Before I start, I have just been informed that it is National Toast Day. I am definitely a fan of toast. (Is anyone not a fan?!)
So, whatever else is going on in your life, please let me be the first to wish you Happy National Toast Day! Please take the time to enjoy a nice bit of toast this afternoon and if you’re feeling wildly adventurous, maybe even a spot of jam. MMMmm.
Ok - onto the main event:
What interests you?
It seems such a benign and slightly boring question, but I am finding at this mid-life inflection point, that I am having to re-ask myself that question. Sometimes, the answers to that seem easy (making toast pops to mind today for some reason), and sometimes not so much.
But I think it’s the critical question for how we engage with the world and what impact we generally end up having.
This newsletter, and some of my consulting practice is under the banner of ‘Earth’s Next Chapter’, and the reason for this was recognizing how completely humans are now in control of this next planetary phase. Previous chapters were shaped by geology, water, climate, our orbit, and of course, other biology. Earth’s previous chapters were epic and our next one could be too, but only if we get busy understanding how we really want to shape it.
This is all still true, but it also feels just ‘too much’. The big picture can be inspiring, but it can also be overwhelming and….well, big. Sometimes, we need to see small more clearly before we can place it in the larger context.
I was talking to a local sustainability person a few days ago, and our local town, like many other small towns, is having trouble figuring out a curbside recycling pickup solution, let alone emissions reductions, support for local farming, addressing significant poverty, wildlife protection, or god forbid, even zoning.
And even if we address any or all of these in the near future (and there is no budget in small towns to address it all), none of them are a panacea for creating a sustainable, equitable, and beautiful future (thought they will undoubtedly help), let alone a fun or purposeful or engaging future.
It also all just ends up being rather a chore - stuff we’re supposed to do, but not really inspiring. And even if we did it all perfectly, it doesn’t automatically lead to a unique, just, and vibrant community.
So I began to reflect on how we might start, at the individual and at the community scale, by rethinking how we define our identity, and by extension, our purpose. In theory, beneficial actions that are consistent with a coherent idea of who we are flow out more easily. And this requires us to start by understanding simply: what interests us?
My previous place of residence - for 20 years - was the Asheville, NC area. Over the last 25-30 years, the downtown has gone from slightly sketchy, with very little to draw people in on the weekends, (for either tourists or residents), to one of the most popular and progressive towns in the Southeast. Why? What changed?
The town has always been a little non-conformist - you were far more likely to meet an artist or musician around town than a lawyer or a banker. So, the town leaders embraced this, creating a music, art, and food festival each July that began to attract hundreds of thousands of people. This alone had significant influence in revitalizing the downtown.
And the other main influence has been….beer. A couple of breweries - notably Highland Brewing, and then Green Man Brewing - began brewing fantastic beer. It was the perfect industry for a mountain town already interested in outdoor pursuits with a steady supply of sunny, moderate-temperature summer afternoons to spend some post-hike time on a porch with friends and a brew.
There are now more breweries per capita in Asheville than any other place, except Portland, Oregon. We got interested in beer. It became part of the Asheville identity.
To drink a Miller Light in Asheville is like wearing an Alabama t-shirt in East Tennessee. It should not be attempted in public.
The cool thing about beer is that it needs clean water. So, Asheville has to protect its waterways if it expects to grow or retain its new venerated ‘beer city’ status and attract the tourists. New investment from beer-tourism and the arts and music festivals that now happen virtually every summer weekend helped to build nicer facilities, and restaurants (etc) for visitors and residents. And inevitably the region has to protect its trails and mountain views so that the whole Asheville experience is coherent, energizing, sustainable, and inspiring, and then also relaxing….over a beer. Downtown is now a vibrant and happening place.
The revitalization of Asheville also prompted additional conservation, clean up, infrastructure improvements, and so on, and attracted new residents who enjoyed ‘the vibe’ of a town like Asheville. And it attracted sustainably-minded large-scale business like Sierra Nevada Brewing, New Belgium Brewing, and yeast-makers like White Labs.
For sure, Asheville was on the map before (e.g. the Biltmore Estate and the Blue Ridge Parkway have always been draws), and for sure there are still challenges (including from the tourism itself), but on the whole, beer, art, and music shaped a modern mountain town and helped spur more focus on creating integrated social-environmental-economic benefits. Asheville found its identity by recognizing its existing interests and strengths.
I am thinking that this is a trajectory to consider, and an important place to start.
When small towns are looking at addressing expected progress on sustainability or equity or development, what if we first looked at who, as a community, we are. What is our vibe? What do we like to do when we’re not working, or what is our preferred way of earning money?
For example, virtually everyone I know where I now live1, has a garden. And/or chickens. We also live on the doorstep on the most biodiverse national park in the nation. It’s a more blue collar area than white collar historically, and there is plenty of existing and old farmland (some of which is now being sold for decidedly uninspiring subdivisions).
So what if this East TN town embraced a local food vibe? Supported farm-to-table non-fancy, traditional fare, but prepared beautifully, and truly supported the growers who produce the ingredients? What if we sought to become the garden capital of the South?
This is just an example, but if we aimed to elevate this area of interest, we could also focus our sustainability work around regenerative agriculture, protecting farmland and preserving small farms, farms that also supported nature and workers. We could focus development and social equity work around providing well-paying jobs in the food industry - from grower to chef to hospitality. Small farmers could also find resources to help them host pop-up kitchens and local music events, teach courses to amateur growers etc etc, diversifying economic opportunities for individuals and for the community.
Who knows where something like this could go? I have no idea, and it won’t solve our recycling pick up problem, but it could boost sustainable socioeconomic development in a way that gives us more identify and purpose and attracts more of the same. I truly believe this is more important than trying to do ‘all the right things’. Yes, we need to address other problems too, but why can’t we start from a place of purpose? It feels like such a smoother path.
Not coincidentally, I think this is also one important answer for our own individual overwhelm in the face of such enormous global pressures. Keep digging into your own interests and let that guide an emerging personal identity and purpose (and it’s always emerging), and then focus your own contributions around that. Your purpose could be about raising kids, or teaching, or making perfect pies, or coaching sports, or putting art into the world, or healing addiction, or raising native azaleas, or nutrition coaching. It doesn’t matter. You don’t have to donate to every charity and fight to address all the injustices or disadvantages - just the ones that allow you to to show up with heart and authenticity.
The world will get much more benefit from that focused effort than all the scattered worry. And you never know where it will take you.
So, what does interest you?
I’m not saying what town it is because this is about small towns in general - the specificity of this one doesn’t really matter. AND this town, like so many others, IS trying to work on sustainability, responsible development, and equity. Money from the IRA bill might help, different council members in some towns might help, but for small communities in America, doing what they know to be the ‘right’ things can be a genuine struggle.
Please run for office!