Going the Distance | Physical and emotional lengths

Challenges to complete immersion and strict adherence to its principles come in many forms.

I discovered last night that Seventh Generation, which I thought was a "local" company and was relying on for many household necessities, is actually located in Burlington, VT. Six hours away. A new strategy is to take a long weekend to drive up to their factories, then cut over to Tom's of Maine before coming back to New York. In the meantime, my own personal involvement in the distribution chain by joining the Park Slope Coop will need to suffice.

Most people I've discussed this project with are extremely supportive and I love the conversations it starts ("there are 14 Breweries in New York State"; "if you support Burt's Bees and then they get bought by Clorox, do you stop patronizing them?"). But starting this during my birthday week is frustrating friends when I suggest pot-luck: "Don’t get me wrong I respect what you are doing but it is totally crazy to try and do that with a group of people... you can do what you want, just hard to pull off when you have external factors in play like friends."