Why You Need to Be More Like Sophia

"There is a shortage of good soil because no one is improving the land for that purpose" said Sophia, one of the most passionate advocates for the sustainability of the earth that I have ever had the pleasure of knowing. After I help you understand our friendship I will tell you why you need to act now to become more like Sophia.

Fuck it. I'll tell you now. You need to act now to become more like Sophia because the food system that feeds you right now will not survive the zombie apocalypse. If you don't have food, you'll die.

When the zombies attack *or* some other unlikely imaginary scenario like:

• People stop being able to think for themselves because they aren't getting nutrients from their foods.
• That whole hoax about global warming actually transformed standard growing seasons SO MUCH that large-scale agro-business crop production is devastated.
• Turns out peak oil wasn't a joke either. Those airplanes can't fly your bok choy in from Chile. Those cargo ships can't sail your garlic from China to your GROSS-ery store.

Right so when the zombies attack you'll need people like Sophia to revitalize the land and grow your food. You'll also need people like me to teach you how to eat the weeds and own your health. Good thing we're a team and we're in it to win it.

p.s. Good thing I've found advice from Lil' Wayne that will help YOU get in it to win it. I'm sharing his secret to success at the end of this short story and you can skip right to it but the advice will make more sense if you read this short story I wrote about the friendship of Sophia and I, from Boston to Berlin...

Obsolescence v. Durability (who will win?)
In Boston Sophia and I attended Northeastern University together. Before she left to pursue a self-designed program in Ecological Agriculture at the University of Vermont, Sophia was the president of SEA: Students for Environmental Action. Before I became a "creative" waffling undergraduate learning more from waiting tables than from courses required for my eventual degree in English, I was a student at the Bouvé College of Health Sciences.

Sophia and I covered our apartment wall with sticky notes that formed a simple conceptual foundation for the world we wanted to live in. The model for sustainable living we built from that foundation still works today as an easy method of choosing how the future of humanity will play out based on choosing how to live our lives in different scenarios, both actual (thing) and virtual (idea).

We were young, idealistic, excited. We are now older, realistic and discouraged - yet, still inspired by the choice we made very clear in our youth.

The future of our human existence can be either obsolescent or durable.
It's YOUR choice as much as ours.

Obsolescence is that quality of a system that is built to break
Durability is that quality of a system that is built to last. 

I almost want to take out specific company references. Yet, I am convinced that editing ourselves to exist in an obsolescent world is idiotic compared to the other option: educating ourselves to exist in a  durable world. Speaking of durability, let's talk about Germany!

Berlin Throws the Best Party...But That City Does NOT Let You Forget Your Earth 

The best thinkers take the best vacations. Sophia called me out of the blue and said, "I'm going to Germany, do you want to come?" Obviously I said yes and made it work.

We took a month-long trip to Germany, starting in Berlin and eventually including stops in France and The Netherlands. The longest we stayed in one place was in Witzenhausen where the University of Kassel runs an ecological agriculture school. In Witzenhausen exists a program called DEULA for environmental technology, agriculture, horticulture and landscaping.

Let's talk about Berlin though because it's the best place in the world to party outside of Witzenhausen (and Witzenhausen is pretty hard to get to if you don't speak very good German). You'd have to try really really really hard to be environmentally unconscious in Berlin  because there are indicators everywhere, including:

• Solar Panels on almost all roofing,
• Public advertisements about environmental responsibility,
• Young people SO EXCITED about new wind turbines on their horizon,
• Trash cans that clearly and emphatically tell you to sort your trash before you throw it away.

You'll have to buy our tickets for a repeat trip to Berlin for Sophia and I to share our views about the Berlin parties. Any and all sponsorships for this cause are welcomed and appreciated.

Oh, and if you aren't going to sponsor our trip to Berlin, at least LEARN all the time and start doing what you love so seriously that you can't help but create a swanky job that you (and only you) can do in the future you want to create. choose wisely but keep it simple, stupid.
 
It's Just Like Lil' Wayne Said... 

From his 2008 album "Dedication 3 Gangsta Grillz" Lil’ Wayne shares the secret to his success in the track, You Love Me I Hate You.

The difference between me and you is:

To you, this is your job.
To me, this is my life…

This is my life.
This is what I do better than anything.
So why wouldn't I do this all the time?
See that's the difference between you and I
You get money and you get crazy.
I get crazy and I get money.

#workforyourself2013 

#humanity2016