Click here to view photos from the event.
Listening to Bill McKibben at Magers and Quinn Booksellers Thursday night, March 29, I was reminded of some of my favorite lines from my favorite book, Thoreau's _Walden_: "Why should we live with such hurry and waste of life? We are determined to be starved before we are hungry." McKibben, a modern-day Thoreau, has some choice words of his own. The argument of _Deep Economy_, the new book he presented at MetroIBA's Annual Members' meeting, is that sheer growth is no longer the best way to measure economic progress. The material prosperity that Americans have been taught to think of as happiness--more and more _stuff_, which we accummulate by working longer and longer hours--may actually be making us unhappy, even as scientists measure happiness. We need to slow down and take stock of life.
Living local is a part of that slowing down. MetroIBA's vision is fully in accord with McKibben's, and he had high praise for the efforts of organizations like ours to build "the wealth of communities and the durable future" (the subtitle of his book). Fifty to sixty MetroIBA members and guests heard McKibben's words, listened to a report on MetroIBA's progress this past year from Executive Director Tim Dykstal, and received a vision of our future from President Nancy Breymeier. At the end of the event, members were treated to refreshments provided by one of our newest members, Lucia's, just around the corner from Magers and Quinn.
Join our movement in the seven-county Twin Cities area to "live local." Join MetroIBA today!