The 5.10.5.10

(Matt Talking)



5 reject greed
10 tread lightly
5 connect with (the bright side of) community
10 build up democracy

http://www.fairshareinternational.org/

Fair Share International, (based in Adelaide AUS) is a community that has adopted the 5.10.5.10 rule. (I think) a really simple way to think about how to aim your life in a better direction.

5 - Donating 5 percent of your gross income to help the disadvantaged
I'm finding this one harder than I thought I would... It is really easy for me to fall into the mindset the I "don't have much money". To pull this off I think that I should probably start looking at a deduction at the paycheque level. I'm not sure I'm good enough at saving otherwise.

10 - Reducing your environmentally harmful consumption by 10 percent each year until you can do no more
This one conjures up images of a hippie drum circle upon first reading, but I think can be very practical.
I'm going to try to bike as much as I can (including to work and to the country) until the weather gets cold (using less gas). We just got some smokin' bikes so hopefully the novelty factor will keep us glued to them.
I've already got everything on power bars (exorcism for your phantom drains) so I don't know how much better I can get with electricity use.
I'm going to try to stick to buying used stuff (umm..... except for bikes.. they don't umm... count) whenever possible.
I'm going to try to be more packaging friendly.
I'm going to volunteer in the political campaign of an environmentally friendly politician.

5 - Giving 5 percent of your time to helping people in your community.
Does organizing nerdy board game nights for people in my community count?
I'm going to assume that this means non-sleeping hours. This would put me on a course to do 48 minutes/day if I include working hours in the 5%, or 21 min/day if I only include non-sleeping, non-working. With coaching basketball I was doing great. Perhaps less great now that the season is over. I'm going to count my union role here (unpaid) because organized labour is really important. I think with those I've got it covered. I think that anyone raising small children gets to count those hours too. That's hard work that involves cleaning poop AND making sure that they don't turn into hooligans. Very important.

10 - Taking democratic political action at least 10 times a year.
Writing letters to support wind turbines in the Nor-Westers (yes I'm a PIMBY). Check
Anti-violence/Environmental rallies/marches. Check
Support for Sex Ed bill recently pulled off of the table by the Ontario Government (if you read the whole proposed curriculum I think it will change your mind. Had a good discussion with Gr&Gr the other day about this the other day).

What do you think? Good rules or bad? Do they need some tweaking? What would you add or take away? What do you struggle/have success with?