Ecotrain’s QOTW: A Perfect Day In An Imperfect World

For me, the ecovillage of tomorrow can only happen once the global population has decreased to less than 2.5 Billion people. Anywhere above that, I believe that organic waste from humans combined with the already existing pollution is in itself too taxing for the planet. Let alone the extra pollution from goods and services on top of that.

Transcending the eco-fantasy

We live in a world that likes to fantasize about off-grid communities, stating that it is better to show the way than to do nothing at all. If the global population went down under 2.5 billion, I would be willing to look at communities being more environmental than others but until then, humans are still going to be competing with other species with the unfair advantage of over-population.

Needless to say my ecovillage of the future is set in such a world. It comprises of 235 residents, 180 of which are specialized, 15 are floaters tasked to help with what is needed and the rest are children.

Life is extremely hard, and only a fragment of past technologies for medicine has survived to this day. Child mortality is back up, although to a lesser extent than for the early 19th century. With our understanding of hygiene, 2 children out of 3 pass the age of 5. We are busy ignoring children not to get attached but again, to a lesser extent than say 1822.

Outcast with a Purpose

I am not too well liked in my community because my days are considered erratic with a flexible routine. I make up for it with my clairvoyance skills, functioning as a shaman in an increasingly structured spiritual paradigms. Despite my urging my compatriots to steer clear of the dogmas of organized religion, such a structure is slowly taking shape and I have to play to it as a spiritual leader to avoid exile.

I spend 2 hours a day, 5 days a week farming and 2 hours a week shovelling human shit which earns me enough credit to spend 10 hours a day sleeping. That and my readings as a clairvoyant which indeed comes from my time in my beloved Morpheus’ arms.

There is no perfect day here, not any more than there are for me writing this from yet another existence. However, my life is pretty damn awesome.

My job is to help the population heal from the horrors of 100 years ago when the grid went dark and all the nuclear centrals started melting down. Fortunately, here on the North American East Coast (current Maine), many centrals have avoided this by dedicating entire societies to cooling the Behemoths in the area. Still, it is common to catch game with a malignant tumours which we burn but we eat all sorts of animals with deformities.

Post-Apocaliptic

I help with a collective healing process using a spiritual approach and a passion for books which helps me create guidelines to steer clear of the errors of the past. I know that it is useless to do so, that we are bound to repeat those mistakes but I also know that hope is and has always been the number one currency when it comes to society. Hope and fear but I don’t have to worry about that one as Nature is back in it’s rightful place, creating all the fear necessary to keep people in line.

Sometimes I do feel bad about the information I choose to withhold from books. I am one of four scholars and we often debate about what those should be.

Things might look quite grim from where you are standing but it is really not so bad, not for me at least. Hierarchy has been instrumental in mending the psyche traumatized by the fall of the grid. I never knew cell phones in my lifetime but you should have seen the withdrawal symptoms of the previous generation. Hell, I feel like I have some of them too!

The Shaman

I know that knowledge is power but I don’t spend too much time convincing everybody else. All the citizens are valued in their own way and we try to foster as much liberty and free will as possible while surviving the forests populated by wilder beasts and slippery trails. Fall injuries can be utterly catastrophic and are a lot more common that animal attacks.

My favourite day in the year comes with Indian summer when the weather gets warm again in fall. That is when we hold the day of children where children take leadership of the village. I tend to serve as an advisor to them and hold no knowledge back so long as the information doesn’t get convoluted. If they do well on children day, the can keep ruling for all of 3 weeks, making sure we are well prepared for winter. If the cold bites too fast, they are taken out of that position even if they were doing a good job.

It is my favourite time of the year even though I have to do all sorts of tasks which I am not used to as I loose my shaman status for the most part.

To imagine a perfect day in a fictitious world begs the famous question: what is happiness. In this case, I picked a day where my routine was replaced by something stimulating, governed by the hopes and dreams of the children in my society. It involves a fair bit of role play.

Other things that make a perfect day in any world include:

• Laughter
• Exceptional sex
• A highly stimulating philosophical conversation
• Making art
• A day of signing mantras in sanscrit
• An exceptional meal
• Experiencing an altered state of consciousness

I am very grateful to Ecotrain’s question of the week which you can find here:
https://steemit.com/ecotrain/@ecotrain/what-does-your-perfect-day-look-like-in-the-ecovillage-of-tomorrow

It has allowed me to have fun while expressing views that I typically hold back for fear of hurting others and confronting them with themes that make them uncomfortable.

I found this #QOTD from @stortebeker, you can find his beautiful take on it here:
https://steemit.com/ecotrain/@stortebeker/a-typical-day-at-the-ecovillage-of-my-dreams-ecotrain-s-question-of-the-week

I took the photos during my trip in Montreal over the summer