My Letter on Line 3

**This is addressing the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission**

I was present for the public hearing held in Saint Paul on Thursday, 9/28/2017.  My comments on this are in direct response to the first hour of recorded public comment from Minnesota’s constituency.  I’m not sure if you had a stenographer, or an audio recording, but if you read or listen, you’ll witness the sentiments of those I am quoting.  One of the earliest comments was from a man who drew a map showing us some geographical markers: existing and proposed Line 3, and an alternate route heading in the same direction approximately 100 miles or so south, which would terminate in Illinois.  Along with those were overlays of our state’s lakes and waterways, which clearly showed Line 3 occupying our largest aquifers and wetlands.

Accompanying my response, I’d wish to add another map to his overlay on the existing and alternate line proposals which I'll describe to you.  A usage map:  Urbanites often travel by bus which have already begun successfully switching to electric.  They also walk more, and bike more, and live closer to their professions and food markets.  The native people also do a lot of walking, and using of canoes to get to the hardest to reach wild rice, and they live simply and also are close to their professions.  In suburbia, not only do the residents often have the longest automobile commutes, along with the widest roads, and on the most asphalt, but frequently, even their recreational vehicles require this crude.  Jetskis, high octane speedboats, a third or fourth vehicle, snowmobiles, motorbikes, four wheelers, and let’s not forget golf carts, and riding lawn mowers.  Not only are the commutes, and toys, more greatly motorized, but also their homes have twice the square footage, and quadruple, if not more, the acreage.  Rural whites and suburban whites, require the highest volume of crude over any other people in the state.  It comes as no surprise that they desire it more.

The 'alternate' line proposal, which I am not sure whether or not anyone is taking seriously, goes through white populated areas, and it avoids what little native reservations we have left in Minnesota.  It also veers clear of the bulk of our water table and most of our lakes and rivers, an important piece of our critical habitat.  What's interesting to me about this is that natives, along with naturalist and empathetic whites, as well as every other people of color or ethnic background, all do not want the current line 3.  This is referencing the demographics witnessed by me from the attended hearing.  Some residents around old line 3 were even quoted, claiming that it has been causing cancer in their communities at a rate of 1:4.  Something Enbridge had stated, when asked at the hearing, they were unaware, as did commerce dept.  I believe there is intended follow up on this, but regardless of any findings, it is a real and expressed concern for the native people, which needs to be recorded as a legitimate complaint as it relates to the 'material facts' and ‘enjoyment of use’ in real estate laws of our state.  Meanwhile, every defender or proponent of approving the expanded new line was a white person, and only white people, from currently unaffected suburban areas. Unaffected, other than the benefits, of course.  Again, this is my own  eyewitness testimony having been at the hearing at the aforementioned date.  The white suburbanites have the highest use rate of crude, one fellow mentioned seeing such use outside “his” window. My window tells a different story, so just his mind you.  They would occupy the most jobs from crude pipelines.  It is their communities and culture which thrives the most from expanding this project.  They also said things like "proven safety record" and "better to have it in our own back yard" which suggests to me that they don’t have the same fears of cancer, or spills that would affect the water in or around their properties. And they have backyards, big ones, plenty of yard space to share. Another person, who I can't quote directly talked about her farm land; Avery, I believe was her name, which she uses to run an entrepreneurial business supplying line workers with jobs. She's got acreage, unused for a food growing operation, that would be perfect for a pipeline. I hope you see where I am going with this.

I was born in Minnesota in 1976 and I’ve traveled extensively in those northern waterways, obeying National Park Regulations on “Leave No Trace”.   I learned these techniques, not from the NPS, but from YMCA sponsored, Camp Widjiwagan.  The bottom of our canvas covered canoes were to touch nothing but water, air, and bannock (trail bread making).  These teachings were, and still are, inspired by the native people who don't want crude in or near our lakes and streams. The French Canadian fur traders were taught the ancient art of canoe making, the traders nearly copied, with few improvements, and followed their example and passed it down, where it still is being taught today in places like Widji, and Menogyn. People come from all over the world to attend and learn from these camps, and our waterways are exactly what makes Minnesota (native meaning water, and water tinted skies), or the land of 10,000 lakes, unique from any other state.  Our water is an integral element of our economy, arguably more prominent than energy jobs from a new pipeline.  Nay, it is our identity. So I must request a flat out denial be considered first and foremost. The future of energy isn't even in oil. The younger generations are demanding clean renewables, and that is the direction energy is already starting to move.  

If a denial is out of the question because of commerce demands beyond my knowledge, before approval of Line 3 is considered, I urge you to secondly consider the "alternate" route first, which would put the safer and bigger pipeline in the whites' backyard and away from the wet north. I say do that, as it is what everyone seems to want.  If determined that we truly need this volume of crude, run that sucker right through SW suburbia, then.  Minnesota can be the first state that honors ancient treaties with natives, protects its natural water resources, gives the conservative white folks the jobs and energy powered economy that they crave, all with one ruling. And further, Minnesota can be the first state that tests, in the real world, the claims of safety on the very people who believe in it so much, making us the shining American example that proves that capitalism can be moral while increasing its riches.  Everyone wins. ... or are the white people in their green neon jerseys falsely informed or lying whenever they say they know its safe, and that they want it nearby?  Minnesota can let time tell that story. One of two things would result from this bold statement from our great state.  By piping the crude oil through white suburbia, everyone would be thankful that they got what they wanted and live happily ever after in harmony.  Either that, or, in the case of tragedy, predicted and warned from the oldest residents of these lands, the one community that desires this product can learn first hand from its own doings, and change from the error of their own ways, without inflicting those errors and the consequent damages on others, whose very warnings they fail to heed, as we have been for so many centuries already. We have monuments of sorrow dedicated to displaced native people all over our state already. Thoughtlessly pushing capital gains through at the expense of non-white people is America's oldest sin. We have an opportunity to correct a bad habit here. Please, for the environment, for the people of Minnesota, for its identity, and for all Americans, consider doing what is the right thing to do.

Thank you

The Ego Zero Challenge

It was amidst a productive and insightful conversation about consumerism that I put my own human ego in question.  I think the title of the top post was that Minimalists would save the world, or something like that, which was straight out of my own ego. I sometimes see my belief in minimalism as heroic, to which of course Renae called me out, brilliantly. Everyone has a little bit of narcissism in them.  We all want to look better, some more than others, but we all desire an attractive personal image.  Currently, our most prominent display of our image is in our digital footprints, which happens to come with fun little make believe tools, such as image enhancement, fake IQ quizzes, or numeric values added up for how much trouble, aka fun, we’ve gotten into in our lifetime.  

So, we were discussing the mythical earth healing that is marketed to our pride in green products, recycling, versus how not buying plastic in the first place is the real reduction of trash.  We talked about having less, buying less, and throwing out less, when Colleen said she plays a game to see how long she can go without spending and then Lisa suggested a Facebook challenge of “how long can you go”.  She might have been half joking, I can’t be sure.  But I liked it, and I am sure that with our own ego put on display daily in a new way we could make minimalism fun.  Some put the ego on display with emphasis on their dinner plate, some on their children, some on their daily victories, and some just cryptically complain about some mystery that we’re supposed to guess at.  And of course for some its their deep affection for cats, or coffee, or wine, and the imminent need of coffee, and wine, and cats.  By the way, just to set the record straight, my cat is totally the cutest cat in the world. My weak ego is currently my belief in minimalism and photos of what wilderness I've visited. Whatever it is, we share our best and most attention seeking parts of ourselves often, and never our mundane reality.  Nobody displays that they did laundry and a small white sock is missing somewhere (again). Likewise we don't share that we pared down our sock drawer to live smaller and more organized.  Its just not unique enough.  But Lisa’s suggestion of advertising our non wastefulness and making it public, as a badge of pride, is unique. I did nothing to contribute to the filth of consumerism and I'm damn proud!  69 days straight, dude! #EgoZero, #brokedownandboughtacake. or #EgoZero Going for 42 wish me luck. Thoughts and Prayers, please.

So I decided to consider it.  There needs to be parameters, because some things might prove to be a little too disruptive to make this an honest and fun game.  So I figure consistent needs can be set aside.  Rent/mortgage, utilities and debtors, gasoline and groceries.  I think its fair to omit each of those.  And I’m open to anyone who wants to contest my thought on this because the harder the challenge the better, but we have to start somewhere, so that’s why I’m eliminating the hardest things that can't be cut immediately, and ignoring the things that require deeper change. And you'll probably hate this, because I'm including social media posts about the self because that is what the psychology of marketing attacks, our biggest weakness, our ego, and I believe its a habit we need to work on in order to overcome the consumerism machine. Advertising provides an ocean of temptation, and I'd like us to prove to ourselves, again and again, that true fulfillment lies within, and is easily attainable, especially with a little help from a friend.

Maybe you can decide on your own list, so long as you challenge yourself, and of course its all on your honor.  I think it should be hard.  So here is my list:

• New selfies or social media posts about self at all  (look at me)
• What I cooked, what I ate, the promotion I got   (accomplishment sharing)
• An amazing night out with the bestest friends ever  (being so cool)
• A new shirt, kitchen utensil, or DVD  (any gift to the self)
• Concert tickets, and vacations  (or such  type of entertainment status)
• Coffee from a vendor and not from water I boiled at home  ($5 caffiene)
• Even a snack I didn’t pack to take with me  (we don't need candy store fats)

**Note these are my guidelines and they are self discretionary.  Eveyone's ego is different.  One must be self aware and include the weakness that feed their own ego.  Please invent your own, and share them with the hashtag #EgoZero if you think others might benefit from your challenge**

How long can we go before we break down and buy something that we didn’t plan for in advance?

 All of these are gifts to our ego and might just be spontaneous purchases, and while all of them are reasonable, they are not needed.  They are gifts to ourselves and they are frivolous.  I know.  I’m already arguing with myself that I need clothes, and that some snacks are healthy and give energy, and even that, every once in awhile, a night out, or patting oneself on the back is crucial to our well being.  Nevertheless, and only because its too easy to become carried away, and because these things don’t serve a survival need, I think the game is on. Just for the game. When we're not playing we can do whatever we want again. 

How long can you go?  Challenge a friend. Share on Twitter and Facebook. Play as often as you want. Do a test, or set a goal.  There are no explicit rules. Make a post, tag people, state your days, whether or not you set a goal, achieved one, came up short, or broke a personal record.  Always Include hashtag #EgoZero   BTW I’m currently at 1 day without.  I’m shooting for 7 days just to see what happens. And I plan on growing from there. Good luck. Share your results with me!

Minimalists Make the Biggest Impressions

We all try to make good first impressions, whether for a job interview, date, or new guest coming to our little house, we do our best to clean up.  We tidy.  We wash.  We polish.  We even go to extensive lengths to hide our most sensitive flaws.  Of course we do   Making a good impression is everything.  The more we do it the more impressive we become.  New tie.  New dishware.  New car.  New house.  Bigger house?  I’m not going to suggest what the limit is where making an impression changes from good habit to unhealthy behavior because that’s probably different for everyone, but we should be aware of it consciously so we’re not fooling ourselves out of sustainability.  You know you better than I do.  I always clean up for a first time guest in my home, and while I can’t say I haven’t let myself fall into glorified purchase traps, I can say it is line I am more aware of the older and wiser I grow.

On one hand we have the little things we do that show we put in the effort, and on the other we have the things that social consumerism has sold to our need to fulfill our own sense of status.  Are we trying to make a good impression or are we trying to impose our self-greatness?  This is something everyone should be thinking about when they are shopping. Quality of purchase should mean things like cost vs. usefulness, and longevity.  We often get that confused with brand, and public opinion.  This is one of the most powerful traps of consumerism.  And we fall for it frequently.  Just look at watches and purses and track those two obvious items across the mall and count how many brands you recognize that identify with a personality in some way.  They even sell fancy caskets to the dead, as if we need to continue to make an impression from the grave. We don't need to buy anything to make a good impression or to be remembered.

Occasionally we might find ourselves with this same purchase debate when buying for another person as a gift.  Buying for others is specifically hard.  What a purchase does, is it says what we think about their value in our lives.  What brand we buy for someone says a lot about what they mean to us.  But then, what does that mean to them?  If the answer was as simple as ‘Nothing’, just ask a father about his son’s first car, or a daughter about her Prom dress.  Buying for others can take great emotional strain.  Were our thoughtful efforts put to good use by getting them a great gift?  Once in a blue moon, there is such a thing as a truly great gift, but in my experience, dumb luck is involved because I had happened upon something that person was really craving, not because I did a wonderful job at brand selection.  Most of the time we appease, and sometimes we even disappoint.  Speaking of disappoint, returns are a huge part of the holiday season, Dec. 26 is one of the busiest shopping days, second only to black friday.  What people remember about us are not the things we give them, but how we make them feel.  Listen intensely, and modestly.  Find humor, and laugh with someone.  Encourage their dreams.  Engage their minds.  Give the gift of loyalty, and humanity.  Its far more valuable than any purchase we make, and when consistent, it lasts a lifetime.

Gifts are impressive, they aren’t impressions.  The harder we try to impress others, the more counterproductive those efforts become.  Can we really outdo ourselves consistently with things, and declare that it is a sustainable path to winning friendship and love?  My final suggestion on impressions is selfishness.  That’s right.  Selfishness.  I don’t mean for us to all become jerks and to quit thoughtfulness or empathy.  See above: Listen intensely.  Selfishness doesn’t have to be a contradiction to integrity or humanity.  Have you ever noticed that dedicating several hours of the week to your own health and fitness draws people to you, or even commands compliments and questions of interest?  This is healthy selfishness.  We need to do the things that make us healthy, secure, and above all else, happy.  The better we do at self love, the stronger we become.  The stronger we become, the more we impress ourselves.  Have you ever reached a challenging goal, and were amazed at your own accomplishment?  Its infectious to others, and its often visibly noticeable as well.  Regardless of other people’s tastes or motives, the more we impress ourselves, the more impressive we are to those other people adjacent to us.  And when we’re humble beings, living off of our merit alone, treating ourselves to accomplishment, and treating others graciously rather than trying to impress with those consumable gifts or self image products, and staying aligned with our belief in minimalism, we can transcend making an impression, and we become something else entirely.  We become inspiration.

Corporation Crush

Piecing together a couple of historical events, coupled with a current struggle in the housing market amidst ongoing recovery corrections from the collapsed real estate bubble, I have discovered an unfulfilled human desire. ( I also pieced together this hiking boot on a backpack trip, maybe you'll follow the metaphor later) Low inventory has buyers trapped, yet there is a significant inventory out in the distant suburbs of really big houses and its got the market confused. Disparity on the low end and glut on the high end. Start up homeowners are unfulfilled. This desire, perhaps has always been tucked away under the surface of consumerism.  This desire shows itself in various ways, but is self evident in all of us.  This desire is the lack of profound meaning in our lives.  In every single way we are consumers first, then sentient beings second.  We want more meaning.  We want more connection.  We want more unfathomable and profound passion.  We want something more.  We all want to save this world.  Some of us find that in religion.  Some of us find that by trying to return to nature.  Wherever we seek this deeper connection to the legacy of our lives, we buy something.  The church has a CEO with a yacht and we buy into their collection plates.  Nature has been bought by wealthy landowners or through eminent domain by the state and is parceled off to us for vacation for a fee.  The wild is a thing of the past, lost to the archives in the annals of history.  Love has been absorbed by holidays.  Going green has been confiscated by marketing firms and label slapped on every consumable good that we put into our body for survival, and its expensive, however!!, most natural, and healthiest, smartest lifestyle choice we can make.  “Shut up and take my money!”, boldly and honestly exclaims every amazeballs thing on the internet.

So how do we finally beat back capitalism from controlling every single aspect of our lives? It seems so daunting. Capitalism. Big Pharma. Wall Street. Too big to fail means the same as way, way, way, too big for little old me to fight back. 

It can all start with the home.  When I bought my first home, I followed what was marketed to me by society. I wanted 2.3 children, a dog, and a fenced in yard, with a fireplace and a glorious man cave.  And I found it, a real gem.  It was 3 bedrooms, with a big master, hardwood floors, east facing bay windows to welcome the early morning sun, a brick arched fireplace, a lower-level I could turn into a woodshop, attached garage, and with a surrounding privacy fence in the back, even with a redwood deck for relaxing under the stars, *and it was even located off a park with trails that went all the way to the downtown so I could choose to drive, bike, or walk to my nearby metropolis.  It was going to become my own little paradise.  Only, I didn’t have kids just then.  It felt empty and I still desired meaning.  I did get a dog.  But I also did what everyone does with extra space. I filled it all with things to make it feel proportionally purposeful.  I got a rolltop desk.  I got a daybed.  I got a bigger sofa.  Eventually, I took in a roommate and, because the dog didn’t need extra space, that was honestly the only thing that actually worked toward curing the emptiness. This was a good learning experience.  If I had stayed in a smaller living space, I would not have acquired as many things because we all know we are forced to turn down items that we don’t have space for, like a pool table. But we say yes when there is a void, like to the same pool table.  

We have emotional voids, and we have physical voids.  The easiest and best thing to eliminate is the physical void.  Buy a smaller house or rent a smaller apartment: Fill it with less stuff. The math here is pretty easy.  Force yourself to organize.  Force yourself to buy fewer clothes.  Force yourself to gut your old storage boxes and donate or discard the things you do not actually need to survive.  We all cling emotionally to our stuff.  We need to stop that.  We all need to stop filling our emptiness with that which we do not need to survive.  I need to stop filling my emptiness with things that I won’t miss when I’m old and dying, which, if you’ve ever been around the dying, is nothing but memories.  They talk about events, time shared with loved ones, and sometimes about regrets.  They never talk about that clock that they hung onto because it reminded them of their mother.  They talk about their mother.  I have dead people’s stuff.  It is my biggest weakness. Full disclosure: I have a lot of things from dead loved ones.

Native Americans could pack up an entire village and carry it by hand, and by horse, and in one trip, within about a day. It took me a month to box up my crap last time I moved and we needed a truck for just two people. I'm sure you can relate. We're a collection of crap and we're swelling. The average total finished square foot home built in 1950 was 1580sf.  Currently, its 2450sf.  And that growth is certainly not for human need.  That 55% spacial growth is 55% more energy cost, more personal belongings, more cleaning products, more interior and exterior maintenance costs.  When you consider all the extra care you need to put into that 55% more space it becomes exponential.  Now, consider that in 1950, everything was paid for up front, in cash, other than maybe the mortgage.  Now add up all the stuff in your house, and put compound interest on it because you may have paid for it with a credit card, and add up all that additional square footage, and the space filling stuff, tack on those interest payments, and throw all of it on your back because that’s how much debt you owe the banks of the world, and you’ll be working it off for the rest of your life. I hope you feel where I'm going with this. We want to beat wall street, right? It starts with ourselves.

So, Why not buy into smaller housing? Or maybe its: How much space do we really need? And I mean really, really, and truly need. Not, how much space would feel comfortable? Not, how many bedrooms would we like to have for all the family growth? But How much space do we really need? And then, don’t buy any more than that. No matter what. Pay the mortgage extra times per year. Get rid of housing debt in 15 years instead 30. Make it so the total of your bills are food, taxes, and warmth. If you still work a career after that, take bigger vacations. Give more to charity. Start a massive savings program again. Drink a bottle of wine that costs 2 thousand dollars, just so you can say you did. Rebuild a 1937 Mercedez Benz. Rebuild a church. Whatever it is you dream about, you can make a reality, but only after quitting corporate America. It won’t be easy. It means sacrificing all those empty luxuries. I only say empty because that’s what they are in reality. We’re used to them. They're our identity. They are part of us. They don’t want to be amputated. They’ll call to us. They’ll be clingy. They’ll seem so important. They’ll keep showing up in commercials and in newsfeeds to remind us how great they are for us. But they are empty. They’re soulless. They mean nothing. They don’t require quarter in our homes. Say no to them. Better yet, buy a little tiny house, and then tell them there’s no room so they can’t argue. Say yes to your dreams.