Sustainable Wednesday: Potluck

We are in the midst of Advent, and in the midst of the secular Christmas holiday time* with holiday parties for the staff at work, for the neighborhood, for the volunteer associations we belong to, for the ... As some one once said, it may not be so important what we eat between Thanksgiving and Christmas, as it is what we eat between Christmas and Thanksgiving. Indeed, we are in the midst of celebrations and parties. Maybe this is why I find Jim Merkel's question phrased in the midst of an imaginary potluck so moving.

     Imagine you are at a potluck buffet and see that you are the first in line. How do you know how much to take? Imagine that this potluck spread includes not just food and water, but also the materials needed for shelter, clothing, healthcare and education. It all looks and smells so good and you are hungry. What will you heap on your plate? How much is enough to leave for your neighbors behind you in the line? Now extend this cornucopia to today's global economy, where the necessities for life come from around the world. Six billion people,** shoulder to shoulder, for a line that circles around the globe to Cairo, onto Hawaii over ocean bridges, then back, and around the globe again, 180 times more. With plates in hand, they too wait in line, hearty appetites in place. And along with them are giraffes and klipspringers, manatees and spiders, untold millions of species, millions of billions of unique beings, all with the same lusty appetites. And behind them, the soon-to-be-born children, cubs, and larvae.
     A harmonious feast just might be possible. But it requires a bit of restraint, or shall we say, a tamed appetite, as our plate becomes a shopping cart, becomes a pickup truck - filling our house, attic, basement, garage, and maybe even a rented storage unit with nature transformed into things. As we sit down for a good hearty meal with new friends and creatures from around the world, what is the level of equity that we would feel great about? At what level of inequity would be say, "Wait a minute, that's not fair"?***

What level of equity feels right? What level of inequity has us crying "Foul!"?

Merkel encourages us to live globally. "'Global Living' was defined as an equitable and harmonious lifestyle among not only the entire human population, but also among the estimated 7-25 million other species, and the countless unborn generations. When one practices global living, each of our daily actions improves the health of the whole - locally and globally. The ecological, social, political, and spiritual systems at all levels are then able to regenerate and flourish."***

Here's to the big questions in life.

Blessed Be

Joel


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* For the Christian Church calendar, the Christmas season starts with Christmas, runs the 12 days of Christmas (like the carol) and ends on Epiphany.
** As of 31 October 2011: the world population reached 7 billion. The Worldmeters gives a real time count of the worlds human population and facts about estimated population.
*** Jim Merkel. Radical Simplicity: small footprints on a finite Earth. New Society Publishers. 2003. 1st quote: p. 2-3. 2nd quote: p. 2.