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People In Your Neighborhood
by Polly Howells
Eco-philosopher Joanna Macy, in her seminal work Coming Back to Life, outlines the inner work that each of us must do if we as a species are to transition from what she calls the Industrial Growth Society to the Life-Sustaining Society. She outlines four necessary steps on our spiral of grief, growth, and reconnection: Coming from Gratitude, Honoring our Pain for the World, Seeing with New Eyes, and Going Forth. In 2008, author and ecologist Trebbe Johnson, following the spirit of the second and third of these steps, founded Radical Joy for Hard Times. Once a year, on summer solstice, this organization sponsors the Global Earth Exchange, an event at which people all over the world go to places they care about that have been damaged, tell their stories there, and make a bird out of materials they find on site.
On June 20, 2015, as part of this worldwide Radical Joy experience, nine people from the Hudson Valley towns of Woodstock, Glenford, Saugerties, and West Shokan—Transitioners all—gathered in the woods of Saugerties to honor a piece of land that has had a long history of wounding, dating at least back to the middle of the 19th century. On a stream tributary of the Plattekill Creek, this spot is the site of a gunpowder mill that was built in the early 1800s and violently exploded on May 25, 1854, killing seven of its employees and destroying the town that had grown up around it. The fame of the explosion spread far and wide during that century via a well-known ballad written and sung by the itinerant Bard of Saugerties, Henry Sherman Backus.
For thousands of years before Europeans arrived here, the Esopus people made their summer encampment in these woods, migrating yearly from their Hudson Riverbank winter homes. In the early 19th century, there were more people living in this now completely wooded area five miles west of Saugerties than in the village of Saugerties. Strategically located on the Hudson River, Saugerties was then a prominent industrial center, and gunpowder was an important commodity, promising security and power to westward-moving settlers. After the mill exploded it was never rebuilt, since the once plentiful hickory trees on the stream’s banks that were burned to make charcoal, a necessary ingredient in the manufacture of gunpowder, had all been cut down. Later in the 19th century the forest was again clear cut to provide firewood for the brick factory in Saugerties, on the ruins of which Diamond Mill presently stands.
So those of us who gathered in these woods on the afternoon of June 20, 2015, were standing among trees that were probably third growth, the banks of this little stream having been denuded at least twice since the first settlers came. Many stone walls of the original six mill buildings still stand, though crumbling, and the sluiceway through which rushing water powered the mill wheel is evident.
Honoring the former native inhabitants of this land, we began our ceremony standing in a circle with a bow to each of the four directions and to the elements of earth, air, fire, and water, all so prominent on this piece of land. We then took some time to wander in silence, letting ourselves notice and feel whatever came up for us. Some of us, sitting on that almost 200-year-old stone wall or on the shore of the stream, felt a distant rumbling through our bodies, imagining that explosion 160 years ago. There was a deep sadness as well as a quiet beauty in these woods, twisted pine trees growing through, on, and under the crumbling walls, some of them exhibiting mysterious holes and tunnels through themselves.
After about 45 minutes we returned to our circle, bringing with us found objects that had intrigued us on our walk. Out of these objects we collaboratively constructed a bird, the signature artwork Radical Joy encourages. We made our standing bird out of decaying bark, pine cones, daisies, rocks, bones, mushrooms, and berries, and then took out our phones to photograph the bird and ourselves behind it. One of these photos was sent to the Radical Joy website, where it has joined the stories of the 60 other ceremonies happening across the globe on that same day. We drummed and sang, offered our bird as a gift to this land, and then slowly made our way back to the road.
We came home with a renewed respect for the capacity of Earth to regenerate, to heal its old wounds, and yet at the same time to hold and reveal the secrets of what human beings have done to it. We acknowledged the implicit violence of our industrial civilization and vowed we would continue working to build a new society that honors and protects all life forms.
radicaljoyforhardtimes.org
by Caroline and Kirk Ritchey
Four years ago, after meeting at a Transition Town training, a group from the Woodstock area began holding gatherings and film screenings, marking the beginning of Woodstock Transition. These events provided information about global challenges and presented empowering alternative models. Only 15 months later, over 380 town residents attended our dynamic community forum, the Woodstock Transition Festival. A dozen working groups were formed, each with a particular interest and a willingness to gather information and to take action to build resilience in Woodstock. (The article Woodstock Garden Share in the April 2015 issue of CWN detailed the evolution of one of these groups). In the subsequent two and a half years, the working groups have undergone mission rewrites, name changes, consolidations, dissolutions, and new formations. They have experienced successful collaborations and celebrations, frustrations and a few misunderstandings, and countless delicious potluck meals. Today we are moving forward and keeping the long view in our hearts and minds.
After we rested up from all the fun work to put on our festival in September 2012, we realized that although the Transition Town Movement provided guiding principles and suggested ingredients, there were still many undefined aspects of our initiative. What constitutes membership? How do we make decisions? Do we have any rules? The Wednesday Night Group formed to create a structure to facilitate and support the growth of the Transition Movement in Woodstock. We met in the Woodstock Library weekly for six months to produce our very own constitution. Deep bonds were forged during this period of intense engagement about how best to codify our values. We happily celebrated the implementation of our constitution, eager to redirect our efforts into our working groups. While there was some sweet sadness about the dissolution of the Wednesday Night Group, we knew many of us would reconvene at our monthly Working Group Council meetings. Council meetings provide a forum for keeping abreast of the activities of all Woodstock Transition’s working groups.
The Woodstock Organic Waste (WOW) working group was formed in early 2013, with the mission of lowering the use of plastic by local retailers. After WOW learned that Ulster County Resource Recovery Agency (UCRRA) has an industrial composting facility that processes organic waste into valuable compost for local farms and gardens, their vision expanded to support the establishment of an organic waste hauling system. WOW volunteers now organize the separation of compostable trash at the weekly Woodstock Farm Festival. In April 2014, WOW inspired the Woodstock Town Board to adopt a resolution requiring all town facilities to separate their organic waste for composting, and requesting all local establishments to do the same. WOW’s ultimate goal is ambitious, and a small, dedicated group perseveres to see it through to fruition.
Working Group Support offers support to other working groups. They practice the art of listening, and they study tools for effective group process and conflict resolution. They cultivate their own inner capacities to respond rather than react to changing conditions on our planet. Members of Working Group Support deeply appreciate their weekly meetings where they explore the practical skills, as well as the inner transition, required for us to work together.
Green Energy works to increase energy efficiency and the use of green energy technologies. The Group informs town residents about state-sponsored programs that help us make our buildings more energy efficient. Green Energy has collaborated with RUPCO to enroll homeowners in free NYSERDA Home Energy Assessments. An event co-sponsored by Catskill Mountainkeeper explained how to purchase electricity from Green ESCOs. This summer, Green Energy will be partnering in Woodstock with Solarize Hudson Valley’s neighbor-to-neighbor outreach program to expand solar electric energy. Look for more events that inform local residents how to decrease energy use from fossil fuels and save money.
Woodstock Transition is a young volunteer organization comprised of self-organized working groups. We have touched on a few of the groups and their collaborations with other local organizations here, but there are many more. And we have more ideas than we have time and energy to implement. It is easy to fall prey to focusing on what is not happening yet, but so vitally important to celebrate and share what we have accomplished.
All working group meetings and the monthly Working Group Council meeting are open to anyone interested in joining or observing. The full list of working groups with contact information and subscription to our email list can be found at WoodstockNYTransition.org. We seek to tap the creative energy of our neighbors and ourselves to build a resilient community, and to have fun along the way. Come find out more about us at our monthly Working Group Council Meeting, the first Thursday of every month at the Woodstock Library, 6:30pm!
by Janet Asiain
Transition Towns in Ulster County have developed in a variety of productive ways over the last few years. One of the most successful initiatives is in Woodstock, where a number of working groups are actively envisioning a sustainable future and creating the changes needed for it And one of the most successful of these working groups is the Woodstock Garden Share.
The Garden Share was launched at the Woodstock Transition Town Great Unleashing of community energy in September 2012. Several Woodstockers in attendance found themselves drawn together in an affinity group that quickly found a common purpose: the production of sustainable food for the community to meet present and future needs. To this end they actively network with local farmers and promote home gardens; "Why mow when you can chew?" asks Craig Barber, one of the founders.
With about 80 members now on their mailing list, the group meets monthly to support each other, share information and skills, and network, sometimes at potlucks at one another’s homes, often upstairs at the public library. They frequently extend invitations to the general public to learn about sustainable practices, inviting speakers with expertise in permaculture and/or other aspects of sustainable food production. Ellenville’s permaculture guru Andrew Faust has shared his knowledge with the group, and this month’s meeting on April 8 will feature Ken Greene of the Hudson Valley Seed Library.
Supporting each other includes cutting costs and ensuring quality by ordering seeds, starter plants, compost, soil amendments, and other gardening supplies together. Acting on the Transition principle of supporting local businesses, they recently made a group order of seeds from the Hudson Valley Seed Library, whose Hudson Valley Seed Freedom Zone the group is committed to support. A Seed Freedom Zone protects the rights of farmers and food producers, preserves biodiversity, and refuses to recognize any law that illegitimately mak
es seed the private property of corporations through patents and other means.
Also in the interest of seed sustainability, the group promotes the harvesting of (organic) seeds from members’ gardens and has recently established a seed exchange at the Woodstock Library, where gardeners can contribute seeds left over from their own planting or harvested from their own gardens. Anyone is welcome to take what they can use (and hopefully contribute back to the seed exchange at some point). The “Take, Grow, Give” project has placed packages of envelopes of seeds and seed sharing information booklets in the food/gardening section of the Woodstock Library.
The Woodstock Garden Share actively partners with local farms in the area, including Whirligig Farm, Great Song Farm, the Long Spoon Collective (a Saugerties Transition Town working group), Four Winds Farm, and Clove Valley Farm. The initiative has invited speakers from these farms and others to speak at Garden Share meetings.
The group has also offered a number of outreach events, “how to” workshops on container gardens, building and planting trellises, and rotating garden crops, for example, and plan to continue and expand these offerings.
Among their visions for the future is the connecting of people who have land but no garden with people who want to garden but have no suitable land.They also hope to find and develop public spaces where food could be grown and available to the entire community. They’d like to attract some energetic young people who want to learn to garden, both in public and private spaces. One member’s dreams include building a community greenhouse for all to use.
Woodstock Garden Share continues to welcome new members, both experienced and novice.
You can get more information on the Woodstock Transition Town Facebook page as well as at the website woodstocknytransition.org.
by Pamela Boyce Simms
Public scrutiny and feedback are welcome and essential in the Transition movement. Learning, broadening our reach, and the healthy evolution of the movement are all fueled by constructive feedback. Transitioners know that they don’t have all of the answers. Creating a global web of localized resilience-building initiatives is a massive, open-ended social experiment. Listening deeply and responding to feedback can help the Transition movement hone the appropriateness of its actions in the alternative-creating adventure on which we’ve embarked.
In its critique, The Transition Movement: Questions of Diversity, Power and Affluence, The Simplicity Institute sets a mirror before the Transition movement, offering Transitioners an opportunity to take stock of their eight year resilience-building journey, and consider pathways forward.
The Mid-Atlantic Transition Hub (MATH) welcomes this opportunity to self-refine by coalescing regional Resources Persons to engage with issues raised in the critique in a monthly teleseminar series. An overview of the series: The Maturation of a Social Movement, A Regional Response to A Critique of the Transition Movement, was offered on December 4. There will be follow-up phone conversations with MATH teleseminar panelists on January 6 and 8.
The Mid-Atlantic regional network, comprised entirely of engaged Transitioners in seven states, generates pragmatic, positive, alternative-building activism in response to climate change, resource depletion, and economic contraction. Fourteen of the thirty-nine Mid-Atlantic Transition initiatives are located in New York’s Lower and Mid-Hudson Valley, Capital District, Tri-County, Mohawk Valley, and NYC subregions. Teleseminar listener feedback contributes to keeping our work grounded, providing public perspectives on strengths and deficiencies and potential pitfalls and windfalls that exist within, and lie ahead of, the Transition movement.
MATH will fold listener feedback into the ongoing process of building an ever-adaptable operating system for its regional network. Feedback helps MATH 1) enhance fluidity of communication, and the responsiveness of our regional work to needs as they arise in the moment at several scales; 2) affirm and create practices that sustain Transitioner vigor, enthusiasm, and passion for the work region-wide; and 3) cultivate a voracious Transitioner appetite for self-transformation and self-awareness in order to gauge ongoing operations effectiveness.
Diversity
The Simplicity Institute accurately depicts the Transitioner demographic as predominantly white, educated, post materialist, middle class, small community people. This information isn’t offered as inherently good or bad, but as the prevalent, de facto reality within the movement. That being said, we in the Mid-Atlantic, a region that incorporates the most highly diverse and population-dense corridor on the planet ask: How does that Transitioner demographic reality impact the reach and relevance of our work? The juxtaposition between the current Transition population and the demographic mix in the Mid-Atlantic region prompts us to explore:
• Whose resilience are we concerned about, and to what end? i.e. Transition to what, where, by whom, for whom?
• Should Transition be more explicitly concerned with social justice?
• Does inclusion in Transition mean assimilating others into our way of viewing the world?
• How do we encourage diversity without “othering” and perpetuating social stratification?
• How might we fold community power dynamics conditioned by ethnicity, gender, and socioeconomic stratification that shape relationships into our work?
• How can we honestly look at and skillfully work with various levels of vulnerability between communities, and competing interests within communities?
On the other hand, attempts at all-inclusivity that stem from a lowest common denominator approach could dilute the movement’s impact by valuing “the stretching process” itself over actual meaningful change.
Power & Control Dynamics vs. Non-Hierarchical Balance
• Is there too much top down steering of the movement through the Transition Network and/or national hubs that runs counter to the grassroots driven modus operandi? (Consider this in juxtaposition to the movement’s need to preserve cohesion, coherence, and some semblance of mainstream recognition.)
• Is relocalization capable of solving political as well as environmental problems?
• Are we making a strong enough distinction between “unhealthy localism,” i.e., romanticized insularity, isolationist, protectionist exclusion (to be avoided); and “healthy localism,” i.e., inclusive, intentional, open, relational, connected (to be embraced)?
• Can acts of resistance and micro-transformation destabilize macro-systems?
• Can we dispassionately analyze political power without becoming embroiled in politics?
Affluence or Not: Consumption Patterns and Taboo Topics
Do Transitioners with one foot in the old paradigm and the other in the new gingerly side-step the latent tensions around issues that might alienate people from our “big tent” movement? Here are some:
• Are we directly addressing the fact that consumer capitalism created our current predicament (acknowledging all the ideological associations that loaded term might have for Americans)?
• Are we addressing the reality of downsized material consumption lifestyles on the horizon?
• Are we skirting the issue of ecological damage wrought by continued meat consumption. If yes, what is the projected impact of continuing to do so?
• Can self-organizing Transition communities “ignore capitalism to death” by building a new economy in the shell of the old?
Pamela Boyce Simms is a Transition Trainer with the Mid-Atlantic Transition Hub (MATH) of Transition US. This will be the last “Transitioning…” column in Country Wisdom News. For more information or to register for MATH events and teleseminars, visit transitionmidatlantic.org.
by Pamela Boyce Simms
Will cities and states along the Mid-Atlantic coastline wake up in time? One drowsy regional eye opened during the September 2014 People’s Climate March—a brief but powerful awakened moment. The visual of 400,000 people in New York City streets broadcasted public recognition of the intensifying dysfunction that precipitates climate change, economic contraction, and resource depletion.
The crowds are gone now. The hoopla of frenzied, back-to-back strategy sessions has quieted.
The murky “business as usual” mist has resettled. Now what? The challenge that the dispersed People’s Climate Marchers, Wall Street flooders, and eco-activists of all stripes now face is far deeper than any policy, treaty, legislation, or regulation can reach. The litmus test of authentic forward movement is to skillfully address the fear, greed, and desire for power that warps the collective perception of self, others, and the Earth.
It’s hard to stay awake when the pervasive fog of consumerism and desire for power hang heavy. The sleep of our deep-seated conditioning to want more is so irresistibly seductive. Having more, and especially wanting more, in order to strengthen one’s identity is a mesmerizing trance that fuels the environment-destroying economy. And as we’ve witnessed time and time again, in movement after movement, legislation is utterly impotent at the level of embedded human beliefs and identity formation. There is no legal shortcut. There can be no enduring outer transition without a corresponding inner transition.
Waking Up: It’s Not About Trying to Be a Better Person
The Transition movement, as currently manifest in the Mid-Atlantic region, doesn’t focus on or exhort people to become better, more eco-conscious or even to let go of fear and desire. Liberation from that environmental hard sell is so refreshing! Mid-Atlantic coastline megacities are some of the most climate-change-vulnerable chunks of real estate on the planet—we get it. We don’t have the luxury of wasting time by dwelling inordinately on fear. There is uplifting, timely work to be done together.
Furthermore, fear and greed are symptoms of collective delusion, not causes of Earth-destroying dysfunction. Trying harder to do and be better sounds like a good idea but that pursuit is just a more subtle way of bolstering self-image, artificially feeling good about ourselves.
With a subtle but important shift of the lenses, Transitioning, at its best, invites us to discover and get comfortable with the goodness that is already inside of ourselves. That may sound like a no-brainer at first blush, but getting comfortable with our own inherent goodness is a tremendous challenge for many. So ironically, on the positive note of emergent basic goodness, Transitioning swims upstream! Transition groups that commit to perpetually shaking off the “business as usual” spell, create an environment in which goodness, compassion, and collective genius can emerge.
Full engagement with Transitioning asks us to recognize the power of goodness in our neighbors and, most challengingly, to accept it in ourselves! Transition trusts groups’ ability to non-hierarchically self-organize, make good decisions for themselves, and act for the greater good—or at least work toward these aspirations. The movement continually focuses our attention on what we most deeply value, which in turn encourages us to act more compassionately toward each other and the Earth.
Therein lies the rub that the Mid-Atlantic Transition Hub (MATH) will explore in the upcoming November 6 teleseminar “Maturation of a Social Movement.” If acceptance of the goodness inherent in emergent collective genius isn’t possible, then the foundational Transition Principles that proceed therefrom simply and understandably don’t make sense to many who adopt diametrically opposed approaches to environmental activism.
MATH teleseminars will get into the thick of it.
November 6 and December 4 teleseminars will explore the Simplicity Institute’s critique of the Transition Movement entitled, The Transition Movement: Questions of Diversity, Power and Affluence, and provide an overview of the topics that will be covered in a MATH monthly webinar series that will launch in January 2015. Some topics are:
- Taking the Temperature of the Transition Movement in the Mid-Atlantic Region
- Transition Homeostasis: Maintaining a Delicate Non-Hierarchical Balance
- Localism and Systemic Change
- Diversity: Transition to What, Where, and for Whom?
- Ignoring Capitalism To Death
Mid-Atlantic Transition steps out of the activist arena of “threat messaging” or climate-change-fact overwhelm. Voluminous research confirms that threat messaging inhibits motivation to act on problems as massive as climate change and narrows our response range down to fight or flight (including inner flight—shutdown). Seeking security we turn inward, away from others, and, circling back to the use of “stuff” to reinforce identity, consumerism rears its head. So, Transition doesn’t go there. This prompts the Simplicity Institute to pose questions like “is Transition radical enough?” We’ll engage that query with gusto.
Another area where we’d prefer to respectfully play across the courtyard concerns the choice of some movements to work within the perimeters of current institutions and systems. A suite of strategies is used to challenge the “powers that be” to adopt more carbon-neutral ways of providing the same goods and services we’re currently receiving. Again, Mid-Atlantic Transition steps out of the arena, offers an encouraging wave to the virtuous embattled, and focuses on building out alternative ways of getting needs met at the broad-based substrate level of grassroots interconnection. This approach prompts the Simplicity Institute to ask “Can localism effect Systemic Change?” The teleseminar conversation will be rich!
The Mid-Atlantic Transition Hub (MATH) network has tasked itself with collectively staying awake for long enough intervals to tap others in the region on the shoulder, and invite them to shake off the spell. We look forward to welcoming you to the discussion.
by Pamela Boyce Simms
Sustainable Saugerties Transition and its working group the Long Spoon Collective powerfully model the Transition adage “Let it Go Where it Wants to Go.” The collective exemplifies the hallmarks of Transitioning: openness to possibility, ability to abide uncertainty, and trust in the collective genius. Synchronicity brought the group together. Experimentation sustains its vitality. Solutions that are appropriate and emergent in the moment carry the day. Long Spoon grows food for, houses, and nurtures a community in which the Earth and the gifts and talents of all are honored. Most importantly, members are demonstratively living sustainably rather than talking about it.
Although grounded locally, Long Spoon is outwardly turned and united in service to family, community, the region, and nothing short of eco-social transformation. The opposite of sentimental “back to the land, communal thinking,” this is insightful localism at its open-ended, relational best.
Initially, seven stalwart Saugertians steadfastly followed the “Ingredients of Transition”
guideline-script. They dutifully formed an Initiating Group and held down the fort through a recommended public awareness raising period; conducting thought provoking panel discussions at the Saugerties Performing Arts Factory. But then—as is often the case once a group collectively incubates and internalizes the Transition mindset of deep-connection—magical, spontaneous serendipity took over.
The connective web that would become a working group collaboration—the next phase on the Transitioning continuum—began to spin itself! Transition-Long Spoon self-organized as connections organically emerged at farmers markets (petri dishes for mini-miracles), through neighboring Transition gatherings, and via newly formed friendships between millennials and boomers that began deepening instantly. Karuna Foudriat, Saugerties Transition initiator, met the collective’s founder Chase Randell and, later, Frank O’Leary, and a floodgate of pragmatic innovation opened wide, galvanizing other talented kindred spirits.
Transition-Long Spoon offers an instructive example to the Transition movement, which is in self-observation mode at the moment, sorting and sifting through six years of experimentation to note what truly serves the greater good. Among the many directions that characterize the evolution of Transition initiatives, two are the support-group and the service path. Both are valid and affirming but each has a different focal point. The former, which leans toward insularity, creates a nourishing comfort zone needed by many in uncertain, turbulent times. The latter, typified by Long Spoon, is consciously committed to initiating and sustaining a service-oriented, outward ripple effect. The intent is to connect with and educate the public by walking the talk, living their convictions, and sharing what they learn widely with others.
Populated by 20- and 30-somethings in league with boomers, community elders provide land while the younger members do the bulk of the heavier farming work. Food is grown at multiple locations, anchored by one collectively worked site on a local farm, and a food processing operation in a separate location. Excess food is given to the hungry.
The collective repurposes materials to build energy efficient “tiny houses.” Three tiny structures near completion, and the construction of outbuildings and a greenhouse (that will be heated by a rocket stove) are in process. Building materials are salvaged from the demolition of existing structures or donated. The collective is preparing and planning to absorb and integrate others in need into their community as the climate change dial turns up.
Long Spooners are disentangling themselves from the consumer economy that degrades the environment. Members live simply but qualitatively well, minimizing dependence on the consumer economy. Moving toward a gift economy whereby services and goods are gifted for no expectation other than what the depth of relationship yields. The collective isn’t fueled or directed by “old paradigm consumer-capitalism money.” Karuna Foudriat explains, “We’re educating ourselves to move away from the consumer-oriented, zero-sum paradigm of competition, scarcity, transactional exchange, and private profit to a producer-oriented economy of abundance, cooperation, mutual gain, and gift giving. Bottom line, we are trying to ask, “What can I give?” instead of “What can I get?”.
Resonant with practices of the Do-It-Yourself (DIY) and Maker movements, which Transitioners fold into purposeful “reskilling” adventures, Long Spooners experiment with applications for tried and true carbon neutral technology such as grain grinders, hydraulic presses, heating and cooking devices. Decisions that emerge from group discernment—and make practical sense—have eclipsed the need for “expert-dependent” approaches as they experiment. Strangers to the word inertia, group members become the experts ratherthan call in “experts.”
In true Transition fashion, Long Spoon members have come to trust each other, and most importantly, trust themselves to make good choices. They are way-showers in vision, concept, action, and follow-through. Transition-Long Spoon is a radiant pearl in the gossamer web of Transition initiatives in the Hudson Valley region.
by Pamela Boyce Simms
This summer, The Mid-Atlantic Transition Hub (MATH) pauses to take stock of five years of Transitioning in our region. The MATH network unifies the work of environmental advocates who are Transitioning the Mid-Atlantic mega-region from fossil fuel dependency toward regionally integrated, self-reliant resilience. The cluster of cities in our megalopolis corridor includes New York, Newark, Philadelphia, Wilmington, Baltimore, Washington DC, and Richmond.
Hubris, you say? We prefer to characterize what we’re up to as an “experiment.” Regardless, we are deeply engaged in Transitioning the Mid-Atlantic region step-by-step, one hamlet, village, town, city, neighborhood, street, block, and building at a time. As we work, we keep our finger on the regional pulse, listening for a tipping point—that moment when a critical mass of people in our region (though not a majority, necessarily) choose to live consciously, well, and lightly on the Earth.
Sparked and spread by serendipitous word of mouth and two waves of Transition Trainings, pockets of Transitioning have germinated and sprouted throughout the Mid-Atlantic Region from 2009 to 2014. At a five-day Transition retreat in May 2013, the members of the newly formed Mid-Atlantic Transition Hub (MATH) began to cross-pollinate, scale up, and steadily cultivate a regional network of Transition initiatives at multiple stages of development. The MATH Council, comprised of seasoned Transitioners from throughout the region, thus came into being.
MATH, which prioritizes watersheds over state boundaries, currently embraces Transitioners from the Housatonic Valley of Southern Connecticut (Coginchaug Area Transition), to the Chesapeake Bay watersheds of the Potomac-Shenandoah, Rappahannock, Big Sandy, and Roanoke in the state of Virginia.
New York State counts 19 Transition initiatives scattered through the sub-regions of the Adirondacks, Mohawk Valley, Catskills, Capital District, Mid-Hudson Valley, Lower Hudson Valley, and the New York metropolitan area.
Northern New Jersey is Transitioning in Newton, Sussex County and “down the shore” in Red Bank, Monmouth County. Wilmington in Transition holds down the fort in Delaware, as Transition Howard County is a dynamic Transition outpost in Maryland.
Robust Transition activity in Eastern Pennsylvania—Media and Philadelphia—and the grounded environmental networking of Transition State College in the bullseye center of the state, are wayshowers for 15 Pennsylvania Transition initiatives.
Transition initiatives in Richmond, Staunton, and Charlottesville Virginia in the southernmost Mid-Atlantic watersheds provide a challenging range of demographics that demand Transitioning from an angle that is in stark contrast to strategies employed in the north.
Some Transition initiatives sparked the development of others in their area. Most were catalyzed by participants in Transition Training cohorts who were fired up enough to immediately go home and walk the talk. Still others developed quietly, autonomously, and in relative isolation from all but online references to the movement. Yet, we are all Transitioners in the Mid-Atlantic region, during the summer of 2014. That 100 percent of those involved in the Mid-Atlantic Transition Hub are Transitioners-to the-bon is a key, distinguishing characteristic of MATH as a network.
MATH Mirrors Natural Living Systems
The self-organizing, ever-morphing Transition experiment is patterned after living-systems in nature, as are the operating principles of the Mid-Atlantic Transition Hub. At our best, our goal of achieving integrated, regional resilience is accomplished by emulating living systems patterns: 1) non-hierarchical, cooperative self-organization; 2) affirmation of a diverse spectrum of contributions and perspectives; 3) constant adaptation to address what is emerging in the moment; and 4) maintenance of balanced, nurturing energy flows between individuals and the whole.
Two transformation-driven groups connected by a permeable membrane animate the Mid-Atlantic Transition Hub network. Twenty-one seasoned Transitioners and nine stewards of the environment form the MATH Council and Circle of Stewards. These environmentalists are, in turn, networked back within their home states to concentric rings of thousands of Transitioners who are the leaven in the bread of the regional Transition environmental movement.
Local to Regional Connectivity: Scaling up in Concentric Rings
The MATH network recognizes that aligning the way we live within the Earth’s biosphere means that the most vital work must happen locally. When constant adaptation takes place in localized microenvironments, any shock to the larger system is minimized. Resiliency is maximized. Transition Towns focus on localizing the factors communities need to thrive, e.g. food production, alternative energy generation, and more.
Yet, while local self-reliance is a goal of resilient living-systems, interconnectedness among systems is also essential. The Transition network therefore mirrors nature’s interlocking microhabitats. Thousands of Transition towns, regional and national hubs function as a loosely connected international web of systems. Concentric rings of subsystems nested within geographically larger systems inform the other’s process and enhance the wellbeing of the whole, while cultivating what is unique to its own particular sense of place.
Managing the energy and information flow among interconnected individuals, groups, and systems to allow emergence of what is innovative and new is Transition’s growing edge. MATH acknowledges that the movement is an evolving experiment, and that we don’t have all of the answers. We aren’t intent on finding perfect solutions, but like living-systems, we seek experimental pathways that meet the need of the hour and can be refined over time. When something doesn’t work, we’ll embrace new behaviors and adapt to emergent circumstances. Each time we shift course, the complexity of our relationships deepens and we become more adaptable—more resilient.
by Pamela Boyce Simms
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| Downtown Kingston by the waterfront. |
It’s time to ask some thorny questions of the Transition movement. We need look no further than Kingston to begin.
In a recent critique, The Transition Movement: Questions of Diversity, Power and Affluence, the Simplicity Institute exhorted Transitioners to: 1) pay more attention to the community power dynamics conditioned by the racial, ethnic, gender, and socioeconomic stratification that shape relationships, and, 2) work to ensure that Transition isn’t primarily a pleasurable movement for predominantly white, educated, post-materialist, middle class small community people. Acting on either suggestion requires courage and commitment.
Transition groups are indeed for the most part, white and middle class. Transitioners in towns like Kingston where people of color comprise a full 35% of a population of 23,700, puzzle over how to diversify their groups racially and socioeconomically. The Simplicity Institute critique pointedly urges the Transition movement to self-observe, probe deeply, and determine, “Whose resilience are we concerned about, and to what end?”
Climate change impacts us all. No particular group is exempt from the ravages of gale force storm winds, extended power outages, and drought-induced food shortages. Yet few Transition initiatives consistently focus on understanding the deeper community economic and power dynamics that generate their homogenous groups. How might Transitioners take up this extremely uncomfortable task? Should Transition be more explicitly concerned with social justice?
First, Transition outreach planning might pose deeper questions than, “Why don’t people of color come to our friendly, welcoming potlucks?” Sincere interest in “Transition for all” compels groups to ponder as a baseline:
• Who has historically lived and currently lives in what areas of our town and why?
• What social circles, institutions, economic engines and patterns drive commerce and employment in town?
• Where, if at all, do people of diverse ethnic, racial, age, gender and socioeconomic backgrounds intersect in town?
Transitioners might then conduct an internal inventory of their own motivations; skills-sets; emotional, psychological, spiritual/humanitarian resources; and preparedness as they embark on any diversity journey of depth that values authenticity.
Those who seek to Transition Kingston immediately note that like many towns, Kingston encompasses several distinct micro-environments that rarely intersect. Walkable Uptown, which witnessed an influx of “more stable” retailers over the past five years, exemplifies one dimension of a Transitioner’s localization dream. One can shop at the farmers market, get a haircut and aromatherapy massage, stop at the bank, visit the doctor and sample a variety of cuisines on foot. Vegetarian restaurants serve locally sourced foods, niche retailers abound, loft spaces are available in revamped industrial spaces, and one can find everything from grassfed beef to exotic fair trade chocolates.
Kingston’s Rondout area offers a scenic stroll along the city’s historic deep water dock. A holistic health center, galleries and waterfront restaurants hold out the promise of similar business and exciting real estate development opportunities to come.
A radically different economic flow pattern is operative in Kingston’s high storefront-vacancy Midtown area; the corridor which includes the “red zone” from Franklin and Broadway to Wall Street. Cyclical “tough on crime” raids in this part of town provide the economic fodder and foundation for the mortgages, purchasing power, and lifestyles of thousands of New Yorkers employed by Eastern, Shawngunk, Wallkill, Fishkill, Hudson, Coxsackie, Greenhaven, and Green Prisons to name but a few of many penal institutions—and all of the attendant branches of the NYS criminal justice system.
New Progressive Baptist Pastor Modele Clarke shepherds a Midtown Kingston congregation consisting of 80% “returned citizens,” that is, residents who have returned home following incarceration or drug rehabilitation. On certain blocks i
The enforced economic contribution to the NYS economy of Kingston’s “red zone” according to a white ENJAN activist who served five years in Ulster County Prisons, is an ensured cell-block head count. She posits that the parole policies that she is subject to make it next to impossible to find meaningful employment (for which she is highly qualified) that would help halt the circular conveyor belt back into the system. As one of only four white women in her prison “pod” of 48 women, she knows the picture is exponentially more abysmal for people of color.
The lasting impact of movements, whether environmental or social, hinges upon the extent to which the movement emerges from the ranks of those most deeply affected. Similar to the Transition demographic make-up, social justice circles in Kingston draw white middle class activists with connections to the Peace, Civil and Women’s Rights movements of the 60s and 70s. ENJAN meeting participants, for example, are overwhelmingly white. A practical reason for this might be that at any given point in time 50% of Midtown residents are on parole curfews and cannot be out of their homes after 8:00pm to attend meetings.
Further exacerbating the non-intersection of Kingston demographic circles, Pastor Clarke observes that middle class people of color diligently maintain the same distance from those struggling financially in Midtown as their white non-activist counterparts. How might Transition initiatives bridge chasms of this magnitude, mirrored in towns and cities throughout the country?
Meanwhile, as climate change indifferently accelerates, resilience as measured by extreme weather recovery speed is extremely group specific. We’ve repeatedly seen throughout the state in the wake of Hurricanes Irene and Sandy, that electricity is restored much faster in networked neighborhoods with connections to resource persons who can turn on the lights, attend to the roads, and cut through insurance red tape.
How will Transitioners address the fact that:
a) resource depletion and climate change will effect various groups in different ways?
b) relocalization may not be equally as applicable to everyone?
c) some people are more adaptable than others given aspects of change that have more to do with historical power than place?
Diversification of the Transition movement is a litmus test that can indicate how prepared we really are to embrace a future transformed by climate change in which the old navigation coordinates will have evaporated. The degree to which we can calm the discomfort that often grips us when we are amongst people who appear to be radically different from us is the degree to which we are able to truly deepen our resilience as we wade into the unknown.
The Mid-Atlantic Transition Hub (MATH) will offer a webinar series entitled: "The Maturation of a Social Movement: A Regional Response to a Critique of the Transition Movement" on the Transition US website. The series will explore diversity in Transitioning among other issues raised in the Simplicity Institute critique. The first webinar session will be offered November 6, 2014. Registration online.
Pamela Boyce Simms is a Transition Trainer of the Mid-Atlantic Transition Hub (MATH) of Transition US
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