The beginning of this thing.

I am the one in the back of the rowboat with the shit-eating grin on
my face. My name is Gavin Aubrey Tiemeyer. This is a blog, an
itty-bitty thing floating aimlessly in the giant clamorous world of
social networking. This thing here is part of an individual learning
contract that I am doing at the Evergreen State College. I have a
simple yet complex question to work with: How in the face of serious
environmental and social problems do ordinary people like you and I
maintain sanity and make a difference? This blog will document my
clumsy and joyous romp through self-discovery and what it means to
live a more environmentally conscious and sustainable life. If all of
that sounds too high falutin I understand, allow me to it break down.
Making a difference can be just about anything as long moments are
taken to slow down and listen and make some sort of tiny attempt to
understand how the way we live affects every single organism and the
fate of the biosphere that we all live in. If you peg that as typical
Evergreen fodder that is fine. I am still adjusting to it myself. But
I do believe that at on an intrinsic level, despite religious or
political affiliation, whether you’re a “conservative” or
“progressive,” if you’re an artist or a retail worker, we all share a
dynamic relationship with the natural world. This relationship has to
compete with the many distractions and comforts of modern living and
we loose this relationship at our own peril.
Personally, this project is comprised of little jaunts not major life
alterations. Like everyone else, giving up my creature comforts is
very hard. Part of this means simply understanding how luxuries like
transportation and easy food have real consequences that affect other
people and the natural world. So for me doing simple things like
riding my bike more and driving less are great first steps to living a
more fulfilling and ethical life. If I’m riding my bike to a local
food co-up that is even better!
Frances Moore Lappe calls these tiny actions, “entry points.” Entry
points allow us to see overwhelming issues differently. With entry
points we can digest major problems easier and more affectively. Entry
points Lappe says are “sharp points that break into and deflect [our]
downward spiral of powerlessness; they are deliberate actions that
strengthen the flow of positive causation, putting in motion an upward
spiral of empowerment.”
Forwarding what Lappe is saying, it is simply about personal
empowerment. When I die I want to be able to look back on my life and
know that I was more than just a consumer, mowing around aimlessly,
unmoored from the life sustaining rhythm of the natural world. This is
what making a difference to me. Should be messy and fun.
The picture above was taken after breakfast at Sunlight Café in the
University District in Seattle. I ended up in a row boat in the
Arboretum on Lake Washington, under the premise that hanging out with
close friends rowing clumsily was in fact “sustainable” and could
possibly “get the academic and creative juices flowing.”