Where to start? Right here at home!

In every movie with a big bad ene­my and a lot of fight­ing, there’s a cheesy moment when the hero near­ly despairs – they’re afraid all is lost.  The hero must decide whether to keep fight­ing and of course, because it’s a movie, they some­how – because of love, often – decide to give one last push, one last effort.  The hero has to decide to live in hope.

In teach­ing sus­tain­abil­i­ty, I have to make a much low­er-stakes ver­sion of that deci­sion every sin­gle day I go to work.  The deci­sion also comes home with me, when I take our cans to the recy­cling cen­ter or put our food waste into the com­post.  But I’m also aware that it’s impos­si­ble in our mod­ern soci­ety to be per­fect­ly sus­tain­able; even when I lived in a tiny house on my own 25 acres of woods and pas­ture, I was con­stant­ly aware of the many small ways my home and life impact­ed the land and the mate­ri­als economy.

But still, we can’t just give up, though the big bad ene­my (cap­i­tal­ism? the fos­sil fuel indus­try?) keeps mak­ing head­way against Earth.  And it’s our job, as, hope­ful­ly, the heroes of the sto­ry, to do our best — though the odds are against us.  So “Green Living 101” will fea­ture one way each month for us to focus on sustainability.

I want to start with the good news: many of the most sus­tain­able things we can do also help make the world more fun.  They involve focus­ing on rela­tion­ships, not stuff, and on appre­ci­at­ing what we have instead of con­stant­ly need­ing more.  So here’s the first sug­ges­tion: play local.

Winchester has all kinds of good things hap­pen­ing, and all kinds of good peo­ple doing them.  Instead of enter­tain­ing your­self with new stuff or by going shop­ping at a mall, try some of these local options.

Go to a show at Leed’s – it’s close by (less dri­ving), low tech (less elec­tric­i­ty), and it’s effi­cient, because lots of folks can get joy togeth­er at the same time.

Go out for a local­ly brewed beer at Abettor.  That way, your cold beer doesn’t have to be trans­port­ed in a truck for miles, spew­ing diesel fumes all the way.  Sometimes bands play there, or Drew might have Questionable Activities triv­ia (Thursdays), and in any case, you’ll have a short trip there and back, and spend time talk­ing with neigh­bors and friends.

Eat out local­ly.  Yes, it costs more than eat­ing at home, but then one oven stays on and cooks for a bunch of peo­ple, instead of each of us run­ning our stoves separately. 

Go for a walk at Legacy Grove, the Traveling Trail, College Park, or in your own neigh­bor­hood.  Bonus if you can walk from home to get there, and don’t have to burn fos­sil fuels on the way.

Shop at the Farmer’s Market for food.  Buy clothes at Hell’s Half Acre, C.C.’s Closet, or Goodwill.  Buy used stuff – at Mason’s, Eklektic Alchemy, Eve’s Uniques, or the Peddler’s Mall – so that new stuff doesn’t need to get made so often.

If you need a big­ger out­ing, go to the Red River Gorge, or Pilot Knob – go for a hike, pad­dle at Kentucky Underground, or go on a zipline tour. 

In oth­er words, sus­tain­abil­i­ty isn’t all about bat­tles and sac­ri­fice – it’s also about the sim­ple joys of liv­ing local.  It’s about buy­ing less and buy­ing used, valu­ing expe­ri­ences over stuff, and sup­port­ing the local com­mu­ni­ty.  Because even though the threats are big, one of the first and best things we can do is love each oth­er and live in hope. 

Top Ten List of Sustainability Actions

• Play local
• Buy less stuff
• Eat togeth­er
• Drive less
• Walk more
• Spend time talk­ing with friends
• Support local artists and musicians
• Enjoy your vio­lets and dandelions
• Take care of your house
• Experience local nat­ur­al areas