What's in a Name?

Peak Oil, that point in time where global oil production tops out, then falls off is not far away. Once we are past the peak, our economies, so dangerously dependent on fossil fuels, will relentlessly contract and the hardship that will ensue will make the Great Depression look like a Sunday party. It's moved me to action in a way that I could not have imagined. Starting a blog is one of those surprising little things. One of the toughest things in starting it was picking it's name. That said, I guess I should back-track and explain specifically why I started a blog, that being my desire to share my thoughts, opinions, hopes and fears in an age where, in our lifetimes, we will leave The Age of Oil, and go down a dark road full of uncertainty.

It will be a road full of pits and falls, twists and turns, and possibly dead ends. It will be a road full of forks, where we will have to make choices - choices individually and collectively. Do we go this way, or that way? And at each of these forks, we'll have an opportunity to look down each road, only a little perhaps, for each is darkened by uncertainty, ignorance, fear and trepidation. We need some light shed, banishing the dark, that which led us all here in the first place, so that we may see farther, and know which may be the better path to take.

Thankfully, we have a lantern, that being the collective wisdom and experience of those going down this journey with us. The Relocalization Network, Transition Towns, the Post Carbon Institute, and all those in the blogosphere slogging along with us, each of us trying to shine light down these roads so we can make our way, the best we can, in a young and uncertain century destined to be full of dramatic social and economic change.

For myself, and the community group I founded last summer, I want to see this beautiful village, and it's families, spared from the worst, through knowledge, preparedness, and resilience. And this leads, in a rather round about and rambling way, to the blog name - The Road and the Lantern. It seems apropos.

I hope that what is to follow here may shed some light and reflection for those who will be sharing this journey as well, down the dark road we are being forced to travel by Peak Oil.