Denial Of Basic Fact

Truth is often far stranger than fiction and this is exquisitely so regarding the folks that make their way to powerful positions. This week we have been hearing a lot about two such anachronisms. Senator Ron Johnson who supposedly represents the great state of Wisconsin and the media personality Glenn Beck have both come to the attention of the public, not for what they stand for or believe in, but what they continue to deny. Contrary to the overwhelming preponderance of information regarding anthropogenic climate change, these two individuals choose to claim that it is all a hoax. I am seriously disturbed by the fact that instead of relegating the two of them to convalescent homes or mental institutions, we continue to give them huge salaries and bonuses for their utter ignorance.

You too could be a Senator in these United States, if you are willing to parrot back the tired old line of the oligarchs. This week, our illustrious Senator was called to task over his big huge foot in the mouth about how climate change has been trumped up by the rabble rousers who have implemented an "ecological jihad" against the benevolent "makers". The words that get used amongst politicians are even more bizarre than the code words for sex used in the cheapest dime store novels. fifty thousand signatures were delivered to our senator, calling for him to come clean about climate change and reluctantly he did speak to the subject, but only in the weakest of terms, clarifying his belief that the scientific community is still not sure what is causing the ice caps to melt and the oceans to become warmer.

Along with this aberrant perspective, Mr. Beck was quoted as telling his staffers that if they installed energy efficient light bulbs, they would be summarily dismissed. Now, I can empathize with folks who don't want to change, just because someone is telling them that they have to, but this is not yet the case. Incandescent bulbs are still available and will be for the foreseeable future. Perhaps I am odd, but I have been an early adopter of several cutting edge technologies. Not every tech gadget appeals to me, but when something works well, saves money and outlasts the item that it is meant to replace, I jump right in and buy it. this says quite a lot about me I guess because I tend to not like buying anything if it is not necessary. It just so happens to be the same day that we installed our first six LED bulbs.

In addition to being mercury free, these bulbs are instant on, energy efficient and cool to the touch. The compact fluorescent bulbs that they replaced  require 17 watts and their replacements produce a more even and brighter light for just 7.5 watts. Over the life of these bulbs, they would have saved over five hundred dollars in energy costs had I been using forty watt incandescent bulbs. Since I was already using CFL (Compact Fluorescent Lighting) my savings will be around half of that. However, after looking carefully at the facts, I was sold on the CFL technology twenty years ago. The primary "reason" people give for not liking CFL technology is that the bulbs contain mercury and require special disposal. In fact, the amount of mercury that is in a CFL bulb is less than the amount that would be spewed into the atmosphere by the wasted electricity required to get the same amount of light from an incandescent bulb. I do have to save the bulbs up to make sure they make it to the proper disposal facility, but that is a small price to pay for protecting the environment.

Just as many cities are requiring people to use composting facilities for their yard waste, it is becoming more important to make sure all of our "waste" gets tot he proper place so that it can be recycled or reused. compost is even better because it gets waste to transform into a useable product without the addition of hardly any energy and only a tiny bit of water. I have been composting for most of my life and the amount of dirt that I have created through this process would fill most houses. This soil is home to billions of creatures and even the enrichment of soils that I no longer live near makes me feel good and helps others to grow better vegetables. In time, we may be able to teach the idiots that are rich and powerful, but I'm not waiting around for that day. Instead, I share what I have come to know with whoever is willing to pay attention.

Thank you for being part of the process of building a better world. Do what you can to bring truth to the halls of politics. Encourage others to find solutions amongst the sea of problems that they tell us about on the news and above all, think long and hard about what each of us can do the heal the schism between humankind and nature. It may be the only way that we have to leave something for our children that they will be proud to call home.

First Harvest In Full Swing

The cornucopia is overflowing, abundance surrounds us and fills the larder. Simultaneously, our news programs are full of how shaky the economy is, how dangerous it is to be alive or how terrible someone else has it. My heart tells me that the rhetoric about the dire straights the super rich are in, and how quickly that will "trickle down" to us are overblown. The same suits that have skimmed off hundreds of billions of dollars for nothing more than shuffling paper are included in "talks" about how best to save their stake in the American Dream. White collar crime has never been more robust and certainly has not been more lucrative. The garden that I tend is pumping out produce that has a definite value. I invested early and consistently over time and now the rewards are flowing in. The thieves that put our economy on the ropes were siphoning off unearned income and wealth while putting nothing of value on the table.

 Banks, investors and loan officers are fond of saying that the needy company needs to put in their "pound of flesh", but their tails are so securely swaddled with our tax dollars that when they are on the brink of falling, we will rush in and save them. Nature itself is not too big to fail. If we deem any part of our economy as too big to fail, it ignores natural systems. When things grow exponentially, at a certain point, they must stop and begin to decay. Sad fact, fact nonetheless.
We share a planet, we are engaged in the exploitation of resources that come from the planet's crust. Increasingly, but sadly, not fast enough, we are utilizing both solar and wind to meet our "need" for electricity. Sustainability will demand of us as much inventiveness and creativity as met the needs of the industrial revolution. The next revolution will not look like most revolutions. Rather than destruction and mayhem, our next big shift will be to greener pastures, more agribusiness, local cooperatives and communities that are meeting their own needs rather than relying on high paid "experts" from far away. Economic power has been wielded over rural America for more than a century. Breaking the bonds that inhibit farmers from thinking for themselves, being good stewards of the land and keep them from fostering lasting positive environmental change in the nation will be hard. It may take a generation of education and complete revision of current agricultural policy. The bounty of Earth, when she is cared for, is almost beyond comprehension. It is time to begin acting like we know it. The miracles that keep us alive on Starship Earth need to be encouraged and upheld as the best model for human behavior. Give back, make no waste, store up calories during the fat times and conserve what you have earned by real work and attunement to Nature's Cycles.

The good that surrounds us and tips the balance away from chaos is not based on any intelligence or thought, but feeling. Each and every human on the planet needs to get clear about their own hearts. If anyone still needs proof that who we think we are is not who we are as much as what we feel is. We really need not distract our attention, the heart is the only hope we have for the future. That is why the Earth religions are gaining converts so quickly. Goddess is alive in our hearts and after the bad press that the male deities took over the past couple centuries, we cannot trust any man to not be infatuated by reason. Ultimately we must either choose what a wise friend of mine called Servoglobe, the penultimate Disneyesque technocrat's dream, or rediscover Gaia, the feminine and giving nature of ecology. We currently spend more on health care and get poorer outcomes than most of the rest of the world, yet next year I assure you, we will spend even more to be sicker. Just as our food sickens more and more people each year, but we will not question what we put in our mouths. Another sure bet is that there will be more soda commercials, and even worse diabetes. With the wealth of life sustaining potential all around us, the only thing that gets in the way of recreating Eden is the greed and self centered belief that we are in a competition for scant resources. Don't forget to integrate the concept of the cornucopia into your daily life, don't worry about what will come from being moved by your heart and always remember that none of this could have been bestowed upon us without love and hope borne on wings of abundance.

Musings of a Local Foodie

This week, I was so sick that we had to pay a relative to brave the lush garden beds to bring in a tiny fraction of this year's harvest. He discovered a couple dozen acorn squash, spread over two beds and three walkways, five pounds of red potatoes, a gallon or so of green beans, a giant box of beets and a gallon or two of carrots, a quart of elderberries, various and sundry greens and a flat of super juicy tomatoes. I'm guessing that most of the food came from seeds that we paid no more than five dollars for. The squash alone would have cost more than that at the local market. As much as I would like to say that I was born with farmer blood, the opposite is probably closer to the truth. My wife and I spent less than three days total on the garden this year, most of it pulling waist height weeds and harvesting peas, turnips, broccoli, and various herbs. If I had been healthy I might not have wanted to brave the garden because of the "mosquito problem". The last sixty days brought nearly twenty inches of rain. The last storm alone dropped seven and 1/4 inches on our "neck of the woods". The local meteorologists say that it only rained about three inches,(2.87 to be exact)but that was at the airport on the opposite side of town.
As the local mosquito population has risen, the urge to be out in the garden has decreased, so things were pretty much on their own until this week. We finally got a mosquito control system that we just love. Garlic oil concentrate. We mix up a gallon or two in our sprayer and dose the yard and garden, making it possible to actually get in there and do things. There used to be a veritable cloud of the little blood suckers no matter where you went in the yard and garden, but after two applications in as many days, they seem to be staying away.
I'm just amazed that with no more than a passing interest, the annual removal of mulch and the planting of some tiny seeds, even with virtually no weeding, the earth can be so incredibly productive. I have garlic, a few leeks for seed, two kinds of potatoes, several varieties of tomatoes and a dozen other food crops, all burgeoning from a space not much larger than out kitchen. The acorn squash, perhaps, is the most impressive. It is a rouge survivor of the last winter's compost pile. From that one tiny seed came tendrils that wind up and over the pea trellis, two garden beds and if we had not gotten out there this week, it might just have engulfed the other half of the garden. We've gotten at least a dozen squash plants so far and the vines are still covered with blossoms. Who needs to fret about a percentage or two in the stock, or real estate market when a single discarded seed can come back and feed you through the coming winter? I have access to several garden beds across the street, as well as those in my own back yard, but the simple truth is that I am too lazy to walk the two hundred feet back and forth to those garden beds.
My asparagus tastes as good as that which I can harvest from the plot at our rental, but the whole bed is closer than even the first plant across the street. I could grow a lot more tomatoes if I pressed even a single bed into service over there, but the delicious red fruits taste better when they come from less than fifty feet from my kitchen door, decidedly better than if they were from over two hundred feet away. I would love to have a bit more dirt close at hand and under my authority, but for now, I'm doing my best just to keep up with the harvest as it is. Do I really want more when I can barely handle the surplus that exists already? I would love to write more, but my responsibilities to the harvest are calling.

Investing Ouselves in Art & Craft

When I began my career, Art and Craft were alive within my home. I never questioned what made one different from the other, or which had more value, but I always knew the difference. When I went to college, I discovered that many are preoccupied with defining what sets these fields apart, so they can pigeon-hole the world in ways that make them feel comfortable. In addition to giving me pause to reflect on my own feelings on these issues, I found great humor in the illusion that our ideas have any value in this realm. Crafts are needed. Good quality work leads to quality products that are useful, beautiful and functional. Far too often, sloppy work fell under the auspices of "art". This confused me, as an aspiring artist, because technical proficiency was part of what I strive for as an artist. One of my teachers pompously claimed that "If you know ahead of time, what your piece will look like when you are finished, it must be called craft. If you are open to changing your mind in the middle, and you cannot tell what it will look like when you are done, your work becomes art." I'm sure that he felt justified in making his claim. By the time I heard this argument, I had become an accomplished sign painter. Even with diagrams and drawings, the finished product would have to be considered art by his definition. Because my hand created variation and interesting errors that added to the final product. If an inexperienced person looked upon my work, it might look perfectly rendered, but my own skilled eye could see imperfections, whether they were tolerated (included) or not was up to me.
Similarly, very often, when I did "fine" art, I would conceive a finished piece, and use my skills to bring it about. Perhaps I would be open to change, perhaps not. I guess, because it was not a teapot, or a pipe, one could say that it was art, but I felt that this was not the important part. The thought of whether it was a close enough match to my original idea was never an excuse for not finishing, but whether the concept had merit often became an issue. Many great artists are craftspeople. Most great craftspeople function as artists. Putting these people in separate camps confounds the best minds. Great thinkers realize the overlap between these fields and those among us with a foot in both camps could not care less if there is even a difference.
Some recognize that there is a portal that we refer to as "mastery", which we are able to slip through if we put our minds, our hands and our concentration to our work for long enough. A fellow on the radio today claims that the "magic number" is ten thousand hours. Imagine this as four hours per day for nearly seven years. Using this as a guideline, I asked myself..."What have I mastered?" Yoga, at least pranayama (breathing exercises), Cooking, Sign painting, Art, Gardening, Tree planting, Bicycling, Construction, Stagecraft, Sustainable Lifestyles & Parenting. I am still in the process of developing mastery in several other fields, although I have taught others many of these skills for over seven years. Growing up in the theater, I never separated my life from the actual work there. Some was painting, some construction, etc. As with most endeavors I have found that by putting one's whole self into the task of learning the new skills that are required, no matter what you do, you can develop interest, attention, and allow you to make the skill your own more quickly.
What I feel is needed most at this time is for each of us to recognize that we are constantly working toward mastery of whatever we put our minds to. Some may choose to be masters of sloth, complaint, or excuses. Fortunately, most will not choose these fields. The focus we place on each activity that we participate in has it's own reward. Curious children are the best example of this. As we get turned on to whatever discipline, we become more and more aware of the details and subtleties of it. When I carve wood, my sensitivity is to the grain, smell, resistance to tools, etc. My openness to the tools, materials and techniques enhances my ability to perform, as well as my ability to "see" quality in the work of others.
In the coming years, our attention to becoming the best that we can be will become increasingly important. Putting time in apathetically will yield far less reward than becoming engaged with our livelihood. The proliferation of self-help books over the past twenty years, and the rising tide of inspirational books only point out the need for self-actualization, as Maslow described. If we have been lucky enough to have our needs met, face appropriate challenges at proper times, faced them and overcome them with love, aid and support, of our family. or mentors, the challenge of self-actualization can be met head on and we will have a good shot at attaining that illusive goal. Far too often our belief in perfection limits our urge to explore, make mistakes and learn the valuable lessons from failure. By taking a few chances along the way we can learn much about the way to grapple with the future. Once we develop our hand, we cannot unlearn the deft movements of the expert. When we are the living embodiment of our craft, we can respond appropriately without though logic or reason. This becomes a life, artfully rendered.

It's Official!

Even with this week's Bullish announcement of the sale the largest transportation company in America, by famously shrewd investor, Warren Buffett, we could not bully our way out of the statistics of our spasming economy. The psychological threshold to a full scale Depression has been passed. 10.2% unemployment has been a reality in many parts of the country for quite some time, but the nationwide average crossed into this crippling territory for the first time in twenty-six years thanks to continuing fallout from the "Reagan Revolution" which promised a rosy future for everyone as more and more wealth concentrating in the top echelons of income would "trickle down" creating good jobs and security. The slash and burn approach to governmental agencies like the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency), OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration), DHSS (Department of Health and Social Services), FDA (Food and Drug Administration), DATCAP (Department of Agriculture Trade and Consumer Protection) as well as a veritable alphabet soup of other agencies has led to less and less oversight, less and less protection, and ultimately less and less healthy and wealthy lives for the middle class and the poorest among us. The rise in incomes for the top ten percent of United states citizens have come from the systematic exploitation of the bottom ninety percent among us. These real losses have hit the poorest the hardest as you might imagine.

We can no longer deny that there is classism (even though spell check doesn't think so) in our culture. The poor among us are many many more times as likely to be incarcerated. As we see every day, the wealthy thieves, get off with a slap on the wrist, or perhaps a huge bonus for picking our collective pockets, while someone who tries to escape the brutal truth of their lives at the bottom of the income "ladder" ends up with years of prison for their victimless crime. Remember the "Roaring Twenties"? Wealth was siphoned off by "organized crime" through providing folks illegal goods. The same thing is going on now with huge drug cartels that do not respect international borders. When we look to the law to put them out of business, their buying power provides clout with governmental agencies that are charged with enforcing the law. Corruption is not only a foreign problem. It is alive and well in the heartland. Simultaneously, large subsidies and corporate welfare is paid for by all ofr us, but benefits only a tiny fraction of the population. In some cases we end up worse off for the expenditure of public funds for dubious purposes.

The economic terror that has been unleashed on the world is directly attributable to large cash flows that defy oversight by any governmental agency. This has to stop. Just having huge cash reserves, enough to hide in foreign banks or a stash as gold somewhere, should not give someone the air of propriety. As long as we worship dollars, we will tend to forget the value of humanity, truth or justice. Building communities that are supportive and sustainable is not yet rewarded. Without funding the necessary changes we are only demonstrating continued reliance on un- sustainable extractive economic structures. When food co-ops can form and get money as easily as a new superstore, we will send the message that there is a way to get healthy food for less money. When priorities change, it will be evidenced by the way we think about health, safety and wealth. We need to rethink what our needs are so that we can get a handle on our wants. There will be a much deeper sense of security when our basic needs can be met at lower cost.

My own situation, as a professional had improved through educating myself and keeping myself in demand. Just in the past five years, I have had to learn to live on less than half of the income to which I had become accustomed. This, at a time that prices, for most things, continued to rise. Many of the things that I thought I had worked my way up to have been taken away. Just as I was climbing out of poverty, the rules changed. Health insurance, travel, vacations of any type, gifts for the giving, etc. have all gone the way of the dinosaur in my life. The moral anguish of not being able to give one's children the things they need to thrive creates desperation in most folks. Even those who are still "making it" in this economy have had to curtail their spending on extras. What we find now is that there are less and less dollars available to flow around in the economy.

Many of us started talking about these issues as far back as the eighties. Each dollar spent in the local economy tends to circulate ten to twenty times, rewarding our neighbors and enriching our local, sustainable community. If we spend our dollars at places owned or managed by far off corporations, the money tends to fly away, never to return. The same is true of our children. If they feel that they have to move away to achieve their dreams, they most-likely will never return to enrich our neighborhoods. In my time, I was called names for what I knew to be true, perhaps by the time my grandchildren become adults, the tide will have shifted and the truth will be self-evident to our decision-makers as well as the general public.

The good that can come of this economic downturn lies in our ability to learn and grow. Knowing that what worked in the past will no longer be helpful to us and being willing to ask ourselves hard questions like: Where do we go from here? These are the new realities with which we must grapple. These are the challenges of our age. If we think positively about ten percent unemployment, we might see our way to a new place in which those ten percent went out into the world to help others, start new initiatives that build community and help take care of our children. With modest amounts of investment we could allow new businesses and new approaches to old problems to arise that would surpass our wildest dreams of what could be.
Imagine, having all of our needs met at a fraction of the cost. It is possible through time tested and readily available structures. Co-operatives for food, transit and housing are already on the rise. The local food movement has unleashed a new breed of local economies, based on food for people and profit. What begins the process of change is changing our ideas. Then we need to make the sacrifices needed to reorient our lives. This frees us up, to have the latitude to re-envision a new social and economic order that will be sustainable for the next seven generations.

Peace be with you! Blessed Be! and Namaste', your humble servant, tcs