The Illumination of Consent

Sharon Astyk is a self-described "writer and subsistence farmer" we recently met at Community Solution's peak oil conference in Yellow Springs ("Planning for Hard Times"). Her work is inspiring and appropriately disturbing. She's currently completing two new books for New Society Publishers: PEAK OIL AND CLIMATE CHANGE--DEPLETION AND ABUNDANCE: LIFE ON THE NEW HOME FRONT and A NATION OF FARMERS (AND COOKS). We're looking forward to both of them.

She posted a particularly thoughtful piece a few days ago that inspired me to finally take concrete steps towards the creation of Transition Times. Sharon speaks deeply to the uncomfortable question, "Who are we to be doing what we're attempting to do here?" For instance, she writes:

How do we change our food systems so that what we eat and what we grow keeps justice in mind? How do we put new systems in place that maximize food production and minimize inputs? How do we do this quickly, but with minimal destruction?

Those are incredibly hard questions to answer in many ways. And while we have some ideas and solutions for some of those questions and a host of others, we don't claim to know everything. A lot of times, we feel like we don't know anything at all. Which is why I will be writing a lot about food over the coming months here, throwing ideas out to my readers for comment and critique, thinking the questions through with your help.

I know this feeling well. At times it seems that we don't know anything at all and that we are woefully ill-equipped for the awesome challenges ahead.

Sharon writes:

I like very much the notion that consent can illuminate us. I think sometimes simply consenting to do the work may be the big transition - we go along thinking hard about ourselves as one sort of person, doing one sort of thing, and suddenly, we have to find a new way to understand ourselves.

Please read her post see what comes up for you. And if you feel moved, please comment below.