On Monday, April 19, the first day I was in Bolivia, and the day before the official start of the conference, I learned about the program Evo Morales had initiated in Bolivia and was promoting as a worldwide solution to climate change and many other issues. It is called Living Well instead of Living Better (Vivir Bien en lugar de Vivir Mejor), or simply, Living Well. I found the concept to be remarkably similar to how I’ve been trying to live for most of my adult life, and also aligned with Permaculture principles and Transition Town concepts. On Monday afternoon there was a four hour presentation on how the Morales government has been implementing this concept within Bolivia. Living Well, also known as Sumaq amaña, is an ancient Andean concept. It is about “living well collectively” rather than individual well-being or living better than others. "Living Well" contrasts with "living better" because it means having all basic needs met while existing in harmony with the natural world instead of seeking to amass more and more material goods at the expense of the environment.
I had been interested in the government under Evo Morales after hearing some of his ideas, including an interview some time ago on Democracy Now, but I had not known of many of the fine points of his actions and proclamations until I actually went to Bolivia. I was very excited that a government existed that validated many of the basic ways of being that I have resonated toward for most of my life. I had made different choices from many people born and raised in the US, especially during the 17 or so years I lived in Mexico, and had lived in a way that could have been called Living Well if I had known the term. When I came back to the States, I tried to provide some guidance for others, thinking I had a key to help with some of the challenges of modern America. It was an uphill battle to introduce these concepts to mainstream America, and another battle to keep myself on track with my beliefs in the midst of this culture.
One of the obstacles was that rejecting the outer trappings of success in the culture did not look like something successful to a majority of people already sold on the idea of Living Better. Lack of cash flow also contributed to the perception of failure. Then too, after months of unemployment and few prospects of wage earning work, I settled on two jobs, both of which required that I use my car to travel between numerous appointments during the day; in a word, I sold out on one part of my dream, something I was advocating that others not do. True, in a more ideal system, housing would have been made out of natural materials that would have lasted for more than a generation, and shelter would have been a right, or would have at least not taken the 80% of my salary that it did in the first few years I was back in the US. I had searched for less expensive housing in this part of the world, but codes and regulations prohibited me (and others) from simpler, more sustainable shelter. I was no longer Living Well; I was barely surviving, and had to abandon (temporarily) any ideas I had about showing others the way.
There may have been other innovators and first adopters of Living Well in the western world who more easily found a long term sustainable niche, choosing different ways to live outside of the system, perhaps without the use of money at all, actually surviving off of the land, just bartering, or other variations. They may have been able to create long term security without currency, perhaps by investing time and labor in one parcel of land; something I never found a way to do. The way I did it, I sacrificed security, and sometimes comfort, for my ideals. In Mexico, I lived without refrigeration at home for five years and without a telephone for twelve, but these lifestyle choices were comfortable for me at the time. I was put into a position where I had to eat almost all fresh local food and participated in a community based phone and message center. Those experiences fit right in with my intention, and I loved the simplicity and slowness those choices demanded of me.
How far out of the system as we know it, the mainstream ideology of the western consumer culture, could one live and still survive and thrive? (Because that’s where we need to go to make a difference in climate change.) In some ways, the farther away we get, the more we thrive, but there are also challenges. I was one of the few I knew who chose to not invest in the macro economy to insure some financial security in the present and future. Naively, I consciously decided to live as common people in most other countries, day to day depending on family and community for long term security instead of individual investment. In my late teens and early twenties, I was aware of the greed and injustice proliferated by most corporations and was determined not to invest in those institutions for my own personal financial benefit. I was not very clear about the alternatives available to me, but it seemed that the majority of people in other countries didn’t augment their incomes through stock options, and they survived into old age. Perhaps they did not live within the comfort level North Americans were used to, but many live with more focus on relationships than things, and with contentment and well being. I was searching for a way of life truly different from the individual striving, winner take all, attitude that is usually considered an essential part of the American Dream. I wanted to take the best of the United States, including the friendliness of so many of our people, the innovations and ingenuity, and channel those traits into community building, honoring and caring for the environment, and working for the broader social good. I decided to make my life as much as living example of these things as possible. But sometimes, I wondered…
Is Living Well enough? If we all do it, which is almost impossible to believe will happen, can we save the planet? Can we all be filled up just with community and having our basic needs met? Maybe we can do without the luxuries, but can we do without the cushion? Why do so many people from all over Latin America and other parts of the world immigrate to the US, western Europe, and other industrialized countries in search of a better life? I too returned to the US to save money earned here, when the Living Well model I advocated did not provide me with enough capitol to construct an off grid, natural built home on the land I was able to steward in Mexico. What Evo Morales’ administration is advocating is that we shift our perspective, our desires, to fit into the model of Living Well instead of Living Better. That we realize that economics cannot provide true security and that we look for it in our relationships with each other, with Mother Earth, and with all beings on this Earth. Many western thinkers prominent in the alternative media in the industrialized world are advocating the same or a very similar lifestyle as the recipe for our soon to be post-peak oil, post- peak carbon world. But almost all of the people I know who have survived and thrived according to this model, at least in the western world, started out as part of the system, made their money inside the system, and then ‘rebelled, dropped out, retired…’ and went on to simplify their lives, or to shift their beliefs and values, or went on to ‘finally live in harmony with their values’. In a post-oil, post-carbon world, we will not have the option of making our money in the system and then dropping out. We have to create an alternative system that works from the beginning, enabling us to Live Well in the present but have enough in currency or trade to grow, not without limits, but to be able to innovate, design, create, construct, and contain in the material world. We need a safety net. My personal failure to produce the results I felt were possible when living with health, relationship, community, social justice, and harmony with nature as my priorities was in part due to there not yet being a system set in place with these values and therefore the infrastructure was not there to help nudge one in the appropriate direction.
It’s kind of like the chicken or the egg. Supportive community needs
to be in place before we can trust that we can focus on relationships,
communication, nurturing, and personal and planetary health, yet these
are the elements that create supportive community. How can one let go
of the (false) security of investments in corporations that focus on
profits at the expense of Mother Earth as well as people’s emotional and
physical health, if there is no (system of) community/family who will
provide the safety net in one’s old age/in times of illness or
injury/when caring for pregnant women and small children/other times of
stress and need, including natural disasters?
I founded The
Rebozo Way Project (recently renamed Nurturing Across Cultures
http://www.nurutringacrosscultures.org ) in 1988 and since then have
been involved in teaching other about “honoring the wisdom of ancient
ways and diverse cultures, indigenous babywearing and traditional
birthing lore.” One of our tenets is “Prompt response to baby’s cries.
Children learn to be comforted by people, not things.” which helps to
break the cycle of consumerism. So in a sense I have been working to
create that safety net I now feel a more urgent need for, by shifting
the way we nurture children at the very beginning of life. The idea is
to meet children’s needs in the first years or life so that they have
the inner security and self confidence, as they grow older, to create a
more cooperative and nurturing world. It is a slow process, though,
spanning a generation or more, and to date has reached only a small
segment of the population.
There are many legal and social barriers to Living Well in the US, although visionary thinkers continue to provide new models for us to move in that direction. For example, in the last thirty years or more, the economic system shifted so that two members in a family group need to work outside the home in order to cover the cost of most mortgages. This system keeps people so busy making ends meet that they don’t have time and energy for family and relationships, civic awareness and duties, or spending quiet time in nature if they are inclined to do so.
A successful economic system for our times would legalize sustainability in building, energy, and community, value work-rest cycles and times for reflection, recreation, and ritual, and provide incentives for work that is both financially and socially profitable.
There is hope. Riane Eisler, in her book, The Real Wealth of Nations, provides a blueprint for “a new economics that values and supports the most essential human work, caring for people and the planet”. She outlines proposals for new economic measures and policies to shift into a caring economy that fulfills human needs. Woody Tasch of the Slow Money movement, says, “If we don’t produce anything ourselves, then all we have is purchasing power. Our money is our only protection against deprivation”. Slow Money offers one part of the solution to runaway economic growth and exploitation. Art Ludwig, in Principles of Ecological Design, says, “True progress actually solves problems. Most of what is commonly called ‘progress’ is the relocation of problems out of sight in space or time…We appear rich, but most of our ‘income’ is from the liquidation of age-old assets.” He then discusses a variety of ways to integrate technology, economics and ecology that follow nature’s example, use resources moderately and efficiently, and provide true comfort.
And then there is Evo. Quietly, calmly, OK, sometimes not so quietly, he has persisted in presenting the model of Living Well to the Bolivian people and to colleagues and community organizers worldwide.
Living Well intrigues me. How can we get people across the globe behind it? What will the planet look like if we do embrace it? How can we make the switch? I am imagining that’s where Transition comes in. And listening to the ancient indigenous wisdom that is available for us to benefit from, if we just pay attention.
A Permaculture designer, water harvesting advocate, and longtime environmental steward, Barbara Wishingrad, attended the Peoples’ World Conference on Climate Change in Cochabamba, Bolivia, April 19-22, 2010, along with 35, 000 other people. She also traveled with a delegation from SOA Watch to Venezuela to visit clinics, schools, cooperatives,and other social programs under the Hugo Chavez government. Barbara has worked as an herbalist, homebirth midwife, street artist, interpreter, and with special needs babies, among other things; she is currently organizing a Water Harvesting Co-op in the Santa Barbara area. Barbara has lived and worked among indigenous artisans and midwives and has made sharing indigenous wisdom an important part of her life work. She is founder and President of Nurturing Across Cultures, formerly The Rebozo Way Project: http://www.nurturingacrosscultures.org .
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