My deepest thank you.
I promise that I will do my best to give you and your guests an amazing show. I will reach back out to you through email / phone soon.
The vision of a sustainable future is blurry. Many people have different ideas about what to do and how to get there. There are those who see capitalism as the root of the problem. There are those who eschew the effect of carbon in our atmosphere and whose environmentalism is confined to recycling.
I don’t know all the answers. Even so, I need the freedom to express my grief and my hope in my own way. At the same time, though, I still want to share a vision of the future with others.
I moved into the Peanut Butter Palace because I believed I would find that balance of independence and interdependence. But now I don’t know.
People change. And as I felt my connection to sustainability and storytelling deepen, I started to feel more alone.
Then, as luck would have it, a new idea presented itself. As I woke up in my bed on the living room floor of my girlfriend’s grandma’s house, a way to bring the community and the ideas from the PBP to people all around different areas presented itself. Not from behind the spiffy thumbnail of a YouTube video or in the words that I’m writing today, but as a handshake and a hug and a dinner. A traveling attraction. An experiment in which everyone could take part.
My vision is still blurry, but let me share my thoughts so far.
In 2018 when I made Solastalgia from my car on a roadtrip, I came away with his idea. That we belonged on our path, and that sometimes our path would take us to different places.
Still, after COVID I found myself putting down roots at the Peanut Butter Palace because of the freedoms that came from having a home base. Instead of eating crappy food out all the time, I could help start a meal plan that provided healthy, sustainable, affordable food options. Instead of seeing different friends in different cities, I could build stronger bonds and deeper relationships with the people living at the PBP. Instead of charging off of public chargers, I could charge off of solar energy on the roof. Instead of being on my own, I would have partners in discovering a New American Dream.
Still, I never planned to stay at PBP forever. My goal was to learn all I could and apply it to an eco-village that my closest friends and I planned to start in about 5 years’ time. But just as I let go of a place and find my sense of home before, I’m determined to find these resources and teammates on my path now.
The first thing that happened is a realized that it WAS possible to tow a big trailer with a Tesla Model 3.
Years ago I dreamed of towing a tiny house with an electric car, charging the electric car from the trailer, and being able to live peacefully off-grid.
When I saw the tow ratings for the available electric vehicles, I decided that was just never going to happen.
But now I realize that I actually COULD tow a big trailer. Maybe not a tiny house, but something better.
The truth is that I actually LIKE sleeping in my car. And if I could store supplies in a trailer, it’s possible I could bring many of the benefits of PBP with me on the road. Here’s an example of the events we could have. Each event would partner with a non-profit to host it.