A Puppet Parable for Postmodern Times
Administrator | May 10, 2010 | Comments 0
Mr. & Mrs. set out on a honeymoon road trip in their Airstream trailer, and arrive in Prince Edward County. As confirmed city dwellers, their expectations are fairly easily met: the trailer has air conditioning and, using plastic cutlery from China, they can sit down to picnic on lettuce from California, pickles from India, fish from who-knows-where, bananas from Ecuador, and pineapple from Hawaii.
Life is sweet, until our puppet characters run low on fuel, and their “crude awakening” takes place. As they pull into a gas station, they see a pump bearing a “Closed Forever” sign. The gas man informs them that he has nothing to sell, and to their incredulity, neither does the next station. Slowly but surely Mr. & Mrs. have their eyes opened to the reality of dependency on cheap oil. None of the things they take for granted in their daily lives may be available to them any longer: it’s too late to commit to consuming less, recycling more carefully, or expecting the government to restore “normalcy.”
“It was then that Mr – or was it Mrs?
Had a sudden realization.
The lives that they had cherished
Had been built on globalization!”
– From “We Need Help!” by Krista Dalby (new County resident) and David Anderson
What’s to be done? In the coming weeks you will be able to find out, as I blog on about Transition PEC.
Filed Under: Uncategorized
About the Author: