If culture is the cry of men in the face of their destiny, then we'll be alright in the end.

We spent a bit of time over the weekend at the 17th annual Eastside Culture Crawl,

 and that's no bull.  

This up-cycled old gas station on Gore was almost like entering the wardrobe to Narnia.  Outside you'll find the derelict, the destitute and the drug addicted, but walk inside

and you enter a completely different world.

That's the whole point of a culture crawl, though, isn't it?  Taking a peek inside and escaping to somewhere else? Cities are melting pots, where art, science, technology and design grow and develop out of the miasma of humanity pressed close together in the process of survival we call daily living. As Gandhi said, a nation's culture resides in the heart and soul of its people, and in this case, in their gorgeous, passionate, creative expression.

What I've noticed is a growing awareness that we're all in this together. Ha!  And do you know what else I noticed?

Bikes!

 I noticed that when people walking from their cars to the venues saw us riding our bikes, so many of them  commented on how much easier it would have been if only they had taken their bikes instead of their cars because parking was at a real premium at this well-loved event.

McDuh.

A bicycle-centric lifestyle is not always more convenient than its car-centric counterpart, but it`s so much better in the end.  It's infinitely more rewarding, it is always happy-inducing, and it's usually waaaay more fun.  Sure there is a time and a place for a car, but in my world that`s what car-to-go is for.

It is definitely time for a new paradigm for our global economy, one which refuses to compromise the planet for profit, because we all have a right to life which supersedes the right to profit. The planet has a right to life, too, don't you think?

Humanity is ready for cities built to a higher standard, to carry us into the future.  I listened to Michael Enright's interview with Mary Robinson on The Sunday Edition and it left me in tears because even though her message is frightening to anyone whose future is tied to the oil patch, she is spot on when she talks about what enormous potential exists for us in a sustainably powered economy.

And more and more people are adamant about the kind of world they want to leave for future generations.

I sure am.
That's one of the many good reasons I love bicycles!

Over the summer when I rode to Hornby Island, I met a girl named Anna along the way.

I liked her instantly.  How could I not?  She's a woman after my own heart, cycling the 100+ km from Vancouver to Hornby n'all, but it was our conversation which really stuck with me.  She and her partner were expecting their first child, and her biggest fear around parenting was that she'd have to give up her bikes. Bless her heart. And that's the thing!  She could have manifested exactly what she feared most, only because she didn't dare to hope for something better.  Besides, kids love bikes!  They take to a cycling lifestyle as naturally as fish to water if that's all they know.  Believe me, I've seen it happen time and time again!  They take to whatever you give them, and you give them whatever you grew to know.

It really boils down to what you expect. I didn't turn the corner, hoping to find a nearly nekked woman painted on this wall,

but I'll be sure to keep an eye out for her next time I'm around!

Every year, between now and the spring, people are always surprised to find that I'm still riding my bikes. Every year, throughout the year, I marvel that people could possibly want to sit in a car in traffic, whatever the weather, or cram themselves into public transit like so many sardines!

Maybe it seems remarkable to you that someone might choose to ride come rain, shine, or winter, but what's really crazy to me is that despite being aware of climate change for ages now, so many people still think that it's okay to drive a car everywhere they go, all of the time. I'm sorry, but it seems madness, somehow, that people don't see how our carbon intensive, growth-at-all-costs economy is stripping our children of their future.  On Shelf Life with David Suzuki, the Lorax Suzuki called our energy policies and their harm to the environment an intergenerational crime against humanity.

The writing is on the wall.

As Mary says, we really don't have a choice.  We have to change the way we do things. 

 But don't panic.  It's not insurmountable;  it doesn't even have to be traumatic.  It's just a different way of approaching things.

If someone told you there was a way you could save 2.5 million to 3 million lives a year and simultaneously halt global warming, reduce air and water pollution and develop secure, reliable energy sources – nearly all with existing technology and at costs comparable with what we spend on energy today – why wouldn't you do it?

According to a new study co-authored by Stanford researcher Mark Z. Jacobson, we could accomplish all that by converting the world to clean, renewable energy sources and forgoing fossil fuels. 

It really is simple. Start with the little things, and take a step each day along the way toward a better future.

 And let's get real about the big things, too, the important things.  As nations we can easily choose to end the ridiculous and exorbitant subsidies to the petroleum industry and instead invest that in sustainable energy research, development and production, for starters.  That's huge.  Many trillions of dollars - just imagine what you could do with that! The Stanford study concluded that we now have absolutely everything it requires to achieve a  fully sustainable planet within twenty years.  All we lack is the political will to do so.

Listen.  Can you hear the sirens' call?

This is an emergency.

Kennedy said "When written in Chinese the word 'crisis' is made up of two characters:  one represents danger, the other opportunity.  Thanks to the internet, we have the gift of vicarious experience-you don't have to live in the Philippines or Illinois to understand that we're all playing for keeps- and a wealth of opportunity.  We don't have to keep doing things the way we've always done them, just cause that's how we've always done them.  We can do something new, something better now.  After all, didn't Einstein warn us that it's madness to continue on in the same fashion and somehow expect a new result?

We can take this opportunity to make a few different decisions. Fuller was so right, saying that there is nothing as powerful as an idea whose time has come, because the moment we ALL decide to stop buying in,  and to create something gorgeous and new, things will change very quickly for the better.

Before you know it, the whole place will be crawling with all sorts of great culture...

Come on. The direction is clear. It's time. Let's go!