Past Three Moons

As people have said, it is a terrible market for home buyers. The boom in real estate seems to be piddling out, there is very little inventory and as homes get listed, we are told, a sector of the uber-wealthy are absorbing these properties as quickly as they come on the market. I have not had time to research the veracity of the other thing that gets talked about a lot, corporations and foreign agents are buying U.S. property. and as they are planning to make bank on them, either through airbnb-type rentals, mega-agricultural or mineral extraction, or again, in the case of the homes, after another hundred K gets spent on bathrooms kitchens and curb appeal, raising the tax base by improving our cities. The flip side is that our elders and people of color, those least represented, get pushed out because everyone's taxes go up for being in a "better" neighborhood. This becomes the most regressive tax imaginable because eventually, people can't afford to stay in their own neighborhood! Nancy and I are still confident that we can make ends meet. Not for profitability, but for what we need, a place to call home. We might be idealists, but we are proving that two folks looking for a place to live can "make it", but the experience is and has been fraught with rediculously high prices, set-backs, hidden costs and seemingly unavoidable delays. We are about to celebrate three months of owning the place and the soonest a local plumber can come, to resolve a small issue is Fall, they may be able to get us an estimate by mid-to-late October. I get that people are hard to find right now, but I have been a reliable employee for decades and can honestly say, managers are getting worse, almost by the day. Many are completely incompetent. It is amazing to me that more people don't say take this job and shove it! My wife and I had been looking for a new home the majority of covid. Our ideal would have been move-in ready, but our budget could only afford older, fixer-uppers. We are putting the vast majority of our savings into a new place. In fact, I still have to work while we are doing the rehab. Splitting time between earning a living and continuing to buy materials and update the home bit by bit, but we don't want to wait until Thanksgiving to be in a house we bought in Spring! Long days have allowed us to do a great many things, however, there are plenty of things left to do. The heating system got a small leak fixed and a positive inspection. We have pretty much all new and/or refinished floors. All the walls and cupbords have been washed, and/or painted. We have new toilets and sinks, but the first thing we disconnected, because it was leaking badly and we couldn't rely on the shut off, the water heater, is still not replaced. The next big thing is going to be hot water, then, we can probably move in! The property we have found needs even more work than most, but we take the daily challenges on as tenaciously as possible. We are both bone tired and have taken just four days "off" completely across nearly ninety days. Things are coming together nicely, but we still have not gotten it to a state that we would want to live there, it would still be too much like camping. We are both in our second half-century, so roughing it isn't as romantic as it used to be. I have friends who are encouraging us to move in and shower under one of those camping showers. I suppose we could and then, at least we could drink our morning coffee in the space.

Guidelines for Water Protectors

In 1987, when I rode my bicycle around the five Great Lakes to talk to people about the ecological catastrophes along their shores and within the watershed, it was from a proactive perspective, focused on real life solutions to the larger issues that face our planet everywhere, I also added a unique layer of experience with specific threats to our part of the planet. The point I made along my many miles, at virtually each stop along the way, was to perfect the art of the give back, or give-away. I frequently mentioned how the very concept of "Think Globally, Act Locally" misses the point entirely. We humans hit overload before we can get to the point of thinking globally. What good are we for ,ocal action if we have already shut down before we can begin the process?
Decades ago, the climate catastophe was not something most people were conversant about and I focused instead on water use, conservation, energy conservation and buying only products in recycleable or reuseable packaging were concrete things one person could to to reduce ecological harm to the environment. As was often said back then, "Until your own house is in order, don't ask others to clean up their mess". This was often used as a way to undermine public sentiment. Keeping our footprint small reduces resource depletion and degradation of the environment in a variety of ways and with a smaller ecological footprint, it becomes easier to rehabilitate our natural world and stem the flow of toxins into the environment.Back then, the concept of Water Protector had not grown up either, but the impetus and the exemplification of the ideas behind the word were being carried out through every fiber of my being, each pulsation of my heart, the entire power of my genetic code is water-based. Every breath I released helped to feed the forests and grasses, farm crops and plants around the freshwater seas. Knowing what your watershed looks like is helpful but not necessary for Water Protectors, but when we feel it, we know it and it speaks to us. I wish there were more of a step one, attain attributes A,B and C, or just a list of things one needs to know, or to bring with them for an outing sort of thing, but what happens is that each of us brings everything we have to the fight for Mother Earth. Each of us does what we can to work for Nature to have rights. We are transformed when we understand we are because she is and cannot understand why anyone would reduce these issues of survival down to Capitalism vs. Nature or jobs vs. clean water and enlist a littany of lawyers in efforts to not have to do the right thing. If you feel it, say something, do something, even if it is just telling your friends how you feel. If you want to make signs, carry them in fromt of local businesses, or government offices, that can help too, but reaching out to your greater community, others who understand the value of clean air and water, perhaps even some who do not yet, we can build the momentum that has been growing in leaps and bounds!

Twittering Machine

is not just a great name for a painting.

e At one hundred years old, this watercolor and ink drawing, with few lines, expresses all the whimsy of mobiles, the frenetic action, some say even sounds of a man-made mehanical whirleygig, and invites the viewer to turn the crank as it were. In other words, it remains as relevant now as when it was created. It contanis and fully expresses the concept of the Rene' Magritte classic, The Treachery of Images aka "This is not as pipe" or as the painting expresses itself in French, "Ceci est pas une pipe." Twittering machine also calls us diagramatically to participate, turn the crank, to animate the two-dimensional work. This image is a plaything of the impossible, the matrushka doll within the matrushka doll and down to the kernel of the tiniest hope within that this machine can work. Frenzy echoes through the playful and inexplicably active quality of the lines, the deft use of color and the personality of each emblematic mechanical creatures. Are they birds reminiscent of a cuckoo clock? This image creates virtual sound. Notes on paper are the preferred method of doing that! Not with mechanical birds.
The language that Twittering Machine uses to convey its message is as timeless as drawings in caves around the globe, on rock walls and outcrops, in the most primitive art we have yet to "discover". It holds the viewer spellbound just long enough to imagine how the machine must work and to have the delight, wash over us imagining the working device. The thrill of it working draws us in like a fractal, yet for most viewers, we will be able to return to the image a hundred times and still wish that we could play with the model the drawing hints at. It has the immersive effect of earlier noitions of figure/ground, adding atmosphere, a hedge or tree-line for depth, by throwing those cares to the wind, perhaps a hundred lines conspire to carve out a rotating globe of mayhem. Sound familiar? After a hundred years, the Authoritarians are still playing their tricks on the public mind, convincing us that a well-entrenched line drawing can substitute for a living organism. The ultra-wealthy continue to fund systems that define our words for us, telling us what we meant, what to be offended by, telling us we can play, but only following the rules and alternate physical reality one must "believe in" to interact with their impossible device. An extreme minority has perfected the art of capturing the imagination of the majority. Perhaps the twenty-first century schitzoid-man is the only one capaple of turning the crank on this old device, this relic, our "culture" that they have fancifully spun, of candyfloss and angst presented at random intervals.
STEP RIGHT UP! GET YOUR ALTERNATE REALITY! TIME IS RUNNING OUT! LIMITED SUPPLY! TODAY ONLY! As the wheels continue to come off our society, we are beginning to understand that by necessity, we are at the end of the age of fossil energy, Renewables and efficient use of energy needs to be the rule, world-wide. The need for forward thinking, grappling with physics and strategically planning for positive changes now and into the future is undeniably necessary. Sadly, Fascists continue to attempt to remove the important parts of society, like humanity and compassion, while the rest of us are moving toward something better. The small strides we have made toward truth, equality and justice over the past hundred years are being screamed down by a paltry few in an effort to hold on to their perspectives and perceived power. In democratic societies, the goal of the majority need not ever be to oppress the losers, attack the minorities among them or ignore those who cannot hope to win; but to lift everyone to a better place. If we revert back to behaving like rats trying to push one another down to stay alfloat, in a bucket of water, we will most surely squander our most fundasmental humanity and compassion in the process.
Remaining playful in the face of these so-called freedom-lovers and their empty partiotic slogans, laughing in the face of nationalists who deem any difference as an assault on their sensibilities or comfy place, is the corrollary to "If you don't laugh, you will cry." We the people, have all this potential, if we would only reach out and turn the crank. This work has been designed to draw you out. I "see" you there, standing, hands in pockets. Some of you blinking slowly, like deer in headlights. Whatever twittering machine is threatening to go off in your head, please, take a few really deep breaths, ask oyurself what you are willing to put sustained energy into and strike out. Grab the handle and give it a tug. Get into good trouble, raise a ruckus, run for office, fill a need that you see around you, not to be an agitation, but to help heal the wounds inflicted by those bullies who would steal our nation because they didn't like the results of a single election. Seriously. Seriously? Seriously! The majority has always spoken as one. Most of us want these seditionists, the forces who would pray for Armageddon, those who want to take us back a hundred years, or claim they are fighting for their own freedoms while taking the rest of ours away, to just sit down, step off or at least stop fighting what we know works. We've got things to do. We need to get on with them. We just want the oppressors, the big money guys and their willfully ignorant footsoldiers to get out of the way! We don't want to oppress the rich, old, White, males (as they have done to the rest of us for centuries)we just need them to be quiet, step aside and let us graciously take the reins.

Ironic Antics

Like a fish, flopping on the dock, refusing to accept that they are out of water, the right wing nut jobs are flailing without any means of propulsion, no way of moving forward, no idea what to do or where they are, literally out of their depth with no hope of heading in any real direction. The life is gone from their "movement". It has been found to be built on lies. They were never moral or the majority, they sure as hell ain't X-tians and they are definitely not compassionate conservatives as they told us while they tried to beat the rest of us down for decades. When people feel the need to be overt about how good they are, how moral they are or how patriotic they are, it often begs the question, Why do you feel the need to prove it? Are you really that insecure? The same way a liar often says something like "Not one word of this is a lie.", "That's exactly what happened." or "100% true!" It is a cover for their lie. Actions that lead us to question the very logic and proportion of events or the motivations of the participants. All these things swirl into the time in which we are living. Irony heaped on irony with a dash of incomprehensible absurdity seems to be becoming the rule.

Resistance Is Fertile

This link is to an earlier post, but it remains relevant.
When we talk about a revolution, it is going to happen in our mind. when we change our minds, abundance becomes possible, IF...
We reestablish the active cultural reward system based on mutual benefit, the give-away or give back as I have said so many times is what leads to abundance. Whether in Potlach ceremonies like those of native people of the Pacific Northwest or the spreading of compost, reciprocity makes all things possible.

ECO-Tours

My other blog, ECO-Tours of Wisconsin(ecotoursofwisconsin.blogspot.com) has surpassed eleven thousand views. Although it is still far less than this blog has had, those views represent eleven thousand chances to reach out to others and teach them about a new way of looking at the world, a new way of valuing things around them, a new way to step into the world as an active agent of positive change. In many ways, I try to stretch and massage the limits of how we take stock of the world around us, so that we can see more clearly how we fit in. Like a poorly placed bumpersticker, there will always be air bubbles to work out, tiny wrinkles that could use a little more attention. The same thing happens in our building mental maps that help us take on the daily challenges in life. I want to help everyone to understand, we may not be able to get to perfection, but we can ge to much better places using the tools we have available. When there are uncomfortable situations or daunting challenges, I try to help people to understand; is it us? or is it the workings of a highly mal-adaptive environment that we find ourselves in?
Discovering what is at the source of our discomfort often leads us to start finding solutions (soulutions). Determining where our heart is, with regard to the matter at hand, where we would like to end up and what kind of legacy we want to leave behind are all part of reckoning with the environment we find ourselves in and where we would prefer to go with all that we have learned and accumulated so far. It is...can be...hard to meet every challenge with our best foot forward, especially the past two years. I'm sure we have all been caught out of stride more often than not by changing conditions and new awarenesses. If my words can help just one person think more quickly on their feet or more deeply about issues in each moment, these words will not have been for nothing. Sometimes, just the calm that comes over us when we understand that we are not alone helps us to make better choices or attend to impotant details that lead to better outcomes. One of my associates chided me today, he asked, "But how many of those readers put your words into action?" So, I posted this response.
Education cannot be concerned with follow through. That is the student's personal responsibility. What knowledge and information do is to move your base of operations to new territory. Often, it takes several doses of information, for some several hundred, but when there are multiple points of contact with the world that reinforce the learning, it changes us. Occasionally just one teachable moment changes us for good.

How we think, how we interact with the world and what information we can see and understand changes over time. The goal of ECO-Tours of Wisconsin has been to help heal the rift between human-kind and nature. You cannot do that with a single application of fact. Recovering our relationship with the natural world is a daunting task, but being reminded that there are still reasons to prioritize that, above all else, that there are still people who are making it a priority and that one is not alone in the struggle to create positive change can heal people mentally, spiritually and physically. Some teachers never get 11,000 chances to make a difference. This one has.
Not every teacher can have tens of thousands of teachable moments. I am honored to have had many more than that. People are coming to the understanding that all of the things we have do not make us valuable. Nothing that we own or desire makes us who we are. Not one thing we have invested in or devised can keep us alive beyond our expiration date. Not one of our commodities can be as valuable as the accepting look of a trusted friend. I know that it is difficult to understand, but I love all of you. That is why I write. The ideas I try to share have all helped me to overcome challenges, informed positive actions and led to an amazing abundance in my life. This is just a tiny part of how I give back. The thousands of hours I have put into research alone has led me to grow and understand far more than I ever thought possible, but offering those insights to others feels like the responsible thing to do, not just for me, but for everyone. I would never lie to my readers because that's not who I am. I would never try to shame anyone but if they enguage in shameful behavior, I won't ignore that either. I think that in all the years of writing and even in my fanzines dating all the way back to the Eighties, I have only had to retract two or three statements. I have met my pledge to be truthful, continued to care and always tried to offer options when I come across something that is out of balance or not working.
If you have any specific questions or issues that you would like me to include in any of my posts, feel free to contact me. If you appreciate my writng and want ot support it, please share my blogs with others or send me some "coin of the realm". My paypal account is the same as my e-mail, tnsaladino42@hotmail.com
If you would rather use Zelle, you can use the email: biocharmaster@gmail.com that will send money directly to ECO-Tours of Wisconsin, Inc.

Where the Woodbine Twines

We have a habit of not liking to use the right words for things, especially if they are unpleasant or deemed disgusting. Instead of backhouse, toilet or outhouse,people used to say out where the woodbine twines. Frequently woodbine was planted near the outhouse to partially cover the odor, at least during flowering. We know woodbine as honeysuckle and it is a very strongly perfumed flower. We hide the necessity for saying things like sex and fornication with such a wide variety of words that it can literally make your head spin from the beast with two backs to skroggin', bumping uglies to simply, doing it. Some prefer the horizontal bop or rolling in the hay; shagging or making babies. Of course, I could go on, and on and on... no pun intended. It seems as if language is more than happy to morph if speaking plainly could get us into trouble. Sadly, there are few other words for racist and misogynistic attittudes. Other than calling the person exhibiting such beliefs an a-hole, we need to have specific words to speak of specific horrors. But love-making gets a pass I guess, because there are so many ways to partake of the "original sin", it probably helps to have many names for one thing, coitus. The problems associated with racism and misogyny is that they are often tied up with sex and sexuality, feelings of being threatened, being out of control and/or feeling inadequate have provided the foundation of all sorts of rage and hate. Sadly, more than fifty percent of the population are womyn and people of color. Simply said racism and misogyny are only weilded by a slim minority and their wrath is exerted against quite a bit more than half of society. For instance, the typical racist believes that because he has one black friend, he's not a racist, but that leaves 42 million (just in the U.S.A.) that he does not act friendly toward. Similarly, many men say, "I can't be a mysogynist because I love womyn." but in reality, they love trying to get as much sex as possible from as many womyn as they can and sometimes whether or not the feeling is mutual. When men are brought up seeing people operating from somewhere on the power and control wheel, they learn the power dynamics of abuse early. They may not even realize that the behaviors they label "love" as just shorthand for exploitation and abuse. As much as we need pressure relief valves like swear words for when we hurt ourselves or experience great pain, blanket words to cover a lot of territory fast and avoid the distain of people who think normal human interactions and processes are dirty, we will continue to have a need for euphemisms. Without these words that don't exactly mean what they say, the double entendre would simply not exist, trying to get away with talking about things in front of the kids would be much more dificult and likely some issues would get talked abotu even less. However, I would like to make a case for speaking plainly and using terms which leave as little room for misunderstanding as possible. Back in Victorian times, where the woodbine twines was a vaguely peotic way of saying shitter. Today, we want less sylables, perhaps even a toilet emogi or acronym would work, like the British W.C. which stands for Water Closet. It is ironic that some bathrooms are now bigger than bedrooms of a century ago. Times change and so does language, but unless we speak clearly and in ways that others comprehend, our ability to communicate will suffer. Some today oppose the very pairing of words that speak volumes about the specific subject matter of racism. You probably already redneckonize where I'm headed with this, CRT (Critical Race Theory)the whipping boy du jour of every right wing apologist for our racist element. Not a theory at all, but a perspective, that blacks and other races were always human beings and both in the past and today, their lives are circumscribed by hate. It certainly is not diabolical to speak truth to power and it certainly does not make the power balance change one iota. Perhaps if we all understood it there would be less hatred and fewer people maimed and killed simply because of the color of skin they were born with. There really isn't a very eloquent pseudonym because fascists and nazis are factually immoral, not just "dirty" like sex or defecating.