There are days when I think - wtf am I doing here, really? I zoom out from my little corner on Google Earth, and realize what a tiny mote this is, a meaningless parcel on a meaningless corner of Los Angeles County. Dust in the wind, in the long term we're all dead, the universe is functioning perfectly, sure sure, BUT I am alive now, right now, and have a vested interest in the near future! At times like these I will stumble across an essay that puts this in perspective, or at least affirms my efforts here. Slow change. Bottom up. Garden by garden.
The healing power of the small.
As the governor announces a water emergency, it now appears not only prescient, but mandatory that I continue my studies in water management and low water growing. Policy being dictated by ecological truth. The climate models point to drought for the SouthWest, so drought and water conservation will be our struggle here. Those living along the coast may deal with rising seas, and those up north may deal with flooding, but we all surely will deal with some manifestation of the ongoing climate change event. The oil depletion scenarios will just add more excitement to the mix over the coming decades. We must create 1860 with laptops willingly, or we surely will have some more repressive and chaotic society impressed on us by necessity.
Learn to grow food. Not because you will realistically be able to provide all of your sustenance, but so that you can connect again to Life, and the natural processes. This is my experience. That the simple act of turning soil, planting a seed - even if only in a small container on an apartment balcony- is a step forward to a surviveable future. It changes my awareness, pulls me back from the abyss of shrink wrapped poly carbon consumer slavery, and returns me to the deeper fundamentals of Life, to my place in the web of Life, and allows me the freedom and insight to question the current manifestation of our destruction based culture. It allows the signal of abundant Nature to get through the marketing noise, get through the talking head screaming pundits, get through the dominant culture noise, and see Life and Nature not as a resource base, not as a product, but as the only true foundation on which we all rest.
Your garden will not be televised.
My Seeds of Change are in my garden now. It is heartening to hear from other sources that they also perceive this path as being an appropriate response, a useful step towards a surviveable future. And that is why I post my little thoughts here, to support and encourage anyone else out there, anyone striving garden by garden to create the future we need. We are not alone, and we are not wasting our time, we are in fact the cellular engines of our much needed culture change.
Sing your cellular song!! See you in the garden!
We have become focused on “alternative” energy production, in spite of the fact that these technologies are not a real solution. The real solutions are actually fairly easy. They simply involve doing what we will be doing in the future -- using resources cooperatively -- a little sooner than we are compelled to do so. Unwinding the throughput economy cannot and will not be achieved by enlightened social policy. The throughput economy can only be changed by a bottom-up movement that seeks fundamental structural change in our society.
Phrases like “culture change” or “conscious culture” seem to evoke the image that we should all play nice -- liberal utopianism. A real understanding of culture leads us to the conclusion that the ecological and economic foundations of a society have a dominating influence over the social structure and belief system over time. A sustainable future does not mean we teach everyone to be tolerant. Though there is no harm in such lessons here and now, to achieve real “culture change” means rebuilding society from the bottom up, building a truly localized and sustainable society. You might imagine that is unlikely, but that is precisely what is going to happen, either by plan or by default. The latter would be much messier, and lead to a society that is neither equitable nor conscious. By getting ahead of the curve, we could arrive at the same point, but in a society that is conscious of its own process of social evolution. That society will not be a liberal utopia. It will be a sustainable society where power is devolved to the community level so people are empowered to defend themselves, and to create the future they want. It will not happen by policy, nor will it ever be announced on the evening news. It will happen as the minority movement of people who want to see it happen grows through the coming waves of change. See you in the street.
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