Mayday!

It's the beginning of May. Pagans and witches celebrate this time of the year as Beltaine. Beltaine is one of the two pivot points of the year; the other is Samhain. (See my post of 11/1/08 for more about Samhain.) Where Samhain is about death, darkness, and decay, Beltaine is about life, love, and lust, about flowers and fertility. Beltaine is about joy, sillyness, dancing, and above all, living, breathing, flowing, flowering life. Beltaine is teaming with life, bursting with life.

Taking advantage of this amazing point in the year, I want to introduce a few new things.

The first is the subject of the next segment of this blog. I want to look at what people actually need and how we can meet those needs. I know I've looked at this before, particularly in the first segment of my blog. But the emphasis then was about cutting down on consumerism--which is something that I still believe in. But now I want to look at needs from the point of view of building a simple, egalitarian, cooperative, and sustainable society--particularly one facing the challenges of peak oil/everything, climate change, and economic uncertainty. What is it that we actually need to survive? What do people need in order to thrive? And how can we meet those needs, simply and sustainably? So for the next few months, I am going to look at human needs in detail--as a way to give us the tools to build, create, nurture a new society. Yes, another world is possible. Now we are going to focus on how to build it.

As an experiment, I am going to try posting every three days. I'll see if that's too much given all I hope to do this summer--so the posting schedule is subject to change with very little (if any) notice.

And I have an announcement. As of June 21st (the first anniversary of this blog) I will be publishing a 'zine', a small publication basically printing out my posts from a year ago. I'm calling it Bodhisattva Revolutionaries and Social Alchemists, the name I originally had for a book I wanted to write. That book became this blog and now this blog is becoming a zine. 'Volume One' will be entitled 'Some Theory'. Spirit Mover Enterprises has agreed to distribute it. The only thing new in the zine will be an introduction, the cover (with Audre Lorde, Emma Goldman, and Malcolm X drawn as superheroes by an artist I know named Cam Wilder), and a few things in the back pages.

Why reprint this blog as a zine? Mostly I hope to reach a different audience. Young people, for example, who are the prime readers of zines. Also, I have friends that dislike computers and there are others I know that might like using them but don't enjoy reading long pieces on a screen. And, of course, there are all those people who don't have a computer because they can't afford one. All these people may be more likely to read my ideas in a zine. And maybe, hopefully, someone will just stumble upon my zine and find it useful.

And if you, or someone you know, wants a copy, you can send a check (made out to Spirit Movers Enterprises) for $2.50 (which includes postage) to MoonRaven, c/o Spirit Movers Enterprises, 50 Churchill Ave., #320, Cambridge, MA 02140 and I will gladly send the first issue to you as soon as it's published. (Incidentally, that is not my address--Spirit Movers Enterprises has kindly agreed to distribute my zine and forward any mail to me.) Bodhisattva Revolutionaries and Social Alchemists will be filled with information (over seventy pages worth). With this zine in hand, if and when the internet crashes or goes away, you can still enjoy my thoughts on social change, love and compassion, peak oil, bonobos, and complexity theory.

Meanwhile: Enjoy the warmth. Enjoy the flowers. Enjoy the spring. Enjoy life.


Quote of the Day: "It begins in spring. ... The gentle warm rays of the Sun provide quickening, urging barren trees to turn green with baby blossoms. Their fragrance perfumes the air.
"We inhale this scent and the waters of our bodies begin to bubble. ... Love is what we are seeking. Love in all its forms: love of Life, love of Earth, love of self, friend, and mate. ...all of us--plant, animal, and human--respond to the bubbling fertility of Earth, the hunger for Birth." - Luisah Teish