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“The point of my book and the point of this big day of action that we’re doing across the country is to drive that notion away, that [solar] isn’t alternative energy, that it’s the obvious, straightforward, common sense and very beautiful way to power the world going forward. To use the analogy I’ve been using, it’s not any longer the Whole Foods of energy: nice, but pricey. It is now the Costco of energy: cheap available in bulk on the shelf, ready to go.” — Bill McKibben, author of Here Comes the Sun.
Hey, what’s up, nerds, it’s the creative nonfiction podcast, the show that drops it like it’s hot all over your podcast feed, we talk to tellers of true tales about the true tales they tell, and by we, I mean me. You ever wonder how much longer this can possibly go on? Me too.
Today we have Bill McKibben, author, at last count, 447 books, including his latest Here Comes the Sun: A Last Chance for the Climate and a Fresh Chance for Civilization. It’s published by Norton and if ever there was an American president open to the idea of non-fossil-fuel energy solutions, it’s this one.
Photosynthesize, baby, photosynthesize, just rolls off the tongue.
So if you’re a real drip and don’t know who Bill McKibben is, let me tell you a thing or two: He’s the author 19 books, including his pioneering book on climate called The End of Nature, and one of my favorite books on rethinking consumerism, Hundred Dollar Holiday. Aside from being a journalist basically his entire life, he’s an activist who helped found 350.org, Third Act, which is a movement of Americans over 60 who bring their collective power to the climate and democracy fights. We call them silver-haired ponytails here in Eugene.
And his latest venture is SunDay, a creative climate project that celebrates solar energy through art, storytelling, and public engagement. The day of action is Sunday September 21, whereby they’ll celebrate solar, host e-bike parades, give heat pump tours, and rally for change. There’s a SunDay event in Eugene, but I’ll unfortunately be burning fossil fuels that day driving up to Portland for a book event. But visit sunday.earth to find a local event near you. Those solar panel subsidies are going bye bye since the wannabe fuhrer will be gutting anything that doesn’t belch CO2 into the air.
Bill also writes the incredibly popular Substack The Crucial Years, which has nearly 100,000 subscribers. You can learn more about Bill and his books at billmckibben.com, and you’re about to learn more about:
- His start as a sports writer
- Being a pioneer writing about climate
- And how he wrote Here Comes the Sun in about one month. One. Fucking. Month.
- How he told William Shawn to fuck off
Hope you hang around …
Bill’s Rec
Parting Shot: On Habits
Most of my journal entries of late are chastising me for not sticking to my caloric intervention, which is to say putting myself in that deficit so that I might lose the 20 or so pounds of fat I need to lose to keep my blood pressure in check and my clothes relatively comfortable, and my joints a little less banged up. My plan is to cut 300 a day from my typical calorie input. I was able to cut 300 from my breakfast without really feeling it. And burn 300 a day. Keeping everything else constant, I should lose about .5-1 lb a week. I’m willing to play the long game, 20-40 weeks to get this done right. It seems to fucking stupid and silly to worry about shit like this when there’s so much pain and hurt in the world, but here we are.
Just now, against my better judgement, I ate two bananas and at least one tablespoon of almond butter. This wasn’t in the plan and I was feeling the munchies and I work from home so I have my entire fridge and pantry at my fingertips when I’m feeling stressed or bored or procrastinate. Point being, I have bad habits that are counter to my goal, which makes me feel guilt and shame, which compounds, usually, into a feeling of haplessness that causes me to say fuck it and drink 6 IPAs.
Does this story have a point? Little and often over the long haul, a quote from the strength coach Dan John, goes both ways in our health, or our writing. Nobody got out of shape overnight. It was probably ten years, an injury here, a health scare there, an illness in the family there. You don’t write a book in a week. It’s a page at a time, maybe over months and years and suddenly there it is. But without good habits that keep you on track, it’s easy to get discouraged and then all we’re doing is losing time. At 45 years old, I’m not exactly old, but I’m certainly not objectively young anymore. If I were a betting man, I’d put my life expectancy probably at 75, which means I only have 30 years remaining, which means maybe 20-25 of those will be enjoyable, perhaps. That I find terrifying to the point of paralysis. But the Father Time and his mistress the Grim Reaper aren’t waiting around for anyone.
I guess what I’m trying to say is the quicker we/I can form better habits in the direction we say we want to go, the less time we’ll waste. Dude, one fucking banana and a teaspoon of almond or peanut butter is plenty. I have no control with food. I’m like the cookie monster only all the fucking shit gets in my mouth … and holy fucking shit, wouldn’t you know, in one of my awful habits of checking my phone instead of focusing, the bullet journal app fed me a Mark Twain quote that said the secret to getting ahead is getting started.
And the secret once getting started is doing a little every day, born by our habits, in the direction of our goals.
I live in fear of future regrets, and I can see them coming, man. I can see them. I see myself on my deathbed and I can quote the regrets. I almost feel like I can’t stop the regrets from coming but of course it’s in my power now. But what is it, fear? Comfort? The fear of failure? The fear of success?
At book talks, I tell people that Prefontaine crammed a LOT of life into 24 years. I tell them I’ve wasted more time than he had alive and it gets a laugh and I’m not really kidding.
If you ever wonder how you connect the dots from eating too many bananas to your greatest deathbed fear, I just gave you a masterclass.
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