By Tom Braford
What does this saying have to do with us in modern times? Well, POTUS probably should avoid the company of Senators on March 15th. In fact, it might be wise for us plebeians to consider the possibility that a Day of Reckoning is just around the corner for us as well.
In Roman times, the Ides was a time of debt acknowledgement and payment. It was also a time of driving out the old and welcoming the new.
You may say, “My debts are mostly paid. I make my credit card payments every month. My car is paid off and I’m halfway through my 30-year mortgage.” But what about our carbon and resource overreach debt?
Our what? That is the result of our opulent lifestyle. Just like in Roman times, when we borrow from the poor and from future generations, eventually it catches up with us. Now as we approach the Ides of our Anthropocene era, our debt has come due. This has been the case with all civilizations that have indulged in resource overreach and widening economic disparity.
So, how do we pay it back at this point? The answer is that we can’t, but we can pay it forward. The first step is to recognize what we’ve done, make a plan and then start to implement it.
We can use our resources more wisely by pivoting to reuse, recycle, repair and repurpose what we already have. We also need to learn to live more efficiently and synergistically through sharing and cooperating with others. We need to live simply so that others and future generations can simply live.
How can we do that? First, join or start a Drawdown Ecovillage, and we’ll figure it out together.
The Ides of March are upon us. It’s time to drive out the old and welcome the new way of living ecologically debt-free lives. We need to up the level of our caring for creation and each other, and creation and others will care for us and our progeny and the progeny of all species to the 7th generation and beyond.
Contact: braford@sbcglobal.net
www.ArizmendiEcovillage.com