It's time.

With the current state of the world (north american) economy, it's time for us to rethink the way we live. Our lives have become too comfortable, and too convenient. From the food we eat, and the cars we drive, to the power we consume, and the comforts we buy: It's time to change... if not for the good of the present/future world, then at least for a greater chance to live a richer, more fulfilling life.

So what if you have to cook your own dinner, and pay a few extra dollars by buying local? In North America, we're currently spending the least amount of money on food, in human history. Food. The main thing we require in order to survive, and it's the lowest priority on our budget. Preparing our own meals provides more time to actually enjoy the process, and the outcome, while at the same time giving us a chance to strengthen relationships with the people in our lives. Doing so with food grown or produced locally, and organically, benefits your body with healthier, fresher, and more natural food energy, as well as benefiting your neighbours, the farmers. Think about it.

So you don't want to take the bus for 2 hours to get to work? Grow up or get a job closer to home. Or fight for groups who are trying to see alternative solutions come to fruition. Buy a bike, take the train, work from home. Being stuck in gridlock surely isn't what humans were made for, neither is stubbornly proclaiming the selfish right to go wherever you want, whenever you want, at the cost of the environment. Bailout? PLEASE. Giving taxpayer money to corporations that are rightfully, and suddenly, meeting their end at a time when the last thing the world needs is more cars, for the sake of "jobs," is outrageous. You have to look at the reason why they need this help in the first place, and choose to be a part of the solution, rather than attempt to save something that should never have gone this far in the first place. Does anyone's vision of heaven (even if you don't believe in the place, you've seen movies..) include even one car?

Imagine if personal audio players were never invented. Imagine how beautiful the sounds of life could be. And hey, while we're talking about alternative methods of transportation, imagine what it would be like to know, and talk to, the people on your bus/train/whatever. Imagine how it would have been in the days before electricity, when the skies weren't polluted by light, or the smog/chemicals of power plants. When beautiful forests weren't destroyed in a feverish quest for natural gas or fuels. When towns and landscapes weren't flooded simply to produce a measly amount of hydroelectric power. Turn off your computer for a day. Or 3. Live by candlelight for a week. Enjoy the sound of silence.

A starbucks a day, on the way to work. Really? How many paper cups is that? A new tv this Christmas, 4" wider and 5cm thinner than the one you bought last year. Shows the same pictures as the one you bought 20 years ago, doesn't it? We need to get over ourselves. There is no identity to be found by acquiring things. If you need the newest iPod because it holds 10 more songs, or the latest decorations for your Christmas tree, perhaps it's time to rethink a thing or two. Be happy with what you have, and form your identity through the way you treat people, not the objects you buy in order to impress them.

North America is at the end of it's reign, and if we don't act NOW to change the way we think, and act, and respond to the world we "live" in, there won't be much of anything left. Our lives are utterly unsustainable, and completely narrow-minded. Even if we don't change, the lives we have grown accustomed to over the past 80, 50, 10 years, are over, whether we accept it or not.

I'm serious.

I wouldn't be posting this if I wasn't.

This has NOTHING to do with religion, and NOTHING to do with politics. It has EVERYTHING to do with you, and me, and everyone else on this tiny little planet. (Who, while I'm on the subject, have every right to do whatever they want, be whomever they want, say whatever they want, and act however they want)

But if this hasn't convinced you to change even one thing remotely related to anything I wrote above,,, we need to talk.

rbo
(if you came looking for my blog, it has moved here.)