We stand at a point in time when the Old Ways that deserve respect, honor and preservation are in disarray. Many generations have passed without us paying the attention required to preserve culture that arose from ways that work. Even now these ancient ways contain seeds of truth and practicality that we need at this time. Many of the really old ways have passed silently into time, without documentation, practice or the recognition they deserve. The current worship of the new is a reaction to feelings of loss that are often sub-conscious. The most evident trend toward recovery of these lost ways is the fascination with antiques and retro anything.
The point of time that we inhabit is a fulcrum between past and future. This fulcrum rests on shifting sand for many of us. The victim culture, spawned by psychobabble in the seventies, reached adolescence through constant media attention of daytime television in the eighties and nineties, now flourishes through the overuse of anti-depressants, psychoactive chemicals prescribed for children and young adults, and the rampant number of folks who cannot "feel normal" without one crutch or another. Culture, which formerly made allowances for human tragedy and actual human needs, allowing humans to grow and gain strength from the knowledge of previous generations has been eradicated. Finding our way to health, happiness, even finding a way home is now dictated by commercial interests rather than the individual, shaman, grandmother or tribal elders.
As we pass the torch to the next generations, we need to show them through our actions that there is something here worth being our best for. The planet deserves respect and compassion. Her people, no less so, need to become a focus of our attention. Not their "earning potential", not their "gross national product", not the "natural resources" that lie under their feet, in their pocketbook or over their heads. In these times, there are myriad ways to get grounded, affirm what matters and humanize our culture. I would hazard a guess that there are nearly as many ways to relocate our fulcrum to stable ground as people to traverse them. What has worked for me will most assuredly not be your path, but the realizations that have come to me because I was looking for them, and the routes that helped me find ways out of dangerous belief systems may shed light on a path that has significance for you as well.
Getting out in nature really helped me to understand what is possible, and important in this world. Seeing the profusion of life, the endless accommodation, the abiding harmony between each element, lack of malice (even in carnivores during the stalking and killing of their prey) and the endless expressions of perfection led me to see this as a possibility for human-beings as well. I jokingly tell people that the best evidence for extra-terrestrial life having made contact with humans (and interbreeding with us) is our utter inability to live as all other animals on the planet do. We need to start with the basics, creating no waste, cycling energy and nutrients rather than hoarding them. Taking our place in the web of life, instead of hacking off the threads that support our fellow inhabitants. The lofty arc of the Eagle and the skittering about of the mouse are the shorthand that allow us to remember what is truly important. Appreciation of this deep ecology has the power to change us from exploiters to co-inhabitants. We just need to slow down and pay attention.
Understanding food policies, technologies and systems that make our way of life possible has helped me to see the fallacy of "feeding the world"(through the green revolution), "higher" standards of living that supposedly come from mechanized agri-business, and the myth of increased leisure perpetrated by technocrats. Every calorie that fires our metabolism has to come from somewhere. Knowing where your calories come from might surprise you. It did me! Realizing the morally bankrupt approach that we have taken to Tobacco, Wheat, Corn, Beans, Squash, Sugar, Wheat, Meat, Milk and Eggs as well as a host of other "commodities" has changed the way that I eat and in turn has changed who I am in significant ways. A hopeful trend in this respect has been the tremendous rise of the Farm Markets, subscription farms, and the buy local movements, which honor the fact that science and technology can never find a substitute for Home-grown Tomatoes. Backyard Chickens, Victory Gardens, and Food Co-ops offer some of the surest ways to find a path to sustainability that I have found. Each of these small changes in lifestyle will teach us volumes about how to care for people and the earth, respect natures cycles, and discover a path toward a future that we can be proud of and that matters.
Looking at our housing choices and commercial buildings has taught me a great deal about our estrangement from the earth, her people, and the communities that we destroy in the pursuit of the almighty dollar. More importantly, it has shown a way to a sustainable future as well. It seems that everyone wants the perfect view. Regardless of where the sun rises and sets in relation to the house or where the cold winter winds come from. If you drive through the countryside, look at old buildings compared to newer ones. The greatest number of passive solar homes (having most of their windows facing South) were built in the early nineteen thirties. Have we forgotten that when we need the heat of the sun it is winter and in our hemisphere, that means that the sun is low in the Southern sky? Massive East, or West-facing windows assure our addiction to summer cooling as well. When a lifestyle based on what matters is achieved, one finds that there is much more need for a small window with a nice view over the kitchen sink. My grandmother knew this, her grandmother knew it as well. When did we forget this basic human need? What we love most about Frank Lloyd Wright was his ability to blur the lines between inside and out. To invite nature into the home and blend human lives with their environment. This urge, rather than being new, is universal and has been with humans since the dawn of time. This urge can be the impetus needed to rebirth a culture of nature-loving people who respect one another and the planet.
Even our relationship to water can offer clues to who we once were are and who we have become. A dear friend of mine only drinks Fiji Water. Another only drinks Perrier. My protestations have, thus far, remained unheeded. Back in the seventies, I told people that one day, water would come in single serving bottles and cost more than soda-pop. For this, I was ridiculed, labeled crazy, and scoffed at. Now, at a theater where I work, they charge four dollars per 16.9 oz. I recently purchased a caffeine and sugar laced beverage for $3 per two liters! (four times as much liquid for 25% less cost!) Is it any wonder that our bodies, in fact, are mostly water, yet we cannot grasp where our water comes from, it's quality, true cost or value? Long ago I became obsessed with trying to find clean water to drink that would not exacerbate certain health problems that I had been experiencing. City water was definitely out, because of the Chlorine. The last thing my body needed was to be sterilized by the residual chlorination process that would take place by imbibing the essential fluid.
My city water comes from Lake Michigan, thirty miles away, requiring massive electric pumps to raise it out of the lake and over the Niagra Escarpment. Since I first researched it, contaminants that had not been developed yet have made their way into that source anyway, so unless you want a micro-dose of everything from heart medication, birth controll pills and Viagra to psychoactive drugs, anti psychotic drugs and a variety of other pills, City Water here is not for you anyway. Studying the various ways that we use to "clean" water was an education in and of itself. Filtration, distillation and reverse osmosis all have extreme costs associated with them. In the end, I had to resort to finding natural artesian springs, and hoping for the best when it came to farm chemicals and other pollutants. I would make a monthly sojourn to one of several sources nearby, fill several dozen glass jugs, and use that water for cooking and drinking. My health slowly began to improve.
We all rely on Earth, Air, Fire, Water & Spirit. This is elementary. I have taken the bold step, some say it is crazy, to expect my life-support system to be clean, abundant, and protected. In this period of time, perhaps it is unreasonable to expect these things as a birthright. My desire is that in the future, rather than seeming to be ridiculous, these things again become normal. Our gifts from the Great Spirit have been defiled to the point of not being recognizable to the "primitive" cultures who once enjoyed them in a non-threatening way. In modern times we have forgotten that one person's freedom ends where another person's nose begins. My needs need never impinge on another's right to be happy, healthy or well-cared for. As we enter the new year, please put to bed the useless tools of oppression. We can no longer be distracted by the fallout of hatred, misogyny, misunderstanding, misplaced trust in the "powers that be", fallacies such as "boys will be boys" or the endless toil of "keeping up with the Jones' ". Use this time to re-kindle the spark of humanity that makes us social animals. Find out what really matters for yourself. Don't let me (or anyone else) make up your mind for you. Research whatever interests you, look hard and don't take anyone's word for anything. Get the facts, even though some may be hard to find or scare you to death! In the midst of all of this, don't sell yourself short, live your life as if it matters, because it truly does. Let the deep and abiding love that is evidenced by Creator through nature be mirrored in your life through actions and daily rituals that affirm life, rather than blindly tearing at the web of life on Earth. Remember, a chain is only as strong as it's weakest link. Don't cop out, all life depends on your participation in the greater scheme of things.
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