The March Hare: Winter 2008 Issue 55

Cover Page • DR In My Luggage • Crating Change • Thank You Donors! • Nature Corner • Yoga Offsets • Under Your Sink

Will Dancing Rabbit Fit In My Luggage

by Sara Peters

Traveling to see family and friends for the holidays often results in spending far more of my own and the earth's resources in one month then I imagine I do in a whole year. Upon returning home after this year's winter travels, I started asking myself some questions. In which ways do I take Dancing Rabbit's covenants and sustainability guidelines with me when I travel? In which modes of transport I choose? In the food and dietary choices I make? In choices I make about water use? Basically, how does Dancing Rabbit travel with me when I go? To this end I also thought about which other values and skills gained in community, like those surrounding communication, travel with me.

A larger question came out of all of this. How can I make greater strides to live more closely in line with my ecological values when on the go? I asked and other rabbits shared with me their perspectives on how they approach these issues when traveling. Responses from several rabbits are interspersed with my thoughts below (*rabbit: conejo (pish); krolik (Russian); sungura (Swahili); lapin (French); tu zi (Chinese); kuniklo (Esperanto)).

For distance travel I choose the train. When traveling around town or once I have landed at a major port, I take public transit when possible, often ride in the cars of family and friends, and more often then I would like, rent or borrow a vehicle to travel various distances. Often the latter choice shortens travel times, allows me to pop in and visit my grandmother or a good friend on a longer-haul trip, costs less, and is often the transportation choice I struggle with most. I don't know how to balance my desire to stay connected to those far-flung friends and family with my desire to reduce my ecological impact.

Sungura: I fly because I don't like taking the train alone. I use cars a lot because I mostly go to places that have no or little public transit and I am going with people who will not bike.

Lapin: I make considered choices about how much to travel and by what means. I generally take the train for long distances. When visiting family I do not feel able to be as ecological. I end up driving more due to their suburban location.

Kuniklo: I keep a car back where I used to live so that I can help with my mother's needs . . . I found out about bus routes and used the bus a little for my own personal needs, but used the car for mom's needs. . . [and] walked to the neighborhood bar & grill where they had Ethernet access. . . The stress of that period was very high, so I also used the car to escape sometimes to a place where I could be alone or with supportive people.

Krolik: We're committed now to travel by train, and [my partner has] been using the train to go on business trips.

In rural Missouri there is little in the way of ethnic cuisine. Eating out is sometimes a big part of enjoying travel. Aside from dining out, I purchase organic, free-range, and local foods for snacks and meals on my own. I like nothing better than walking from my grammy's house to the farmer's market or local grocery. When at the homes of family and friends, I thankfully accept whatever foods they feel good about providing while keeping to a lacto-ovo vegetarian diet. After a period of adjusting to my dietary preferences, my family has tended to be very accommodating by purchasing special foods and cooking meals that meet my needs while still being enjoyable to all. Perhaps my greatest food-related bane is take-out, a mainstay of busy households. As the packaged food boxes and take-out containers pile up in the trashcan, I feel a lot of remorse for my contribution. I struggle with wanting to enjoy myself, be respectful of others, and to feel good about my choices in light of their ecological impact.

Sungura: Travel is my time to splurge. I eat lots of sushi and partake in pre-made items like tortillas, canned beans, etc.

Lapin: I try to eat organic, local, vegan, and in-season. But I also use travel times as a chance to get things we don't have at home such as coconut milk Thai food. I eat . . . much more packaged and out-of-season food. I try not to sweat it when things don't get recycled and such.

Conejo: I always tried to live as sustainably as possible before I got to DR, so it is not such a stretch to do it when I leave. But it seems that often outside DR I don't have many choices for sustainable food.

Kuniklo: [During a recent trip,] I tried to maintain a vegetarian diet, but as time passed I ended up giving in to others' food choices. I was staying with family, and I felt a lot of pressure to eat what they prepared. I made one DR-style meal . . . and was kidded about it for about a week . . . I ended up leaving a lot of vegetarian food in the freezer, since I opted to eat with family rather than make a scene or disappoint someone.

Water use is the shift that concerns me the least when traveling. I do the best I can with the facilities available to me. We use composting toilets at DR. Flush toilets use way more water even if I let it mellow. Similarly, when showering, I am very accustomed to having a 'navy valve' (a shutoff valve at the showerhead) to turn the water off while I soap up. I seldom encounter these when I travel. Despite their absence, I still turn the water off and trade the minor temperature shifts for the indulgence of a few extra minutes in a hot shower.

Lapin: My water use is similar when traveling to my use at home. I might take a longer shower occasionally. Others don't have low-flow faucets and such so I probably end up using more water.

Sungura: [I take] lots of hot baths to rejuvenate.

Kuniklo: I took a DR-style bath at my mom's a few times. I ended up violating my ideals as the stress levels mounted. The lack of support, incredulity and teasing around alternative life style choices added too much tension to an already very difficult situation.

In the Dancing Rabbit membership agreement, we agree to resolve conflict peaceably. Consensus decision-making in this setting demands a certain level of communication skill within in the group to function well. With this as a framework, I continue to grow my communication skills. Initially taking a different approach to communicating with my family and friends seemed to serve only to offend more greatly and intensify disagreements. If I was making this effort to communicate more openly and peaceably, I felt that they should meet me half way. After more than five years of trying and a series of missteps, I come to communication with friends and family outside of DR or the communities circle with more tolerance and lower expectations.

Sungura: I work really hard to use the communication skills that I've gained at DR outside—sometimes to good effect and others times not so much.

Lapin: My communication with family has changed a lot in the last 15 years. I am much more likely to try to de-escalate conflict, find commonality, and to try to help people feel heard. I often end up mediating between family members.

Kuniklo: My training in consensus and facilitation allowed me to get results from a family meeting on my mother's care. In the meeting my sister told me, "I've lost all respect for you! Just go back to Missouri." Due to the different communication style I've learned in community, I replied, "Let's set that aside for now and talk about what to do for Mom." We ended the meeting with two positive action items.

Traveling is a balance of meeting many different things and living in line with our ecological values is only one of those things. It seems I am not the only one who has had to tweak choices this way and that to find a balance that feels good. Respecting the needs and deeds of those I am visiting, while still living as closely to my values as I can, may prove more powerful in shifting the minds and deeds of others than standing on my soap box and insisting that all of Thanksgiving dinner be vegetarian and organic ever will.

Sungura: [I try] to be an easy houseguest. I think that when I start pushing my values it can push people to feel annoyed because they perceive that I am judging them or because it makes it more difficult to have me as a houseguest. It has been a long time since I have traveled and not gone to visit family or friends. When I am traveling on my own I frequently try to bring some of my values into my choices but it is still hard to do in the outside culture.

Lapin: I try to respect other folks and accept where they are and what choices they are making. I try to live by example but not to push other people more than they are comfortable with. I am willing to make some compromises to fit better with other people's lives but try to hold some of my stronger values more tightly or in cases where the impact seems high.

Kuniklo: Lack of support and outright discouragement of environmentally sensitive practices make it much more difficult to live sustainably away from DR. I came to DR to live with like-minded folks who would respect my choices and encourage me to live more lightly on the earth. It is also a lot harder to live sustainably when there are no systems in place to support it, such as when there is no place to put things I'd want to recycle except in my luggage.

Special thanks go to the rabbits who answered my questions. I am still not sure what shifts I want to make in how I relate to various aspects of travel. One thing I am sure of is that I am glad to come home after each journey to a community that supports me in my dietary choices, provides systems to help me reduce waste, fosters foot traffic and ridesharing, and challenges me to learn more about myself and others.

Cover Page • DR In My Luggage • Crating Change • Thank You Donors! • Nature Corner • Yoga Offsets • Under Your Sink

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