BEFORE
There will come a time. Trust me, it will happen. Eventually, you are going to venture out of your fear. And when you do, you know what? You are going to look our human predicament straight in the eye. Suddenly see. Understand.
The universe will nudge you, you can count on that.
As the pink contact lenses fall, you will see that the collapse of our civilisation is imminent. That Hubbert's theory of peak oil is not one that suits the conspiracy moniker. You marvel at the incandescent rainbow arching across the housing bubble - filmy and taught. You cannot help but gasp: "What if, the price on my house drops by 50 percent - like they say it' s going to? Why, in just two years, I could be broke! And then what am I going to do? Especially when the US dollar becomes worthless and no one has real jobs anymore?"
But it probably wont happen like that .
Hopefully, you may get your karmic "kick in the eye" (as the zen masters put it) tomorrow or the next day - or, indeed , the day after that. Next month and you are still probably good; the skytrains (Vancouver speak for subways) will still be running, and you'll be able to get your bar of Lindt chocolate from the corner store. But take my advice: don't take too long to get with the program. After peak we are going to need you. My survival (and that of my loved ones) may depend on us forging alliances and sharing food.
AFTER
So, anyway, congratulations - or is it comiserations - are now in order. You are now fully awake. You've done the research and faced up to the facts. You concur that things are about to get really "interesting." But, then you ask yourself, "What know? Suddenly I feel like crap. Like, really, mucho crapola..."
A year ago, when I woke up to the "perfect economic storm" that lay ahead, I felt that I had been smacked right in the old breadbasket. Winded. I had no idea any of this Peak Oil stuff was going on. Man-oh-man was I the proverbial mushroom, or what? Fed on sh** and kept in the dark. Yes, me! Me, of all people - the cynical art school drop out, with his mind full of Camus and Hermann Hesse!
Up to that point I thought I knew everything. Kinda, cocky in that English working class way. A lukewarm intellectual... Turns out I knew rather little. Or put it this way, my having a vague grasp on phenomenology or Derrida suddenly did not seem very useful. Not very practical. Consequently, my moods and blood pressure went up and down for a why as I strove to adjust to a new, emerging consciousness.
I have evened out over time.
I am glad to report that one can remain sane and live under that damoclean blade. But it is tough: every now and then you have to protect yourself. On the odd occasion, I figure I am going to have to go on "news fasts" as Dr. Andrew Weil calls them. When I am extra vulnerable, I may need to protect my soul from what is going on in Sadr City, Samarra, wherever....
In the last month I have started to feel my consciousness expand. I feel as though I am beginning to digest profound truths on a soul level. Things like: The best way to be anti-war is to be pro-peace. And, ultimately, I have come to realise this: when I go into reveries about how the Bush Administration and FEMA are going to be herding debtors into work camps, I will need to stop the projector. When I start hyperventillating over imagined sortie-raids over Tehran, I will need to place my hands together and feel the life-force in my palms. I will need to bring my consciousness back to the now, to my pre-peak oil existence. As I feel the cat nuzzling my ankle, I will concentrate. I will let in all the love I feel for my family - my wife and my sons, my deceased daughter. Then, hopefully, I will feel the love pulsing through the universe.
Sometimes I feel at peace. But, unfortunately, it still somehow feels a little too transient. The monkey mind is churning and I am learning how to turn down the volume. But I am learning. A little at a time. Learning and making postive steps.
And so will you.
And just in case if you need extra sanity when adjusting to a post peak oil consciousness, go to:

peakoilblues.com

(essentially, a therapist's take on the emotional reactions to peak oil.) A handy resource - and one that I wish I had in my early "Omigod!" moments.

Let's get this love thing shaking! Time really is running out.

Neil

I was in the Brentwood Save On Foods today. At the checkout I asked the clerk how many people use their amazing quality (yet inexpensive and sturdy) recycleable shopping bags. "Actually, not many people use them," was the reply. I was shocked. Truly. "Once in a while I see people with them," she continued, rather too matter-of-factly. So I decided to wait around a while. Indeed, I watched streams of people loading provisions into plastic. And not one of the bright green bio-degradable bags were to be seen. Okay, here comes the lecture: Wake up folks! The bags are only about $1.49 and they will last you for years. Sure, they do not say "Prada" along the side, but so what? Next time you are in Save On Foods buy a few and keep them in the back of the car. Be in a state of environmental readiness. Buy some and give them away, to your friends, just for the heck of it. Look at it this way: the "Vancouver Sun" has now dropped the 'allleged' when speaking of global warming; and if CanWest Global is waking up to reality, then we really are in deep do-do. So, I reiterate - buy the bags already! What's more, get Eckhart Tolle's new book. Realize: we do not need more "stuff." The Wii's, HDTV's, iPod's - whatever. Drop the bling and the inferiority complexes. We are in serious crisis.Think of the children. Think of your son. Your daughter. Your granddaughter. Your favourite nephew, even. The small ones you love so dearly. Now imagine them forty years from now, dying slowly of hunger, or of thirst, or murdered, even, at the hands of bellicose migrants fleeing the rising waters. Now imagine: YOU may be able to alter the course of their future. And yes, a buck and a half is all it costs.

This evening, I came across an excellent essay online (which, thankfully, assuaged a little of the existential terror I have been feeling of late.) When faced with the prospect of peak oil and the inevitable economic collapse, the mantra "Omigod, omigod, what am I going to do?" eddies, electrically, around my brain. This article by Dmitry Orlov, holds aloft the demise of the Soviet communist system as a comparison model for the upcoming US/global depression. Through his experience and insight, we get a sense of what the barrenness will look like, actually feel like : the dispossessed - loitering, like crows; the babushkas selling moonshine; yes, even the alpha-types who, as if from nowhere, form private security companies, foisting barely-negotiable "protection...."

Anyway, check it out if you can.

http://www.nukku.net/no/orlov.html

I am under no illusion as to what we are up against as a species. A couple of weeks ago, the American Natural Gas company, Kinder Morgan, decided to obliterate the wildlife trail opposite my house. They sent an e-mail to the the Maintenance Committee of our Co-op. Get this - "vegetation maintenance" they called it. A brief, innocuous missive that made it sound like they were merely lopping the heads off of the dandelions!
It was double-speak for we are gonna clear-cut the fuck out of your neighbourhood.
To ramp up the pace of this prose, a protest group was duly formed, to stall the chopping and grinding. Et voilà, so our hillside is silent for now. The heavy equipment has disappeared. But then so has the majority of the cottonwood and the maple trees...
Last week I was talking to a neighbour. He claps me on the shoulder and says, "It is good what they have done the other side of the road, isn't it?"
"Eh?" I am dumbfounded.
"That they have chopped the trees down. Got rid of the forest. My teenage daughter likes it. She says she feels safer when she is standing at the bus stop. Not so shadowy. Like, there are no bushes that people can hide in. You know, like rapists, weirdoes...."
Make no mistake. This is what we are up against. We decimate a forest so we can expel the phantasmagoric images misplaced in a youngsters' mind. All the local fauna is shell-shocked - the squirrels, raccoons, and owls - but it is okay because a 15 year old feels safer (in a overly benign neighbourhood.)