We're hanging out, waiting for Barack Obama's acceptance speech. Having the DNC in Denver has been exciting and surreal. We've hosted a party at the house to watch the acceptance speech by Obama. Here we are! (well, except me, since I was taking the photo while hanging precariously off the couch)

In Seattle. Eating a veggie dog loaded with all sorts of yumminess at CyberDogs, an all vegetarian hot dog and internet cafe. The place is very cool (although, I did just have to ask the cute hot-dog-girl to change the music, as the "song" that was playing made me want to claw my eyes out with a fork. very unpleasant) She now must think I'm an old prude.

I am really enjoying our trip and all the rainy weather. I am envious of how much water flows here, compared to Colorado. I just keep thinking of what my garden would look like with this much water.

I finished reading Going Local recently, and have picked up several more books on this trip about community building, sustainability and creating a locally-based economy. I have been feeling a little overwhelmed by how much there is to do. I'm reading the Worldchanging book, which makes a great case in its introduction about the need to create new systems NOW. That if we don't figure out this whole resource-use thing in the next 25 years, we're fucked. Fucked fucked fucked. And, they do a great job in the book showing that the tools, ideas and innovations for creating more viable systems that ensure wealth for all people while being kind to the planet are already out there. We just need to be implementing them.

It is difficult for me to even try to express the enormity of what I'm feeling right now. I look around this beautiful city...and it all seems so temporary. These things were not built to last - we throw things out before they are barely used, not noticing how much it takes to make them in the first place. What kinds of communities could we really have?

I want to live in a world where the well-being of human beings is not at the expense of other life. Where people have the time and energy and soul to be creative. Where we take care of each other before we fight with each other. Where war is not an option. Where the broken and sick and different and old are cared for. Where life is ever growing - instead of our piles of trash.

At some point within the past 200 years, humans decided that it wasn't enough. Or something that helped to birth the industrial revolution that has lead to some of the most amazing technological developments we've ever seen. But at what cost? What harm are we causing by having the latest and greatest cell phones? Or driving EVERYWHERE, fueled by petroleum?

I love my laptop...it allows me to write these things while sitting in a cafe in Seattle; to be read by friends and strangers all over the world. And the fact that I'm in Seattle, on a road trip that many people will never take in their lifetime, is amazing and decadent. But I can't help but feel weighted down by the unknown future.

And this whole conversation can be such a downward spiral....my housemate thinks I'm too apocolyptic, and says that humans have always thought the end was coming. Perhaps. But we've changed so many things about the planet's systems in such a short amount of time. One estimate for the future is that 1/2 of the world's species will be gone by 2050. Our entire lifestyle is dependent upon cheap, non-renewable and toxic energy.

And so I wonder if I'm up for the task of life in the next 50 years. Sometimes I really just want to open a pie shop, or have a goat farm, or live in a cabin in the woods with lots of books. And maybe I will still do those things. But there are so many things we could be and perhaps need to be doing to change our way of life now, and I'm feeling less and less free to NOT do them - In my own life, neighborhood, communities.

I still have hope that we can have communities that care for people while not squandering the earth's resources. But I wonder if we can make the transition soon enough.

I want my life to matter. To live in beautiful places with caring people. To know that the choices I am making are having a positive impact. I suppose that's as good a life's pursuit as any. I just don't want mine to be a waste, of anything. It really is all so precious.

And, so, 2008 is upon us. I hope to write more in the coming days about the new year and what I want to accomplish. Maybe now it'll be easier.

This post is all over the place...but I feel as though I have to get some of these things out of my head.

Hope you're all having good holidays with loved ones.