The Green Book: Caring for Each Other Sustainably (ePub)

"We won't make progress by doing the wrong things righter". The Green Book challenges current disregard for the inter-relationship between the State and the citizen in nurturing sustainable communities where love and care are valued more than profits. The format of stories, analyses, poems, verses and questions challenges and entertains.
In Much More to Life than Services (2010) Bob Rhodes invited readers to consider the often unintended and destabilizing consequences that result from outsourcing so many aspects of our lives, and particularly those associated with caring for each other from the cradle to the grave, to public institutions and businesses. More than 40 years as an innovator, practitioner, thinker and leader in the community care field had caused him to doubt the sanity of converting care into commodities. Much More to Life was littered with inspiring stories and advice about how to secure "good lives", rather than simple survival, in the face of disability.
The Green Book is very different but complementary. Through stories, analyses, poems, sometimes humorous verses, parodies and songs it sets out to encourage readers to think about what really matters and how they might want to order their lives in accordance with those priorities. It asks questions about how we are socialised or, as Bob provocatively often poses, 'groomed' to accept and even support expectations of compliance and subordination that may not be in the interests of ourselves or those we love. Implicitly it challenges us to give a little time, now and then, to musing upon the meaning of our lives, the importance of our relationships, and, perhaps, the society we aspire to. It is a call to action.
Bob's writing is bolstered by thought-provoking contributions from LivesThroughFriends stalwarts, Colin Campbell and Ken Davies.