This is the last in our short series of updates of our activities over the past couple of months, this time focusing on the stories we have been capturing and what we’ve been learning. I previously wrote about our activites around home, our engagement with community and what we’ve been doing to get moving.
Capturing Stories
We have recorded several interviews with people whose stories highlight one or more aspects of our project messaging. Some of these were quite long which is something of a barrier to sharing. For one I am not confident our YouTube audience has the appetite for such content. There is also a lot of time involved in editing out enough of my filler words to make for a smooth flow and with low view numbers I find it hard to justify the data usage. The latter coming with its own environmental impacts. I have released one so far though, and will update this post as I come to a decision with what to do with others. Please let me know if you are particularly intrigued by any and I will share.
Among the people we have spoken on camera with are:
- A former adventure photographer and meditation enthusiast turned buddhist monk
- A childhood friend of Emelie’s who spent a year in Indonesia as a child while her parents did humanitarian work
- A friend and former colleague of mine, who arrived from India with The Dream and has chosen to simplify after realising his old idea of success was leading him away from real meaning
- Friends of ours who have been struck with reverse culture shock after a forced return to latin America. They offered an excellent reminder of just how fortunate we are to be born Australian
- A fellow Giving What We Can pledger living in Vietnam guided by a core principle of doing the most good.
The Importance of Speaking Up
We have also heard others spontaneously share their stories of reaching an epiphany about their need to change direction, before they even knew what our project was about. Unsurprisingly these experiences have occurred either at a time of personal crisis or during a trip through one of the less developed parts of the world. Several of these people have also agreed to speak on camera, if we can find a mutually suitable opportunity. So many stories to share!
Which is a great reminder of an interesting trend of accidental taboos. More people care about the unspoken topics than we realise, but most are afraid of bringing something off that others are not talking about. An example of this was concerns about climate change among American church goers. Independent surveys showed that the majority of the participating leaders and members of their congregation were concerned about climate change. In spite of this, the leaders did not bring it into their sermons as they felt it wasn’t of importance to their congregation. Similarly the attendees refrained from discussion, even among themselves. The clergy hadn’t mentioned it so it must not be of concern. When the survey results were shared, there was great relief that this awkward taboo could finally be lifted.
So please remember, just because other people are not talking about things, doesn’t mean they don’t want to. It just takes a few with courage to start the conversation. Please be one of them!
Reading and Internal Reflection
Emelie has been reading Frugal Hedonism, which I reviewed a little while back. She has delighted in the affirmation of some of her current lifestyle choices and values. The encouragement of taking pleasure in sensory and tactile experiences has been particularly liberating for her. This is something of a combination of reverence and play, both important instincts which I will write more about in the Instinct Series.
Which takes me to my recent learnings. I have continued to explore the literature on the origins and biology of human instincts, culture and values. This has included material on evolutionary biology, evolutionary psychology and anthropology as well as detailed histories of philosophy, religion and economics. I have been adding a selection of the most relevant books to the resource page and may put together separate reviews of some of them when I’m done writing the Instinct Series.
Reflections on Time and Pace
One thing we have been juggling is the messaging and intention of living lightly and slowly and taking the time for the things that matter and moving our project forward. This is in spite of us both working part time. We’re aware of the hypocrisy in this situation – to be promoting simplicity while continuing to fill our lives up. Part of this has been the unexpected geographic distribution of Adam and Dani’s soccer games. In the past, they have been focused in our local neighbourhood, but this year they are across the whole of Brisbane. To travel responsibly this takes one or both parents most of the weekend to get to these games. This is something I’m sure many parents can relate to.
Noticing the Unusual
We have been focused on the big picture and our travel plans and absorbed in our normal day-to-day lives. It’s easy to forget how strange our lives are by Australian middle-class standards. A friend reminded me of this when inviting me to a discussion with a futurist forum. I was musing on what topics to focus on and she pointed out I needn’t really prepare anything. To just talk about how we live now as a great source of inspiration. This was quite the pleasant indirect reminder we are inspiring people just living our lives.