the earth! Some other common sense rationals for this.... Say we start encouraging more walking and outside activities for our children, more education about their food, more education on how to grow it? We could slowly eliminate childhood obesity, ADHD, ADD, ODD, childhood disease! Say we do the same to ourselves? We could eliminate the dangerous chemicals we put into our body! We could see a decline in adult obesity, high cholesterol, hypertension, diabetes, even CANCER!
Say we work our asses off to learn how to live NON-dependent to the companies that control our daily lives such as the water companies, the energy companies, the local Wal Mart??? (John-- pay attention) Well shit! We could learn how to live with LESS MONEY! You know what this means right? For those of us who HATE the daily 9-5, this is KEY! We could WORK LESS. We could enjoy life more. We could reduce the cycle of stress that keeps us from spending play time with our children, learning time with our children.... we could spend our days in an unhurried life, instead of work, rush, work, rush, just to pay some bill that provides us comfort for a short time, until we have to return to the work and rush cycle. Our attitudes would improve, our relationships with each other and our neighbors would improve. Our blood pressure would drop, our mentality would improve. You can't tell me that weeding a garden (which is a job) is far more stressful then getting up, going to work everyday, to be taxed, to spend that money at the grocery store, to fill us with non-nutritional food and line the pockets of CEO's of big companies. Can you argue with that? If you can, I'm open.....
In summation, the "Rule of Anyway" sounds to me like an awesome way to live and be.
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