Privilege and Abundance

I have written about each of these repeatedly, but for stark contrast, I want to put them side by each, (as the Yoopers, from just an hour's drive North say) for all to see, like an open letter to our entire culture. I feel the need to admit to both my own privilege, being able to drive an hour North in the first place reeks of affluenza and I have leaned to use my own privilege as a springboard to gain insight into how elites perceive the world.

When peaceful, loving people look out they see soulless ones willing to consume and desecrate Mother Earth and squander her bounty. I feel great empathy with this view, but I try to reflect the same vehemence of love. I furiously seek to have the oppressors be healed of their estranged ways. I think that a great wounding has occurred to these people, or they would not be able to hurt others the way that they do. I also believe in tough love, so I do not shy away from peeling back the layers of hurt that we all cause one another, that is where problems begin. A great healing has to come and it has got to begin immediately. It rises now in the hearts and very souls of all people, worldwide. Like the child who remarked that the King wore no clothes we must all declare the truth about our current leaders, their relations with oligarchs and the abuse of nearly all of our people for the gain of the 1%. These words are designed to call out the fallacies of which our yoke of oppression has been forged. When we realize just how riddled with holes the logic of oppression is, the easier it is to shirk.

The only thing missing from the visual story that appears below, is the key number that I heard yesterday. The U.S. military (including all contractors and sub-contractors) utilize Thirty-eight percent of all materials and energy used in our nation. 38%. That is thirty-eight percent, today, 38% yesterday and thirty-eight percent for as many tomorrows as we are blessed with or allow.

There are some things that we recognize as gifts, oftentimes there are other things that we do not...one of my favorite definitions of privilege is that the people who enjoy it often do not know that they do. The man, or nation hoarding gold never questions that mountains had to be ground to powder and treated with toxic chemicals to procure the stuff. The nuclear industry representative fervently believe the fictions that they tell, they have to or they would not be able to play their part in the charade. They "believe" the lies themselves as vigorously as we have tried to tell the truth, as much as we have protested, perhaps even more...but their complicity in telling their lies will have far-reaching consequences. When we all start to see that whatever part we play in the game, it carries a shred of complicity, that is when the tipping point will be reached and "the change" will be history. My bikes came from desecrated sites, so did my cars and when I push down on the fuel pedal, it sucks from the same petrochemicals that fuel the rest of the picture. Without knowing, or taking responsibility for whatever part we play, our healing cannot come. we will know the pain of dislocation and the estrangement from Mother Earth and her creatures until we shift to a different paradigm. For a time, perhaps about twenty years ago, the slogan "Subvert the Dominant Paradigm" appeared on countless bumper stickers. It seemed funny to me at the time, because it seemed far more important to forge a new one. This picture parable needs to be taught across the land, to all people and for the sake of all of our nations.

Special thanks again, to the Beehive Collective. This art is part of Creative Commons. Use at will.

I would like to thank the many artists who collaborated through the beehive collective to produce this image because it will help to define what I heard called Servoglobe many, many years ago. In the realm of privilege, it is a pay to play system upon which our current aristocracy has flourished. As you can see in this schematic diagram, there are plenty of distractions in our hyper-monetized system. The permit machine is pumping out permissions to pollute that are stamped with green seals of approval by a fan powered automaton, probably fueled by superheated air produced by coal-fired power generating stations. Another ephemeral (hollow) "dancer" encourages us to give so that we can "Feel Better" and if we look closely, it also tells us that we have almost reached our goal. Wall and Capitol Streets intersect and shadowy figures fly through the revolving doors between Congress and the Stock Exchange. None of this is fiction, we just don't hear about it on the evening news, in as comprehensive fashion, as this iconic representation declaims. The Washington Monument, dwarfed by corporate structures of glass and steel that also rise above puppeteers who are making agreements behind the scenes, on stage, but only through clownish proxies. The pinnacle of the Capitol shows the scales of justice, whose balancing act clearly "proves" that money weighs more heavily than trees which purify our air. Speaking of air, the giant mechanized reaper has even found a way to harvest the swirling veil of dollars that seem to float ominously in the air! Add to this, the seemingly unending streams of cash issuing from the ATMs and you can see, the lion's share is falling into the bag with the logo of approval emblazoned on it. Even the lighted signs reveal that the stock market continues up, up and up as sewerage issues from the very foundations upon which the permit machine is built.

The only parts of the natural world that seem to impinge on this heinous reality are the bare trees, symbolizing the winter of our discontent and the butterflies (change agents) trying to illuminate the reality of our "money machine".

Technocrats always side with the status quo, imagining that some benevolent overlord will see the sense of creating the next "solution" to any problem that can be identified. These are also very real victims of privilege, because they have been duped into thinking that we can survive on money (and ideas) alone. Whatever we think the future may hold, I can assure you that we cannot modernize and technologically outrun this heinous reality. Like a cancer in the body, the commercialism that feeds money to the 1% only assures them more privilege and power, politically, they will dictate our rules, morally, they will attempt to exert more social control over our lives and always allow less resources to flow down to the vast majority of people. They make their way by only allowing their terrible wastes to rain down. Billions of world citizens are being ground under the machinery of this mechanized oppression and extraction machine. The cream is not what rises to the top, but the soulless exploiters and their ilk. Our very blood has been used to oil the war machine.

I do not go into this level of detail to tell my readers that there is no hope or way out, but the opposite. I mention these things to make sure that we will all take a hard look around and understand that opting out of the current system may be the only way to catch our breath, to step away from the crack pipe as it were, and take a new turn that allows the old system to atrophy and fall away. We have become addicted to the theory that bigger is always better that there can always be more and more after that and that the ideal of any investor is the lure of exponential growth. Oddly enough, this perspective also turns a blind eye to nature and the systems upon which a healthy life can and has been built since the beginning of time.

Don't try this at home! These ants are trained professionals.

Life is tenacious. Of that we can all be sure. Those who know nature know that even if our species dies out, life will continue to reign. We must be wary of where we plant our food, or where we allow our animals to graze. I once had to stop eating "free range eggs" because the farmer allowed his chickens to eat the bugs and stones from around his gravel driveway and the areas where he fueled all of his equipment. I did not know that this was the case, but tasted the diesel in my eggs one the morning. Luckily, I knew what it was and could taste it. Sure enough, when I went to talk with the farmer about the eggs, I saw what the problem was. Falling under the spell of Servoglobe, it is easy to forget, that after we are gone, the fumes that we produce to get places lies behind us like a wake of chemicals that continue to assault the ecosystem long after we are gone. The electric car will help some, but there will always be ecological costs for any high tech device.

We (with the aid of Exxon/Mobil) have contaminated our urban soils with lead. Any roadside built since the phase out of lead still has a host of chemicals spread along them such as brake linings, brake fluid, antifreeze, mercury, various and sundry acids and metals, microscopic and larger pieces of rubber, steel and a variety of nasty chemicals, just far less lead than it once did. One is surprised at how often I still find lead wheel weights in ditches and on the roads. Whatever lifeforms drink in the gutters or associated swales, streams and ponds, or eats food that grows in this contaminated dirt run the risk of ill health and premature death. Females must consider not just themselves, but future generations as well. In their generation they may have health effects, but some chemicals persist and manifest in their children, or two generations later. Consider that when a woman is born, she has all the eggs she will ever release already in her body, and that many of the most pernicious chemicals are stored in fat that is what the outer layer of each of our cells is.

Abundance is found when we step out of the trap that is the dominant paradigm. When we stop using the drug of choice, fossil fuels including coal, petroleum and petrochemicals. Turning away from the drugs of extraction is difficult, I will not lie, but it is well worth the effort. When we walk and ride bike, ride share or use local currency, meet our farmers, walk to our food and entertainment and feel included in a neighborhood that loves, supports and respects us, we take great strides to feeling healthy, happy and whole. What is the true value of doing what you love for people and with people that you care about? Whatever value it has certainly cannot support money-grubbers who live at  a distance. This was the great strength of my great (times seven) grandfather Saladin. when his people came to town, he usually accepted half the tribute for twice the protection that any prior King had done before. He fostered what, for many, had been the first taste of having abundance. A great peace descended on Southern Europe under his "rule".

Anyone who can see that a pyramid so tall that the top 85 families on the planet hold as much wealth as all the rest of us, also knows that the only thing that reigns down on over eight million wage slaves are ecological catastrophe, ill-health and ever lower quality of life at ever increasing cost. Turning the tables or toppling such a top-heavy structure only requires us to stop propping up the whole lie-infested system. Lies need constant propping up (and you have to remember who you told what). The truth stands alone and needs no support. Look around.

There are growing local food movements, people know what to do to cut off the flow of money to massive Ag. The trend to have kitchen or victory gardens again is increasing in leaps and bounds. A local group here in Green Bay is installing one hundred and thirty 4 foot X 8 foot (1.3 m X 2.6 m ) garden beds in just three days, Check out this link to volunteer next weekend and help with transforming the future of Green Bay,  We are all able to make changes that impact the quality of life that one another can revel in. We must jump at the chance! To the barricades! We must all act as one! Each one teach one, if you can mentor a child, think of the changes that will bring in One-hundred years! There are growing cadres of people who gather around machine shops, or artists cooperatives, natural food stores or local hardware shoppes, tinkers, welders, artists and the like, woodworkers and tradesmen and women of all stripes, who belong to "make" groups or tool lending libraries, quilting clubs or service organizations. Some people are great sources of obtanium (found, useful objects ripe for re-purposing) others have the know how to put objects together in new and creative ways, solving more than one problem by doing so.

First and foremost, what we need to do are the two things that power and control zealots cannot fathom or even risk trying. We are to love all people, care about them, respect and revere them. This trans-formative experience is required if we are to step into abundance. Even those who have slighted you, reigned their crap down on you, even if they tore up the land upon which you base your life and livelihood. Healing can only occur when we are loved. wounds cannot heal as long as they are picked at. There really are only two choices love or fear. Perhaps one day, I will be identified as the one who opened their heart to the soulless, and be taken away to be set before a tribunal, but I do believe that if we all go the right way, the highest echelons will find that they cannot eat money, we will be better off if we offer them a hand in learning how to live in a new way, giving peace a chance for the first time in history.

No longer can the argument hold up that our neighbors are somehow sub-human and deserving of our malice. The only threat since the beginning of "Western Civilization" has been living under illusory threat. this is what fed the ever growing wealth of the top 1%. Since the advent of the idea that someone else having more than you is reason enough to kill, we have lost our humanity. To regain it, perhaps we need to learn to give away our true selves doing what we love to do most, so that everyone can flourish. When the Russians first invaded Afghanistan, they cut down every tree in every compound in the nation. No longer would the people be allowed to have their refuges. What can one expect from that sort of neighborliness? The world leaders are complicit for not standing up then and declaring it a form of genocide. I still contend that if every American soldier deployed in Afghanistan, was given one thousand native fruit and nut trees, and told that they could go home when they had found people willing to care for the trees and helped to get them all planted, that their work there would be done, and that they could return home, we/they would not be having a problem now. Power and control only understands itself, only cares about itself and only exists to wreak havoc on others. I spit to get the words off my tongue.

This is how a single action can transform our culture from one of scarcity to one of abundance. The art of love dates back to before the beginning of language. The art of war is much younger than that. We hold within us the power to change direction, the strength to forge a new way of life. Fear and hate have taken us far off the path we need to be on to assure our survival. We have strayed far beyond the realm of sustainability. No new widget will save us, only using what we know has worked for all  time to our advantage. In nature there is no waste, everything cast off is food for something else. When we step into that relationship with the planet, things will fix themselves right quick.

Beehive Collective

www.thebeehivecollective.org/‎ sent a couple of emissaries to Green Bay last night. They brought two of their giant works of art. These phenomenal 10 X 20 foot (3.3 X 6.6 meter) collaboratively produced parables exist as a testament to thought provoking ideas and the deep and abiding commitment to solving problems, not just shying away from them. The overwhelmingly positive messages that they send are vital to the survival of humanity and perhaps our specias as a whole. They will be showing their work again tonight at 6 PM at UWGB (University Wisconsin Green Bay) in MAC Hall, room 208. In addition to the works as a whole, they have a slideshow that focuses the attention of attendees on the myriad vignettes within each piece. They are physical manifestations that prove that each of holds the power to change the world in our hands and hearts.

About sixty people showed up to see their work and hear some of the stories that their art illustrates. Their presentation was not only about our current situation, but how the art is inspired by actions being taken by people (both individuals and groups) around the world to make necessary changes to support and find a path to sustainability. Their original artworks are accomplished by a complex dialog between and with the artists, native people, local residents and scientists who understand, sometimes all too well, the destructive capacities of "developers", mining interests and the energy giants who crush local economies and ecological systems in pursuit of ever decreasing benefits for the highest echelons of our culture. As their name implies, many workers make light work and the production of beehive collective art requires many people investing large amounts of time to create salient and moving pictographs about old way versus new way thinking.

Repeatedly during the presentation one issue was made clear. Life is tenacious. In the face of profound assault from corporate entities, the consumptive mind set of the oppressors and the paradigm that sanctions desecration of the planet, laying waste to her (Mother Earth's) organisms and natural processes for the sake of cash. Citizens of the world are united in their quest to find a path to not only survival, but retaining their humanity, their culture and ways of life. The income distribution has become such a top heavy contraption that the top wage earners have incomes that would support millions of their "lesser" countrymen. Contrary to what we have been told, the crucible of creativity is heated by the friction of old way versus new way thinking. I discuss this issue in most of my writing, but often we forget that in Earth's history, several mass extinctions have occurred, several ages have come and gone, but these young artists confirm the facts of our history in a rather interesting and most impressive way. What many believe to be "old way" thinking is what has been the dominant thinking for the past several thousand years. I refer to the old ways as that of tribal people, natives that had found ways of living on the planet that were not extractive in the sense that we know today. More and more however, we are closing the door on what was known as "new way" thinking or perhaps a "modern/industrial" mind set. The concept of bigger always being better is relatively new, but for most of us having grown up within that thought structure, it is just the current paradigm. Wrestling with the future will require that our "modern" approach will need to fall by the wayside of history and a new, new way thinking will need to take hold. The irony for many is that the old ways, those of tribal people everywhere, ones that sanctify the Earth, understand the unique gifts of the "gods and goddesses", as our ancestors did and operate within the "I am because you are" world view.

What the hippies were onto, was not just a drug induced dream, it was a very pragmatic worldview that peace and love really could heal the planet. Now we know that to a very large extent, we have found them to be right on the money. Spewing toxic compounds about can only lead to death, organics, renewable energy and a better land ethic can only enhance our quality of life, right? Many of us see daily the detritus of humankind, the vast wastelands that have been perpetrated against Mother Nature, against our people. For the sake of what? Vast wastelands that have had their worth shipped elsewhere, our cities are now hollow shells, the warehouses have gaping hollow eyes for windows. The mural that these people paint about my world would have miles of vacant buildings staring out at desperate consumers, looking to top off their buzz with the next acquisition. 
To the peaceful loving people, the growing majority...
Each bend of the stream is sacred, every wing beat of every bird echoes their music in harmony with Great Spirit, every rock and stone literally sing, in the Church of Mother Earth (or whatever you want to call it) We all learn to open ourselves differently. Some may delight in stories that trees have to tell, or perhaps hear the echo of Om in forest glens, some tune in to the slithering creatures that love sunning themselves in fen. If we pay attention, we can learn to speak the language of the sacred spheres. We can find a truer sense of self than by living in the built up world.

This collective is aware that times are changing and a new phase of existence is required if we are to stop the oppressive and abusive ways of those who wish to turn our planet into Servoglobe. The paradigm that we are living under today is based on the tallest pyramid ever conceived. The rarefied atmosphere at the top is dizzying, the wealth virtually unbounded, the greed insatiable and the corruption thorough. Life itself is ground under the wheels of this sort of "progress" and now at the dawning of the Age of Aquarius, we are beginning to realize that after a certain point, the ever increasing height of the pyramid has made it unstable. Every major resource, nutrient and even water itself are becoming harder and harder to get. more and more energy is required each year to even stay at a "steady state". The unending quest for more has taken us to places that even the most hideous fictional dystopia could not hint at. As the "reserves" become lower and lower quality, those on top deem more and more dangerous, more and more destructive methods necessary for their recovery. The flip side of this corporate marauding is that the poorest and "most desperate" have been sold a bill of goods even before they know that they are enslaved. The mystic web, as if of a great spider, has reached into all pof our lives and the beast must be done away with. This is just a relatively recent blip on the screen, a pixel if you will, within the panorama of life on Earth, our historical reference point and the future of humanity on the planet, will matter not one whit. Our species could die off just as many have before. The Earth, ultimately will go on of course until the Sun supernovas and engulfs the planet in His corona.

Technocrats often overlook the anthropological truth behind the myth of increased leisure. Every technology has a down side and only some of them are revealed by the collective. It is easy to say that "If we just exploited one more resource...that would solve this or that problem." However, the truth of the matter is that abuse and neglect of the planet can never yield benefits, without holding hidden cost overruns that make the value questionable at best. So what if you can send three BTUs of energy to wrest five from the Earth, does it make sense if you have to write off thousands of acres forever? The resources are a gift from the Great Spirit, it is high time we started acting like it!

When native people burned off forest, it was to select for tree species that fed the creatures that they relied upon to maintain their food stores. The beasts were roving food storage units if you like and the forest was maintained in unique ways to facilitate the continuation of many different species. An interesting side note that I thought was interesting was when one of the presenters was talking about frac sand mining removing entire bluffs and leaving great scars upon his homeland, in Southwestern Wisconsin. He said that for at least three generations, his people removed nothing but milk from that landscape and the effects of that did not change the topography one iota compared to the removal of the forest, the creatures and the hills that used to be his family's local landscape. This may be true, in a broader context, but the soil has nutrition taken that was not returned. The nutrients that were in that milk got carted away, gone forever. The cycles exist whether we can see them or not. We are currently faced with a situation in which we almost have to pray that no resource of any consequence will be found nearby where we live. It is, in fact, the only way to avoid having your part of the world destroyed.

Luckily, there are people like those involved with and supporting Beehive with their efforts, their donations and their impulse to further the mission of bringing on the change from Servoglobe to Gaia. As frequently happens with our people, the artists are the most forward thinking of the tribe. Being from a state that has "Forward" as it's motto, I humbly submit that we need to take a step back to see a way forward in this case. Like a rock climber, if we cling desperately to the precipice, we will never find our next hand or foot hold. These works, and their massive scale, allow us to gain vital perspective on what can seem to be overwhelming issues and for that I am both thankful and proud. I am because they are and that relationship is sacred.

Emotional

Emotional giving is perhaps the least easy to practice, because it makes for the stuff of conflict and angst when it is not respected or understood. Coupled with that, we have very few chances to learn about this type of sharing because so many of us are either guarded or in the dark about our own emotional state of affairs. Add to this the fact that emotional gifts are often seen as assaults, if they strike too close to the core of our sense of self or as examples of neediness if they are perceived by others who do not understand their own emotional matrix. It is one thing to tell someone that they have a physical limitation or an intellectual one...We may actually understand that we could possibly use one thing or another or that an idea could have some utility, but our emotions? our feelings? how could those be lacking, right? Many of us go through life not understanding the basic fact that who we think we are, or who our ego tells us we are is not the whole story.

We (the vast majority of us) essentially live our lives pretending that and acting as if we were not emotive beings, but the truth could not be further removed from reality. When we experience road rage or frustration, our ego defenses kick into high gear immediately and with a vengeance that seems alien when we inspect those responses in others, but our own swirling emotional word integrates our own sense of things seamlessly, rendering our perspective as truth and fact. This altered state of reality is what advertizing tries to work upon, what religions seek to reign in and what our parents discipline us for. When we see these responses in our children we may call it strong or hotheadedness but we rarely identify this emotional "reality" for what it really is, a complex series of chemical reactions, reflexive responses and preconceptions about what is right and good, (our sense of justice) our own sense of worth (identity) and the interplay of who we say we are and the circumstances we find ourselves in.

Emotive forces are virtually ignored in comparison to their impact on our daily lives. Add to this the difficulty in talking about emotions and the potential risk associated with opening up to others about our true feelings and you get a sense of why it might be harder to give on this level. Giving financially or giving objects can result in others running off with things or fortunes, or perhaps not valuing the items as you may have done. The same can be said for ideas and intellectual gifts. Who has not felt the sting of others either "stealing" your ideas as their own or neglecting the important ideas or advice that we may have shared with them? But our emotional gifts, no, those are far more cutting when they are squandered, abused or ignored. There is an exquisite pain that can only come from truly opening up to others, only to have them either ignore those gifts or to not appreciate them. We all carry pain around with us and most of the time those who inspired that pain have no idea that they had heaped a whole bunch of hurt on us, much less try to make things right.

This sort of giving is rife with dangers if we do not understand that we are more than our emotions, more than our egos and more than our sense of ourselves. Having our own emotions in a healthy place opens us to being able to give in this way more deeply and more profoundly and when we can give on this level to others who respect it, amazing results can come about. For years, I dove deep into my own pool of emotion, searching through the murk and dark corners trying to find what part of me had been hurt in which ways so that I might heal and grow beyond my own feelings of being victimized. I had to talk through the many levels of angst created by physical and mental abuse and the emotions that came up when my sense of self was seriously challenged. After nearly a decade of reflection, analysis and exploration, I finally feel strong enough to share intimate details about my own emotional development to share openly the whole story about how I became whole. When others try to tear me down, using the information I have given them, I understand that it isd more about them than me and that their sickness and anger is for them to learn from and hold no value for me other than teaching me deeper lessons about compassion and love.

Understanding our own feelings and the emotive forces that lead to them is a giant step to self-realization and the peace which comes from knowing ourselves on the emotional level can go a long way to living healthier lives with less stress and angst. Helping others to make sense of their inner world can lead to transformations that lead to benefits on many other levels and we cannot shy away from exploring the art of emotional giving if we are to make the world a better place to live. The word ubutu comes to mind. "I am because you are." This African concept is at the heart of emotional health and the welfare of our tribe and community. This emotional connection exists whether we learn to understand it or not. Being able to be open to our emotional world is the first step in learning how to give on this level. Try these words on for size. "I get where you are coming from." "It sounds like you are really hurting." and "What I am hearing is the pain in your voice, it must hurt a  lot to feel that way." Beyond that, we must learn to share our own inner world if we are to allow others the space they need for their own growing self awareness.

This is giving art is critical and the rewards that this type of giving can yield make it one of the more powerful forms of giving that there is. With a bit of peace, love and understanding, the type only possible when we understand that we are not alone, miracles can happen. Lives can be reclaimed from decades of self abuse and neglect. I have had it happen for me, so I know that these transformations are real. We do have to put our lives on hold long enough to give another their space, but in the end, we can both be refreshed, renewed and enriched by the process.

Mental

Mental giving is sharing ideas. Some believe that this passed down knowledge and the ideas about it are the foundation on which our culture is based. Centuries of learning, even millennea have been distilled down to bring our civilization to the point at which we stand today. Ironically, the moment of realization has looked the same throughout all of that time. The well-known "Aha!" moment includes bright eyes, an almost imperceptible contraction of the pupil and an increase in both respiration and heart rate. The person learning and the teacher often get a bit of adrenaline rush and often there is a falling away of constraints of time and space. This timelessness is cultivated by the best teachers and because of it, their students are carried along into a non-physical space where their minds become optimized, stimulated, relaxed and excited simultaneously. Pound for pound, our brains, when stimulated, burn ten times the calories than muscle tissue. The benefits of this sort of giving accrues to both the teacher and the student, but more importantly to society as a whole.

Because of our fascination with our mental state, we often forget that our ideas are not our selves. The mental world, although it is a part of us, is not actually who we are, but for the time being let us assume that is a very large component. Our ideas and the information that we make our way through the world with can be a large determinant in what we see, how we react and how we present ourselves to others. Giving on this level, then, has a huge influence on who we see around us and the reactions that we may have to others. Giving of ideas and information may be the best way to find out about the world around us, fact checking our perceptions and gaining acceptance for new ideas or new approaches to age old problems.

Instead of, and in direct opposition to, the "Oh, that explains it." moment that we often feel when being told what to think, giving on the mental level works by example and encourages reciprocation. Learning how to think is different than being told what to think. Ironically, there was a report issued yesterday that looked critically at the outcomes of recent testing of students in both public schools and charter schools in Wisconsin. Charter schools get tax dollars for their operation without the regulations and requirements that public schools must follow. Almost half of students taught in traditional public schools scored either proficient or advanced in math and reading skills. This alone is a horrible state of affairs. It means that more than half of our students do not have facility with basic skills that they will need to succeed. Worse yet, when we compare those numbers to the voucher school students, even more of our children are falling through the cracks. In Milwaukee County, where voucher schools where first introduced, far less than twenty percent (only 16%) fell into those top two categories. In neighboring Racine County, 21% of students made it into the top two performance categories and statewide less than 1/3 of students made it into the proficient or advanced categories. reductionist tendencies wish us to think of these statistics in their aggregate, but they do not speak to the real questions about how this has been allowed, no encouraged to happen and what does this mean for our current and future state of affairs.

We certainly cannot forget that these statistics represent and actually reflect a stark reality. They reflect the status of actual students. Millions of individuals are experiencing mental challenges because schools are failing them. Not only are public schools generally falling down on the job, but the most recent phenomenon, charter schools are even worse. Having been trained as an educator, I understand that teaching is still considered a giving profession. Teachers for the most part do not, contrary to what we have been told, seek a job in education based on the fact that they have time off during the summer, nor do they go into teaching to get great salaries or awesome pensions. These red herrings have been thrown into public discussion to demonize and belittle the same people who we are asking to do more and more for the sake of our children and I contend that the list of jobs that teachers are required to do has grown disproportionately to their compensation for decades. We want teachers to be police officers, counselors, advocates, baby sitters, mental health professionals, M-team participants, experts on special needs and how to deal with specialized learning requirements, moral compasses for their students and Oh, by the way...teachers as well.The more responsibility we heap om teachers in the classroom, the less time they have for actually teaching.

This is perhaps why the burn-out rate for teachers has been climbing. Fewer than 10% of teachers retire after a full career, most only serve in this capacity for a half dozen years or less. This means that those with the least experience are being trusted with the greatest numbers of students. Many of the teachers that I had during my education stayed for a full thirty to forty year career, serving generations of students who respected them immensely. now, especially if you listen to the political rhetoric, these people who give their lives for other people's children are made out to sound like public enemies or at least greedy and lazy "takers". Think back to how you were introduced to concepts led to understand and describe ideas, or how you learned to make your way in the world. Virtually every time it was not trial and error that you got in isolation, someone took the time to help you to understand. These selfless givers are one of the most important parts of our lives and trying to learn how to teach others can be rewarding on many levels. We can reap benefits from teaching in many ways, for those of us who teach for a living we can attest to the good feelings that come from the discipline. They accrue in many ways, just not usually financial. Trying to create a system of for profit institutions that does as good a job at educating our children as the way we used to do it seems fraught with problems, but the facts seem to speak for themselves.

Lest we forget, this process is anything but one way. If we find those who are resistant to ideas, or who lack the basic components that will lead to their gaining information or ideas, there is little we can do to make them take up the information or use it in the future. Mental giving requires that the recipient take an active part in receiving. Unlike getting them to parrot back things they have been told, fully understanding ideas and gaining a useful hold of useful information cannot be drilled into a person.Perhaps with some things, mnemonic devices will help. I still use the old rhyme, Thirty days has September, April, June and November, but like multiplication tables, understanding the relationship between terms on a chart is different than just reading the chart. There are many things that can get in the way of mental giving, from hunger to malnutrition, form genetic abnormalities to head injuries or drug induced states. The reciprocity of our relationships, whether they be teacher to student, mentor to apprentice or elder to younger must have both a give and take to be successful. Letting go of the budding individual must be the goal, letting them use the information that you provide in their own way is the only way to know whether the teacher's job was successful. Watching those we have helped to learn take things to the next level is often the only way that we can truly know that we have left our mark.

Ukraine

I have been hearing about the difficulties and changes that are afoot in Ukraine for many moons now. I wanted to hear first-hand accounts about the events that have taken place there from people who have been involved. I cannot pass judgement on those who seek change, nor can I understand the position of those who will not tell me what they stand for. Being against something is not enough, being for something is the only way forward. Except for the wisdom of our position and the commitment that we have to our neighbors and our country, we have little to offer future generations. What we are being told is, of course, only a tiny part of what has actually occurred. Just as we heard that there were thirty-five arrested after the UConn victory in the big basketball game this week, but are relentlessly told that sports builds character, the conflicts inherent in the position is neither questioned, researched or thought about critically. Trying to get solid information from any media source is fraught with difficulties, ranging from the language, the scope and often of the depth of understanding that exists within the person telling us the story. I saw a newscaster this morning talking about a NASCAR race and she was amazed that they had cameras both inside and outside the car, and that we were able to watch both views as that driver was careening down the track surrounded by fire. Those who have been paying attention have known this for many years and it is not even newsworthy anymore. Still it amazed one newscaster.

It is not unusual. In fact, there are many thousands of motorcycle riders that use cameras mounted on their helmets while riding to capture the inevitable dangerous behaviors that they encounter in their travels. Many times, their footage may be the last message they are able to send loved ones about what happened to them. Currently, riding motorcycle is far more dangerous than driving in NASCAR. Strangely, we forget that for a camera to be pointed, it must also have intention behind it. Understanding this perspective is critical to understanding the footage that is captured. Also critical to our understanding of the images that penetrate the oculus is knowing why the were chosen and shared. For example, in our own eyes, we have been shown the many thousands of protesters that flooded the Maidon, those who came together to stand for their rights to live in peace, united, under democratic principles and freedom. We also saw photos of flaming buildings and bodies with their insides running out onto the Earth. We were told many things about the images, but we were not told about what was really taking place, nor can we expect to be told. Powerful interests and individuals have a vested interest in skewing our perspective on this issue as well as many others.

I am trying to put something heinous in terms that will be acceptable to many, but that place responsibility for our perceptions squarely in the lap of those dictating what we are to think on the matter. Old way thinking requires that we understand the Ukraine as a bunch of hooligans that are xenophobic and who trample the rights of those who are not their ethnicity, or who do not share their passion for unfettered statehood. Nothing could be further from the truth. These are people just like us, trying to do the best they can so that the future can be brighter for them, their children and the planet we have to share with one another. Just as during the American Revolution, the ideology that: "We must all hang together or we will surely all hang separately." was used to steel the resolve of those unsure about their part in standing up for a new nation, the people of Ukraine must stay committed to peace, democracy and unity, or their country will be lost. There are states, neighbors on their borders who would pluck them apart if given a chance. It is happening on the world stage right in front of our eyes. Standing together on a foundation of truth and justice and democratic principles is the only way to survive the onslaught of propaganda, the outright invasion and the imprisoning rhetoric of those who would destroy their country for profit.

When I first heard that a great deal of funding for the revolt in Ukraine came from an oligarch, I was suspicious. Many of my readers, that have read my posts for years, can attest to the fact that extreme wealth often gets me very suspicious. It has become normal for me to become guarded against the class of people who have both crushed the world economic system and jeopardized our species in pursuit of capital, prestige and power. Wars are no longer conducted by the poor or even the middle classes, although their children die at startlingly high rates in wars perpetrated by the wealthy. Today, I heard Malala Yousafzai speaking and I realized that in her part of the world, Taliban thugs are doing quite well and have money to waste on weapons and explosives while the middle classes are having their schools blown up, their daughters sold to slavery and their religion used as a tool for their exploitation. This is the same story that we see in my country. Religion is being used as a tool to justify the subjugation of women, the undermining of civil society and an excuse for slashing education budgets so that the schools implode rather than explode and turning public support for quality schools into another subsidy of irresponsible religious institutions. The same old way thinking that says that might makes right is on the ropes in both The U. S. of America, Ukraine, Russia and Pakistan.

Whatever country we look at, whether we are told explicitly or not, there is a very real fight going on right now between peaceful loving people and the forces of fear, hate, and an outdated system that uses power and control to subvert the majority wishes, derail progress and meet the needs of all people equitably. This story is not unique, things are the same all over. This is why the trial of Pussy Riot was run as a witch trial, instead of letting the public know what the real motivation behind their actions were. No one is willing to say that a small group of people can make a difference because if they did, things would begin to change. The oligarchs have too much at stake to let us hear the truth.

Many of my readers are in Russia and I want you to know that within my heart I have a great fondness for these readers. They are a large part of my hope for the future. I recognize in them a great nobility that has allowed them to make myriad sacrifices and to still remain true to their country. Whenever I find a native born Russian person I always ask them, "What is the strangest thing you have seen in our country?" Many have said the same thing, I have often wondered about it myself. "We only have one bread in Russia." they would say. "Here, you have hundred kinds, some for rich, some for poor and all in between. In Russia, only one bread, for everyone. Many times there is none, but when we do have it, there are always long lines because it is always good and people don't know when they can get it again. Many things can happen, the wheat may not come, because of weather or bad road or mill may break and need part from far away, perhaps there will be no gas for the oven or there may be other problem, but when we have bread it is always very good bread, so you buy a lot if you can afford."  Please forgive me for trying to write like they spoke the words to me, but this is what I hear. There is a sad and cutting edge to this story, because many of us have to choose the poor person bread and even more don't understand that there is a difference.

I understand what voluntary simplicity is, coming from a land of too many choices, many have chosen to reign in their choices for ethical and moral reasons. In a land of austerity, especially after it has been endured for generations, it is hard not to respect the lengths that people will go to to keep their hold on civil society, the structure of their economic and class system and keep their eyes on the prize of nationhood. In many ways I understand the problems in my own culture from having far too many spoiled people, unwilling to take responsibility for their actions. On the other hand, making the entire population unwitting victims of as well as contributors to and supporters of an oligarchy which exploits them is not acceptable either. In my part of the world, the uberwealthy have stacked the deck in their favor for the better part of a century, distracting people with an "American Dream" that even those who have gotten it will attest is hollow and unfulfilling. Telling people that they are under threat is a relatively recent wrinkle in our social fabric. Many in other parts of the world have been told that for generations. Other parts of the planet have faced very real threats for centuries and have had to stick together and scramble to make the best of their deprivation for what seems like eternity.

Trying to bridge the gap between two very different ways of looking a the world is perhaps what the Ukraine will be known for in the future. For now, there are many there who see the future much like the past, one in which you keep your head down, try to blend in, get by and not make too many waves. Luckily there are a growing number who feel that this has gotten them survival at best and who are willing to stand for a chance at something better. No matter what we do to inspire confidence in old way thinking, the ship of state has become decrepit. Just as it has in my own country. The wealthy have overplayed their hand for the last time. There are no cards left. We can no longer be played off against one another. We are one. My people are the ones crying out for justice, standing up for peace, saying no to oppression and exploitation for political and economic gain wherever they may be in the world. My people stand for truth no matter what part of the planet they inhabit. We are the future.

Physical

Physical giving is predicated on the concepts of belonging or ownership. Possession is somewhat arbitrary and our culture has devised many grotesque and awkward supports for this false concept. My wife, or my children implies a concept of ownership that is rife with disturbing complications. My house often means the vehicle which will shift many thousands of dollars into the hands of someone who has no interest in your living arrangements or quality of life. Most native cultures do not recognize this sort of ownership. In the word Ubuntu for instance, I am because you are is a much more common reality that humans have lived under for millennea. Private property is at odds with the more realistic idea that we are all in this together and by now, most of us have heard: "Mi casa es su casa." literally meaning my house is your house. A physical gift in our culture can be money, which is a representation of time spent working, or things. It can be an arm to hold onto when someone is unsteady, a hand up or a hand out, but in each case we are providing an object that used to fall under our control for the use or provisioning of another.

We often forget that our things actually own us. My collection of art, you see, keeps me constrained because I will forever need to have a safe dry place to keep it, free of critters and insects. Having been homeless on two occasions, I know how difficult protecting items is compared to keeping yourself warm, dry enough and critter and insect free. Giving a physical gift unburdens the giver in a very real way, but it shifts responsibility for and the burden of "ownership" to the receiver. Let me give a small example. I was recently gifted a knife. It is a beautiful bauble I suppose, but a useful tool in my profession. The difficulty is that it is made for use by two sorts of people. Those who wear belts and those who favor their right hand. I really do appreciate the gift and want to use it as often as possible, but I have to keep it in my pocket, where other objects have gotten caught on the clip and opened the blade while the knife was in my pocket which is more dangerous than you might imagine.  Also, the clip that is supposed to keep it securely on your belt is both on the wrong side because of what hand I use the knife in and in addition it makes the tool uncomfortable in my hand.

Physical gifts have the ability to create difficulties that were not there without the gift. I had a car gifted to me once that cost many thousands of dollars to fuel, maintain, secure, park and store. At the time, it was far more burden than gift, but it was from family and I didn't want to tell them that their gift was inappropriate. Although it did hold some memories for me, it was too big to put on a curio shelf or wear as a necklace. For the longest time it was just art and at the time I was okay with that, but in hindsight, my neighbor, perhaps, were not. Like the gift of an awesome PA (Public Address) system that I got when I went off to college, it was a wonderful gift. I played thousands of hours of music way too loud through it, but in the end it was too big for my dorm, too big to travel without a car or truck and in the end it had to be passed along as a gift to unburden myself from the weight of it. Something similar occurred to my record collection. I has to scheme and plan for where it would go when I could not house and store it. Each time I would find what I thought was a secure temporary "home" for it, many of my most prized discs would find new homes. What had been over three thousand albums shrunk and grew depending on whether I had possession of them or not and finally one day, after I had driven cross country to get them all in one place again, I had to have the space back that I had dedicated to them for decades. As free as the music had the power to make me feel, on another level they were just a burden.

I was extremely lucky to have had children with someone who was aware of  the challenges that come with physical gifts. Anyone who has seen the Disney movie Toy Story knows the idea of old possessions becoming jealous of new possessions and although this is trumped up for the movie, within the very real psychological world of the child, physical gifts can create trauma. In most ways, children are not that much different than adults. We tend to define ourselves by what we own, what we desire and what we feel good about having and doing. When something new comes into our possession we often feel out of sorts for a while as we try learn new ways of going forward. I have seen many children that struggle with too much and too many things, especially at the holiday season and around their birthdays. Getting too many gifts at once can be completely disorienting, so for our own children we would only allow them to choose one new gift per week or moon to be introduced into the toy box. This way, their relationships with all of their other toys would not be threatened by a bunch of new stuff. Children are far more practical and appreciative of one special gift that the glut which most families lavish upon them at celebration times.

Learning to share is something we never really grow out of. The advent of time shares, the air B&B movement, boat and equipment rentals and co-housing options are all ways of sharing the responsibility and cost of ownership amongst more hands. This has the effect of lightening of the load on any one person for supporting resources that others can enjoy and that also allow them to share the myriad benefits that can come from a well-used tool. Finding ways to keep what we "own" in use affirms the energy and resources that went into their creation. Leaving them sit idle not only creates a storage problem, but undermines their utility. Keeping alive the charm that objects can represent requires utility above all. Getting out more than you put in often can only be achieved by sharing. Seeing the delight in the eyes of another person who is appreciative and in wonder at being allowed to have a chance to use something is often more valuable than holding onto that item for your exclusive use.

Today

We are standing at the precipitous edge of an abyss. Wealthy and powerful forces have pushed and shoved us dangerously close to the tipping point beyond which there is no recovery. When we were young, it seemed that there would be no way on Earth to burn through all the fossil fuel, many oil wells at first were gushers, their underground pressure was enough to help it squirt to the surface while the only thing we humans had to do was to drill a hole down into the pocket of oil. When that boom was over, we developed technologies to pump the oil out, using more energy of course, but still spending more energy to keep the flow going. At this juncture, we are spending more and more energy for every BTU that we collect. Drilling deeper, further into ever more dangerous areas. Often with unproven technologies.

As we try to keep up with demand, we are running out of refinery capacity and we are reliant on aging infrastructure that breaks down more and more often. The U.S. has become a net exporter of fossil fuel, shipping off energy that was supposedly patriotic to dig up in the first place. Jobs, jobs, jobs our oligarchs chanted, hoping that we would look the other way when impoundments and holding tanks failed, pipelines leaked and rail disasters took out whole towns. The continuing protests that are taking place in an attempt to stop new pipelines from being placed across our nation are a clarion call for more involvement from others. True patriots do not seek to despoil the land on which they owe their allegiance. The corporate outlaws that continue to poison the planet, injecting steam and toxic chemicals into the crust of our planet to wrest fewer and fewer resources from marginal deposits of oil and natural gas are doing so at great risk to our future and they know it.

Today, tomorrow and every day after...

When I was a child, I envisioned a time that the general population would rise up in protest to the inhumane way we have treated our planet. The public is becoming more and more aware of the fact that corporate welfare whores have stolen our birthright of clean air, clean water and uncontaminated soil.

Business as usual is impossible in this day and age. The techniques and technologies that continue to sprout up are not proven by any stretch of the imagination. The people who now have natural gas issuing from their faucets instead of water, or the billions of gallons of contaminated groundwater that we are expected to deal with because of the latest round of fossil fuel exploitation are very real costs that we can't possibly estimate. Especially in areas that have limited water resources, like the high plains or anywhere atop the Great Ogallala Aquifer.

The time has come for us to all stand together or all hang separately.