DEPENDING ON EACH OTHER

My old friend, Sun Bear, frequently said "we must learn to put our dependencies on each other and the Earth Mother." When I say frequently, I mean at least once a day, and in speeches multiple times. He often followed it up with, "we can't live in the jaws of the dragon."

The longer our recession/collapse continues, the more often I find myself saying the same thing. But what is dependency? I am dependent on my paycheck, on the web working to pay my bills, on grocery stores, on gas being delivered. But I've lived long enough in the woods to know I can plant, grow, shoot, walk and split wood to survive, with the help of my family and friends. My heart reaches out to those without that confidence, or without the means (land, tools, water) to "survive with a knife and a bag of salt." (Also a Sun Bear-ism.)

But really depending on each other? That's another matter. That's the lesson I'm still learning. My friends have shortcomings, families to tend to, busy schedules and my needs aren't at the top of their to-do lists. They surely say the same about me. A few are the kind I could call at 4 AM with a crisis and get instant support. But to share a garden, share food, share the last tank of gas, prioritizing who's trips count and who's don't? There's the rub. I've become indulgent, self centered and controlling. Surviving with a close knit group means reaching for the higher good around nearly every decision.

I lived in commune in the 70's where we practiced some of these exercises on a piece of land fitted with an aging cabin, no drinking water (without boiling), and dry land for farming. Believe it or not, fist fights erupted over whether to use cardboard matches or wooden matches to start fires. We had an electric stove (luxury item), but one fellow couldn't stand such "privilege" and pulled all the wiring apart. (Back to splitting wood.) We had city folks flocking up to learn "survival skills" who happily left their kids in the kitchen (with strangers) and headed into the mountains. Only because I'm Saggitarius can I continue to believe in the human race after that few years. But the lessons were enormous.

Some of us aren't going to pull through with our sanity in tact in the next few years. The stress of no longer being the ruler of our lives, of having to ask for help (rides, food, medicine), and being unable to seek our familiar diversions from stress (tobacco, alcohol, shopping, eating), will move us to rage, suicide and serious depression. The last "great depression" left its legacy in our national psyche, but we didn't learn the economic lesson it tried to teach. The idea that our civilized framework could come to a grinding halt is thinking the unthinkable. Many of us have been thinking in this direction for a long time, knowing our unsustainable economics would come to this.

Crisis leads to opportunity. This phrase is becoming almost trite as it's alluded to so frequently with our "new" political family. Nonetheless, as a people we do have strengths we haven't had to draw on, creativity untapped, and a stubborn commitment to do "what has to be done"...in this case, care for the Earth,care for each other and find the spiritual strength from both to survive and thrive.

The communes of the seventies dissolved for the most part, although a few notable ones endured to show the way to sustainability. The lessons we all learned endured also, like an underground artesian well, ready to be tapped should the need arise. It's arising, and we're willing.