Bill Mettler — Reflecting on Earth

What do you get when you merge an aeronautical engineer with a storyteller? 

How do you combine the service of a U.S. Air Force officer with the heart of a poet?

What results from an environmental radical committed to teamwork?

Abington Patch introduces Bill Mettler, who is all of the above — and also, perhaps, the dramatic soul of the local sustainability movement.

The Wyncote resident has participated in Cheltenham Township’s Environmental Advisory Council (EAC) since its start in 2006 and came in at the ground level of the council’s newer sustainability committee. 

His concerns about energy conservation and air quality led to Cheltenham’s 2007 participation in the Pennsylvania Clean Communities Program, according to Cheltenham Assistant Township Manager Bryan Havir.

Havir also said that Mettler’s “vision for more walkable and bikeable neighborhoods” contributed the framework for a grant application submitted by the township to the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission.

Mettler was one of the founding visionaries of Transition Cheltenham, the local incarnation of the worldwide Transition Town movement that started in the United Kingdom. According to its website, “the Transition Network's role is to inspire, encourage, connect, support and train communities as they self-[organize] around the transition model, creating initiatives that rebuild resilience and reduce CO2 emissions.”

Mettler’s primary focus is now on permaculture; he participates with the La Mott Community Garden, the Student-Citizen Garden at Arcadia University and the PermaBlitz Squad. Mettler is also working with Transition Philadelphia on relevant urban-suburban issues and on supporting sustainable “cottage industries” street by street.

Mettler emphasized the affirmative character of Transition.  The work of Transition communities is not about saying no to things, he explained, but about saying yes to innovation — such as more Earth-respectful ways of producing, creating, consuming, traveling and fueling.

“My dad was a fighter pilot, a career officer in the Air Force,” Mettler said.  “He instilled in us [Mettler has two brothers and two sisters] the sense that we owed our country a term of service.  That meant, from his point of view, a tour of duty in the Armed Services, for being able to live in a democracy, in the U.S.”   

Mettler said that later he realized he would have preferred service in the Peace Corps, but in those days, he wanted to be an astronaut,  and that meant jet time, and ROTC, among other credentials. 

A California native, Mettler lived the traveling life of those with a parent in the Air Force, even residing for some time in the Philippines.  The family settled at Langley Air Force Base, so he spent most of his youth in Hampton, Va., and graduated from the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. 

One could say Mettler started courting his wife, Bonnie, when he was nine.  She was the daughter of his Cub Scout den mother, and this early romance turned out to be another project with a “sustainable” future. Still together, the couple has two adult daughters.

With his degree in aerospace engineering, Mettler joined the Air Force as an engineer, instead of as a pilot.  He worked with spy satellites, analyzing pictures of human heads and learning about budgets for covert military operations. 

After his four-year tour, Mettler and Bonnie, spent their savings on a three-year adventure around the world.  He said, “I could see what was happening on the ground in the cultures I’d seen from the satellite film.”

Performances by shadow puppet masters in Indonesia “were completely transforming for me,” said Mettler, who had to decide whether to sit on the side of illusion, or on the side where he could watch the puppet master directing the production.

A charismatic community organizer and motivational speaker, Mettler created Quiet Riot storytelling in 1978.  Teamed with his brother David since 1988, this professional duo performs mime, music, comedy and other theatrical programs for schools, corporations, conferences and religious and community groups.  Content varies from leadership seminars to eco-workshops, multicultural stories to conflict resolution training. 

He believes in gratitude.

“What we do to ourselves, we do to the Earth.  And what we do to the Earth, we do to ourselves,” Mettler said.  “We have to ask, are we respecting our life support systems?”

And Mettler said he loves the questions posed by the Transition Town model:  “First, what do you love? And second, what do you want to grow in your community?”