Recently one reader of this column wrote to
suggest that in light of our energy and ecological crisis it will be
necessary to rediscover village life, even in our cities. I find that
thought intriguing.
For more than half a century,
villages have been emptying out to fill up ever-expanding cities. The
first generation to move usually felt the loss of village life quite
keenly, but their descendents soon lost even a notion of what village
life was all about. Out of touch with their neighbors, this new way
of life soon began taking its toll. Especially as suburbs supported
by the ubiquitous automobile took over, unexpected loneliness began
to emerge. Even some churches began functioning more like spiritual
shopping malls than communities of faith.
Today most urban “Baby Boomers”
see it as their right to live as they wish. And that way increasingly
is characterized by loss of community and ever increasing patterns of
pollution.
The foundation of modern cities is
cheap, abundant energy. But as the tragedy in the Gulf of Mexico
symbolizes, oil is increasingly harder and more dangerous to extract
from the earth. No one really questions anymore the fact that we have
reached “peak oil” at a time when global demand for oil is
skyrocketing.
This can have at least two
consequences. One is escalating conflict as the more powerful grab
what oil they can to maintain their way of life while the rest
scramble to survive as disenfranchised individuals. An alternative,
as our reader suggests, is to rediscover village life that reduces
our need for energy while building healthy communities in the
process. We would do well to pursue the latter.
But what did village life look like.
Who can remember? For one, villagers tended to stay close to home
with little need to travel long distances and spend lots of money in
order to enjoy life. Entertainment was often home-grown and
home-appreciated. Most food villagers consumed was either grown in
backyard gardens or purchased from local producers.
Equipment, tools and ideas for
survival were shared without a thought for reimbursement. Often the
hard work of harvesting and preserving foods was done together. Work
bees often were social highlights of the year. (When I was young,
hog-butchering and saskatoon picking days rated right up there with
Christmas!) “Getting away” meant heading down the road to a local
fishing hole or camping with friends or family at a local destination
run by people you knew.
Of course the natural consequence of
village life was that people spent a lot of time together with other
villagers. And in the process they helped each other survive while
building community and reducing loneliness.
The question remains whether it is at
all possible to recapture the essence of village life in our modern
world. I think we must. It will become a question of survival and in
turn will actually enhance our quality of life. In a future article I
will explore just what village life in our modern context might look
like.