Hi Kathy,

Since you posted Demise of a Techno-fix Psyche in September, 2006, I have continued along the path of trying to do/learn things that might be relevant in preparing for a post-Peak Oil world whenever possible. That has had me getting my hands dirty in several instances including:

Enrolling in a class and returning to volunteer at a nonprofit called Tillers International this past spring,

Taking a class to learn how to repair bicycles last fall,

Taking a workshop in nonviolent communication (no dirty hands, but definitely eye-opening),

Apprenticing at the Ecovillage Training Center on The Farm last summer,

helping grow gardens, trees, and community at Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage during several visits,

and helping to start a community garden with other folks in the neighborhood in the spring of last year.

I used to get bummed about Peak Oil but seem to have found my own personal cure for the doldrums. I can summarize my method as follows:

“Don’t dwell on it, DO on it.”

BTW, almost three years without a car and still making it happen. Maybe that’s part of my medicine; James E. Starr wrote:

“Melancholy is incompatible with bicycling.”

I think he was on to something.

Thanks for doing what you do.

peace,
Brandon

The original article can be found here. Reprinted by permission of the author

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There are those, Brandon, who would argue that facing into the realities of a post-fossil world, offers us nothing but fear, hopelessness and despair, and keeps people frozen. However, I, like yourself, have found these emotions to be only the first phase of one’s awakening. If we can hang in there, and continue to look, unflinchingly, these emotions eventually weaken. The capacity to look squarely at what the future might hold, does bring anxiety, but our capacity to manage that anxiety, soothe ourselves, and calm ourselves down, allows us to find radically new answers to seemingly “impossible” problems. Jumping to reassuring answers such as “Technology will Resolve it!” might feel good, but doesn’t force us to think more deeply, and keeps us even more passive as we “wait” for the new development. Thanks for your inspirational steps forward.