For those of you that didn’t know it, Sustainable Renton hosts Meaningful Movies of Renton the last Friday of every month. This event is located at our office space in the Renton Highlands, and begins at 7 pm. Our purpose is to watch documentary films that focus on social justice issues. We follow these viewings with a community discussion about the thoughts and feelings that arise from the film as well as possible actions that can be taken in our local community to make a difference with the particular problem that we are talking about.
We watched a great movie this month called ‘Money and Life’. This is the third film in our series on the discussion of economics. The movie gave us a basic Economics 101 education for those of us that find economics confusing and downright unappetizing, and it also gave us an education of the history of this agreement we have made called ‘money’. This agreement was originally made for the transfer of goods and services for the betterment of our relationships to each other and the local community we lived in. Like many great inventions, such as nuclear power or drones, the original intention is for the betterment of the community or the world, but the ultimate perversion has led us down a road to possible ultimate devastation.
The community discussion was about how we can live a more simple life, rich with healthy foods and relationships, but devoid of the pressure to “get ahead”. The idea of “getting ahead” comes from a sense of scarcity and there is no real scarcity in the world, only the perceived scarcity that we have instilled into this agreement we made, so that money has the illusion of being necessary.
I love the paradigm shift that our collective consciousness is in the middle of right now. The Arab Spring, the European Summer, the Occupy Movement have all worked together to create a global shift in how we need to live to make the life we have here more valuable and it has nothing to do with the acquisition of wealth. It helps that it is nearly impossible to achieve the so called “American Dream” anymore because we are forced to look elsewhere for our happiness.
We at Sustainable Renton believe that our local community is where we need to look for not only happiness but for connection. While everyone is busy being connected on their electronic devices we invite you to come and get connected with the Earth at the new Sustainable Renton Community Farm, or get connected with positive change and creating a movement with the beginning of Renton Food Co-Op, or to get connected with real issues and real people of your community at Meaningful Movies of Renton.
This is our city, we can make it what we want it to be-resilient, passionate, bountiful and beautiful.
Come and find out more how you can be involved with the amazing things Sustainable Renton has going on.
Peace,
Lara Randolph
Sustainable Renton Board Member/Farm Manager