During the weekend of February 25-27, hundreds of people gathered at the Millenium Harvest House in Boulder, Colorado to attend the “Our Local Economy: Lives in Transition” conference organized by Transition Colorado founders, Michael Brownlee and Lynette Marie Hanthorn. While the official topic of the conference concentrated on food security and the local economy, it appears participants were ready and willing to have a more fundamental discussion of how to shift the collective mindset to a more thoughtful, intentioned, and collaborative way of living—especially from within the community’s own means.

I think we are discovering, as we attempt to enroll communities in the transition model, or the transition process, that the U.S. is different. Our culture is different. Our history is different, our mind-set is different. Some of the aspects of transition that were created in the UK need to be adapted for here. For instance, the transition works as if was defined by Rob Hopkins and The Transition Handbook – speaks really to Peak Oil and climate change as the primary drivers. It does not mention the economic situation that we are facing.

In older, more traditional civilizations preceding our own, one finds a remarkable capacity for embracing paradox. In fact, paradox inhabited the psyches of indigenous cultures as if in their DNA, as exemplified in their art, literature, stories, and other cultural artifacts. It was not until the dawn of modernity, greatly facilitated by Rene Descartes’ dualistic perspective which became increasingly predominate in Western intellectual tradition, that either/or thinking triumphed.

Regardless of the past (or current) representations of Transition, the movement growth appears to be slowing. It has not slowed simply because Transition is overly optimistic about itself. An important question is if TI is on target with its goals and objectives and strategy or does it need to redirect. Recall that Transition’s “Cheerful Disclaimer” says “We truly don’t know if this will work. Transition is a social experiment on a massive scale.”

…Vermont is the kind of place where neighbors know (and help) neighbors, the scale of change seems manageable, and quite a few transition pieces are already being put into place. Add in progressive and complimentary efforts like a state-wide feed-in tariff for alternative energy, “Cow Power” from six methane digesters, and leaders like PCI Fellows Bill McKibben, Bill Ryerson, and Josh Farley, and Vermont just might have the capacity to take post-carbon living—and living well—to scale.

…There is a joke—I can’t remember who I heard it from now—but it goes something like this: a man asks his friend how his marriage is going. When the man answers that it’s “sustainable,” his friend replies: “I’m so sorry to hear that! That’s really too bad!” Being in a perpetual state of transition—both as individuals and societies—keeps us awake. It keeps us alive and continually growing—not necessarily physically and materially, but spiritually and culturally. As both ecology and Permaculture teach, the edges are where the most life is. In this liminal space of great challenge and possibility is where we may discover that our life is most worth living and that there are many things about this world that are actually worth preserving.

The Tao of Democracy begins with seemingly innocuous question: “What would intelligence look like if we took wholeness, interconnectedness and co-creativity seriously?” While many of us probably believe in wholeness, interconnectedness, and co-creativity, how good are we at actually practicing them? And how easily do we discard them when they become inconvenient for us?