“I’m so glad you asked about that.  Let me tell you more!” I said to a fellow participant of the Transition Initiative Workshop held at Spirit Hollow in North Bennington, Vermont during Columbus Day weekend.  I held a card depicting two charts that showcased projected economic growth and projected petroleum consumption based on the various regions of the world, with talking points upon which to build on the back.  “If you look at these graphs and their rosy projections into 2030 – hey, what Kool-aid are they drinking? – you will be struck that both of them are rising.  This is no accident, the economy depends upon the increased consumption of petroleum and just look at the projections for China and India!  China’s slated to double, and India’s to jump by one and half times where it is now!”

Thus began a conversation I have longed to have with many a person in my everyday life, but with whom, for the most part, I respectfully restrain my tongue.  The other person revealed to me a set of different prognostications about when we would reach Peak Oil. Most predictions were that it had either already happened or we were there now.  I gave the talk again, this time to someone who knew slightly more about this than I did, and he said that these projections were from 2004, and that China had in fact already doubled consumption, and were still craving more.  Funny thing.  Hmmm….
So to the question:  What is a Transition Initiative and where did it come from?  Several years ago, a British permaculturist by the name of Rob Hopkins decided to apply the principles of permaculture to social arrangements.  Permaculturists utilize certain tools to establish and foster gardens that will eventually sustain themselves on their own.  Using these transferable tools together with principles taken from 12 Step Programs, Hopkins attempted the creation of more sustainable and resilient communities in advance of what many see as a “Great Turning” (or those more “doomy” refer to as the “Great Unraveling”).  The experiment seems to have flourished in a place of 8,000 souls called Totnes in England, where they have a Transition Initiative in full gear and even sport an alternative currency – the Totnes Pound.

Given my own interest in transition as a model for change that seems to value attraction over promotion, I was heartened to read that geologist turned sustainability campaigner Jeremy Leggett described Transition Towns as “scalable microcosms of hope.”  Hopkins’ humble experiment has now gone viral, attracting interest in various and far-flung places, from Australia to Holland.  It’s made a beachhead here in the U.S., first in Boulder County, Colorado then in Sandpoint, Idaho.  Transition provides a general model, but the focus builds on the wisdom and understanding of a community’s geography and land-base, which these and other initiatives across the country seem to take to heart.  Transition Initiatives have begun in very small hamlets as well as Los Angeles.  (For a map of U.S. locations, check out transitionus.org to see where they’re popping up.)

Alastair Lough works with the Transition Initiative in Portland, Maine.  Together with Richard Kuhnel from Sandpoint’s Transition Initiative, they put together a hands-on and experiential workshop for likeminded people who hope they can carry the message into their communities and begin the heavy work required to negotiate the impending changes.  Both received training at Totnes to train others in various techniques of awareness raising, networking and inner work.  We used the meet-and-greet with graphics and talking points vehicle twice more – with data sets for climate change as well as the socioeconomic inequity issues.  It felt daunting to many of us, particularly for those more introverted.  Alastair frequently would remind us that “lack of success is not failure.”

While all this might sound a bit “doomer” (and a couple of the participants delighted in this term’s ironic usage, myself included), the weekend’s ultimate motive was to help move past gloom toward facing the triple crises of peak oil, climate change, and the economy that’s severed Wall Street from Main Street, and somehow find cornerstones of possibility.  Those of us who have arrived at the awareness that our way of life is heading for a huge and necessary correction may have much cause for despair and horror.  Transition offers one mode through which to watch, wait and prepare, but not in isolation, nor forgetting to celebrate our achievements and our desires for joyful release from the dying paradigm. 
“We are here as midwives in the birthing of the new,” Alastair told us, “but also we are hospice workers to the death of an old way of life.” 
In crafting modes of expression with various communities, Lough and Kuhnel referred to the work of Carlo DiClimente, a psychologist who worked with addicts in the throes of recovery. Transition groups have recognized that there are definite stages to making and maintaining a change, briefly Pre-Contemplation, Contemplation, Preparation and Action/Maintenance.  Using this model, Alastair and Richard led us through a very simple and eye-opening task – to create an event about a rather general area (Energy, Education, Housing, etc.) and targeting a certain population at a certain time of day, with certain characteristics and generally at one of these stages of change.

In the first event-creation, my group designed a weekday evening event on the Energy topic for single mothers, multicultural backgrounds, and that the general stage of change was Pre-Contemplation, which I interpret as, “I think I might be having a problem (but I’m not ready to really look at it or deal with it).”  Our hypothetical event would be set for after-dinner on a weekday with a storyteller and some craft work for the children.  The single-parent renters concerned with rising heating costs would hear on ways to reduce their costs, with Spanish translation available.  We also tried our hands designing an event based on randomly selected elements, leading us to craft a presentation for elderly Caucasian women in the Preparation stage (“OK, I’m convinced — what do I do?”) on the topic of Education.  Of all things!  It was actually rather fun, which Richard applauded with the reminder, “It’s a Party, not a Protest!”

During the course of our discussions, one participant observed the importance of addressing the shadow.  All sorts of unpleasant dynamics can come up within any group, and the training broached this necessary subject toward the end of day one and into day two.  In 12 Step parlance, it’s not uncommon to hear the addiction recovery model as “It gets better, it gets worse, it gets different, it gets real.”  While Alastair and Richard might not have said this in so many words, the second day faced the “it gets worse.”  Inclusiveness acts as a hallmark of Transition Initiatives.  This upcoming Great Turning will need as many hands on deck as is possible.  To be sure, there will be those from we must walk away.  Many have experienced the utter fruitlessness in speaking of our own awakening to these issues with those who would stick fingers in their ears and loudly sing “la-la-la” while they pass the graveyard.  Yet counterintuitive as it might seem, there will be those with life experiences very different from our own who are more receptive than we may realize and with whom we can plant a seed.

“There’s a perception in Sandpoint that this is a hippy thing,” Richard shared with the group, “that we’re always meeting at the crystal shop—and Sandpoint has two crystal shops!  But for the most part there are only a couple of meetings at one of them.  We’ve met in churches, businesses, the town theater.  There are even rednecks who come to our groups!” 
Among other techniques introduced, Alastair and Richard led us through exercises developed by Joanna Macy and others stressing the inner work as much as the outer.  I found one particular exercise where I expounded to some future descendent as their ancestor from the present shift period, about various topics that they asked of us, and then as one of those self-same innocents of the future listened to my peers hold forth their own hopes and observations.  I found this “heart-blowing” (as opposed to mind-blowing), expanding my emotional consciousness outward in ripples that still reverberate.

Before we left Spirit Hollow to return to our everyday lives, we were asked to consider actions we could take to begin the work of igniting interest in Transition Initiatives in our own communities.  Having just gone through the process of buying a house in Little Italy in Troy with my partner, these thoughts have been coursing through my mind for awhile.  Still, there’s a palpable “juice” in Troy.  All sorts of people are working to forge community in the Collar City, starting farmer’s markets, attending sustainability conferences.  Clearly something’s moving underfoot!  Transition would afford us the opportunity to create a hub where these spokes can plug in with the other spokes and continue and amplify the conversation.

To keep it real, I need to remember I’m an oil addicts amongst oil addicts, working my “Civilization Anonymous” program.  Step one might read “We admitted we are powerless over our petroleum consumption and economic choices, and that our lives have become unmanageable.” 
Yep.  I I.D. on that all right.  Doesn’t everyone?