The Freedom of Ritual

Rituals bring freedom.

That is not a statement you hear very often. The rituals I am talking about are not centuries-old religious formalities, though. These rituals are the ones that happen every day in our lives.

I learned this from my recent read of The Power of Full Engagement. They contrasted self-discipline with ritual. Self-discipline requires effort, rituals do not. Rituals simply happen. Brushing your teeth is a ritual. Bathing is a ritual. These are things that we (most of us) do automatically, without thinking. It takes no mental effort or energy.

Starting an exercise program, though, requires discipline. Dieting...discipline. Starting any habit takes discipline and enormous effort, which is why it is so hard and new habits often do not stick around long.

How to use this information, then? Stop trying to be disciplined and start building rituals. Be boring. Do the same thing, at the same time, every day. Make it a ritual, not a discipline, and the chances of it happening over the long haul go way up.

Of course, discipline will still be required initially, but you want to get through that phase as fast as possible. And the freedom? How does boring repetetive behavior lead to freedom? Simple: when you are doing the healthy baseline behaviors that you want to do (supporting your mind, body, and spirit), then all that energy is free to be used for anything else you want.

Rituals bring freedom. Do you buy it? Give it a try and let me know what you find.

All of the Above

Scitizen published a recent article titled The Necessity of "All of the Above". In it, the author argues that fossil fuels will continue to play a role even as renewable energy gains momentum. The bottom line is that as energy demand continues to grow, a single source will not be able to keep up, particularly if America sees a future of "energy independence."

If you have not read anything about this, or if you are convinced the "Drill, Baby, Drill" crowd is either right on or completely wacko, check out the article. It makes the point well that there are no easy solutions for energy, and everyone (coal, biofuel, wind, oil, gas, hydro, etc.) is going to need to be invited to the party.

Throw-away lifestyle

Mechanical Engineering (the magazine of ASME) has a challenging article this month about our culture of disposable goods. All of us have an energy footprint, some of which is obvious - air conditioning, gasoline, air travel. The article focuses on the more subtle energy costs of stuff. It takes energy to produce our cell phones, laptops, automobiles, and underwear. That energy cost gets spread over the life of the product, so short-lived products mean higher energy use.

In today's world, replacement is often cheaper than repair, and marketers work hard to make us want new stuff. The implications of new stuff go well beyond our own convenience, though. (See Glenn Beck's favorite online movie, The Story of Stuff for another take on this issue.) Am I willing to sacrifice my disposable lifestyle for something longer-lasting and responsible?

Maybe. Worth thinking about, at least.

All predictions are wrong

There was a thought provoking article on the peak oil issue over at Scitizen the other day. If you have never heard of Peak Oil, it is the argument that the constantly increasing production of oil will someday reach a peak, after which point production will begin to steadily decrease. Many individual countries have experienced this phenomenon (the US being one), and the world peak is predicted to happen any time between 2012 and 2050.

A peak is a problem because demand for energy (which today means oil) is projected to increase monotonically without peaking. Increasing demand with decreasing supply leads to increasing prices and likely public outrage and government over-reaction. Chaos is probable and complete social disaster possible. Not good.

I have no facts or figures to support any of the predictions, but I do have two points to add to the Peak Oil debate and any other predictions of the future.

1. Forecasts have a hard time accounting for market forces. Small increases in the price of oil will drive innovative entrepeneurs to exploit technology in ways we cannot dream of, adjusting both the supply and demand sides of the equation in unknown ways (e.g. 2008 Prius sales). Therefore, forecasts are most certainly wrong.
   
2. Forecasts do a good job forcing us to think about the future. Nearly every individual forecast is wrong. Nearly every individual forecast is possible. It is important for us each to understand the inputs and implications of predictions so that we can decide if we are willing to contribute to, or fight against, that particular possible future.
   

Read the Scitizen article and maybe a couple others that are linked on that page. Think about the issue and how you will respond, if at all. Will you buy oil futures? Start biking to work? Do not let hysteria overwhelm you, just learn, think, and act.

Crisis America

Can we have a problem anymore without it being a crisis? Recently I've read or heard about the following issues in America:

• The Water Crisis
• The Climate Crisis
  
• The Economic Crisis
• The Kids-in-Nature Crisis
• The Education Crisis
• The Health Care Crisis
• The Food Crisis
• The Energy Crisis

Are we really in this much trouble? Is everything about to collapse on us?

(Editors note: a crisis can be defined as "a condition of instability or danger, as in social, economic, political, or international affairs, leading to a decisive change" and does not necessarily imply a negative result. But still.)

I'm not sure. Maybe. Perhaps the world really is in that much trouble. Perhaps we only talk about the problems that are at crisis-level. Perhaps in the growing cacophony of media, the only way to get noticed is to convince people that your issue is a crisis issue (David's lawn care crisis, anyone?).

Unfortunately, when everything's a crisis, nothing's important. No one has enough time, energy, focus, or money to deal with more than a crisis or two at the same time. It is analogous to trying to fight a war on several fronts at once. Occasionally necessary, but rarely effective or a good idea. At best, we just worry a lot. At worst, we do nothing.

The problems are out there, though. Something needs to be done about most of them. Let's just pick a couple, though. If we are all individually focused and we stop blowing some things out of proportion, maybe The Crisis Crisis can be averted.

Burning Picassos

I ran across this article the other day with a challenging title.

http://scitizen.com/stories/future-energies/2009/08/Burning-Picassos-for-Heat/

The author equates using nuclear energy to power tar sands extraction to burning fine art for heat. Stupid oil companies, who would ever do something like that?

People who are very cold in an art museum.

If you have a need for one thing and an abundance of another, who wouldn't trade the excess to meet the need? That is exactly where we find ourselves in the energy world. We need transportation fuel (which currently equals oil), and we have (or can have) plenty of electricity from nuclear plants. So the logical choice is to trade the nuclear power for the oil, no matter what the efficiency losses are.

Liquid hydrocarbons (gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, etc.) are the most convenient and energy-dense fuels that we have available today. It's easy to talk about changing to electric cars, but a lot harder to do. As long as we value the convenience and low cost of our liquid-powered cars more than pure energy efficiency (and who really thinks about that first thing in the morning?), the oil companies will be happy to make the trade-off of Picassos for heat.