A Walden Pond ethic for world travel....

"The journey for the sake of saving our own lives is little by little to cease to live in any sense that really matters, even to ourselves, because it is only by journeying for the world's sake - even when the world bores and sickens and scares you half to death - that little by little we start to come alive." Fredrick Buechner (quote thanks to Camille and Ian Howells)

Consumer spending, Jefferson, Thoreau and Opportunity

Greeting friends. As many of you know I am a big NPR news fan and also a big fan of a radio show called the Jefferson Hour www.jeffersonhour.org. On the show a humanities professor and expert on Thomas Jefferson and his time answers questions as if he were Jefferson. I've learned a lot about history and philosophy through this show. Yesterday, they discussed Thoreau and his philosophy - the search for the essential life. Today, NPR reported increased drops in consumer spending. They noted that for individual families cutting back is smart, but also hurts our economy on a macro-level. They noted that even food prices are going down due to less demand. This indicates that there is less waste, more thought about what we are eating. While the news is all doom and gloom, I see this as an OPPORTUNITY. It's an opportunity for us to live deliberately, to put less emphasis on material goods and money and more on mind, body and spirit. It is an opportunity for us to get out and take a walk instead of watching a movie or going to the mall. It is an opportunity to get to know our neighbors, to participate in government (to solve these myriad problems) to mentor kids. Most of all, it is an opportunity for us to be less wasteful, more watchful and better stewards of our earth. Necessity is the mother of invention and I see creative responses all around me. I'm hopeful. So Jefferson would say: go learn something new, plant a garden, reach out to a friend, collaborate with the community to build a public resource. Thoreau would say: don't just say these things, DO them. Rachel would say: if each of us lives essentially, authentically in our own lives in our own moments we can really change the world! That's what I'm thinking about... I'll be reading Walden this summer.
with love,
Rachel