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  • From: "Tradingpost" <tradingpost@gilanet.com>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Livingontheland] Another one of my lists. from Robert Waldrop
  • Date: Sun, 30 Nov 2003 08:56:46 -0700


Another one of my lists. (Robert Waldrop)

This is the latest in my on-going :"lists of lists" of incremental steps and
goals that people can accomplish in order to evolve their lifestyles in the
direction of more sustainable and just ways of living and being. It is based
on a redaction of previous lists, and improved by feedback I have received
about them If this keeps up, I will have to start labelling these "Version
1.X". #1 through #21 are primarily cultural (Virtue, Justice, Peace, Truth
& Self Awareness, Prudence), #22 through #50 relate particularly to lifestyle
issues such as Food, Debt, Material Goods, Energy-Housing-Transportation, and
Community Economics.

Robert Waldrop, okc

10 categories, 50 actions.

VIRTUE

1. Nurture blessings and hope in your own life and in the life of your
community.

2. Promote solidarity and cooperation.

3. Celebrate life, goodness, beauty, virtue, responsibility, joy, and
righteous and honest work. Practice peace, non-violence, servant leadership,
harmony, community, voluntary cooperation, and the proper stewardship of
Creation. Be authentic and honest. Pray without ceasing.

4. Hear the truth when it is spoken to you. Discern the signs of the times and
speak truth -- to power, to the people, and to the community..



JUSTICE

5. Protect the poor and powerless-- listen, learn, educate, organize, respect
life, and empower participation.

6. Live simply and justly in solidarity with the poor and marginalized and be
a good neighbor. Make no war on them, rather, be one with them in spirit,
truth, and love. Don't leave the poor behind for the wolves to devour.

7. Be aware of your environment and how your lifestyle impacts the community
and world you live in and other people, for good or for bad..


PEACE

8. Work for reconciliation with truth and orthopraxis.

9. Make injustice visible -- witness, remember, teach, proclaim, tell. Light
candles, do not curse the darkness.



TRUTH AND SELF AWARENESS

10.. Don't let the perfect become the enemy of the good. Do what you can, with
what you have, where you are.

11. As you change your lifestyle to be more just and sustainable, don't
attempt too much at first. Set incremental goals and meet them. Learn one new
thing at a time and get good at it.. But beware of procrastination.

12. Be willing to start small, or it is likely you will never start at all..

13. Learn many things.

14. Practice many skills.

15. Teach others.

16. Govern yourself.

17. Accept responsibility for your own life, but understand your
interdependence with others and the importance of community.

18. "What I do doesn't matter" is a lie we tell ourselves to make ourselves
feel better about doing wrong.


PRUDENCE

19. Be ready to adapt to major changes that may come your way.

20. Watch out for dangers and disasters that may be ahead, and act in advance
to mitigate the impact of such events. The Bible says, "Remember the time of
hunger in the day of plenty."

21. The time to build the cellar is before the tornado hits.


FOOD

22. Celebrate a new and more joyful way to do food. Prepare meals with primary
ingredients grown in your local region. Share table fellowship with family and
friends. Eat with the season, and discover the rich, varied, and authentic
tastes your region brings forth throughout the year.

23. Learn how to grow your own food. Plant fruit and nut trees, berry bushes,
and other perennial food crops. Preserve heirloom varieties of plants and
animals.

24. Learn to process and preserve your own foods by canning, dehydrating,
freezing, brining, fermenting, and pickling. Invest in appropriate food
processing equipment. Encourage churches and community groups to establish
community food processing kitchens. Make your own beer, wine, spirits,
liqueurs, and soft drinks or buy from local breweries and wineries..

25. Gather up the leftovers and ensure that no food is wasted. Compost or feed
to animals all organic waste materials.

26. Abandon the globalized corporation dominated agribizness supermarket and
fast food system. Buy as much food as is practical from local farmers and
local processors. Do your part to help develop a cooperative local food
system.

27. Encourage schools and churches to start gardens and to serve local foods
to students and at church dinners..

28. Don't buy any meats, eggs, or poultry from the Confined Animal Feeding
Operation system. If you can't find local animal products produced with
sustainable and humane practices, go vegetarian.



ENERGY, HOUSING, TRANSPORTATION

29. Use energy frugally. Know how much energy you are personally using and
which way your energy usage trend is going. When you go shopping, remember
that "stuff" has energy embodied in its manufacture and distribution and thus
conserving energy requires using less stuff.. Invest in energy efficient
appliances, but beware of accumulating energy hogs.

30. Use sustainable and renewable energy wherever practical. Buy wind
generated electricity from your utility provider.

31. Walk, take public transportation, or ride a bicycle, where possible. Avoid
air travel unless you can get there no other way. For cross-country land
transportation, rail and bus are the preferred sustainable options. For
freight, rail is the way to go.

32. Use Less Space. Heat or air condition rooms only when in use, do not
foolishly squander fossil fuels on heating or air conditioning empty rooms.

33. Super-insulate your dwelling and reduce or eliminate fossil fueled heating
and air conditioning by using passive solar heating and cooling in new
construction and developing/installing retrofits for existing buildings.



MATERIAL GOODS

34. Practice personal and emotional detachment from material goods.

35. Understand that you are NOT your stuff. Resist corporate and government
propaganda that suggests otherwise. Ignore all advertising.

36. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Repair, Restore, Make Do, Do Without.

37. Patronize the aftermarket in places like swap meets, thrift stores, and
flea markets.

38. Avoid new stuff as much as possible.

39. Don't buy clothing made in sweatshops.

40. Limit your consumption of resources, including water.

DEBT

41. The borrower is the slave of the lender, if you value freedom, Flee The
Bondage Of Debt.

42. If you must borrow money for education or housing, pay it off as quickly
as you can, always make extra principle payments on loans. Do not forget that
the borrower is the slave of the lender.

43. Never finance frivolous consumption with borrowed money on credit cards. I
tell you three times: the borrower is the slave of the lender.


COMMUNITY ECONOMICS

44.. Avoid big box corporation stores and franchise chains.

45. Buy from local businesses and as much as is practical earn a living and
spend your money outside of the corporation dominated globalized economy.
Invest your time, energy, assets, and intelligence in local economies.

46. Organize cooperatives, start small businesses, and create other structures
and systems to replace unsustainable globalized economic and political
structures.

47. Spend less money, save more money.

48. Keep your money in a credit union or in productive and useful assets
(land, buildings, tools, knowledge, books, food, orchards, permaculture.
etc.).

49. Support political and voluntary initiatives that promote sustainability
and resilience, such as public transportation, energy efficiency, renewable
energy resources, small farms, decentralized economics, balanced government
budgets, and local markets.

50. Ensure fair distribution, subsidiarity, economic opportunity, justice, and
food security for everyone everywhere.

By Robert Waldrop, Oscar Romero Catholic Worker House, 1524 NW 21, Oklahoma
City, Oklahoma 73106, rmwj@soonernet.com . This essay may be forwarded and
reprinted for non-profit use.
www.justpeace.org
www.bettertimesinfo.org
www.energyconservationinfo.org
www.oklahomafood.org





  • [Livingontheland] Another one of my lists. from Robert Waldrop, Tradingpost, 11/30/2003

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