Will Our Evolution Be Voluntary?

Nothing like a cross-country move during high gas price times to get you to start rethinking your patterns of consumption. If there were any doubt that I own more stuff than I need, or that my consumption levels were immodest, my move has removed that uncertainty.

Many incredible organizations and individuals have been tackling, for decades, the subject of living in better alignment with resource levels that match earth’s capacity to regenerate those resources [such as The Environmental Working Group, Duane Elgin in his books Voluntary Simplicity and Choosing Earth, Jem Bendell in his paper “Deep Adaptation,” and Joanna Macy throughout her career, to name a few…]

I would wager that 95% of people reading this know all about the levels of earth overshoot we are infamous for having achieved. It’s no longer that we aren’t informed, or that the science remains undetermined. So why are we collectively having such a hard time making the necessary changes?

Many brilliant individuals have spent their working lives addressing this question from a myriad of different angles. I’d like to come at it today from a simple observation about evolution: we’re not ready for something, until we are. I have known conceptually that I need to make personal changes to curb my draw on the earth. With this move, I am finally, fully, ready. Something in my body just can’t go against this grain anymore.

And so in order to attend to the endless details of my move, I’ll keep this post short and leave you with a Maya Angelou quote: “Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.”