Carolyn Baker reviews Sharon Astyk's Depletion And Abundance
"When I
realized that everything was going to change, I was at first afraid.
Because I thought, if my government or public policy or other
choices weren't going to fix everything, what could I possibly do? What
hope was there, if I had to take care of myself, if my community had to
take care of itself?
"But
when I began looking for solutions that could be applied on the level
of ordinary human lives, that involved changes in perspectives and
pulling together, the reclamation of abandoned ideas and the
restoration of strong communities, I began to feel hopeful, even
excited. Because I realized that when large institutions cease to be
powerful, sometimes that means that people start being powerful again."
I consider the above quote by Sharon
Astyk the absolute crux of her extraordinary book. Having read every
book I've been able to get my hands on regarding collapse preparation,
I was at first uncertain about what Sharon might have to offer us that
would be new and refreshing. However, that concern was quickly assuaged
when I opened Depletion and Abundance.
Sharon
is a former academic, but while crisp, clear, and concise, the style of
her writing is not so much scholarly as it is incisive and
compassionate. Sharon is the mother of four children and a devoted
partner of her academic husband, to whom she dedicates her book, and
how she keeps just those plates spinning, in addition to
writing a book and maintaining a blog eludes me. But as she tells us in
the book, the lifestyle and collapse preparation choices she's been
making in recent years have significantly simplified the lives of her
family and allowed her to both care for them and manifest her literary
prowess.
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