prepare, bend, sustain

what I learned in the first 3 weeks of surviving the future 2025

Note: for the audio version of this posting listen here or on conscient podcast.

Sarah Heynen, Executive Director of the Canadian Centre for Food & Ecology, suggested I take Surviving the Future : The Deeper Dive (StF), a 10 week course offered by Sterling College, in Vermont. The course is informed by the work of English economist, cultural historian and writer David Fleming and is led by British author and activist Shaun Chamberlin.

Sarah was right about taking the course.

So far it has been very intense, quite a bit of fun, with moments of, I would call it… terror.  

I'm going to share some of my findings with you. 

I noted what I learned (and unlearned) during StF 2025 from amazing presentations, engaged conversations, creative exercises, bold documentaries, vigorous debates and mutual support sessions : all kinds of interesting and enriching learning. 

However, it all boiled down to this slide that our first guest presenter Nate Hagens (host of The Great Simplification podcast) shared with us in the first week.

My reading of this slide is that we need to : 

1. prepare for systems failure and societal collapse

2. bend like bamboo without breaking during the turmoil and devastation 

3. sustain ecological balance during recovery and regeneration 

Nothing else really matters. 

It might seem simplistic to bring it down to 3 words but it really helped me focus.

As the course unfolded, I made note of some of my favorite sayings and moments.

• be grateful and in love with life

• beauty and depravity

• citizen science

• collective humanity

• community engaged arts

• community resilience

• courage and nobility

• cracks in, but not of

• decommissioning nuclear 

• desk killers

• empathetic enquiry

• exit ramp alternatives

• fatalistic dopamine 

• follow your tears

• good collapse

• guerilla dissenters

• civilisation’s final burst

• inhospitable rabbit holes

• interstitial insurrection

• lover (not mother) earth

• moral compartmentalization

• mycelial models

• new worlds unfolding

• nurturing presence

• permaculture

• pocket of survivors

• power with, not over 

• reality blindness

• resilience through decentralisation

• save versus savour

• stories of the world

• transitional towns

• trusting that which we cannot yet feel

And much more.

My hope (see when spirit becomes one for more on hope) is that once combined and coordinated, these efforts will become unstoppable forces of change and renewal. 

That’s a bit utopic but I’ve always believed that once combined these things are very powerful. 

During the course one of our assignments was to respond to Nate Hagens’ presentation. I wrote this poem: 

Friends who do not judge	

Colleagues who are present	

Kindred spirits who make me feel	

More-than-humans who help me heal

Friends who guide me through the unknown	

Colleagues who comfort me when I’m gone	

Kindred spirits who help me respond	

More-than-humans’ gift of mycelia

Friends who help me sit	

Colleagues who help me prepare	

Kindred spirits who bend not break	

More-than-human sustainability

So this gives you an idea of the kind of fun we are having with complex issues… but will all of this be enough?

Qui sait?

What I’ve learned in these first 3 weeks is incredible. So much useful information and helpful discourse with like minded people. But in terms of what I retain in day to day life there are 3 words that guide me: 

• meditate (daily)

• collaborate (on relevant projects)

• trust (the things we cannot yet feel)

More soon on the rest of the course. I’ll do another posting including links to my favorite articles and videos. 

With deepest gratitude and respect to Nate Hagens for his presentation and use of his slide (also see Power vs Life: Towards Wide Boundary Sovereignty), to the wonderful stf 2025  team (Shuan, Nakasi and others) for their leadership and to my stf 2025 colleagues for our rich exchanges, generosity and - oh so precious -  solidarity.

Photo: Beach at Hornby Island, British Columbia by Claude Schryer