Why? Inventing a renewal culture beyond ecology.

When I began a few days ago to write this blog, I thought I might be fairly glib about what I thought a renewal of culture was all about. It has turned out quite differently. There is a great deal to say and it's taking me a lot longer to make it sensible to my readers, bless you, every one!

There is my own personal history: all that has led me to consider the idea of renewal in the first place. Perhaps every writer has these experiences: not so much what to write but what to leave out of the narrative, to hone the work to an intelligible clarity and sharpness. It's not hopeless and it is much more enormous a task than I first anticipated. So, darlings, bear with me while it all gets sorted out.

I trust you (as few and as rare as you are right now) will assist with feedback from your lives. Thank you before you read and thank you after your comments!

The beginning of the tale:

I was born just at the outset of World War II, raised in Canada by later Victorian children who lived through the Great Depression. Everything in our house was used and used again. I remember the first plastic bags my mother got from the store: they were washed out and put on the line outside to dry to be used over and over - for months!

Now, say only 60 years later, it's hard to conceptualize that 30 billion plastic bags are used every year and 10 billion paper.

My parents saved dimes and quarters over many years so they could go to the car dealership to buy a new car for cash. Can you ever remember being able to buy any kind of 'big ticket' item without credit? You might be met with some serious questions should you appear in a car dealership today with cash in your wallet to buy a $20,000 automobile: where and how did you come by this much money? hmmmmmm?

Our western, so-called first world society in the early 21st century consumes much more than its share of the world's resources and still we buy like there is no tomorrow. Some people don't even believe in tomorrow thinking that a religious rapture will take them away to heaven. Trash the earth, we won't be around to worry about it.

In my view, it seems obvious that the real value of resources, from the ordinary plastic bag to the lawnmower sitting in the garage, lies in the use, and sharing, of such resources. Does every household really need their own laundromat, even their own automobile? A renewal culture goes way beyond the style of capitalistic considerations of 'ours' and 'theirs' seeking, instead, how many may share the use of fewer things.

Here, I think, is where the consideration of renewal may begin: with an inventory of what we own that may be shared, that may even by superfluous, or even toxic to us and to our overall well being. What could you, quite nicely, do without?

A person is rich who knows they have enough.