Think Before You Spend

The data now backs up the belief I’ve long held about those individuals at the lower end of the affluent and higher education spectrum and their impact on the planet.  It doesn’t take a graduate degree in systems design to understand that more education and more wealth OFTEN equate to more spending and a larger ecological footprint. I know and work with many highly educated and wealthy individuals who express their status through vacations, multiple cars, large houses, boats, etc.

Tag Green America

I receive a tremendous amount of “call to action” e-mails from organizations I belong to, most of which I skim through for juicy tidbits.  Sometimes I may forward them to another friend, but mostly, I like to live and let live.  I have a friend that e-mails me updates on local environmental news as it’s unfolding.  He/she is a dear, but it doesn’t take too many of these e-mails and I feel overwhelmed and/or helpless.  Living in Florida with a depressed economy, the e-mails are mounting, as one program after another is being slashed.

Dogfennel

Contrary to popular belief, I have not abandoned my blog.  I’ve simply found that more of my time these days is spent reading, writing papers and working on community and personal projects.  That doesn’t mean I don’t have material to blog about, I most certainly do.  For instance, the youngin’ is “individuating”, as my dear friend Cynthia likes to say.  That means my only child has moved out of the house, somewhat prematurely.  Another for instance, the mead has been racked and was a big hit at a couple gatherings.  One more, in my move toward a more abundant life, we now have a papaya, a granny smith, red banana and a fig tree planted in the yard. Albeit, a bit crowded in the space I planted, though they are in and seem happy for the moment.  Well, they aren’t ALL planted but that’s on my list of things to do today.

Ah, the Emerald Coast

I just couldn’t help myself.  I saw this article and I was hysterical.  I was instantly inspired to write about it.  Upon further reflection, I thought JHK would do it better justice.  I ripped off an e-mail to JHK and was delighted this morning to see a reply.  Not that I didn’t think he read his e-mail, but I certainly had the impression he had quite a bit of it to wade through.  Because I read JHK every day, hope to see him in person at some point in my life and love his satirical, punchy and descriptive prose, I had to post our short correspondence…for the archives.

Dear Jim,
I am an avid reader of Cluster*uck Nation and thought you’d be interested in this article.  Well, not really interested, or surprised really, it’s just another absurdity of our times.  “Realtors Pray for Better Times” http://www.nwfdailynews.com/article/6725, just a few short miles from Seaside, FL.  Huh??  I guess they haven’t read The Long Emergency or don’t connect the real estate bust with maybe someone upstairs is trying to tell us something.  Maybe instead of praying for a resurgance of house sales and well, let’s face it, more destruction of the planet, they should be praying for another way to feed themselves.  Hey, I’m in this growth industry as well and you better believe I’m working on some other skills to survive the long emergency.  The world and especially the Emerald Coast has too many realtors and designers (myself included) as it is.  The lull in the housing market isn’t hurting my feelings, Im spending more time in the garden and getting acquanted with my neighbors both human and otherwise.  When will these people get a clue and how can that preacher seriously lead a prayer asking God to allow these realtors to continue their profession by exploiting this planet some more.  It’s simply mind boggling.  Ta-ta and I hope you get to Seaside some day again soon.  I’ll be there!

His reply:

http://www.nwfdailynews.com/article/6725

Hey, thanks for this.  I just posted it on “The Daily Grunt” http://www.kunstler.com/ That part of Florida has just exploded beyond all limits. Seaside and Rosemary Beach were great things.  But all the wannabes and copycats maye have come to the party too late.I hope they don’t get whacked by storms on top of this.

Jim
“It’s All Good”
(“Va Tutto Bene“)

Fun stuff.