The edifying truths of independence

We live at the end of the line; the power line. It is strung from old poles through pine woods, above a bar­ranc crowded with dry cane, down into an­other far deeper ravine and out again. Win­ter can mean spook­ily quiet iso­la­tion when – fizz pop – every­thing de­pen­dent on En­desa is de­funct for a few hours or even days after a light­ning strike or a gale fells a tree.

Fair enough.

We have can­dles in the well-stocked Mother's Gar­den cup­boards. We have the warmth and danc­ing light from the wood-burner. The burner has an oven. Our re­bost, stocked with our hens eggs, honey from our bees and other farm pro­duce, is as cold as a fridge, and the books on our count­less shelves don't need plugs and ca­bles ei­ther. Our wood store is brim full after months of prepa­ra­tion. The spring runs cease­lessly. We are as ready as we can be.

There is some­thing very sig­nif­i­cant to us about this de­gree of self-re­liance for times of real chal­lenge. One long dis­con­nect, in Jan­u­ary 2002 when we had 25 cen­time­tres of snow for a month, block­ing the way in and out, was strangely pos­i­tive.

We were in­de­pen­dent.

We have close friends, neigh­bours on the hill, who have es­tab­lished al­most com­plete au­ton­omy. For two decades now they have had solar power too. They are un­plugged from the grid of de­pen­dency, save for their tele­phone line, and I'm not sure they ab­solutely feel the need for that ei­ther.

Not that they are iso­la­tion­ists. Quite the re­verse. They are co­op­er­a­tive, com­pas­sion­ate, worldly and sup­port­ive, like peo­ple in our vil­lage, like most Cata­lans we know.

What will 2015 bring?

It is timely to cal­i­brate just how in­de­pen­dent and re­source­ful each and every one of us is ca­pa­ble of being; how strong our com­mu­ni­ties and this coun­try can be and may well need to be as the world changes, as be­lief in and in­sis­tence on self-de­ter­mi­na­tion grows.

Tak­ing di­rect con­trol of our power sup­ply start­ing with a vote will need for­ti­tude and re­solve as so many things are rewired, and be­cause, in­evitably, for a pe­riod of time there will be sparks, and the things we take for granted are put in doubt or even taken away.

There is, re­gret­fully, a po­tent con­trol of so­ci­eties through fear. Was ever thus.

Ex­pect this to be played out, and then weigh what we re­ally want and re­ally need. For all the things they say we have to lose, keep your mind on the ques­tion of what there is to gain, and how ca­pa­ble we re­ally are when, to­gether, we need to put our shoul­ders to the wheel.

I find it rather for­ti­fy­ing.

Have a good Christ­mas.