Sick, Addicted, Weak - but Response Able (?)

Society is not only weak in its addiction to oil, we're addicted to a lot besides. So many people are overweight, or depending on anti-depressants, or have some or other disorder. As a species we are like a mssive herd of fattened springbuck in the late summer, moving over a massive grassland in Africa. The lions lick their lips, and roar for support from prides over the hills.

It occurred to me this evening, speaking to a friend, that these trials are like the trials the Israelites faced trying to escape Egypt. How many times did God (in the story) deliver them from hunger,and thirst, and how many times did they feebly, weakly, want to go back?

The peasure of easy motoring is like being addicted to cigarettes or alchohol. It's a damaging drain on the world, on our ability to grow food and make things...but we do it each day without thinking about it. Probably many of you reading this still don't have a sense that each time you drive, you're driving out a precious resource that was shipped from around the world, to your neighborhood. And what do you do? What do I do with this precious priviledge? Drive to gym, to a movie, to work. Drive somewhere to buy a chocolate. Drive somewhere to get a newspaper. It's insane.

How many messages did God send to Pharoah, to say: Let my people go." After all those plagues, Pharoah still didn't wake the fuck up. Today people who experiences the oil shock in the 1970's are like 'been there, done that'. They have a lot of faith in how clever people are. This isn't about being smart? It's about having a sense of the world, and how the world works. It's about having a response-ability as a species, as individuals and communities, to stuff we'd rather not admit. Do you need to tell you how to respond? Do you doubt that a critical responce is required? Are you able to develop your own reaction? Do you think it's not important that we make some significant changes across the board - radical, permanent, consistent, local, national and international changes to how we work, live and eat?

Let it start then with one person. You. Be an evangelist. Cycle to work. Take a pilates ball to work and sit on that (it's healthier than a chair). Start doing things differently, and you'll rememberto think differently. Because reality is not in our thoughts, but our actions.