Life on an island - or I want to be the normal one

I propose a 52nd state for sustainable living enthusiasts.  It appears to me that the large majority of us are living on our own little isolated islands.

  When I talk to the local grocery store developer about foods free of chemicals he says “do you mean organeek?”
  When I try to explain that I am not actually a vegetarian but I do not eat factory farmed meat I get the-deer-headlights look and much rolling of the eyes.

  And when people ask for advice on gardening they totally reject the idea that you NEED dandelions and that you DON’T need to bring in truck loads of topsoil.
In my fantasy 52nd state (or even town) we would not live in McMansions but rather small easy-to-heat and cool homes that we could reasonably expect to pay off in the near future.  We would trade seeds of locally grown vegetables.  We could go to each others houses to eat dinner without being subjected to Cool Whip and we could get totally wasted on the neighbors’ homemade wine and fattened up on pork rinds raised and cooked up within a few miles of our own back yard.  Someone would always know where the wild mushrooms are and someone else would always have the best pudding recipe made from local raw milk.
No one would shop at the big W but instead we would support our locally owned feed and hardware store – and some of us might even work there.  If I needed soap I could go down to Jans’ house and buy some of her rosemary laced bars and if I needed honey I would walk around the corner to Bobs’ house for a jar or two. 
When we wanted a Pizza night we would gang up on Michelle for a community pizza dinner and for an extra ‘tip’ she might throw in Margaritas.  Delivery would be out though – I’m pretty sure she wouldn’t be cool with that.
In the 52nd state each house would have its’ own mini food forest and apartments would have larger food forests instead of manicured green grass and rows of pansies.  I actually lived in an apartment complex like this in W. Germany over 20 years ago.
Sure, it’s a fantasy, but it’s my fantasy.  In my fantasy people who are living sustainable lives with a thought to leaving our local community a healthier, cleaner and more sustainable place for generations to come are the norm – and people who just want life out of a box would be , well, not normal.

3 comments:

darius said...

May I come live there too? I'm sorely tired of my "own little isolated island"!

inhale, exhale - it's good for you said...

Certainly! It does feel strange when 'normal' is defined as having habits that are self-destructive and 'abnormal' is trying to make your world a healthier more sustainable place.

Don't get me wrong - I have plenty of self-destructive habits, I think they are commonly referred to as vices :-). But in general I am still considered pretty much the oddball.

ZZZ said...

oh my gosh, I think you are inside my head! Great post. Where can we make this town?