The news of Japan’s earthquake and nuclear crisis shook me. I share my very personal inner and outer responses in “Shaken.”Inner response? I keep “getting” that a no-growth economy and increasing chaos are the New Normal. Industrial civilization is collapsing under the weight of complexity, bigger populations and harder-to-get resources.

Outer response? Build resilience for this New Normal. Maybe use the Japan crisis to start the conversation with our neighbors. One preparedness model: a Japanese community who survived because they’d rehearsed for tsunamis for years. Another from Port Townsend: “Partners in Preparedness: Neighborhoods and Emergency Responders” (episode 181).

Wow! A firestorm of comments on Lierre Keith’s “The Vegetarian Myth” (episode 191), centering around vegetarian vs. omnivore diets. But commentors are bypassing her bigger issue: agriculture is destroying the planet. What do you think? Chime in on YouTube, or the Peak Moment TV website.

Chip in on a replacement laptop. We mourn the death of Robyn’s macbook “Titania”. This sweetheart has dedicatedly produced Peak Moment and other videos for nine years. (Fortunately Robyn has a temporary backup).

Donate now towards a refurbished replacement. Consider a monthly contribution — from as little as $1/month. Affordable for you, and a base we can count on.

Thank you for your notes, dollars and spirit of support~

Janaia & Robyn

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Carolyn Baker stopped by for a Peak Moment conversation on her way back to Colorado after conducting a workshop based on her new book, Navigating the Coming Chaos: A Handbook for Inner Transition.

In spring of 2010 we’d taped a long-distance conversation via skype about her earlier ground-breaking book Sacred Demise: Walking the Spiritual Path of Industrial Civilization’s Collapse.

I was so glad to at last meet Carolyn in person! I’ve subscribed to her Daily Email Digest for three years or so, and find it a valuable filter and lens onto both the symptoms of collapse as well as resources and examples of transition unfolding.

And away we went! Carolyn’s new book devotes a major section to coping with, and even befriending, the “dark emotions” of fear, despair, grief and anger. She notes that ours is a culture of emotional numbness, looking askance even at expressions of joy that go beyond a certain point.

Carolyn said she began her workshop “Preparing Emotionally and Spiritually for a Post-industrial Future” with the subject of Death. Death is the big taboo in our culture, the fear underlying many collapse-aware peoples’ survival orientation and preparations. With the fear of death out in the open where we can look at it, Carolyn said, people can move to a different place — to find meaning for their lives even as industrial civilization comes unglued.

The heart of the book is really about soul work that is both personal and yet also about community. Opening our hearts, facing the shadow, finding supportive relationships among people and the more-than-human world, coming to know deeper layers in ourselves. These will enable us to be more present with the uncertainties that come our way, and perhaps to help frightened and confused other people.

I love her notion that those who are now aware of collapse, regardless of age, may be called to the role of Elders, holding wisdom to assist humanity in a rite of passage to a new evolutionary threshold — one that will enable those who come after us to NOT follow in the footsteps of this destructive industrial civilization. Elderhood at any Age.

Look forward to a gem of a conversation. [http://www.carolynbaker.net]

I am feeling shaken. Personally. An earthquake halfway around the planet in Japan may be touching us directly. The butterfly effect, up front and personal. This planet is one organism.

If I were to anthropomorphize the planet’s activity (which could be as ridiculous as the bacteria in my gut trying to figure out what my entire body is doing), I’d say Gaia is doing her part to minimize the life-destroying effects of human activity and get us reconnected to her. Massive quakes increasing. From less developed areas like Haiti and Chile a year ago, now to one of the most industrialized nations on the planet.

Such natural events are one sure way to get us to reconnect to the natural cycles. Like massive floods in Pakistan or England, hurricanes and droughts in Australia. Reconnecting, and then living within nature’s limits and cycles, is required for sustainability. Nature bats last. She’s showing us in spades.

Back to the up front and personal. Radioactive fallout from Japan’s three nuclear reactors, damaged in Friday’s shattering 8.9 magnitude quake, may ride on the jet stream and fall right here to the west coast of North America. On our heads, intermixed into the forecasted rain.

This quake shakes me into thinking again about emergency preparedness. Responding Saturday to Mike Ruppert’s alert, we ordered potassium iodide tablets online immediately (used to prevent thyroid glands from uptaking the radioactive iodine in the fallout.) Calls around my mom’s town found none available, and several online sites out of stock. Potent reminder about doing preparedness work *before* an emergency.

Not that preparedness is new. It’s just that now I have to think of it in a fresh light due to changing circumstances. One is our living primarily in The Little House, the mobile studio/RV, where storage space is limited.

The second is our shift to a low-grains, low-carbohydrate diet. I’ve stored plenty of lentils, beans, and rice at Lone Bobcat Woods. So my thoughts turn to storing meat and vegetables, not as easy as grains and legumes! And on our limited budget, that means canning them ourselves.

Following a link on Carolyn Baker’s daily email digest, I landed on instructions for canning butter. A brand new idea to me, and a welcome one for preserving a nutrient-dense fat. Which then leads to the need to bring the pressure-cooker canner and jars on the road in The Little House.

Which leads to thinking about other preparedness items for The Little House. The backpacking water filter. Foldable plastic jugs for water storage. The homeopathic first aid kit. And questions about where to store those. One thing leads to the next.

Emergency preparedness is now on my radar for when we return to Lone Bobcat Woods. Along with cleaning out and downsizing, assemble some emergency preparations to take along in the Little House.

After taking these steps, I turned to my sketchbook, photographing images I’ve drawn during our past eight months on the road. I assembled this collage of views from the Little House (at bottom).

I have done two things in response to my fear. I have taken appropriate action to meet what may come. And then I have soothed my heart by immersing myself in the timeless.

October 10, 2010, part 3. Robyn and I transformed the RV’s living area into the Peak Moment studio, where we taped a conversation with Peak Shrink Kathy McMahon in the evening. I’ve wanted to tape Kathy since reading her tongue-in-cheek blog about Panglossian disorder several years ago. Right now she’s on a Pacific Northwest speaking tour. Great synchronicity for all to be here at the same time.

I love Kathy’s humor and authenticity, and her deft ability to be thoughtfully contrarian — questioning the way we approach or view things. She told me that for years she has watched her own and others’ responses to the devastating news of peak oil, climate change, and ecological systems collapse. Rather than pathologize people whose response is depression or panic, like labeling their responses as “post-petroleum stress syndrome”, she says we need to realize that such responses to this overwhelming, devastating information are totally sane.

What’s insane is the world around us that conspires to dismiss this information, to keep up the optimistic shiny face. Kathy has invented a fictitious psychological syndrome called “Panglossian Disorder” to humorously yet accurately characterize various flavors of “extreme optimism in the face of likely cultural and planetary collapse.” One subtype: MacGyverites who believe that we can use ordinary materials to get us out of this fix, like “pig dung will replace fossil fuels.”

Look forward to a rich and fascinating conversation with a thoughtful observer of what’s going on and whose focus is people, ordinary people. Stories about how the mind helps and hinders  survival problem-solving; rebuilding community within 5 or 10 miles of where we live; and a reminder that we’re all Bozos on this bus (ain’t no experts in how this collapse, and how the future, will play out).

Not on tape was her notion of peak-aware people having a nostalgia for the present: treasuring this moment as if seeing it from the post-petroleum future, when some of what we take for granted now will no longer be the reality. Her example: walking into the grocery story and being able to get bananas anytime. Not just once in awhile. Anytime.

Read Kathy’s blog Peak Oil Blues at www.peakoilblues.org and enjoy. Watch, listen or read the completed program “Peak Oil Blues - We’re All Bozos on This Bus” (episode 199).