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What a Way to Go - Film Discussion

DavidM — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 17:59:22 -0700

This forum thread is being set up for post-film discussion of What A Way to Go: Life at the End of Empire; showing 6:45 pm at Whatcom Community College Heiner Center Theater on Oct. 12, 2007.

http://www.sustainablebellingham.org/index.php?page=What_A_Way_To_Go

Share your reactions to the film, thoughts on sustainability in Whatcom County, or whatever's on your mind. How did the film affect you? Did you appreciate the post-film discussion?

Below are 5 Things To Do found at the WAWTG website. This isn't the usual list of baby action steps like change your lightbulbs and check your tire pressure, but instead some deeper thoughts to ponder and perhaps meditate on.

http://www.whatawaytogomovie.com/

Five Things To Do to Help Create Change

1) Fully acknowledge and internalize that the culture of Empire is destroying the support systems on which the community of life depends, and robbing us of our essential humanity.

2) Talk about your concerns with everyone you know. Make peak oil, climate change, mass extinction and population overshoot household words.

3) Find your work in the world to preserve life, change this culture and /or create restorative ways for individuals and communities to live in harmony with each other and the non-human world.

4) Assess what you actually need during this transition in order to live and do your work. Only buy what you need and buy from local sources in order to support the creation of local economies.

5) Find or deepen your spiritual connection to that which is greater than you. Ask and then listen for guidance about how to live joyfully and creatively in the face of these unprecedented times.

Sustainable Bellingham (Bellingham, WA)

Am I the first?

Diana — Sat, 13 Oct 2007 09:55:49 -0700

I am hopeful that we can create change. The alternative is unthinkable. Didn't Anne Frank write some like that? This is my hometown, and the topics of the film were discussed by the adults in the housholds I grew up in. There are many like minded folks in this town. But this hasn't been enough. How can we motivate "the masses" to do likewise? Where I get stuck is when I have gone outside my circle of simply living friends I encounter religious folks who believe the crisis is the coming of "end times." Something they are eager to have happen. Their response is to put the pedal to the metal, have as many babies as they can, burn as much fuel as they can, consume as much as they can, and bring on rapture. I don't know how to respond. While we limit our family size, they expand theirs, their percentage in the population has increased. Our biggest barrier is figuring out how to bridge this gulf. How do we get fundamentalists to care about the planet, and those of us who don't believe as they do? (And yes, I also know many religious folks who are not this way, they're not the ones I worry about.)

Sustainable Bellingham (Bellingham, WA)

Awakening the Dreamer

DavidM — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 18:37:33 -0700

A place to discuss the Pachamama Alliance Symposium: Awakening the Dreamer, Changing the Dream.

Quotes of the week:

"If the dynamics of the universe from the beginning shaped the course of the heavens, lighted the sun, and formed the earth, if this same dynamism brought forth the continents and seas and atmosphere, if it awakened life in the primordial cell and then brought into being the unnumbered variety of living beings, and finally brought us into being and guided us safely through the turbulent centuries, there is reason to believe that this same guiding process is precisely what has awakened in us our present understanding of ourselves and our relationship to this stupendous process. Sensitized to such guidance form the very structure and functioning of the universe, we can have confidence in the future that awaits the human venture." Thomas Berry, The Dream of the Earth

"Can we rely on it that a ‘turning around’ will be accomplished by enough people quickly enough to save the modern world? This question is often asked, but whatever answer is given to it will mislead. The answer “yes” would lead to complacency; the answer “no” to despair. It is desirable to leave these perplexities behind us and get down to work." E.F. Schumacher, Small is Beautiful

Check out the website:
http://www.awakeningthedreamer.org

Sustainable Bellingham (Bellingham, WA)