Dumbo Feather Issue 63

Dear reader, In the first few weeks of lockdown, as conferences and travel were being cleared from my calendar, the two-hour work commute wiped from my day, meetings at coffee shops and catch ups at bars no longer viable, I felt what many have found confronting to express: relief. I was being told to feel panic, to feel uncertainty, to feel like the whole world had fallen apart, but I didn’t. I felt permission to get off the treadmill, to narrow the lens with which I viewed my life, and to finally give contentment a chance. I want to acknowledge my context here, as I know this has also been a difficult and tragic time for many. I live with my partner in a house that has a large, productive garden in…

“ I have seen caring human hands turn cracked, bone-dry earth into rich soil capable of feeding entire communities, while simultaneously restoring habitat for wildlife.” Local. A simple concept with the potential to change the world. The antidote to consumer capitalism. The key to solving our seemingly endless ecological crises. A guiding principle to take us back home: to community, to the natural world, and to prosperous, place-based economies. Throughout human history, our cultural traditions, societies, personalities, even our bodies have evolved in relationship with community and local ecosystems. Our direct reliance on one another and the natural world around us formed the basis for deep, long-lasting connections with other people and with our place on the planet, which in turn supported healthy, grounded identities. Place-based economies also gave rise to worldviews…

“ Like most species on the planet, we humans are a social species. It is more natural for us to co-operate than compete.” When people empty supermarket shelves in a rampage of panic buying, it makes the news. When people charter buses to travel from Melbourne and Sydney to raid the shelves of regional supermarkets, that makes the news. When people come to blows in a supermarket aisle over their struggle to secure the last pack of toilet rolls, that makes the news, too. Such things are bound to make the news, because they are news. They are spectacular examples of how badly—how unusually—we humans can behave when we let our fears and anxieties get the better of us. When a shopper stands back to let someone else take the last bunch of…

“ One of the best ways of mitigating risk is to have a personal relationship with the person or business you’re investing in.” One of my favourite cartoons, by the wonderfully weird Gary Larson, is of a crisis clinic on fire, floating down a river, about to plunge over a waterfall. That’s what my life was like in 2008, the year I decided to divorce, start paying child support for two young children, move into a new house and take a new job. Then the financial crisis hit. My new job vanished, and opportunities for consulting work dried up. When all was said and done (I won’t belabour the details), I wound up nearly $100,000 in debt. Most of it was put on credit cards, charging me 15-25 percent interest per…

“ Pre-agricultural society owed its survival to co-operation, to groups working together. They survived because of the dense web of social contacts and the vast number of reciprocal commitments they maintained.” I remember writing years ago about how lovely it would be if, for just one month, the whole human world went quiet. I imagined a beautiful stillness descending on the streets, so that we could begin to think again, contemplate our situation, remember what it feels like to be alive, right now, in this astonishing universe. In that time of reprieve from the Great Noise, who knew what transformations might arise, what values would have a chance to emerge, what forms of fairness, or considerations of kindness. We might remember how good and necessary ordinary fellow feeling is, because we…

Socialising A 101 guide to being social in Sardinia Go walking between 9:00am and 11:30am or 4:00pm and 7:00pm. If you stay inside during these times, say, to read books or be alone, it is highly likely that people will talk about you like this: “I don’t know why she is like that, she is a little strange.” Here, within these appropriate times, you will be asked to join others for an espresso, a tumbler of red wine, a 30-minute streetside conversation during which somebody will pass and shout, “Hey you, [insert nickname here—everyone has one in a small village. Me, I am Mary Poppins for the most part], where you been!?” If you do not go out at these crucial times, you may never acquire any friends. It’s a fact. It’s also embarrassing…