Dreaming a different future

We all dream.  When are we dreaming though? Is this the dream, or are we dreaming at night while we sleep?  Someone suggested to me a few weeks back the idea of changing our waking dream.  I really liked that idea.  Remember how when we were children, and we had a bad dream, our mothers guided us to "change the ending."  Right now we are in big trouble on Earth.  We can all pretty easily creatively imagine many different horrible futures...but what if we tried to imagine a different future?  What would happen if we all imagined a different way of civilization?  Here is mine.....


There is no getting away from the fact that there are many of us.  We all flock to and gather in groups called cities.  And, let's admit it...cities are fun!  There is loads of excitement, creativity, energy, and youth in cities!   Right now however, food from the East Coast is trucked to the West Coast, and vice versa, and this doesn't even include what is brought here from other countries.  Farmers are getting paid way beneath the survival rate and they are slowly disappearing.  What would we do then?  We use tons of fossil fuels trucking things from one side of the world to another.   Imagine that we re-organize a bit, and all around our cities (and suburbs) there is a ring of farms.  Imagine an old wagon wheel.  The farms are the wheel itself, and the cities in the hub.  It would be so much easier to eat locally, and we'd support the survival of the farmers!  We could arrange our economy similar to CSA's (Community Supported Agriculture) and all contribute once a year to a fund which would go toward a basic amount of produce.  Then we would purchase individually all the extra things we need, according to our tastes; meats, honey, grains, extra produce,wool, jams, candles...the list goes on.  True, the big supermarket chains would have to go...but would that really be such a bad thing?  Is it really a life-affirming experience to go to super Stop and Shop?  People supporting Farmers, Farmers growing for people.


What would your dream be? What steps can we take to make our dreams happen?  Will you join me in re-dreaming Gaia's future?