Farewell

Over three years ago, our Transition Vashon group formed to address our community’s preparedness to face the changes that we saw coming in adapting to climate change and avoiding its worst affects.  We understood that these changes included very personal life style changes for all of us, and that it would take time to digest the facts and to come to important decisions for ourselves.  We initially showed some very good movies that laid the cards on the table.  Some were pretty scary and others very inspiring.  We knew, of course, that it would take much longer for most of us to get the picture and gather the resolve to act.  That is why we looked to get a regular exposure in the local paper to discuss various aspects of the challenge ahead and to cajole ourselves into making some changes in our lives.  We didn’t think that the Beachcomber would offer a regular spot for a column, but, aside from that, we really felt that the Loop was the better organ for what we wanted to do.  When we initially set it up, we didn’t expect that we would get such an advantageous spot on the front page!  

Originally, we intended to share the writing duties for this column.  I wrote the initial article, which was vetted by the rest of the group.  A few of the subsequent articles were authored by other members, notably Phyllis Rabun and Scott Durkee, but, as the weeks went by, the job fell to me.  I was actually fine with that because I was greatly enjoying the opportunity to speak through  the column.  Every column I subsequently wrote was vetted by the group before publication.

Since we were talking about a future that had more in common with sci-fi than with our everyday world today, my concern has always been to be accurate with facts and to be credible in argument.  I was always trying to speak to my devil’s advocate and always asked for comment from the community.  I occasionally did get feedback and I usually tried to respond to it publicly in the next column.  I encouraged people to submit their own articles for publication.  At least in one incidence, a reader did just that.  I had written an article about ferry budget problems and had commented that having a boat every hour to carry hundreds of cars across the Sound seemed fairly extravagant.  That  this column touched a very sensitive nerve in this community indicated to me how utterly dependent we are on that connection, not only to get ourselves across the water whenever we wished, but our cars as well.  Of course, cars, easily one of the biggest carbon producers, are an indispensable part of the world we’ve made for ourselves.  When you combine beauty and romance with comfort and convenience, you’ve got a pretty strong attachment.

Some people emailed positive comments and many, many more of you expressed your appreciation to me in person.  I can’t tell you how gratified I have been in finding so much resonance with the ideas in my columns.  It has been comforting to know that, at least for a lot of you, I have not been writing way out in left field.  
Now, as I finish the 82nd article, I feel I have said most of what I can say in this format.  I could continue to promote and report on local events, but I would rather spend my time writing more introspectively in a larger format, perhaps something more like a book.  I’ve offered to pass the baton off to someone else in our group, but nobody has taken me up on it.  After this amount of time, it would probably be better for a fresh approach anyway.

On my wife’s recommendation, I boldly launched into reading Tolstoy’s War and Peace.  I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was a definite page-turner through most of its 1400 pages.  I am a slow reader so it took me a while.  The reason I’m mentioning this is because Tolstoy propounds his theory of history throughout.  The story is built around Napoleon’s invasion of Russia.  The consensus is that Napoleon changed the face of Europe, and that he and Tsar Alexander determined the outcome of the war in Russia.  Tolstoy propounds that a million French soldiers would never have walked away from their private lives to suffer and die in foreign lands just because Napoleon requested it.  There had to be a collective, grassroots vision that motivated them, that Napoleon was simply another actor playing a role, an important role to be sure, but not a decisive one.

In relating this idea to our present situation, I was at first a bit depressed in thinking that there really wasn’t anything we could do as individuals to change the direction of events.   By this thinking, there will be no white hats leading the charge into a better future.  No stalwart leader or comprehensive law will coerce us into doing the right thing.  Looking at it another way, you could say that better future will depend on the majority of the billions of us, each in our own turn, entertaining a vision of that future. It needs to grow from the bottom up.

I want to thank Steven Allen, editor of the Loop, for giving me the opportunity to speak to you all! Anybody that would like to reread all or parts of the Road To Resilience columns can get a pdf of the entire series by emailing me:  terry.sullivan46@gmail.com.