Some people see the world as it is. Muriel Strand sees it as it could be.
In her view, we are no longer a wasteful, violent society. We live softly on the Earth, and it gives generously back. We are healthier, happier and just generally nicer, a species at peace with ourselves and our surroundings.
And yes, we would keep chickens.
It's a vision Strand, 53, has been developing for the past 30 years, and a mayoral race seemed an ideal way to share it.
Strand, the last of the four lesser-known hopefuls to be profiled here, is what you might call a message candidate. We are not keeping pace with the dire effects of climate change, she believes, and Sacramento is as good a place as any to amplify the discussion.
"(We) need to focus on the long-term future," she said. "The difference between where we are now and where we need to be is so huge and so fundamental, if we don't get a fix on where we're going, I'm afraid we're going to get lost."
The public, she believes, is ready to hear what she's saying. What she's not so sure about is if it's ready to make it happen.
Strand is talking about a fundamental shift in our mentality, a worldview conversion that steers away from our wasteful wants and focuses on our basic needs.
Strand has built her campaign on a plan for so-called eco-villages. Something of a farmstead of the future, she envisions turning a plot of land – say, the acreage beneath Arco Arena – into a model community that lives by her principles of sustainability: no reliance on cheap gas and a social structure that is not, at its marrow, a "dominator culture."
There would be no cars, no excess, no violence. The village would meet its needs simply and independently. Eventually, all the world's inhabitants will live a life of concord and respect.
"This could be Eden if we have the sense enough to be in right relationship," she said.
Sipping from a reused plastic water bottle in Curtis Park, Strand's gaze tends to retreat when choosing words to describe her vision.
What comes out, however, is sometimes not as clear as she sees it. She recently was criticized for using an offensive word to describe her view of how the city treats the poor, and her comments can often seem a bit odd when taken in sound-bite form, as when she advocated that the city have more peasants. But to Strand, it all squares with a perspective she's spent her whole life gaining.
Raised in El Cerrito, Strand was a bookish child who found refuge from cruel classmates in fiction and family. College in Texas led to an au pair job in France, which led to grad school at Berkeley, the arms of academia as welcome as they'd been in her youth.
In a move that would prove characteristic, she studied mechanical engineering as a way to stoke her passion by mastering its opposite.
Strand remains a zealous seeker of education. When she wanted to learn to live healthier, she became a cooking teacher and massage therapist. When she grew curious about the criminal justice system, she took a class at Sac City. And when she sought to clarify her position on gun control education, she wrote a 15-page paper for no one but herself.
Now retired from the state Air Resources Board, she's made her life a model of her ideas. She rides her bike, eats wholesomely and doesn't buy much. She practices humility and optimism and, above all else, works to spread the word about sustainable living.
"You can't eat money." she said. "I'm just telling the truth as best I can figure it out."
Call The Bee's Lisa Heyamoto, (916) 321-1261.
