Cohousing-L Mailing List: Cohousing and The Economic Crisis

[Susana Michaelis (susana]

Hello Friends,

I was so impressed by the submission by Zev Paiss, that I immediately 
sent it to our Pacific Gardens Cohousing members and to all my friends. 
I would like to share the response from one of my "greenest" friends. 
Thank you for your sharing your insights.
Susana Michaelis
Pacific Gardens Cohousing
www.pacificgardens.ca
Nanaimo, BC Canada

Here is her response:
Thanks for this, Susana. Peter and I find it so strange that telling 
people the truth is so often seen as "spreading doom and gloom" and 
causing people to "lose hope" and to feel despair. Everyone says they 
need hope. We counter that hope is not an action verb, and that what is 
actually needed is action. ("Hopeful action," perhaps, but action first 
and foremost.) We keep trying to point out that without understanding 
what's happening, especially re global warming and looming climate 
catastrophe, people won't actually become motivated enough to act, to 
change. And without action and change, we will surely spread doom and 
gloom, lose all hope and end up living out our days as a species in 
despair. The thought of inflicting all this on the children of any 
species makes me cry.

However, in the interests of speaking to people the way they want (or 
need? who knows) to be spoken to, we now point out that making this 
incredibly exciting transformation from our present dirty, unsafe, 
unhealthy, war-mongering, inequitable fossil-fuelled economy to an 
urgently needed renewable energy economy will ensure us a clean, safe, 
healthy, peaceful, equitable and perpetual future. In other words, we 
must take our hope from our action, not from our pretty words, and 
certainly not from our denial.

Sounds like co-housing and sustainable communities are onto it.
Julie

Julie Johnston
Pender Island, BC, Canada
GreenHeart Education
http://www.greenhearted.org/greening-the-curriculum.html



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