Author: jennynazak

Robin Greenfield’s latest experiment is to literally own absolutely nothing, not even any clothing. Naturally his post has sparked the usual chorus of naysayers and put-downers.

I wrote some thoughts in response.

A person in this country could give away everything they own, and still find enough manufactured stuff that’s been discarded. We could live for generations without manufacturing one more stitch of clothing or one more stick of furniture.

We have a house is full and yet we keep buying more and more new stuff. Or this is last year’s thing, so we throw it away and buy a new one to replace it.

One point that Rob’s experiment brings up for me is that in this country, even a person who temporarily doesn’t own any physical possessions can easily find more, and a lot of it is new stuff that people have thrown away.

People even throw away perfectly good food.

If we all kept only what we need & use, the planet would be a lot better off.

And:

We are all, always dependent on each other. An experiment in choosing to own nothing is one way to highlight that reality.

After all, we don’t always learn it the other way. We acquire one material thing and earthly token and insurance after another, And yet we never feel fully safe and secure so we go for the next thing that might make us feel safe and secure.

We forget that we depend on the people around us. We are all inter-dependent.

One of my heroes, Peace Pilgrim, walked 25,000 miles around the country with nothing but the clothes on her bag and a notebook & pen. She was promoting a message of peace. She never asked for anything but would accept food if it was offered.

It wasn’t just some kind of publicity stunt, it was her calling. I see Robin and others acting on their calling in a similar manner. Many of us are afraid to act on our deepest inner calling. Would we be taken care of?

Or those of us who are also living our calling but have doubts.

Watching people in the world actually, fully, joyfully living their calling, and being affirmed in it, is very powerful.

And (responding to someone who said they like the idea but we can’t all give up our jobs and houses):

For sure, and it’s even OK to *like* our houses and our jobs and not want to give them up. But it’s good to recognize that we can have some leeway.

Even if we have to stay with the job, maybe we could create some leverage for ourselves to not be forced to work so many hours. That’s one thing I have discovered by choosing to pare down my stuff. I’m not forced to work as many hours to pay for my life. I do have a house but I enjoy sharing it with other people, and enjoy sharing household stuff like pots & pans, extra blankets etc.

Another thing to keep in mind is that for Rob, what he’s doing IS his job. His job, and his heart’s calling. What a great intersection!

And in response to someone expressing fear that Rob is becoming extremist:

You know what’s extremist though? People owning mountains and mountains of stuff that they never use. Some people own entire houses that they never use. Some people when they die, have closets full of clothes and some of them still have the store tags on.

Me too, I totally love what he does! And, Where would the shame come from?

I do know that a lot of freethinkers over the millennia have been shamed by some people. But shame is only as deep as we take it in. Other people’s efforts to shame us are more about them than about us.

(I say this as someone who is routinely shamed even just for choosing to get around by foot and bicycle instead of taking on the personal & planetary burdens of private car ownership. I mean, people *try* to shame me. And sometimes I take it in. Which is just silly.)

THIS. I had not been able to put my finger on what was bugging me so much about the the “who will pick our vegetables now” memes I am seeing on a lot of liberal FB friends’ pages. Thank you Rj Mueller For hitting the nail on the head here. (Public Facebook post. Basically pointing out the ways that our food system is indentured servitude of immigrants.)

(Added later to clarify: To be clear: this post is NOT saying ppl deserve to be deported; that people “need to come here legally,” etc. This post is very much NOT about that.)

(And no, of course indentured servitude is not the same as slavery. But a lot of what’s going on is basically human trafficking, so I support the bigger point that he is making in his post.)

We USA Americans have become spoiled by artificially low-priced food. We have been this way for a long time. And the low prices are based on exploiting and oppressing people.

As part of this, I was trying to figure out why I wasn’t panicking about food costing more, even though I’m not wealthy. It’s because I feel like I can deal with food costing more as long as it reduces exploitation of people.

It’s also what has been bothering me about my well-off liberal fellow-Boomer whiteppl friends who shop at big box discount shops (and not just for food, but for the other categories of life as well) instead of supporting local farmers when they can afford to support local. If we don’t — if we say we “can’t afford to” — then who on earth CAN?

We white Boomers are the most resourced generation in history. We can be using our resources to tilt things in favor of a better world for everybody. We should not be using our resources to just secure our own little cozy escape roost.

Besides, there are no real escapes. That is an illusion.

And, I realized that these “Who will pick our vegetables” memes are just the other version of “eggs are too expensive.” And, To cite another related trend: The well-off liberal version of “eggs are too expensive” is “I’m moving to Mexico or Portugal” or whatever.

— Reactionaries: eggs are too expensive; let’s vote for a dictator.

— Liberals: eggs are too expensive; I’m moving to another country. (But I will continue to enjoy the benefits of US citizenship, and at the end of the day I will likely be able to continue to just fly back-and-forth at will, unlike people immigrating from those countries who don’t have that luxury.)

On a related note, Wall Street is not the economy!

On the topic of economic fear, we shouldn’t panic about wall street. Wall street is not the economy. And we need to start remembering that again. We need to start re-localizing our wealth, and getting it out of exploiting and oppressing people. I have no desire to make six or 7% a year if it involves trashing ecosystems and exploiting people. Which it does. Furthermore, we can boost our quality of life by getting off of wall street and back onto our Main Streets of our own towns. I’ve written extensively about this elsewhere, including on this blog. Look for references to living free, Laura Oldanie, Rich and resilient living.

I have been completely out of wall street as far as my investments for some years now. There are many better ways to invest that don’t involve oppressing people and trashing the planet. Building local wealth is where it’s at!

Support each other’s local businesses, keep the money in the community. Minimize spending on categories of stuff where the money goes right out of the community. One major category is gasoline. Be very thrifty with gasoline, because every dollar spent on it, something like 80 or $.90 goes right out of the community.

Pay off your house, get out from under a mortgage. Buy a commercial building and rent it out reasonably two people in your community. You’ll still probably be making more than a stock market fund.

Make microloans to friends and local businesses. If you can afford to, make it interest-free; that’s what I’m doing. It’s still an ethical place to “park” your money, out in the flow of the community instead of hoarded on wall street or empty land/empty houses. Still worth it even if you aren’t making interest.

Another obvious place to invest is in your own education. Education, training, practical skills, vocations, new certifications, continuing Ed. Also mindfulness, mental health. In Permaculture class, we learned that education is the most portable and flexible investment we can make in ourselves. If my house (which is also my business) and other investments got destroyed, became worth zero and I had to walk away with nothing, I would still have my brain and my hands to be able to support me unless and until I became unable to think for myself. I would like for everybody to be able to have the degree of resilience that I have been able to create and enjoy. And I strive to help people create their own version of that.

Yes, millions of people have their 401(k)s invested in the stock market. Yes, I feel for them. And, I truly hope that a lot more people get their money off of Wall Street as a result of this latest big trillion drop. I was lucky in a way, I took a huge bath back in the crash of post-2000 — took the lesson and never again kept any money anywhere near Wall Street. (Huge was in relative terms, as it was only losing 25,000 of my $70,000. But that was a lot for me and so it was every bit the powerful lesson as if I had lost millions. And I immediately got that money out of my wall street tied account and never look back. Even with the penalty I did not care.)

Another form of investment is simply investing in cultivating occupational streams that one does not need to quit just because one gets older.

Also, another “investment” so to speak is simply having multiple streams of occupation. In other words, the whole concept of retirement doesn’t have to apply. We don’t have to amass/hoard this nest egg that then needs to last us for decades.

Just because I’m a senior doesn’t mean I’m ever going to want to stop working, but the mix of work changes.

For example, my eco landscaping work.
I’m mostly not going to be hauling logs and chunks of concrete anymore, but I can still do landscape design & light maintenance.

And then I have the joy of connecting young people with the physically demanding landscaping gigs so they can have their business. Being a senior, I feel like it’s my obligation to support young people’s livelihoods and starting out their businesses.

Also, no matter how old I get, there are some occupations I will never have to quit. My main ones are writing and teaching. Especially now that teaching can be done virtually, I can’t imagine that I will ever say that I have to quit teaching.

And writing and art, hey, we all know artists and writers don’t really retire, They just keep writing and making art because that’s our joy. The same is probably true of music to some degree, even though holding and playing a musical instrument can be extremely strenuous. I know lots of very elderly musicians.

Another often-overlooked category of “ethical investment,” so to speak, is simply investing in your own child’s business or career.

In other words, instead of trying to steer them into what you think will be a stable job or occupation, really support their occupation they want to do.

There’s no guarantee that your child will outlive you; there’s no guarantee that they will take care of you in old age even. I’ve heard stories. But that said, for the most part, family members who have loving relationships are going to take care of each other.

Important note about young people’s career choices. The career choices that we think are super solid, are not so solid nowadays.

Working for some big bank or insurance company, or some commonly looked-up-to profession such as law or accounting or insurance, or even engineering, is no longer the sure thing it used to be.

If your kid wants to be a filmmaker, content creator, musician, writer, farmer, carpenter, fisher, bicycle based compost service, artisanal bookbinder, neighborhood-based tailor, doula … please please support them in that.

Truthfully whatever their dream is, it’s probably a category that is underpopulated in our society right now. So many people have been pushed into so-called practical jobs, people miss that the arts & humanities and other occupations off the beaten path serve a necessary function in society.

If you don’t have kids of your own, as I don’t, you can extend various support to other young relatives, or just support young peoples occupations in general. (Of course, if they’re not your family, you can even less expect them to take care of you in your old age. I’ve made my peace with that. I’ve gotten to live along rich life, and it gives me joy to be able to try to help young people have a rich abundant life too.)

Note, even verbal support if it’s backed by your true sincere heart carries a lot of weight. For my occupational freedom that I have enjoyed for most of my life, I owe many of my elders for their supportive words and seemingly small gestures.

Example of a post promoting highly actionable change in landscaping practices. I posted this to my neighborhood group just now:

Excess Mowing on the Beachside is a serious problem! Not only environmentally but aesthetically as well.

Yes, Planting trees and other vegetation costs money, and for various reasons it can be hard to get it established.

But at the very least, we should be able to get local government entities (and FDOT if applicable) to stop excess mowing on the beachside. Including median strips, city owned lots, riverfront edges. And also get the City to start writing-up large commercial property owners for excess mowing of their large vacant lots and other empty properties.

Recommendations: Back off mowing on Beachside lots to once a month or less in winter; twice a month or less in summer. It’s actually possible to mow quite a bit less than that, but even that would be a good start in terms of flood control and heat mitigation.

We also need to start holding churches to the standard. They get the benefit of being tax-free; they need to adopt appropriate land management practices on the considerable amount of land they occupy.

You have probably seen my posts about what a lot of the Beachside used to look like, with scrub palmetto and oaks, and other naturally dense vegetation, growing everywhere.

At the very least, if vacant lots / vacant buildings are going to stay empty, they need to be carrying their freight in terms of natural green infrastructure.

We live on a barrier island, and that comes with extra responsibilities.

Besides, as more and more of us are noticing, our dune wildflowers and other dune vegetation are exquisitely beautiful! While being extremely resilient in terms of capacity to stand up to the salt air and intermittent drought and rain.

Even as I write this, excess mowing is taking place somewhere down the block, you can hear the mower. Excess mowing (as well as other intrusive practices such as scraping fallen leaves away instead of leaving them under the trees) is largely driven by social norms that have established extremely close-cut grass as the gold standard of a well-maintained lot. These social norms are now being revealed to be actively contributing to extreme weather, including the deadly drought-flooding extremes.

Also, I suspect a lot of the big property owners (and maybe even some homeowners) are excess-mowing proactively because of the outdated standard, of writing people up for “overgrown” vegetation. On the beachside, we have different conditions and need to adjust accordingly.

If we are mowing down to bare sand, that should be a red flag. I have even seen mowing services mowing actual sand! There’s no way anyone can possibly think this looks good aesthetically.

It looks like an old teddy bear that’s been worn down to the bare fabric. If I were Mother Nature right now, I would be screaming “OWWWW!!!! you are hurting me, Stop scraping my skin!!”

It’s not necessarily the grass-cutter companies’ fault. These people (largely, local young men) have to feed their families. SO — All the more reason we need to start paying them to do things in a way that helps the environment, Rather than causing harm. We homeowners can help by paying our yard guys to plant trees & shrubs, and learn how to care for them. and to do continuing education.

And, it should go without saying but people might not think of this: Even if we reduce the frequency of their mowing, we should not reduce their PAY. Maybe pay them by the month or the quarter or something but don’t let it be a reduction in their pay if they mow fewer times. That way, they are empowered to exercise their professional discretion and take care of the vegetation & soil, rather than doing excess mowing just because the only way they can get paid is for each time they mow.

The gold standard for a well-maintained vacant lot needs to be gently mowed Meadow, Savannah, Forest, or some combination of the above. Ideally we would have no vacant lots at all except on the oceanfront — But as long as these vacant lots (and empty buildings) are allowed to persist, these property owners at least need to be not actively destroying the stormwater sponge.

Some of the above may be applicable to the mainland as well, but Beachside is an extreme case because we are literally on a sand dune so we have to start here. Barrier island protects the mainland! We need to restore our SPONGE!

Go here to see the post on my Facebook DEEP GREEN page, including photos.

Hey! I like how this turned out. I was just trying to be able to leave the house without either freezing or looking like a giant 5’9″ pile of laundry [laugh], and to my pleasant surprise this turned out kinda cute! Leaving the house after being “home office zone” through a string of the cold days.

All of this you see me wearing today is from thrift, trash (“landfill diversion”), sewing needle & thread, crochet hook or all of the above!!!

#LayerUpButterCup

Pix here on my Deep Green page.

As more of us are pulling the plug on some social media, I had a thought. We can keep finding each other as long as there are ways to look each other up by our names.

Some of us are lucky enough to have unusual names that are easy to look up. (Lucky for connecting with other activists and the public, I mean. Maybe not necessarily lucky in terms of the less beneficial aspects of being highly findable.)

Some fellow ecosocial activist / educators have created pen names, so to speak. I follow a lot of people on the social media whose given-at-birth names I don’t have any idea of. They might be hard to look up if certain platforms go down. But creating a name/handle might be in one’s interest.

Regarding social media platforms, I’m staying pretty much where I am for now, but many have departed for other channels, or simply left entirely. I can’t recommend leaving entirely, unless you have 100% off-line activism. Nothing wrong with that either.

Another route is to just keep email, phone, text, and maybe a blog. All of those things are fairly low bandwidth. Although they don’t have the same reach as social media, they have their advantages.

For now, I am who I am, and I’m always findable by those who need me. My phone number has been out there for a while, I’ve had the same number since I believe 1999. But even without the phone, you can find me. There are others with my name but not many. Maybe only one other on the planet, and that one might be a bot!

Think about it! Your name — whether it’s your given name, or one you chose for yourself — can be your address. (You could also have an alternative handle; many of us in the pagan community do. My pagan handle is dragonfly.)

“Name as portable address.” Could come in handy in these times of unintended necessary mobility. Keep in touch, sweet friends!

(The following is something I posted on my personal page as a public service announcement for residents of my city, Daytona Beach Florida USA. We have relatively mild winters here but have experienced a bit of a cold spell for the past couple weeks.)

So sad to hear we still have kids who have no coat. There’s no reason for anyone to be without a coat!

So many clothing giveaways happening all the time. Also, layering is key! Don’t need a big fancy coat just need layers. All I have is nylon jacket as an over layer. It’s more than fine. Think of it as a shell.

Multiple thin layers trap air and keep us warmer than just one big thick layer.

With sweatshirts and shirts underneath. And a scarf around the neck.

A nice stretchy wool hat or other stretchy hat does a lot, as 25% of our body heat escapes through our head. Also socks. Lots of blood vessels in our feet. Take care of your head and your feet and your neck, you’ll be surprised how much warmer you feel.

I’m originally from the north, and also this is probably my 15th or 16th winter doing without heat (it started as an experiment to reduce my electric bill, and just grew from there), so I know all about layers. I walk around all winter like a giant lasagna.😉😂

Hope this helps someone! Layer up, dear people 💚🌏🦋🙏🙏🙏🧤

PS. Anyone got any spare nylon jackets, coats etc sitting around, please post & share with your neighbors group etc — adults and children both! Also hats, scarves, socks. Umbrellas too. Share share share!

PPS. Updated Thursday morning: I forgot to mention how much of a difference a wool sweater makes. Wool (which comes in various forms, such as merino wool, cashmere, etc.) makes a very perceptible difference in how warm the body feels. I was reminded this morning as we are in now in multiple days of 40s weather. I put on a wool sweater and feel much warmer instantly, than I felt yesterday when I was just wearing layers of sweatshirts.

My house is an experimental low-footprint living laboratory, where we test various things out. How to live under various conditions with minimal expense and minimal electricity etc. Today I don’t think the high is getting out of the 40s but I will be relatively comfortable thanks to layers.

Living without heat is feasible if one knows how to layer properly. No, I’m not suggesting that you should have to live without heat! But the fact of the matter is that the power does go out, and we need to know how to dress for such times. As well as be protected when we go outside.

Good-quality wool sweaters can often be found at local thrift shops for somewhat reasonable prices. The prices at thrift shops have been creeping up, but bargains do still exist.

I would like to see at the very minimum, every single child and adult in our city have at least one wool sweater and a nylon shell jacket. Plus wool socks and wool hat. (My socks and hat are synthetic and they are OK, so if you can’t find wool you can get by with synthetic.)

I got my one wool sweater a few years back, at the Derbyshire Place thrift store. It’s made of cashmere, so it’s very soft, and it’s a pretty red. My one nylon jacket was inherited from my father after he passed in 2010, and it’s old-school L.L. Bean so it should last many more years I hope. I also have one black vest made of boiled wool, got that also from the Derbyshire Place shop. I hope that shop is still around; a lot of thrift shops have been closing.

If you can find Capilene or other “performance fabric” long underwear at the thrift shops, grab it! Both tops and bottoms. Silk long underwear is good too.

I used to depend on long underwear back in the days when I was skinny and lived in places where we have colder winters than here in Daytona Beach. But really nowadays here I can get by with my wool sweater and nylon jacket plus regular old sweatshirts as layers.

The reason I keep mentioning thrift shops is
1) prices are still usually good even though they have been creeping up; &
2) the quality of new clothing nowadays (even name brands we associate with quality) is often distinctly inferior to the older garments that can be found at thrift shops.

By the way, sweatshirts and t-shirts can provide warmth but they are often made of cotton, and we have to be careful with cotton in cold weather. If it gets wet (from sweat, rain, humidity, etc.) it actually sucks heat away from the skin, making you feel colder and increasing the danger of hypothermia.

As a bonus, layers can look surprisingly stylish, even when it’s thrift clothes. The combinations of colors and textures can be very cute! Have fun creating your own warm winter look. Stay cozy!

Someone in my Facebook circles who I have a high opinion of, who has been a schoolteacher and a community activist and a lot more, was talking about how certain politicians and journalists have failed in their role to reach the public.

” … Well, as a teacher, I could have told him, and DID, that people hear this big word and their brains shut off. Sorry but it’s true. When your students are not reacting appropriately, then you step back and see where the learning stopped. It stopped at big unknown vocabulary. …”

And her observation reminded me that the same is true of how I view my own performance as a community educator/activist.

Since giving up is not an option, I will instead of giving up (“firing myself”) list some causes for educator failure (based on my own assessment of my own failure), and then adjust accordingly.

Wrong words “Repair the hydrological cycle” didn’t work, “restore the natural water cycle” didn’t work (even with all those beautiful experts’ drawings and YouTube links I shared); “puffy landscaping” somewhat got a few people’s attention

Wrong audience Talking w city commission hasn’t worked; talking w Public Works hasn’t worked; ditto talking w code enforcement. Trying to encourage private individuals to get interested in ecological landscaping has started to work somewhat.

Wrong channel City Commission meetings haven’t worked; board meetings haven’t worked; Lecture series hasn’t worked; radio hasn’t worked; neighborhood meetings so-so. My physical live demo landscaping yard has gotten some people interested; and maybe my upcoming fiction work will get some people more interested.

Also, another channel, comedy club, didn’t work so great. But that particular club is a notoriously tough audience, being mostly comics themselves. Might be worth trying other clubs; or just making humorous videos etc. Also have humorous books in the works. Including one about how to save the planet by slacking off.

Wrong tone Being too friendly and chummy hasn’t worked; being too salty hasn’t worked; being despondent might work but I’m not really willing to go there; some comedy might work – we’ll see how the book goes

Wrong domain State level no, county level no, city level no, neighborhood level so-so. General grassroots non-locational level, somewhat successful.

Wrong person In many cases, I just might not be the right person for a given message or venue. I am noticing that a number of fellow environmental activists in my region are being much more effective. And our goals are the same, so there’s no need for me to stress out if other people are accomplishing the stuff.

Wrong attitude Having a give-up attitude totally doesn’t work. Allowing myself to get frustrated with people totally doesn’t work. Plus I end up feeling bad for being mean to people. Then again, having a super upbeat attitude hasn’t necessarily been effective either. Or proposing really cool creative ideas.

Wrong leverage point(s) One might think the more effective leverage point for encouraging cities to adopt “sponge” landscaping instead of practices that turn the ground into a water-“shedder” or “sieve” would be money savings and stormwater control. After all those are life-and-death. But perhaps the most effective leverage point is just beauty and what looks good. Or more accurately, what is perceived as looking good. Actually, the hierarchy of leverage points proposed by Donella Meadows is in line with this idea. We collectively decide what’s desirable. And even if what’s widely considered beautiful and desirable is toxic and costly and ends up putting people out of their homes, it can be hard to override.

Note: none of the above tones and attitudes are fake or put on; they’re just different moods and modes that I go through and express. But then I will notice that certain things really don’t work, and some things work even less.

Onward! Giving up is not an option.