So where do we go from here? That seems to be the question of the moment(and a good one it is). Things have stabilized somewhat at their new level, for now, and people are breathing a sigh of relief. Gas is ONLY $5.50 or so-whew. Maybe we can drive to Grandma's for Christmas this year after all..... And take the family to Disney during February school vacation.....  It's cool- some of us still have jobs, and there's food in the stores again and the house is warm-hey, I turned the thermostat down to 68! So the next car we buy-maybe we'll look into one of those hybrids.....

So is this it? As I wrote in my last post, I referred to the roller coaster of oil supply demand and destruction. Are we content to just hang on, close our eyes and scream at the scary parts, but never think to get off the ride when it slows down? Maybe go ride the carousel for a bit?

Again, it always seems to get portrayed as either "business as usual"- our car/plane dependent societies, commuting madly to their jobs and motoring to the mall for endless shopping on the weekend, or a return to a primitive stone-age existence. One or the other, black or white, no shades of grey. But why not grey?

It should be clear to all of us who have had our eyes wide open these past 30 weeks that this is just a taste of what is to come. It was a teaser, a warning, a harbinger of the changes that need to happen. We will ignore it at our peril. But it is so hard though to make the changes when things are not in the acute crisis stage. When the masses aren't burning down gas stations and rioting in the streets and the aisles of the Piggly Wiggly. Everyone(well most everyone) just sort of gets used to the new level of reality and is drawn back into the revised patterns of their daily life-work, school, the kids, clean the house, no time to worry about "it" happening again. Until the next crisis.

So can we do anything different? Well I've been thinking about this some. How do we capitalize on the momentum we have created and move someplace positive with it? Some ideas........

Those community groups you've created? Keep them going. Make them fun, feed people at every event(pot-lucks are great). Keep doing community events-gardens, firewood, yard sales, block parties, whatever. If you know each other and are used to working together it will be easier when times get tough to keep doing so and not have to start from scratch.

Keep up the drumbeat. It's hard I know. It reminds me about something I heard after the big tsunami in Asia. On one island, everybody was spared. The reason for this was that there were oral stories passed down from parent to child about the time the sea went far out and then came back in with a monstrous wave. The children were told in these stories that if this happened they were to run to higher ground as fast as they could. And when the tsunami hit, the people recalled the stories passed down by their elders and they fled to the hills and were saved. So we need to become like the elders on that island and keep telling the stories to our children. They need to understand what has happened and why and that it will happen again. No child should be brought up thinking that there is an endless supply of oil in a vast "ocean" deep underground and we can just use as much as we want forever and ever....  And keep up the pressure on our political leaders- don't let them forget what has happened and that we need change in the system. And the media-with its short attention span the oil crisis will be on page 32 in a few days-if we let them. Don't let them.

Examine your own life. What works? What doesn't? Time for some change? Is your job vulnerable? Where you live? Start making some changes. It WILL happen again- you know this. And each time we are starting from a higher point-so the crisis will get worse and the problems deeper. So start making changes. Ride that bike, take a bus, learn some skills. Get out of debt. Grow some food if you can and would like to. Learn who the local growers are-and buy from them. Support your local farmers, especially if they practice sustainable agriculture. Start more Farmers' Markets. Shop them regularly. Join CSA's. Eat local as much as possible- recognize that what isn't local is a treat- oranges in New Hampshire, maple syrup in Florida. Base your diet on local food and add the rest as a treat-not the main course.

As for me, well I'm going to continue working on the local level. There's those groups I'm a part of with the three-town area-cannig and food and such. And my local community-our skills bank. I'm continuing to learn new skills- I've learned to knit this year, sharpen tools-saws, scythe, chisel, etc all by hand, took a woodworking class, and am learning to fix bicycles. I'm trying to grow grain small-scale-we'll see how this goes, with hopes of feeding the poultry and me with it.  Wheat, oats, corn, soybeans and perhaps some buckwheat. 

I'm still working away at cutting wood by hand- never going to be easy for me but I'll do what I can. And I'm continuing to work on reducing the use of fuel(down to zero) and plastics- still use some- to operate my fruit and vegie farm. Still pondering how I would get my products to market without a vehicle though..... bike trailer or horse I guess.

So lots to work on. Lots to do. We need to do it too- we've been warned.