Place Of The Clear Salt Water
“It may be that when we no longer know what to do,
we have come to our real work
and when we no longer know which way to go,
we have begun our real journey.
The mind that is not baffled is not employed.
The impeded stream is the one that sings.”
- Wendell Berry
This time of year, when our inbox and feeds fill with Earth Day sales and sentiments, we struggle with how to be. Last year, we used this time to announce our B Corp status. The year before, we wrote about why we decided to partner with Climate Neutral to offset our carbon emissions. We also recently shared our current obsession with banking for good.
Earlier this month, I (Chelsea) attended a local sustainability conference here on our island in the woods. The attendees were mostly familiar faces. It was Barb from our food co-op, a few folks from yoga, recognizable city council members and staff. Everyone was older than I remembered (a common theme these days) and many I hadn’t seen IRL since before the pandemic.
The sense of urgency so often associated with climate justice was different in that auditorium. These folks were mostly senior activists and they had taken much in over many decades. They embodied the current reality and were now setting about to help prepare their friends and neighbors.
In my “shoreline” breakout room, we reviewed coastal maps of the areas of most concern. We went over familiar sections of road that are already underwater during winter storm surges or king tides. Critical community infrastructure sites were noted. We familiarized ourselves with entire neighborhoods where islanders will need boats to access their residences. We identified the homes of friends and neighbors that due to erosion will eventually be too dangerous to live in.
We talked about the flooding that folks have already been experiencing. We talked about ecosystem disruption due to bulkheads and the negative impacts of seawalls. We talked about the concept of “buyouts” to help keep neighbors whole as they lose their homes as well as their largest personal asset.
We also talked about the fact that as a Pacific Northwest community, ours will be one that will need to prepare to welcome many new residents over these next decades due to climate migration. So, essentially, we will be losing safe ground while gaining folks who need a safe place to call home.
I left not feeling as fired up as I often am from these conversations, but instead reoriented towards this ground that I share with my neighbors. This “place of the clear salt water” as it is known by the Suquamish people - the first peoples of this land - who have called it home since time immemorial.
Instead of leaving with another to-do list of ways to further reduce our own footprint, I left with the intention to get to know our neighbors better. To see who on our bumpy gravel drive might need extra support next king tide. To see if we can connect our neighbor two houses up the beach whose property is actively eroding into the Salish Sea with someone from the conference who might be able to provide resources.
As we think about what all this means for our island-based design practice, the feeling of panic that we are not doing enough begins to creep up. We remind ourselves that our work is not mutually exclusive. We remember that the role of the artist or designer may be different from the role of the city planner or the ecologist. We offer what we have to share and we do so through the lens of what we believe to be true.
In the studio right now, we are busy at work on what we plan to show in New York in May. It includes a project that centers the more-than-human beings that we share this planet with while highlighting our interdependence. It is part of Public Access, one of the four group shows that we are participating in next month. It brings together designers from all over the globe not just to design new product for market, but to respond to their local environments in beneficial ways. We are excited to be exploring this new way of working and inspired by what this community of designers has to offer.
Much more to share soon! Wishing you all a peaceful 53rd Earth Day!
- Chelsea & James