Welcome to the low impact community adventure...

... an occasional blog based on the research for a book of stories, 'The Ecology of Community' about an exploration of communities in the UK that are living lightly and lowering their carbon emissions...

It's a blog which hopes to connect inspiring and alternative stories about living lightly .. showing how our journey to a post-carbon future is one about inspiration, resourcefulness and creativity, and coming together, rather than fear and guilt and doom.

It documents my journey as I join with others to see how groups of people are taking power into their own hands, learning useful skills for a post-oil world

And, by looking at what communities are doing - not just intentional communities, but the concept of community: cooperative groups, structures, traditional and new communities, islands, housing estates, communities of interest and virtual communities - the journey will test the premise that cooperation - rather than competition - provides the most effective model for change.

It's all inspired by a lovely handbook called the 'Three Tonne Handbook', published by Women's Environmental Network, which shows groups of people how to reduce their emissions with handy sections for food, water, energy, waste and transport.

Friday 23 April 2010

Pleasure Principle 2 - reclaiming our own stories

Ps/ When I say pleasure principle, better be careful with my definitions, I don't mean just pursuing pleasure at the expense of all things, or abdicating all responsibility etc..

What I mean, instead, is 2 things: Firstly, being true to our experiences of what causes pain and what causes pleasure. It's when we share our stories that we can best reclaim our experiences and talk more honestly with each other about the kinds of lives and futures we really want. (Driving cars, for example, may sometimes be fun on an open road on a sunny day, but is not generally liberating for most people stuck somewhere around the M25. It's expensive, tedious, tiring and polluting.) And Secondly, that life is meant to be, at root, a joyful experience. As one Sanskrit teaching pronouces (and my own struggling meditation practice reminds me): Underneath all the boredom, underneath all the irritation, what remains is JOY.
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