Run for the hills: In praise of gaman

Monday, 12 January 2009

In praise of gaman

There's a general disdain towards, and a failure to understand people who withstand hardship 'unnecessarily'.

I don't seek out hardship, but when it comes I'm not afraid of it and I will quite often enjoy it. A couple of examples: here and here. That last one - see the comment from Daniel - "is it worth it?". I couldn't understand that - there was such pleasure in what I was doing.

But I've discovered a name for my attitude to hardship (erm - often anyway). Here is an excellent post from an American in Japan.

3 comments:

Jussi said...: An excellent post indeed. I think coping happily with hardship has something quite liberating - the fear of what hardship might do to you just goes away!; 12 January 2009 at 09:06
Anonymous said...: Ooh want one of those table-with-quilt things. Maybe attached to our Rayburn?; 12 January 2009 at 09:27
The Speaking Goat said...: You wont need one disgruntled, you'll be permanently warm from all the cycling, digging (and nettle tea!); 12 January 2009 at 09:34

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Where I"m coming from - !CAUTION! a bit of a polemic

Firstly, there is nothing more important than me and my family. The most precious thing I can give them (including me) is time. In my job, with all it's pressures, I singularly failed to do this. So we run for the hills and try to redress the balance.

Secondly, climate change is happening. It's a cataclysm, the scope of which is beyond our comprehension. This is why we are doing so little to stop it - we just cant imagine the scale of the upheavals to come, and we can't imagine how we, as individuals, can stop it.

Everything is stacked against effective action. Our economy is driven by consumerism and it is consumerism that is driving climate change. Our political leaders are paralysed - to curb consumerism would cripple the economic engine. We increasingly define ourselves by our economic position and the things we buy. We are what we buy. What politician dare restrict our ability to buy, our ability to define ourselves? It would attack our very self and would be political suicide.

And anyway, the real power lies with money - and the people with money want us to consume and they spend millions every second of the day persuading us to consume more. What hope do we have against such power? And everything we buy pumps a little more CO2 into the atmosphere.

Thirdly, I am no saint. I am lucky enough to have the opportunity to change my life for the benefit of myself, and, I hope, the planet. Ultimately my reasons for doing this are selfish, and although I'll do what I can to keep my carbon footprint low, I'll make many choices that are not so good for the planet. Like anyone, I can only voluntarily make changes to my life at the speed I can. I don't intend to beat myself up over this - I do intend to change faster than most.

Fourthly, there is hope. Our lust to consume is a very recent phenomena. Not so long ago we principally defined ourselves by our relationships with friends and family and place and we defined ourselves by our usefulness to society. I believe that climate change will force us out of consumerism, and in its place we will find those core values, and rediscover a sense of wellbeing that is so missing from our current fractured existence.

There are lots of examples where this is starting to happen. The transition town movement is one - people getting together and learning to appreciate the things and people around them. I played a small part in helping Sustaining Dunbar get off the ground. (http://edubuzz.org/blogs/sustainingdunbar/about-us) What I found there were people striving to build a positive and resilient future and there are transition towns popping up all over the place - a really positive movement. (find out more about transition towns)

Fifthly, At the end of the day it's all bollocks. So let's all go off and have some fun - it's the most important thing we can do - but let's just try to do it without killing the planet in the process.

Things I"m going to miss

Run for the hills

Monday, 12 January 2009

In praise of gaman

3 comments:

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