Are we entitled?
Sharon Astyk recently wrote a blog post entitled “Practice Losing Farther, Losing Faster: Everyday History in a Crashing Economy” at her blog Casaubon’s book where she asked her readers how recent financial gymnastics are effecting their lives. The comments are now up to 71 as of this writing and there are so many different stories being told. I left a ginormous comment there (sorry!) and then thought perhaps I should also share it here.
The spectrum of stories there is simply amazing. Here is my little contribution and response.
As you likely know, if you have read my “about me” page, I am a scientist and did not participate in any of the recent financial festivities (as in the dot com boom).. I have not experienced personal wealth in any way – only personal debt (school debts, house, car, all while living frugally – our family has never been on a vacation, period, we do not go out to eat – its ok, we have each other) .. we have had a mortgage since 1995 so I have been living with the implications of that these past 13 years.
I think I need to get one thing off my chest.
Whether things are booming or not, losing your job and then losing your house has been a real possibility for most of us for many years. We middle class have been living on that edge all our lives.
Don’t imagine that this is something new. Its important to not ascribe this sort of scenario only to the collapse paradigm.
Why? Because if you get all wrapped up in it that way you will lose any chance at resilience.
I guess its about waking up.
Part of waking up to peak oil is to realize that our consensus reality has been holding us back. That middle class consensus reality masked the edge-nature of our existence. We chose to believe that we were entitled.
We are not.
– Repeat after me –
We. Are. Entitled. To. Nothing.
Our gift right now is of time but its not really about bunkering down.
Its about releasing the entitlement mentality and embracing change and then understanding resilience and cultivating some level of optimism.
I am a mom of three – last winter, when I GOT peak oil on an intuitive level, the first thing I mourned was peak education.
I had to realize that there is simply no way that I could afford to put even one child through college (I went to school on Pell Grants and scholarships, my parents didn’t pay for the core costs tho they did cover food and dorm – never cheap – don’t know what Pell Grants are? Ask the republicans and Reagan specifically).
I panicked and then did that V-8 head-bonk thing .. I have known this for a long time but was never able to articulate it. It was freeing in some ways to realize that the cost of education has become CRIMINALLY expensive.
Not only do we homeschool, I intend to steer my children into organic farming internships and agricultural sciences. Not so much because that is how we will survive but because those activities will make SENSE. My job .. it doesn’t make SENSE in the transition. That’s ok, I have learned one important thing in grad school – how to learn.
I am not saying that things are peachy or that it’s the apocalypse nor am I saying that you should not prepare.
I am getting ready to buy a year or two’s worth of bulk white rice (228.1 pounds/year) that will shore up our food budget. Our protein comes from our laying chickens; our dairy comes from our dairy goats. We will be picking up our three breeding pigs in a couple of weeks. We need to lay in bulk purchases of feed for these animals and I need to get an agreement squared away with neighboring fields to plant mangels and greens in the spring for the animals (perhaps some wheat too).
We JUST installed our high efficiency Seton wood fired boiler in our basement. We are now 100% oil free (we live in rural MA – it gets a bit cold here – you will be hearing a about the north east this winter and you might ask yourself – why didn’t the states do anything? Yeah, so will we. If we have to, we will shelter neighbors who cant afford heat). Word has gotten around the surrounding towns about our new fangled boiler – people are asking my husband about it at town meetings. Seems they are all waiting to see how it goes. Not sure what their metric will be but I think that there will be a demand especially because the state will be changing the rules to NOT allowing outside polluting wood boilers that have proliferated here recently. Our set up is as expensive or less and much more efficient.
I will update about all this here soon – if you are interested in learning about Mr. Seton’s fantastic wood fired boiler that takes unsplit 4 foot long tree logs and is so efficient that it just goes in your basement and no real smoke out the top – drop me a note here. Here is a link to some pics of the boiler before it was hooked up to the system – will be shooting the boiler this weekend now that its installed.
I feel like we are all squirreling away our little nuts and getting our little spreadsheets balanced.
What I don’t feel yet is that whole community thing and I don’t think that will happen while we are still, as a class, waiting for the housing market to come back, our money market funds to rally back, the oil prices to come down, the interest rates to drop, etc etc.
If you live in the MA region and would like to learn about some Transition Town stuff going on – Rob Riman has been working really hard in Cambridge to bring TT training going in the Boston area – here is some info on that:
The events currently scheduled for the Northeast are as follows:
Tues. Sept. 16th – GreenPort Forum: Transition Towns Intro (Cambridge, MA)
Sat./Sun. Oct. 4th/5th – Training for Transition course (Cambridge, MA)
Sat./Sun. Nov. 1st/2nd – Training for Transition course (Cambridge, MA)
Sat/Sun. Nov. 22nd/23rd – Training for Transition course (Cambridge, MA)
To learn more and to register visit this link
If any of you all choose to do this please let me know so we can meet up and network!
Resilience. Hope. No Entitlements. Transition. Action.
October 1st, 2008 at 10:31 am
Why are you thinking your kids can’t go to college on a combo of scholarships and working? My nieces and nephew are.
December 29th, 2008 at 1:57 am
All collapse is personal. As they say, a recession is when other people lose their jobs. A depression is when you do. Here in western MA, driving and burning fossil fuel is essential for most of us. On the other hand, we have land (and plenty of rocks) and a rural environment with a long history of cooperation and independence that has kept us in good stead.
You’re right about the necessity of letting go of the entitlement piece. After the first few years of Peak Oil awareness, I saw that there really wasn’t a way out, and scaling down and relocalizing was our only option. And the people who write to me have made pretty good lives for themselves, albeit quite different from what they’d imagines they’d be.
As far as the student loans go, you are right on the money. The deck is stacked, the deal is rigged. While there has been some change in the horrendous inescapable burden these loans put on students (lower interest rates) the reality of living with them remains frightening (and I’m a university professor…)
Finally, our wood burning furnace needs replacing, so I’d be interested in you letting me know how yours is working for you.
December 29th, 2008 at 2:18 am
Resilience is an essential feature to maintaining mental health. Maintaining a frame that says “I can handle this,” keeps us sane. I like the phrase in the movie “Stella”: “Life is good if you don’t weaken…” It’s strangely comforting to me.
Reframing a problem (what is called “looking on the bright side”) is the number one mechanism families use to deal with troubles, according to studies, and it makes sense. In couples, it is the ability to accept “chronic” problems between them, and not take it too seriously or, more importantly, too personally. They take the “issue” lightheartedly, as it won’t change and it won’t go away. Of all the reading I’ve done on the Great Depression, to help people deal with this next one emotionally, what stands out is how some folks created paper dolls at Christmas, to be colored in and cut out by their little girls, while others simply said “We have no money for any gifts…” The love between family members and the honest caring, was long remembered as “priceless,” and the destruction of that bond is devastating. Sticking it out together made a huge difference.
We lost electricity for 5 days, as well as telephone and running water, because of an ice storm a week ago. It was just remarkable how peaceful the household was (although it was bitter cold). We figured out how to keep warm, use daylight, and cook on a camp stove, and we played games at night. Everyone had a job to do, and everyone did it, without complaint, because we needed to. We all sort of missed it when the power came back on.
As long as people don’t cling fiercely to the ways things “used to be,” (what you usefully frame as “entitled”) they’ll adjust to the way things are.
December 31st, 2008 at 2:13 pm
We have both been laid off now so I guess its a depression for us. I do not ascribe to this notion tho … my employment history would then have said we were in a depression quite a lot these past few years!
We here in south central MA – we LIVE on a ginormous rock — cliffs, etc .. better than the various sand hills around there tho so there is that. (We are in the glacial drop zone just south of the Quabbin valley region)
The breadth of preparation that your readers have is impressive – spans the gamut and the world indeed.
I chose not to become a prof because I didnt see how I could afford all my debt and do the academic thing. Still regret it but what can you do, water under the bridge.
The Stella weaken concept – somehow that doesnt give me comfort – maybe I am just not in the right place for that right now. I always have to work hard against rigidity and overcontrolling. Food for thought (esp re: dealing with recently diagnosed autistic child and his intense needs).
I have been listening to Studs Terkel’s interviews from the depression — and also watching Grapes of Wrath – and also thinking about the massive stress we are living with right now – and I sure wish I had the grace of peace and perfect parenting skills and boundless optimism because I dont have any of that!
We only lost power for 1 day (our power lines were put in only some 15 years ago so we dont tend to lose power for long).
re: wood boiler – we love our Seton Boiler and can recommend it but ONLY if you commit to getting a good and flexible plumber who will rig the system for you (its not DIY). Our plumber loved this job and was just amazed by the boiler.
This is a link for the boiler http://www.rohor.com/ and if you would like more info from the buyer’s perspective just ask. Buying it sooner than later (while crude is low in cost) then you may save on shipping.
May 27th, 2009 at 11:56 am
We are intitled to nothing, but can I have the pic of the piggy?
I think its very important that people really start to think about ways to save money and the planet by using multifuel,solar or wind.