The Ecotists

T. and I are members of that breed of individual to which the new Seventh Generation commercials are geared. Seventh Generation is a brand of household cleaner that is eco-friendly and sustainable, and their commercials are geared toward people who want to live Green lifestyles (http://www.seventhgeneration.com/). We care passionately about where our food comes from and what goes into our little girl's body. We study human society, and what we see frightens us. We believe that the current overburdened system of oil- and credit-fueled, bottom-line-oriented, push-it-'til-it-breaks mass production is utterly unsustainable. Though we differ in opinion as to what course the next twenty years will take, we are certain that things are going to change.

The current economic situation is a symptom of the dis-ease felt throughout the national and international systems of production and exchange. Our society has been locked in a kind of stasis... I grew up in a peaceful era, thinking that the way things were was the way things would always be—that technology had brought us a stable and easy lifestyle which would continue to my childrens' and my childrens' childrens' generations. As I grew older, I began to see the underlying, unintentional egotism inherent in that view. We thought that we were safe because things were good. We thought that, as Americans, the hardships of the world were not ours, but other peoples', and that if other people followed our model we could bring ease to the world.

As the economic situation has deteriorated, the Green movement has gained momentum. As it becomes obvious that the current system is unstable and needs to be reworked, individuals have begun, in small ways, to rework their own small pieces of the system. Many of us grew up in that egotistical mindset, the peaceful years when we felt untouchable. We have grown up learning a hard lesson. No longer able to afford the luxury of complacency, we have become, not egotists, but ecotists.

Footnote: Though I would love to claim the term “ecotist”, many others coined the term before it popped into my brain. For example, see http://ecotist.wikia.com/wiki/Ecotist_Wiki. Ecotism also carries a somewhat negative connotation in some circles, referring to those who see the dangers of being ecologically unsustainable but are unable or unwilling to change their habits (see http://www.danielbenami.com/2006/11/new-concept-ecotism.html). T. and I walk a fine line—we strive to live sustainably, but we know we have a long way to go.

Home Sweet Homestead

I've been away from home a lot lately. Twenty out of the last twenty-four days, to be exact. But the four days I got to spend at the house with my husband and my little girl were heaven. I had nothing to do but focus on the family and the farm. In the midst of a hectic schedule, it was a mini-vacation. T. left EV in the safety of the in-laws' warm house and came to pick me up in the four-wheel-drive farm truck, in the middle of one of the many snowfalls to blanket the country this topsy-turvy winter. It was an adventurous drive home on un-plowed back roads... and it was breathtakingly beautiful.

I spent a great deal of my time at home—as much as I could, in fact—soaking up T. and EV... T. and I actually went out on a date night for the first time since we moved to Oak Hill! And playing with EV never gets old. She is seventeen months old today (Happy sort-of Birthday, baby!) and is a little fireball. She's incredibly communicative even with her very (very, very) limited vocabulary, and understands just about everything you say to her. She got to experience her first post-infancy snow while I was home. We replaced the Little Red Wagon with the sled and pulled her around the farm every chance we got. We bundled her up and, as usual, took her chicken checkin' with us every morning and down to the in-laws for hot chocolate and Wii entertainment. (Yes, even the back-to-the-land, homestead-crazy eco-farmers have a weakness for the Wii. T. and J. are both wicked at bowling. I'm passable at golf.)

Our night out involved a Japanese steak house and (finally) a chance to see the movie Avatar, followed by desert at Chili's (not our first choice, but it was the only place open at 10:00. We are nothing if not middle-path ecotists. To date, my favorite descriptions of the movie are “Ferngully on Acid” and “Dances With Wolves meets Smurfs”. There are some anthropological issues with the film, to be sure. But overall, in my personal opinion, it's a masterpiece. Avatar fuses some very forward-thinking pop-cultural ideals with the pinnacle of cutting-edge entertainment technology. In the midst of an era of war movies and comic-book-to-screen crazes, there's a revolutionary undercurrent to the film. The Green movement is fighting back. With a Grade-A budget.