Not to be fixed

I was reading a brief article on Zenhabits... something called Barefoot Philosophy, which was really a cutesy way of interpreting a pretty standard positive-outlook philosophy of happiness. It wasn't all that bad, as far as it goes. It used walking barefoot as a metaphor for moving through life. But one connection it mentioned sparked a line of thought in me that quickly formed into the beginnings of a revelation that had been brewing in other places.

The article mentioned that the author hates anything you buy as a solution to a life problem. Life doesn't need to be fixed, he was saying. He used the example of greenwashing vs. barefooting. Our consumer-driven culture has begun to bite on the Go Green movement because there are needless possibilities to sell products that are 'green'. Before that hit, considering the environmental impact of daily activities was largely ignored by corporate America, and consequently by the masses. After all if it isn't in a commercial or pop-TV show, it isn't reality for many people. The author didn't go into that detail, but he did contrast the greenwashing phenomenon with barefooting, which, if it were to catch on, would not only preclude a merchandising tie-in (though I have seen some weird barefoot jewelry and such), but would actually hit shoe company profits. Which is why it would take major cultural shifts before any such movement would ever catch on. Case in point: throughout this recession we've been told that to be good little citizens we must go out and spend money to drive up corporate profits, which will fix everything, but which really just makes us even more indebted to the paradigm that got us where we are.

Anyway, economics gripes aside, it hit me in reading those few lines that we do often approach the world's problems as things to be fixed...things that need a solution, when in fact the action may be the problem.

I work in the environmental world, and I had never been able to quite formulate this. Now I have it. I see the preformed echoes of it in many of the programs and initiatives I've developed. It's a getting out of the way. Nature works very well. We screw it up by our actions that disregard this integrity and then think we have to keep working on it to make it right. We got here just fine. Obviously we didn't plan ourselves into existence.

So I can verbalize it clearly now. It isn't a matter of doing anything to fix the environment and all the associated socio-economic woes degradation brings. It's a matter of stopping to screw it up. No type of shoe will fit this foot. Some may be less obtrusive than others, but ultimately only the bare foot will be able to avoid the problems...in other words, living with a sensitivity to the integrity (used in the literal sense) of nature and our own lives.

So don't think about what you can do to save the planet. Think about what you can stop doing that hurts you, your world, your neighbors. The deeper you delve into that, the more connections you'll find.

It may start with simple things like buying less, driving less, etc. But that goes on into how much you spend on various things, what styles you find attractive, what activities you enjoy. When you simplify your life and focus on what brings the most quality of life to you and others, you'll quickly find that this makes many social/political/environmental problems moot. It spirals up. By decluttering, you make more time for what you enjoy, which benefits your health, which makes you more available for those who need you. Which forestalls many relational ills. In addition, owning less means you need less money, which takes pressure off at work, which benefits your health, which means you need even less money. It also means you use less resources, which makes things spread further and drives costs down and quality up because you insist on it. This also means you have a smaller ecological footprint. It doesn't take lots of coal-fired power, synthetic chemicals, and lots and lots of hinter-land to support your "fat" lifestyle. And as you start to make these choices you find that you are happiest and healthiest in a peaceful, walkable, relational community. It just grows like a tree, tying in and branching and self-repeating on every level. It's fractal geometry...the structure of the world.

Our problems are of our own making. Stop making them!