What are viable occupations in this historical period? Businesses that deal in secondhand goods and salvage-type operations. Organic, biodynamic farms. Environmental restoration projects. Family planning programs, particularly in third world nations. Spiritual mentorship. Green builders who use reclaimed and renewable resources and who don’t overbuild either for family size or the local ecosystem, and only as needed. Healers—true healers. Why is it so hard to think of these? Even some of these don’t work if I require that they “do no harm”. Just how are we to live responsibly in these times?

For me, even writing as an occupation does harm what with paper and ink and printing presses and trucking published materials; and the more successful I am, the more harm I do. Say I become a public speaker instead (not bloody likely!), then the harm would be in transportation impacts from both myself and the audience. Any dispersal of information, no matter what, has a negative impact on earth’s resources. There’s obviously no way around that, but what causes the least harm while doing the greatest good?

First, you would have to make sure you have something truly valuable to share. Telling people what they want to hear, or only what will sell the best, doesn’t cut it. It has to be significant. Then who do you want to reach and how do you reach them? On the fringes of my mind I’ve been trying to work out a way to make a living while circumventing as much of the negatives of the marketplace as possible. There are just some vague ideas floating around that I need to develop.