How will we live tomorrow?

“The hardest thing remains how people are the same and different. Why do whites think cops are fine while blacks don’t? We have different experiences with them. Will our technology bring us a broader view or will we be overwhelmed and shot down? Time will tell.”

Al, Seattle Times reader, Revena, WA

How will we live tomorrow?

“I try to recycle as mush as I can. I bring cloth bags to the grocery store. I try to support local businesses, even though they won’t hire me because of my disability.”

Jennifer, Hostess at McDonald’s, Monroe, WA

How will we live tomorrow?

“It is hard to predict the future, but we know there will be change. People tomorrow will live very far from each other. We will colonize other planets like earth and spread over the entire universe. Everything will be robotic. The human being will not be doing much. Humans are idiots; computers will not make mistakes. It will be a digitized, robotic world. We will live between zero and one. Now we are impatient, waiting for this digital world. I ask my customers, ‘What will this place be fifty years from now?’ It has been here more than fifty years, the same, but it will not be here fifty years from now.”

Hadj Benzerrouki, Owner, Bayou on 1st Restaurant, Seattle, WA

How will we live tomorrow?

“Very poorly. The current political climate is incapable of change. It is unsustainable. I’m a city kid from Chicago. I come out here to the country and it is so poor. There is no access to jobs or transportation. We need a sustainable public transportation system. We need to address density. China, Hong Kong, those places understand that we have to live more densely.”

Dan Labovitch, Building Inspector, Snohomish County WA

Dan lives in a secluded single-family house on several acres of land.

How will we live tomorrow?

“I’m 62 years old. I’ve been driving this route for 33 years. I could retire any day. But then I’d just be home and do chores. I like to work.”

Glen, UPS driver on Vauchon Island, WA

UPS has four trucks that serve Vauchon Island every day, ten during the Christmas season. One in nine trucks in the US is a UPS truck; over 1.5 million vehicles.

How will we live tomorrow?

“I am a teacher and school starts on Tuesday. This was my summer project so I decided ‘today is the day.’”

Aubrey, hiker, Beacon Hill, WA

Aubrey walked from Seattle to Tacoma via Vauchon Island in one day.

How will we live tomorrow?

“Every day is a surprise… Family is important. You have to treasure those close to you.”

Eleanor Griego, high school student, Monroe, WA

How will we live tomorrow?

“I guess as I live this moment. These words are borrowed and from my Uncle Ron but they are profoundly inspirational to me:

“I entered this beautiful day with a thought: ‘The joy of living is having a thrust to assist others jump higher, run faster, be more, live a fuller, free’r, maximized life than I can ever have for myself… “

Melinda Bourgette, mother, Seattle, WA

How will we live tomorrow?

“I will live as I do today. I’ve lived in Seattle for 25 years. I like Seattle very much. I am a diabetic. I am healthy because I don’t drink or smoke or put any bad things in my body. No French fries. I have a garden behind my house. I grow all my own produce. I have forty chickens and always have fresh eggs.. I give some to my friends. I work two jobs. I love Seattle. It’s a city but people take time to talk, to be nice. I don’t have any family left in Veracruz; my daughter is in high school here. This is where I live.”

Oscar, Mexican immigrant, Seattle, WA

How will we live tomorrow?

“I would like to think we will bicycle more.”

Lucy Williams, warmshowers host, Seattle, WA

How will we live tomorrow?

“I will resist getting an iWatch. I was in a group of five people the other day, and was the only one without an iWatch.”

Owen, Capital Hill resident, Seattle, WA

How will we live tomorrow?

“I made a U.S.A. Bicycle Perimeter trip back in 1978-79. Started and finished in Seattle, the center of all bicycling at that time. Found Americans to be generous, kind, loving and wanting to share their life stories and concern for the future. In travelling around the USA, I saw hope, optimism and a great future for America. And, today, I can truly verify the optimism and hope through the many developments and accomplishments over these past 37 years. I still have great hope for the future. Our country is amazing. The people are amazing. This has been exemplified time after time. We live in a country of hope, kindness and giving – and where anyone can achieve, regardless of any boundaries set by individuals or organizations. America offers great hope for the world. My U.S. Perimeter trip proved that to me and so has the past 37 years!”

Richard J. DeBernardis, U.S. Perimeter Bicyclist – 12,092 Miles in 180 days, 1979-82 Guinness World Record Holder, Tucson, AZ

How will we live tomorrow?

“Hopefully, better. If you think about history and the path civilization has taken, we have gotten better. The grand optimist in me thinks we will learn how to fix the world. The grand pessimist in me says people will push their individual needs against the greater good.”

Tymer, customer experience specialist, Seattle, WA

How will we live tomorrow?

“My wife and I are former high school teachers who left our careers behind to pursue a simpler existence. What we’ve discovered is life rather than making a living in the current living arrangement of the industrial model.

“I co-host a radio program called, Nature Bats Last. Your question is really the basis of our program. We try and answer it every week with a variety of guests and commentators. After a year of listening to folks address this very question and after four years removed from making a living I’ve discovered that my answer is constantly evolving. There is a constant thread however. Tomorrow is where most of us live. We also live in yesterday. Very few live today. As a result the consequences are enormous. Tomorrow is our predicament as we continue to throw solutions at it today. There of course are no solutions to a predicament so we will continue to grind our way in a living arrangement that we believe is solution based when it turns out that it’s simply the predicament we find ourselves in. We fail to see the pattern because we are unaware a pattern even exists. So not much will change as we continue to repeat the story we tell ourselves about ourselves. The story of course, is our culture is humanity rather than just a culture within it. It’s a belief that this world is here to serve us. It’s a narrative that assures us that this is the only way to live and that we will be here forever. Finally it’s bad math. Infinite growth on a finite planet is math even a second grader can see as flawed. Chase A Different Carrot because in the end Nature Bats Last.”

Mike Sliwa, Nature Bats Last PRN radio host, Gila, NM