Carolyn Baker reviews Sharon Astyk's Depletion And Abundance
"When I realized that everything was going to change, I was at first afraid. Because I thought, if my government or public policy or other choices weren't going to fix everything, what could I possibly do? What hope was there, if I had to take care of myself, if my community had to take care of itself?
"But when I began looking for solutions that could be applied on the level of ordinary human lives, that involved changes in perspectives and pulling together, the reclamation of abandoned ideas and the restoration of strong communities, I began to feel hopeful, even excited. Because I realized that when large institutions cease to be powerful, sometimes that means that people start being powerful again."
I consider the above quote by Sharon Astyk the absolute crux of her extraordinary book. Having read every book I've been able to get my hands on regarding collapse preparation, I was at first uncertain about what Sharon might have to offer us that would be new and refreshing. However, that concern was quickly assuaged when I opened Depletion and Abundance.
Sharon is a former academic, but while crisp, clear, and concise, the style of her writing is not so much scholarly as it is incisive and compassionate. Sharon is the mother of four children and a devoted partner of her academic husband, to whom she dedicates her book, and how she keeps just those plates spinning, in addition to writing a book and maintaining a blog eludes me. But as she tells us in the book, the lifestyle and collapse preparation choices she's been making in recent years have significantly simplified the lives of her family and allowed her to both care for them and manifest her literary prowess.
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