As we worked through the idea of our downsize move and talked about what it was that we hoped to gain from the move, one of the ideas that I was hoping to pursue was that of living locally. Now that we’ve settled in and we’ve started to try to “live local”, I’m questioning what that really means to me and what are the real reasons for doing this, other than it is somehow the “hip” think to do. I’ve already established that I have no “hip gene”, so I need to peel away the layers and understand what this means to me.
I want to use my car as little as possible. For my own health and happiness, this is first and foremost me. Perhaps by not using my car I’m missing out on awesome “local” stuff, but that’s okay. Granted, I am not giving up my car. I still need it around town on a regular basis. And, of course, I will not stop going on our road trips.
But local is so much more than limiting my time in the car. Local has to do with where I spend my money and on what. Local is about what we eat. Local is about where we spend out entertainment money and our volunteer time. And, even though we like to travel to far-flung places, traveling is also something to consider. And by traveling locally, not only do I mean traveling to local places but also taking the local mindset with us even when we are far from home.
We “went local” with holiday cards this year. We walked to the post office for stamps. We got the letter printed at a local place two blocks away. We bought the cards at a locally-owned store. I suppose we could have taken it a step further and worked to find locally made cards. Or have been even more environmentally friendly and not sent physical cards at all – raw materials, producing, shipping, printing, mail delivery must add up.
But I’m not “Zero Impact Man” and have no desire to be. I simply want to explore the aspects of what “living locally” means and how I can incorporate some rational facets of it into our daily lives. And while I titled this post “a year of living locally”, I hope that it will morph into something bigger and longer-term than that.
