I’ve co-opted the term sustainable to describe a person’s lifestyle as well as in terms of climate change and agriculture.

I’m not a fan of our elected officials.

A true New York City moment: I was in a restroom and on the door inside the stall a person had spray painted Vote Bernie Saunders Bitches.

People are aghast that he’s a socialist however that might just be what our country needs: a president who puts the people before the profits of big businesses.

I do not trust our government to do the right things for ordinary citizens. Elected officials prohibited states from labeling GMO foods. They prohibited independent scientists from talking to politicians about climate change. It’s also no secret that private foundations draft the legislation that our politicians then frame into the wording of the bills they want to enact.

We no longer have a government “for the people and by the people.” This is why I’ll always maintain that ordinary people have to take action to change the world. We have to take our recovery and our life into our own hands. The kind of change the world needs in my estimation will best happen person-to-person and one-on-one. By each of us lending a hand to each other when our government won’t.

Thus my contention that having a sustainable life is the only way to live. It’s absolutely reckless to carry credit card debt and doing this isn’t necessary to have a good life. You don’t have to spend a lot of money to live well. And you don’t have to buy a lot of things to be happy.

I’m aware that CEOs diagnosed with schizophrenia are not commonplace right now. Thus in the coming weeks I want to write about topics geared to ordinary people (who might want to become a CEO–or not).

Either way I’m going to talk about hot topics that often no one else is talking about.

I’ll end here by talking about having a sustainable life. In other words I have titled this living Left of the Dial where doing the things you love is way to live a full and robust life.

It’s about healing and harmony. And my contention is that to heal your life should be organic: comprised of elements that co-exist and come together in a natural way.

Hope. Harmony. Healing. These are within reach for most people living with schizophrenia and other mental illnesses.

Going over the edge over and over: financially or mentally or otherwise is not sustainable.

A better way exists. A better life is possible for a significant number of people.

Yet I do maintain that our jobs won’t be done until more people are able to recover and flourish.

I want that everyone has the same equal opportunity to succeed.

I’ve read in the book Altruism that countries with the biggest income inequality (like the U.S.) fare worse economically.

Another reason why I don’t see our government as it exists now as being able to do much to elevate the quality of life of ordinary Americans any time soon.

Having a sustainable life in this political environment is the way to go if you ask me.

Becoming self-reliant and having independence is the way to go and I’ll talk about this in future blog entries.