We hear a lot of comments when folks walk through our doors. We have been hosting the community’s public home going on our 6th year and a few of those comments have stayed with me.
An educator, who had visited us before, brought his partner to the Canteen. They sat at the bar and he looked at her and said, “Welcome to the future. I have been wanting to bring you here for a long time.”
Why would he say that? I knew. We have had the discussion many times. We aren’t like most places. We are zero-waste. We won’t sell anything that is designed to end up in a landfill. We have learned that the creation, use and disposal of items made to be used one time and thrown away is an act of violence. Yes, violence. We left our home town as we witnessed that violence through the creation of single use plastic items. We watched our community and the citizens in it become disposable themselves as we were harmed through the process of natural gas extraction, in this case, fracking. Insane. Heartbreaking.
Overwhelming, single use plastic items are never recycled. My heart grieves when I see these items being used. I see the needles on the sidewalks of my old neighborhood in West Virginia where I lived and also represented in City Council. I was exposed to conversations of government officials about how much money the state was going to make with fracking. A practice which gutted our environment, our community and deemed all who lived there as a sacrifice for the amount of money the state was going to make. I saw despair in our streets. I saw denial in those who were profiting or maybe it was just the lack of caring. “Everyone does it. That is how our country works.” I would hear.
So we left. We could. We found a home where clean water runs out of the side of the mountain on the continental divide. We secured what some in West Virginia had lost because of fracking, clean water. Generational homes lost their clean water sources when fracking companies compromised their wells. The companies promised to supply the homes with trucks that brought them water for life as a result. A family loses its source of life, and that is the solution. Our land lost its purity, and that is the solution. We sacrificed those families so someone can buy food in a single use plastic container. We commit acts of violence against others for this convenience. We pump chemicals in the ground to dissolve rocks to get the gas to create the plastic.
So back to the Canteen. Plastic is with us. It doesn’t go away. We need to find uses for it that are not involved in the resource intensive practice of filling up landfills and very rarely recycling. We ask people to bring their own reusable cups when they come to the Canteen. So many do. Thank you. We donate .25 cents every time you do. We ask folks to bring their own reusable place settings when we host potlucks. So many do. Thank you. We do this for several reasons but one is we are working to change the dynamic that is so normal in our community. We want to eliminate trash in our community. If everyone carried even just their own reusable napkin it would have profound effects. We could eliminate single use napkins. It is an easy item to carry and it goes such a long way. I use mine to dry my hands when I go to public restrooms and when I dine. If everyone carried a place setting with them it would have profound impacts. Profound. Not just on the amount of trash that ends up in our landfill but in the mental health of our community. So many speak with us about how bad they feel when the participate in the cycle of trash but it is so ingrained it is unimaginable to break out of the cycle. It is just so convenient. It brings to mind the term wish-cycling. For me that says, I wish I wasn’t causing this harm.
We are breaking the cycle. Supporting the Canteen is support for a new way and a desire to be part of the change.
We still have a lot of work to do at the Canteen to transition to a business that operates without the violence the majority of our country’s business culture promotes. Our decisions limits the food snacks we provide, the beverages we offer and the number of visitors who walk through our door.
You will see another difference when you come to listen to a performance at the Canteen. We are a listening venue and ask people to hold conversations during performances. We just can’t invite someone into our “living room” to perform and provide an environment where they are ignored or treated as background. It all ties together for us. Accepting the cost of a disposable item and the harm it causes to people and ignoring people performing from their soul supports a culture of “you are less than me”, doesn’t it?
We have some very intimate performances. There are connections that I have been a part of when a room of people listening intently changes the energy in the room and elevates the space to a different place. People start singing together and start having conversations with the artists. Not everyone can handle that level of intimacy. I find it uncomfortable at times and I remember the words of a speaker I heard once who said, “Do something everyday that makes you uncomfortable. It is called growth.” We are not a place for everyone. We struggle sometimes because of that. Sometimes, when other venues are packed we have a gentle crowd of listeners. Sometimes we are packed. Being on the forefront of change is like that I remind myself.
Financially we have been able to hang in there until Helene closed us down for months. We have been struggling to continue our operations as a music venue and we came to our beloved community and asked for help and overwhelming you have shown up. Some have handed us checks for thousands of dollars and others have subscribed for $5 a month. Every cent is equal and is an act of love and an investment in change. We are an employee-owned cooperative and that entire model is built on the idea that every owner, regardless of how much equity they own has one vote, one stock. We are invested in. We are a place the community is financing through memberships and donations, in addition to sales. It is so kind and beautiful and we are so grateful. It helps us keep our costs lower than some and that makes it possible for more to visit, although we have and welcome visitors who never spend any money. They come to listen to music and also to enjoy the free food we offer through out potlucks. I love seeing folks come in and head straight for the soup pot.
We are working on a mental health festival as we witness more mental health issues. We listen a lot to people when they sit with us. I think the participation in a system that we know is harmful but feel at a loss to break from has profound impacts on our communities mental health. There really is not doubt in my mind. It is so big it feels hopeless. It is not. Every little action matters. Take one little action. We got here through a series of small steps and we can get somewhere else that way too.
Carry a cloth napkin. We will give you one. We have many we have sourced from second-hand stores and accepted as donations from patrons who have a surplus. Start the journey. We are here to travel with you and learn together and support each other. Ask one of your favorite establishment to switch to reusable napkins. Let them know it matters to you. So simple and profound. This is not that hard, especially if we do it together and create a culture of support and love.
We could change our entire business model to the “norm”. It would be so much easier and more profitable in the short run if we measured success by how much money we bring in, except it would gut my soul, my mental health and the way we show how much we love you and that you are not disposable.
You are not disposable.
No one and nothing is disposable. Everything is supremely valuable. If anything is deemed disposable, who gets to decide what is and isn’t?
with love from the depths of my soul Kim,
Employee-owner
Cedar Mountain Canteen.
