Comments on: Affluence: Sustaining the flow

By: Green Bean

Green Bean — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 06:51:00 +0000

Beth, i love your take on this. In sustaining the flow, we reap the rewards.

By: kidletnation.blogspot.com

kidletnation.blogspot.com — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 07:32:00 +0000

Wow that meal looks incredible.
I haven’t had erixjtrian food since we left the Bay Area. I don’t know about you, but I always eat it until full, which is dangerous as the sour bread expands over subsequent hours :)

By: ariella

ariella — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 00:43:00 +0000

Wow, this post totally sums up what I've been struggling with as of late.

I work full-time for an NGO, working within the economic system to create on-the-ground forest conservation. My job is more than full-time, often bleeding into my evenings and weekends, and even still I come home wondering how I can do more. More more more... it never feels like enough.

My partner complains that environmentalism isn't just my job, its my hobby - "how can you come home and read a plastics blog every night? aren't you pooped?" - and he's right, I am saturating myself. But I struggle with what else I can be doing with my time - not exercise - but a place to put my creative energy... and somehow I overlook the luxury of simply being.... that's something I can certainly afford to spend more time doing.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

By: Robj98168

Robj98168 — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 06:04:00 +0000

I never think of being affluent. But you put it in such a different light, Thganks for the post!

By: eco 'burban mom

eco 'burban mom — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 01:08:00 +0000

Simply being. Well put! As a child, when my parents told me to finish all my Brussel sprouts because children in Ethiopia were starving I always thought about how lucky I was to be born in the US. I always thought how crazy it would have been if I had just happened to be born somewhere else.

And, I too had a wake-up call at an Ethiopian restaurant here in Detroit, The Blue Nile, while eating with friends. It felt like an oxymoron or some kind of sarcastic joke that we were being served all of this food while real, actual Ethiopians were struggling to find food.

Great post!

By: Stephanie

Stephanie — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 21:43:00 +0000

Thank you for this post.

By: ciboulette

ciboulette — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 14:05:00 +0000

Love it. An affluence of time. It can be viewed as a blessing or burden–if I let it be viewed that way.

By: Anarres Natural Health

Anarres Natural Health — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 12:55:00 +0000

Dear Beth,

Thank you for sharing your beautiful thoughts. Cosmically, it relates to a discussion of prosperity and poverty that I had yesterday. I will use your writing to reflect on this.

Love & RRRevolution, Tracey

By: daharja

daharja — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 07:27:00 +0000

Thanks for another thoughtful post.

I feel like the flow is going all the wrong way these days, and its a fight just to keep sane, let alone to stop the current and turn things around. Kudos to you for making a difference!

One of the biggest problems facing the greenies of the world, I think, is fragmentation. There are so many causes and issues that our power if fragmented, and we lose focus and strength.