Spot the differences? If you’re lifestyle is more like Panel 1 than Panel 2, Congratulations… you’re Typical. Would you like to live a more sustainable Panel 2 lifestyle? Reducing the amount of resources you consume is an easy place to start. Take a trip to your local grocery store and you’ll get an idea of how well Americans reduce and reuse. The typical scene is a parade of overly packaged foods marching down the conveyor belt into yet another shopping bag. Paper or plastic? It doesn’t matter. Bring your own bags next time and this parade will have a happier Panel 2 ending. When I’ve mentioned this simple step to friends, I’m usually met with lame excuses such as, “I don’t have any bags or I always forget my bags at home.” Yet, when I mention this to a German friend, she shows me 10 bags, which carry environmental slogans such as Schutzt unsere Umwelt! Save our world, according to her translation. Why the difference? She grew up in Germany where they charge for bags, in America they don’t. Americans have become conditioned with abundance, which has made us complacent, believes Brian Biery, City of Pasadena Program Coordinator for Human Services Recreation Department. But the city of Pasadena is an environmentally progressive city that has many programs and workshops to address that complacency. These include rebate programs and workshops such as: solar energy, biodiesel, water and waste reduction, recycling and composting.

Path to Freedom participates in these programs and takes advantage of the rebates offered. In recognition of their contributions, the city of Pasadena awarded them with the Outstanding Recycler Award in 2004. Ursula Schmidt who works for Waste Reduction and Recycling for the City of Pasadena Public Works Department, indicates that as individuals become more environmentally conscious, “people will look more and more towards organizations like Path to Freedom to offer information and examples of what they’re doing and how they did it so that they can follow in those footsteps.” Path to Freedom offers many educational outreach programs such as biodiesel and self-sufficiency workshops, tours for school children, seed swaps, community gardening, ecological-film screenings, participating in community events, and helping local businesses recycle used vegetable oil. Maruicio Mejia, Program Manager for the City of Pasadena’s Department of Water and Power says, “We’d like to replicate what they are doing in every home in Pasadena. I’m sure it can be done with their help.”

Whether you live in Pasadena or elsewhere, a great place to start down your own Path to Freedom is with their website at www.pathtofreedom.com. There you will find videos, pictures, articles, a journal, and e-books on how to live more sustainably. Biery comments, “What makes them truly unique is they have decided not to solely focus on their own lives but be an example and inspiration for others.” Mejia adds, “They are walking the talk. Everything they say, they’re doing it.” If you’re still unconvinced to start down the path, Dervaes has this piece of advice. Get started now because there is a gap to get to where you want to go and it takes a long time for things to ripen.

As I slowly creep towards home, contemplating whether I’m ready to make Panel 2 changes in my life, I imagine Robert Frost sitting in the passenger seat offering this encouragement: Two lifestyles converged in a Pasadena hood, the city and the Dervaes have chosen the Path to Freedom. And that is making all the difference. m

Brian von Dedenroth is a public speaker, television and radio host/producer, and writer living in Ventura. He can be reached through his production company Royal Crest Media at brian@royalcrestmedia.com.


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