Surfing Uncertain Times From Home

Turn stay-at-home into a net-zero challenge

As someone who writes a lot about climate solutions, the stay-at-home order of COVID-19 challenged me to begin living with a net-zero carbon footprint. Of course, it would have been nice to have a few more acres to do some serious perennial gardening (fruit and nut trees, vines, and berries), but even with a small backyard, I went from seed to salad greens in less than two months. My microgreens seemed to become huge and hearty heads of lettuce overnight. Since lockdown, my life has resembled what could be coined the “Modern Victorian Age.” Cooking to audiobooks like Moby Dick, gardening to Frank Sinatra, working to classical music, sculpting, and painting while indulging in pastoral murder mysteries. Like many Victorians who felt distressed by mediocrity, elated by literature, shocked by culture, and delighted to be home, I pacify my isolation with walks on the mountain and botanical studies in my yard. I admit I am lucky that I have a back yard, that said there is a lot you can grow on a window sill. Micro greens, sprouts and herbs can really jazz up your cuisine and are all grown in small spaces.

The opportunity for the languid boredom of the Victorians was replaced by a welling anxiety for what may still be to come for so many living on the margins. I spent time baking this discomfort into a simple life of natural pleasures and service to others and made a concerted effort to live by example. This backfired when I made 80 sticky buns for the retirement home and they would not take them. Lock down with caloric buns yet another sticky challenge.

The Italian countryside in the ’80s comes to mind: local food, local talent, and no place to go but home with family and friends for happiness. Distanc socializing is oddly well-suited for our moment in history and may resemble country life before cell phones. There may be quite a lot that is worth keeping or considering from these pandemic days: home cooking, bird watching, working without pants, robotic manufacturing, universal access to healthcare, education, and basic income. What is not worth keeping is leadership that abuses power for profit, leadership that is slow to rise to the warning signs of a pandemic, and to climate catastrophe. Our country seemed ill-prepared to protect its citizens. The only silver lining is that this pandemic has slowed down two other major pandemics: chronic consumption and restless travel disorder. We have cleaned the air and our junk drawers, two challenging endeavors dusted in one news cycle. I am praying that somehow we, as a society, keep this slower pace and integrate it into a clean energy economy that is restorative and not destructive to our habits.

It is also interesting that you are not allowed into a bank without a mask on. My new best friend is a small circle named Alexa, indicating that indeed there are some big cultural shifts underway that may make low-carbon living easier. Maybe we will find ways to keep some of the benefits that we have experienced and do something about the failings we have uncovered. I also hope we all fall in love in a meaningful way with something bigger than ourselves. Needing to use power tools was the moment I realized life really is a community endeavor. A team effort is the name of the game, and that is an essential service. Group Zoom dinners won’t ever be able to replace the in-person community experience. If we were being graded on our recent resiliency challenge, how would you fare? Isolation has historically been used as both torment and a means to arrive at mental liberation. I teeter somewhere on the side of liberation. I give myself a solid B average on the liberated resiliency scale. It’s a lot to handle on your own, and I hope you did okay. I hope you found new ways to have fun. It’s hard to feel settled in unsettling times, and we would be wise to resist the urge to do so. Find friends with whom you are comfortable being unsettled with, ones who can rise to the occasion of our times. Together we can restore our natural and institutional systems. The first step towards this is to have compassion for yourself as you learn to surf these uncertain times and gratitude for the waves that are our teachers.