The Dervaes Family

I enjoyed watching this family through the movie. I really thought that their ability to sustain themselves was absolutely amazing. It really made me think about how personally, I am wasting resources everyday. It also made me think about how I can reduce my waste, like their family did. It also struck me when at the beginning of the movie the father said "Growing your own food is the most dangerous profession, because it can make you free." That line struck me because I went back to what Ishmael was saying about keeping food on lock and key. If the food is not under lock and key, then the citizens of that culture are "free."

I think that the Dervaes' family Wants vs. Needs sheet looks a lot like a sheet of a person that is not doing so well on money. I say this because a person not doing so well on money puts the more important things on the Needs column, while not so important things on the Wants column. I also think that the Dervaes family does not put food under Needs because they do not need to pay for food, they get all of it for free. I think that they do, however, put their garden and plants under Needs because that is how they survive, and without them, they would be, well screwed.

The Dervaes family fits into what we are learning about in My Ishmael because Ishmael keeps talking about civilizations that keep their food under lock and key. But the Dervaes family does not live by this principle. They are more like the Leavers when they first left, they spend all their time growing food and then eat the foods that they want whenever they want. But they are not exactly the Leavers because they do not keep their food under lock and key for themselves. No one forces them to grow their own food, they do so on their own accord.

My thoughts on this family is that they are probably one of the best examples of how to live sustainably in a modern city. I think that if everyone shifted to the way that the Dervaes lived, the orginal "Leaver" way, than I think that we would not be in this cultural and climate predicament that we are in.