The communal community

Photo by Tim Marshall on Unsplash

When living a minimal lifestyle all seems a bit too much…

Remember: You’re not alone.

But here’s another thing to remember – we all take different journeys.

I have not met anybody who doesn’t shudder at the images of waste in our waterways choking marine life.

But I have heard many who ask about Australia only producing 1.3% of the world’s waste, so what’s the point of cutting back?

I say - The point of cutting back is that if we are suggesting to developing countries that they modify their production and waste disposal practices, we need to model best practise ourselves.

And that’s if I believe their statistic in the first place. We send so much recycling offshore, who’s to know if that statistic counts this stockpile of rubbish as theirs or ours.

Lies, damned lies and statistics!

                Facebook fiends…I mean friends

Even amongst like minded people, tension and disagreements are rife.

Scrolling through the posts in some groups on Facebook, I have been taken aback by the vitriol directed towards others.

Take a recent example of one lady who posted a picture of her glass jars, filled with the basics – rice, sugar, flour, honey, dried beans, crackers, spices and so on and announced that making these changes was easy. And if she could do it, anybody who didn’t just wasn’t trying hard enough.

Well….

One person sneered that white flour was simply too processed to be ecologically friendly (or healthy).

Another responded by saying that bulk stores were too expensive compared to supermarket prices. When the original poster then suggested that shopping around was the solution, tempers started getting hot.

Ding ding! It was ON. 

The original poster was accused of being able-ist (it’s hard for a person with limited mobility to shop around), and of not understanding what it was like to be on a pension. Instead of ignoring the negativity, the original poster responded to the concerns.

And she just could not say a thing right. Every word was attacked. She was not aware of her own privilege, was the main reaction and implicitly accusing those who did not shop in her way of being lazy and selfish.

Now, I don’t know what her original intent was, but she quickly shut the thread down.

And it’s a sight I see all too often on Facebook.

People simply forget that it’s a mammoth effort to live a less wasteful lifestyle. Everybody makes different choices according to their circumstances. And it’s easy to criticise someone who comes across as boastful or smug – when that may not be the intended tone at all.

                Connecting

Photo by Chris Liverani on Unsplash

But we’re not in it alone. There’s no need for the same problems to be solved individually.

There is goodwill amongst like minded people.

Here’s an idea…how about we share our skills and resources?

If a person without a car cannot access the bulk purchase store, perhaps somebody who does could offer to grab a few things for them next time they’re over there..

I can’t sew to save myself but would like to repurpose old clothing as bags – perhaps somebody who can sew might do it for me in exchange for a good or skill have.

And social media can help us by super-charging the number of people we can connect with.

It only works when we’re open to ideas rather than being defensive. The Facebook group described earlier was an Australia wide one - so a skills exchange was not likely. But connecting within smaller localised groups is possible. And there are plenty around. If you find yourself within a negative group- just unsubscribe and search for one that is more open.

A minimalist lifestyle is not always easy.

But with others walking beside us, it may just be easier.