The Ecclesia Collective

Last night we discussed the introduction to Bill McKibben’s newest book, Deep Economy. Some of us had already read the first chapter but since others of us had not yet we refrained from talking too much about its content. In the introduction McKibben lays out his thesis, more is no longer synonymous with better. Other topics were touched on but we mostly discussed that more still means better for those below the poverty line in the world. This led to a conversation about the difficulty of thinking long term when you have immediate needs. But as we talked we began to realize that immediacy seems to be a part of the human condition. Even in the wealthy west we want everything right now. Certainly, we don’t need it right now, but we sure as hell want it. At some point, I think we all began to feel a bit overwhelmed by the immense problems that seem to stand in front of us today; poverty, depletion of natural resources… But Betsy put it best that it is each person taking small steps at a time that will create a sense of hope for the rest. Brooke thought we should each bring some of those little things we were going to try and change/introduce in our lives as we went through the book to discuss how that’s going. We really don’t want to just be talking theory but finding practical ways to live into another way.

We’re reading chapters 1 and 2 this month. We’ll keep you posted on how it goes.