Why is it we continually place blame on the other? Are we so entitled as a race that we must place responsibility on another for what we can and should be able to do for ourselves, our families, our community? Is it the “government” that will ultimately manage and maintain our daily lives? Is it because we “pay” them that they are the culprit, the ones who have failed us?
When Hurricane Sandy plows our homes built on sandbars along the coast, do we even consider the fact that maybe this is not the best place to build a home in the first place? After all, weather was happening long before and it will happen long after we are gone. We just happen to place ourselves in what would inevitably become harm’s way and put a price tag on it in the billions. Our anger at those that should “fix the problem” is greater than any little old hurricane.
In Permaculture we say, “The problem is the solution”. We take the time to assess where we are at. We observe. We slow down and let the land play on us, thus revealing its needs, and ours. Why have we veered so far off the beaten path that we have walked for thousands, if not millions of years? When the grid goes down we are without electricity, heat, water. But are we really without? Or is it simply a few weak links in the chain that we have neglected to consider for our well being, our ability and willingness to rely on our savvy, our willingness to suffer some little discomfort before we, through our God-given abilities, put things right?
Self-reliance is not self-sufficiency. Self-reliance is family reliance, community reliance, is resilience. It is our bread and butter, literally. It is what we are made of, our brilliance as a race that thinks and reasons, and identifies the constraints, and finds a way to open what constrains, gently and thoughtfully, so that we may have all that we need to thrive.
Are we entitled? Yes, we are entitled to dig deep into the intuition, the boundless knowledge we all possess, and make do with what we have, and are given.