The Relentless Need to Eat
Feb 9th, 2009 by terry
Food is our first order of business, followed by shelter, according to Maslow’s famous Hierarchy of Needs. My neglected larder does not welcome me. It needs attention that I grudgingly give. My schedule, which admittedly is packed by my own choice, leaves little time for gracious homemaking. Writing and figuring out how to launch community gatherings interests me these days and I would willingly (in theory anyway) take a pill rather than spend the time to plan for, shop for and prepare nourishing, economical and interesting meals.
Nevertheless, if I don’t spend time at least a little time cooking and eating something substantial and nourishing, all hell breaks loose and I eat calories that resemble food, with the nutritional equivalent of Styrofoam. Homemaking for someone I loved was, hands down, my favorite part of being married. Now, homemaking for myself gets the bum’s rush and I live far less graciously than I would like.
Given the hectic pace of our lives, many are in the same leaky boat. Even though I live alone, eating prepared food or cooking for one is not the best use of resources, including time and money. The economic collapse and the housing crisis is forcing us to rethink how and where we live, what we eat, where it comes from and how it gets to us, how we raise our children, where we work and how we get there and back. This is a good thing. Sharing resources is the safest, fastest and most reliable way out of the ditch we are in. Gathering as a community to brainstorm for solutions to universal problems will identify resources and needs that we didn’t know existed.
New Community Vision is not so much my idea, as it is a bigger concept which I eagerly carry forward. The puzzle, of course, is how to make this sustainable. Although the customary approach is asking who will buy your widget and how much can you get for it, a more relevant approach in this uncharted territory may be how to get products and services to the people who need it most.
We know that this is a tectonic shift when people start questioning capitalism. This link ALIA Institute/More on Money contains a brilliant animated video Money as Debt. Any economic system would work, capitalism or even communism, until it becomes corrupt. The Securities and Exchange Commission turning a deaf ear for years to warnings about Madoff’s Ponzi scheme is the most recent, vivid and far reaching example, but lobbyists writing legislation by which they will be regulated has been Washington’s modus operandi for years.
We need to create systems that empower and sustain all of us. We actually could be living in Eden if we played our cards differently. It is up to us to create the systems that bring Eden to our neighborhoods. The old paradigm is rusted shut.