tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-53018555153765485382024-02-06T23:28:56.151-05:00MoonRaven's Social Alchemy BlogMoonRavenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03010194761440202586noreply@blogger.comBlogger469125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5301855515376548538.post-19694121160492709402021-02-03T00:30:00.001-05:002021-02-03T00:30:02.064-05:00The Mother of Darkness (Part Two)<p> (This is the second of two parts. Please read Part One, published yesterday, before reading this.)</p><p><br /></p><p></p><p align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;">Her
smile widens.</span></p>
<p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">“<span style="font-size: small;">I
understand,” She says. “Perhaps some more stories will help.
Since you are from the United States, I will start there.” Her
smile becomes sad. “In Billings, Montana, many years ago, a young
Jewish boy put a paper menorah in his window. There were people in
the town that didn't like that Jewish folks had moved to the
neighborhood and threw a stone through the window and the menorah.
The boy's father talked to the police who suggested that he put bars
on the window. Then he talked with his neighbors who were outraged
that this happened. Soon there were paper menorahs in the windows of
hundreds of Christians in Billings, as well as in the windows of
churches and the windows of the Catholic school. In a small town in
Nova Scotia, more than a decade ago, a ninth grade boy wore a pink
shirt to school on the first day of classes and got bullied for it.
A couple of twelfth grade boys found out and bought as many pink
shirts as they could and by the end of the week most of the senior
boys were wearing pink shirts. In a Massachusetts suburb, a lesbian
couple put a rainbow flag outside their home. They woke one day to
find that someone tore it down. When the neighbors found out, there
were soon dozens of rainbow flags flying in the neighborhood, most in
front of homes where the occupants were heterosexuals.”</span></p>
<p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">“<span style="font-size: small;">But...”
you start to say, when She makes a gesture that beckons you to wait.</span></p>
<p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">“<span style="font-size: small;">Not
long after the Twin Towers fell, there were two bricks thrown through
the windows of an Islamic bookstore in Virginia, with some very nasty
notes attached. The store owner was looking at the mess when a local
rabbi stopped by to see what he could do to help. Several Christian
ministers also came by to help and an anonymous businessman paid for
a new window to be installed. Five years after that, in
Pennsylvania, a milk truck driver shot and killed five young Amish
schoolgirls before killing himself. At his funeral, several of the
Amish showed up to comfort the killer's widow and mother. They also
donated money to help the widow with her three young children.” She
pauses for just a moment.</span></p>
<p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">“<span style="font-size: small;">And
long ago, in Nebraska, a rabbi from New York City moved to a small
synagogue to become the spiritual leader there. He soon started
getting threatening anti-Semitic hate messages. He discovered that
they were coming from the head of the Ku Klux Klan in Nebraska, who
happened to be a disabled man. The rabbi responded by leaving loving
messages for the Klan leader and offering him rides if he needed to
go anywhere. It took quite a while, but eventually the KKK leader
said that he wanted to give it up and started talking to groups about
the perils of hatred. When he became ill, the rabbi and his wife
took him in and nursed the man who had threatened them until he
died.”</span></p>
<p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">“<span style="font-size: small;">Those
are nice stories,” you say, “but what do you want me to do?”</span></p>
<p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">“<span style="font-size: small;">The
word that you are looking for,” She says, “is kindness.” She
is beaming now and a glow shines through her dark skin. “Be kind.”</span></p>
<p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">You
wake up and the sun is rising. It's dawn and the day is clear.</p>
<p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p align="LEFT" style="border-bottom: 1px solid #000000; border-left: none; border-right: none; border-top: none; margin-bottom: 0in; padding-bottom: 0.03in; padding-left: 0in; padding-right: 0in; padding-top: 0in;">
<br />
</p>
<p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;">Dedicated
to and in acknowledgment of the influence of four Black women:</span></p>
<p align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.49in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Audre Lorde</span></p>
<p align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.49in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Luisah Teish</span></p>
<p align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.49in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Octavia Butler</span></p>
<p align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.49in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">and adrienne maree brown</span></p>
<p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.49in;"><br />
</p>
<p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.49in;"><br />
</p>
<p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.49in;"><br />
</p><br /><p></p>MoonRavenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03010194761440202586noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5301855515376548538.post-15419283148528077822021-02-02T00:00:00.001-05:002021-02-02T00:00:03.475-05:00The Mother of Darkness (Part One)<p> by Raven Moonwood</p><p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">It's
night and you're dreaming when before you stands an open door.</span></span><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>
</b></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">You step
forward and fall into it. You land on a very small island in the
midst of a restless sea.</span></span></p>
<p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">The
sky is black but full of stars which shine so brightly that
everything appears sharp and clear. The sea around you is like ink
with a sprinkling of foam on the churning waves.</p>
<p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">There
is only room for two people on the island and sharing it with you is
a dark skinned woman wearing magnificent robes of pale blue with bits
of pink and white. She is wearing scarves on Her head in an almost
Islamic style, that cover Her hair. You realize that you are naked,
and it's fine, but all that you can see of Her is Her face and hands
and bare feet.</p>
<p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">“<span style="font-size: small;">Who
are you?” you ask Her.</span></p>
<p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">“<span style="font-size: small;">Let
me tell you a story,” She says. Her English is flawless but it
might be a bit too perfect. You think that maybe She is from some
African nation. “Slavery existed in many nations, many times
around the world. It existed in Africa long before the Europeans
came, but the Europeans took people from western Africa, brought them
far from their homes, and sent them to work in the New World. Among
other indignities, these folks who became enslaved were told that
their old beliefs were primitive and savage and that they were to
become Christians and worship a new God, who was the Son and the
Father and the Spirit that was Holy. They were told that they could
pray to the Mother who was named Mary. Mary was known not only as
Virgin Mother, but as the Star of the Sea. In Her statues those who
were enslaved saw Yemonja, Yemaya, Imanje, their ocean diety. So
they began praying aloud to Mary, knowing that they were praying to
the great Ocean Mother.”</span></p>
<p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">“<span style="font-size: small;">Are
you Yemaya?” you ask.</span></p>
<p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">“<span style="font-size: small;">You
don't see, do you?” She says. “Perhaps another tale.” She
smiles and appears amused.</span></p>
<p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">“<span style="font-size: small;">On
the islands of Japan, many centuries ago, Catholic missionaries came
to preach and converted many folk. The emperor of Japan was furious
and forbade Christian worship on pain of death. But many converts
took statues of Kannon, the Japanese name for the </span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">bodhisattva</span></span></span>
<span style="font-size: small;">Kuan Yin, and
put tiny crosses on the back to remind them that they were praying to
Mary, though the statue was of Kuan Yin.”</span></p>
<p align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">“<span style="font-size: small;">So,
are you Yemaya and Kuan Yin and Mary?” you ask.</span></p>
<p align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">“<span style="font-size: small;">And
Tara and Gaia and Pachamama and Sophia and Shakti and Shekinah. I am
the Mother of Darkness, the nurturing mother of all that is chaotic,
creative, dark, rejected, messy, sinister, smelly, erotic, confused,
and upsetting. The Black Madonna, if you will.” Her smile widens.
If there was such a thing as compassionate mirth, that might well
describe the warmth that radiated from Her. “Perhaps a better
question you could ask is where you are.”</span></p>
<p align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">“<span style="font-size: small;">Perhaps
I should,” you say. “Where am I?”</span></p>
<p align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">“<span style="font-size: small;">This
is the </span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">I</span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">nterstitium</span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;">,
the liminal threshold that lies between.”</span></p>
<p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">“<span style="font-size: small;">Between
what?” you ask.</span></p>
<p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">“<span style="font-size: small;">Between
the known and the numinous, between the potential and the improbable,
between what is and what might be, between almost and not yet. The
waters that surround us hold all that is possible, yet all that is
possible is change. And you must change, for I am change.”</span></p>
<p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">And
you see that the Mother is a doorway, a portal to the possible, and
you're not sure that you want to go there.</p><p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">(To be continued tomorrow...)</p>MoonRavenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03010194761440202586noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5301855515376548538.post-57195798605357275112021-02-01T00:30:00.001-05:002021-02-01T00:30:04.945-05:00Prelude to The Mother of Darkness<p> I had all but abandoned this blog. I am spending lots of time these days posting stuff on the <a href="https://communelifeblog.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">Commune Life Blog</a> and the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/communelifelife" target="_blank">Commune Life Facebook page</a>.</p><p><br /></p><p>But recently I have been doing a bunch of writing of other types of stuff--fictional mostly. I have decided to publish some of it here. I just published a fictional 'book review' that I thought was funny (describing the past year as a "<a href="https://social-alchemy.blogspot.com/2021/01/a-bad-dystopian-novel.html" target="_blank">Bad Dystopian Novel</a>").</p><p><br /></p><p>I recently wrote a very short story (someone I shared it with described it as a 'treatise') that I called "The Mother of Darkness". The story is a good description of my current spiritual beliefs. It's also written in the second person, something that I don't recommend except for the briefest of stories (which I think that this is). I intend to publish it in two parts, beginning tomorrow.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>MoonRavenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03010194761440202586noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5301855515376548538.post-64439449155205151502021-01-20T02:00:00.003-05:002021-01-20T02:00:00.162-05:00A Bad Dystopian Novel<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Found in the <i>Daily Planet</i> archives,
dated April 31, 1984</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><b>USA 2020</b></i>—a review</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">by Jim E Olsun</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">First time novelist, Peter Parker, has
produced one of the most outlandish pieces of fiction of the year.
While <i>USA 2020 </i>is certainly
an imaginative work, it stretches credulity past the breaking point
by throwing in disaster on top of disaster and imagines a year where
the president of the United States is a failed businessman, casino
operator, and former TV star who attempts to use the office to make
himself into the type of dictator more often found in Latin American
countries and spends his time sending crazy messages to the public
who apparently carry personal computers in their pockets disguised as
mobile phones. (I am imagining the author intends this as some type
of satire.)</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">The
book has five gigantic wildfires sweeping across California and three
burning through Colorado, so many hurricanes cropping up in the
Atlantic Ocean that the meteorologists run out of people's names and
have to use Greek letters, and a derecho (I had to look that one
up—it's a rare windstorm) devastating much of Iowa and Illinois.
The book also has multiple killings of Black men and women by police
culminating in over 10,000 protests throughout the summer. A whole
novel could have been written about any of these horrors but to claim
that they all occurred in one year is way too much. There is even
the mention of something called “murder hornets”.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Yet
this doesn't even approach the biggest disaster facing the various
people caught up in this insane imagining of a year in this country.
The author actually throws in a plague-like pandemic which virtually
shuts down the nation (and most of the world) and makes it completely
unlikely that half of this stuff would occur. Then the author throws
in characters who claim that the pandemic is a hoax and refuse to
take measures to ensure their safety even as hundreds of thousands
die around them.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">To top
all of this off, there is a presidential election that is
unimaginable, won by career politician who barely campaigns.
Although he is your typical presidential figure, his wife is a
college professor who insists on being called Doctor and intends to
keep her career rather than settling into being a first lady, his
vice president is not only a woman but born of immigrant parents from
Jamaica and India, and her Jewish husband refers to himself as the
“Second Gentleman”. (The author certainly subscribes to
political correctness) Although they win both the popular and
electoral votes, the sitting president (who comes across as an out of
control narcissist) refuses to acknowledge this and incites his
followers claiming that the election was stolen through voter fraud.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">This
leads to the most unbelievable part of the novel, as it ends with a
mob breaking into the Capitol building wearing fur and horned helmets
and carrying spears and a Confederate flag, running around trying to
find the vice-president so they could hang him while members of
congress hide under their desks. Just the idea that so many people
could just break into the US Capitol, one of the most secure
buildings on the planet, with that much ease is simply highly
unrealistic.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">I am
giving this book a C+ rating, only because it is a first attempt and
is so highly imaginative, if equally improbable. My suggestion is
that the author focus on only one disaster at a time in his next
book. A year that had that many things go wrong in it is obviously
impossible.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p><p> </p>MoonRavenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03010194761440202586noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5301855515376548538.post-64797535929795218972020-10-31T20:14:00.002-04:002020-10-31T20:14:40.633-04:00The Wrong Kind of Darkness<p> Yeah, unfortunately, I have abandoned this blog. I was pleased to notice that I did post last year at this time and I am still at the farm, rather isolated, in rural NY. The isolation has proven to be a blessing with the pandemic that arrived earlier in the year. I'm with some wonderful people and we don't have to isolate with each other, since this farm is its own kind of bubble.</p><p>I have been talking, almost every year, about the life giving blessings of darkness, and I still think that it's true. The dark frames the light and allows many wonderful things to grow and come to fruition.</p><p>But there is another kind of darkness--the kind that you use to hide nasty things in. You can be blinded by the light as well as blinded by the dark. It seems that there are more and more folks trying to use the darkness to hide their misdeeds, to obfuscate and confuse, to claim that reality is "fake news" and then claim that truly fake news is reality. I don't need to say any more.</p><p>I often joke that this is the time of the year when the monsters and ghouls come out and when you don't know if you will get a trick or a treat--and, of course, I'm talking about election day. I am hoping that this election day will begin a real change, but whatever happens, we will still need to continue doing the work. The real change doesn't begin with voting--although that, hopefully, will remove a major obstacle to change--the real change happens with the work that we do to create another world.</p><p>Most of my work these days is on the <a href="https://communelifeblog.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">Commune Life blog</a>--and now, with a strong push from Theresa, on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/communelifelife/" target="_blank">our Facebook page</a>. (Ouch--I'm on Facebook. Now that's scary.) </p><p>Let's continue doing the work each of us is doing to build the world we know is possible, and that includes confronting the parts of the darkness (and the light) that impede transformation. May the blessings of darkness be with you.</p><p><br /></p>MoonRavenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03010194761440202586noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5301855515376548538.post-79002072000095441472019-11-01T00:30:00.000-04:002019-11-01T00:30:06.134-04:00In and Out of the Dark My life has become so strange. I can't believe that I was a New York City resident for four and a half years, and I can't believe that I now live on a little farm in the western foothills of the Catskills. Instead of looking at street corners and skyscrapers, the view around here is of trees and hillsides.<br />
<br />
I was a bit scared when I was coming out here that I would feel really isolated, so far from public transportation and urban amenities. I am a city creature, having spent most of my adult life in Cambridge and Somerville (aka Camberville) and most recently Staten Island and Queens. I spent quite a bit of the bus ride out here looking at my fears and trying to face them.<br />
<br />
But it has been great being here. I love the folks that I am living with and they have been helpful in trying to think about how I can get around.<br />
<br />
I am living here to continue to live in community. The tiny urban commune that I had been living in for nearly two years is no more. The three of us finally decided that it wasn't working for any of us and dissolved it. Ironically, the commune that I am now in is an outgrowth of the work that I did with Sarah and Kevin five years ago, and Sarah has been a major support for me here.<br />
<br />
And, yes, I have all but abandoned this blog. I am putting all my energies into the Commune Life blog. I have several ideas for posts here, but I am not sure when I will have the time or energy to write them. But, since I have been most faithful about writing at this time of the year, I decided to put a little extra time and energy into at least writing this post.<br />
<br />
I hope that anyone who reads this reaps the gifts of the darkness. May you face your fears and grow from them. Happy (belated) Halloween. Happy Samhain. Welcome to the darker days.<br />
<br />
<br />MoonRavenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03010194761440202586noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5301855515376548538.post-55627798121908049852018-12-31T01:00:00.000-05:002018-12-31T01:00:15.820-05:00Into Yet Another New Year While I haven't been posting here, I haven't been idle.<br />
<br />
I've been cleaning and cooking for and shopping for the commune I live in, getting involved with local groups, recovering from a stupid and scary injury that was entirely my fault, working on compost, helping with growing projects until the growing season was over, and I even wrote a three part fantasy story for which I am working on the last chapter. <br />
<br />
Most importantly, as of today, I am taking back control of the <a href="https://communelifeblog.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">Commune Life </a> blog. I will return to the intensive schedule of having something out every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.<br />
<br />
I just got back from an Assembly of communes in southern Missouri and it made me want to be more involved with the Federation of Egalitarian Communities. And I visited East Brook Community Farm and that made me want to build connection between them and Cotyledon, our community.<br />
<br />
So, I have much to do in 2019. I cannot imagine getting bored with my life. I just wonder how I ever did stuff and worked for a living, too. I certainly don't think of myself as 'retired', it's that I no longer get paid directly for the work that I do.<br />
<br />
And, yes, the times are challenging. My wish for everyone who reads this is a new year that is better than the old. <br />
<br />
And I hope to write a little more in the new year. Let's see. As they say, time will tell.<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="quoteDetails " style="background-color: white; color: #181818; float: left; font-family: Lato, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-right: 12.5px; width: 518.75px;">
<div class="quoteText" style="font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; line-height: 21px; padding: 0px 5px 10px 0px;">
“We spend January 1st walking through our lives, room by room, drawing up a list of work to be done, cracks to be patched. Maybe this year, to balance the list, we ought to walk through the rooms of our lives...not looking for flaws, but for potential.” ― <span class="authorOrTitle" style="color: #333333; font-family: Lato, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-weight: bold;">Ellen Goodman</span></div>
<div class="quoteText" style="font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; line-height: 21px; padding: 0px 5px 10px 0px;">
<span class="authorOrTitle" style="color: #333333; font-family: Lato, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="quoteText" style="font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; line-height: 21px; padding: 0px 5px 10px 0px;">
<span class="authorOrTitle" style="color: #333333; font-family: Lato, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
MoonRavenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03010194761440202586noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5301855515376548538.post-17446018897190518002018-10-31T02:00:00.000-04:002018-10-31T02:00:09.255-04:00With darkness closing in I haven't completely abandoned this blog, but close.<br />
<br />
I am currently living in our very small commune in Queens, sharing income, cleaning, shopping, and cooking, going to meetings, and writing fantasy stories. (More on this in a moment.) And I am once again writing a post for Commune Life--once a month.<br />
<br />
And waiting with fear and trepidation for the next election.<br />
<br />
This is the time of the year that I almost always write a post. Pagans call it Samhain, Mexicans and others call it the Day of the Dead, and lots of other people call it Halloween, but under any of those names it is about darkness, decay, and death.<br />
<br />
For me, it is a time to look at my fears and face the fact that things are always going to fall apart. That's just a part of life.<br />
<br />
I should probably be doing more important things than writing fantasy stories, but doing it is very satisfying, even if no one is reading them. I'm considering publishing them as a blog, the way that I did with Lagoon Commune.<br />
<br />
And now that I am back with Commune Life, I want to see it grow, even if I am not the one running it any longer. Maximus, who is running it is mostly using it to display his videos and the actual blog part of it has only had two posts in the last two months, both by me. I have some ideas of how to change that, but I will need to run them by Maximus.<br />
<br />
And our little commune will be a year old in less than a month, and there is still only three of us at the core.<br />
<br />
Everything is uncertain but it seems like this is the best time of the year for uncertainty. I am trying to embrace the darkness. It isn't easy but it seems appropriate. Not knowing is honest and just how things are. It's trying to pretend anything is certain, or that I can be certain about anything, that is the dangerous path.<br />
<br />
I invite you to embrace uncertainty and enjoy the darkness of the season. It will pass, but right now it is closing in.<br />
<br />
Quote of the Day: "It's not a terrible thing that we feel fear when faced with the unknown. It is part of being alive, something we all share." - Pema Chodron<br />
<br />
<br />MoonRavenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03010194761440202586noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5301855515376548538.post-57564884246923691072018-06-20T02:00:00.000-04:002018-06-20T02:00:07.760-04:00Ten Years! <div dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-0f63f607-1544-469d-8e4d-0ff9bff30b2f" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ten years ago on this date, I posted </span><a href="https://social-alchemy.blogspot.com/2008/06/beginning_20.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">my first piece</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> on this blog. To celebrate and to see how much I have changed in ten years, I want to examine everything that I wrote there and look at it in relation to how I am now. </span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">First, it was the summer solstice; this year the solstice is tomorrow. It happens. I decided to go for the calendar date rather than the event to publish this. Does that make me a bad pagan?</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I said I wanted to change the world as a teenager and still did when I wrote that post. And now I still want social change. (The natural world works fine, as long as we work with it. It’s society that needs to change.) But I wouldn't say I want to change society. I would say I want to be part of changing this society. It's definitely a group effort. </span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I am still influenced by all the identities I’ve been, and there is still a little of the teen in me (even at nearly sixty-seven), but I no longer identify as a revolutionary (partly for the reasons I outlined in my last post, and partly because, having studied history, I think revolutionaries seldom change more than the people in power). As horribly new agey as it sounds, I’m more of an ‘evolutionary’ these days, a slow change person. I also don't think of myself as much of a theorist these days either. As to what I am politically, I’m probably mostly a communist anarchist or egalitarian communitarian or whatever the current equivalent is. I want sharing and equality and community. </span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And these days, I neither do co-counseling nor meditation. I sometimes do empathy sessions. I am most influenced by Compassionate Communication (aka NVC) and permaculture, and live in a tiny income-sharing community in Queens, NY. I suspect I couldn't imagine living in New York City ten years ago, but here I am. At least I’m finally doing the kind of community that I have wanted for a long time. I just wish I had more people to do it with. </span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I wouldn't change a thing in that next paragraph. “Any change… has to be built from the ground up and it has to be a cooperative, community effort.” Yes. Absolutely. </span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I am still filled with plenty of ideas. (I’m currently writing a fantasy novel and working on it every night.) And I am still looking for people. I am dragging myself out the door to the Ranch, to the urban farm in the neighborhood, to the composting operation in the city. And I am trying to find the balance between doing too much and doing too little. These days I have faith that if I can keep going and can be patient long enough, I will find the right folks. </span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The rest of the post talks about what I wanted to do with the blog. Here’s what I want to do now. Recently I’ve been posting once a week. Now I want to take a break. </span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’ve done ten years of posting and four hundred and sixty-one posts (including this one). I am not done. I still want to write about mushrooms (as opposed to simply fungi) and human physiology (hormones and kidneys and bones and blood) and whatever else that comes along which I think would be useful, and I think I want to reach five hundred posts. But it’s summer and I want to do things. There will more later. </span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I ended my first post with a quote from the Dalai Lama, “My religion is kindness.” In my last bunch of bleak posts, I’ve said again and again, the one thing we can do is be kind. Yes, I would say my religion is kindness. Kindness and compassion and love. </span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I used to have a word or phrase of the day and a hero of the day. My word of the day was ‘Relocalization’ and I still think it's a good one. My hero was Audre Lorde and she is still a hero of mine. And so I will end with a quote from her. </span></div>
<br /><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="color: magenta; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Quote of the Day</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: “...I do think that we have been taught to think, to codify information in certain old ways, to learn, to understand in certain ways. The possible shapes of what has not been before exist only in that back place, where we keep those unnamed, untamed longings for something different and beyond what is now called possible, and to which our understanding can only build roads...” - Audre Lorde </span></div>
<br />MoonRavenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03010194761440202586noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5301855515376548538.post-58028017087550576572018-06-18T02:00:00.000-04:002018-06-18T19:29:49.969-04:00Social Change is Slow <div dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-84f60c99-042d-4850-87ca-12d2ca59b4e2" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I sometimes joke that the reason why I like cleaning things so much, is that I’ve been involved with both mental health work and social change for most of my life, and improvement in both cases takes decades. With cleaning, you can see changes quickly. It gives me fairly instant gratification. </span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Since blog is dedicated to social change, I want to talk about, not only how slow social change is, but why it is so slow. </span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I want to start with an example where social change seemed fairly rapid, but wasn't. I’m talking about the campaign for same sex marriage. </span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Although I remember much of this, I refreshed my memory with the Wikipedia article on the </span><a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_same-sex_marriage_in_the_United_States" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">history of same sex marriage in the United States</span></a><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. </span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">By 2007, at least twenty-one states had bans on same-sex marriage and it was legal only in one state: Massachusetts. At that point it seemed like more and more states were writing ordinances against it. It looked hopeless. The tide seemed against same sex marriage. </span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In 2008, even though the California Supreme Court legalized same sex marriage, voters overturned the decision and two more states passed bans on it. Only tiny Connecticut legalized it.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In 2009, it was legalized in Vermont, New Hampshire, and the District of Columbia, and almost in Maine. In 2011, it was legalized in New York. In 2012, Maine, Maryland, and Washington state legalized it. In 2013, California, New Jersey, New Mexico, Rhode Island, Delaware, Minnesota, Hawaii, and Illinois followed suit. Suddenly, there was momentum. </span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In 2014, it became legal in fifteen more states due to various court decisions. There were court decisions that upheld marriage bans that year as well, but change was clearly happening. </span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">On June 26, 2015, the US Supreme Court ruled that all states were required to issue licenses to same sex couples. </span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">That seems like fairly rapid change, until you realize that activists had been pushing for same sex marriage since the 1970s. What changed in the twenty first century? Mostly, the issue of ‘gay rights’ had been before the public so long, that young people didn't understand why same sex couples weren't allowed to marry. One thing I noticed at the time was that President Obama came out in favor of same sex marriage before the Supreme Court decision, but after a poll was published where, for the first time, a majority of Americans approved of same sex marriage. </span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Max Planck said that science </span><a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-10-10/science-advances-one-funeral-at-a-time-the-latest-nobel-proves-it" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">advances one funeral at a time</span></a><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> (or </span><a href="https://en.m.wikiquote.org/wiki/Max_Planck" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">something like that</span></a><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">). So does social change. And where a campaign can take decades, systemic social change (transforming a whole society, which is what I am calling Social Alchemy), takes even longer. I once was a revolutionary, but as I have studied history, I’ve learned that isn't the way it works. </span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Soviet Union is an example of how not to do communism. Don't foist it on millions of people from the top down. I think Twin Oaks is an example of communism done right. It is small, voluntary, and built from the ground up. A basic permaculture principle is “Use small and slow solutions.” There's a good reason for that. </span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I am not a big fan of Karl Marx, but I think he gets a bad rap. He would not have approved of the Soviet Union. That was Lenin’s doing. And, surprisingly, he even had good things to say about capitalism. He definitely thought it was an improvement on feudalism, which preceded it.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And if we want to get beyond capitalism, and replace it, it's probably useful to look at how capitalism replaced feudalism. </span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There are several different </span><a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_capitalism" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">views on the rise of capitalism</span></a><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, but what they have in common is that it was a gradual process that happened over centuries. Adam Smith didn't start capitalism, he merely documented its rise.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And for that reason, I think it will take decades, or more likely centuries to replace it. Of course, the question is, whether it will wipe us out (see my most recent posts) before it can be transformed. And my answer, again, is I don't know. But I do know that it can't be rushed. </span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It's a sexist quote, but it sums up the dilemma. Warren Buffett said, “You can't produce a baby in one month by getting nine women pregnant.” And you can't produce a new society overnight by any means that won't result in something worse. </span></div>
<br />
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="color: magenta; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Quote of the Day</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: “We are beginning to understand that the world is always being made fresh and never finished; that activism can be the journey rather than the arrival…” - Grace Lee Boggs </span></div>
<br />
<br />MoonRavenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03010194761440202586noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5301855515376548538.post-34291936597678760342018-06-11T02:00:00.000-04:002018-06-11T02:00:01.848-04:00The Population Paradox <div dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-2f0737cc-df90-72d6-2011-9a46b918a1b3" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So here’s a problem. It goes like this: Suppose you believe we need to reduce the size of the population. You may decide not have any children, or you may only have one or, at the most, two. If you have children, you teach them what you believe, and hopefully they have less children as well.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Now, suppose you don't believe that the population needs to be reduced. Suppose you believe that it should grow, and you also believe in large families. So you have a lot of children and your children have a lot of children. </span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The result is that there are less and less people who believe in reducing the population size and more and more who don't. This is the population paradox. It says that zero growth people will tend over the generations to wipe themselves out. Even though I think that reducing the population is necessary, it's going to be tricky. </span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It doesn't take into account our ability to persuade people and change minds, but it does make me think of the Shakers who died out because they believed in celibacy. And, I think that there is an unfortunate truth to it.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I do believe that we are in </span><a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-how-and-why-sex-differences/201111/how-avoid-population-overshoot-and-collapse" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">population overshoot</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, so this paradox worries me, but I have no idea what to do about it. I have written about </span><a href="https://social-alchemy.blogspot.com/2008/08/five-simple-things-you-can-do-to-reduce.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">simple things that people can do about population growth,</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> but I wasn't aware of this paradox at the time. Now that I am, the one thing I can think to do about it is to put it out so other people can think about it.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I want to be clear. Like all my recent posts, I’m not saying that we are doomed, but I am saying that we’ve got a problem, and these days I have become very skeptical about our ability to change it. </span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So I advise that we hope for the best and prepare for the worst, because what else can we do?</span></div>
<br /><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="color: magenta; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Quote of the Day</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: “When it comes to the population explosion, there are two questions on the table. One, is our population growth going to kill us all? And two, is there any ethical way to prevent that from happening?” - Annalee Newitz </span></div>
<br />MoonRavenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03010194761440202586noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5301855515376548538.post-72023662891573703132018-06-04T02:00:00.000-04:002018-06-04T02:00:05.633-04:00Honey, We Fried the Planet <div dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-632a1742-b398-c131-ac59-cbed2964ba18" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The guy that I know </span><a href="https://social-alchemy.blogspot.com/2018/05/difficulties-tragedy-complexity-and.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">who goes on and on about mass extinction</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> is not far from the truth. </span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ten years ago, when I started this blog, I was very into the idea of ‘</span><a href="https://social-alchemy.blogspot.com/2008/07/peak-oil.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">peak oil</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">’. A lot of people were talking about it. We were also very aware of climate change, but thought that peak oil would hit before any real damage could happen. </span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I still believe in peak oil, in the sense that there is only a finite amount of oil in the earth and much of it will be out of reach, since it would take more energy to extract than it would give. So it's been a kind of race between peak oil and climate change. Unfortunately, right now, climate change is winning. </span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I think a big part of this is our desperation to keep living the lifestyle that we’ve been living for as long as we can. Peak oil folks didn't see how desperate we would get. (The Petrocrats would use the word ‘ingenious’.) Shale oil, fracking, and oil from the tar sands, along with deep offshore drilling, have certainly bought our lifestyle more time, but they are incredibly dirty ways to get oil, causing lots of pollution. Looking at the figures now, it seems like we still have plenty of available oil, in fact, more than enough to destroy the planet with. </span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Yes, it would be very possible to live differently and be able to sustain the world, but it seems increasingly unlikely that enough people will choose this path in time to make a difference. </span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I won't repeat all the awful facts. You can read the news on climate change and see where it's going. You can march and protest and chain yourself to oil tankers and live incredibly sustainable lives and even (but please don't) shoot politicians and CEOs, but unless you can get the majority of people to change their ways, I'm not sure that it will be enough.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Further, I am skeptical and worried about the urgency people approach this with. One of the things I say often is that it was urgency that got us into this mess, and I don't think urgency will get us out of it.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Are we doomed? My optimist says no, my pessimist says yes, and honestly I don't know. (As the saying goes,</span><a href="https://quoteinvestigator.com/2013/10/20/no-predict/" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> it's hard to make predictions</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, especially about the future.)</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What I do know is that things are going to get worse, and the first and most important thing that I can think of to do, is to be nice to everyone. Yes, this is another version of being kind. If we are doomed, think of it as palliative care, and if we get a chance to build a better future, I hope that kindness and compassion will be at the foundation of it.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In the meantime, whatever the future brings, we still have to get through today and tomorrow and spending your time fretting about might or even will happen simply saps your time and energy that would be better used in getting something done now. </span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I realize that writing about the destruction of the world and then going on to other subjects feels a little like the newscaster reporting a horrible massacre and then saying, “And in other news…”, but it’s what we need to do in order to do something with our lives. </span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And, I am not saying that you shouldn't do anything. I am just saying you should do what you think is right, because you think it's the right thing to do, and maybe it will make a difference, but there are no guarantees. </span></div>
<br /><br /><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="color: magenta; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Quote of the Day: </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“There are those who are trying to set fire to the world,</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We are in danger. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There is time only to work slowly, </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There is no time not to love.” - Deena Metzger </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<br />MoonRavenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03010194761440202586noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5301855515376548538.post-61616044542721378072018-05-28T02:00:00.000-04:002018-05-28T02:00:08.470-04:00Commune Dramas <div dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-f609cbed-8f6e-820d-3729-3e30483268ef" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I often joke that all these utopian communities that I’ve heard folks dream up would work great if they didn't need to be filled with people. When someone can't figure out why it’s so hard to start communities or why so many fall apart, I want to just say, “It’s people!” Communities are made up of imperfect people. It's the only kind of people I know of. </span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We recently had a visit from a leader in the communities movement. He and I spent a couple of hours going over some of the turmoil roiling through various communities. He made some remark about all the ‘commune dramas’.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Even more recently, I was on call with members of the Federation of Egalitarian Communities. (The good news is that our little commune, Cotyledon, is now officially a Community in Dialogue with the FEC. It was approved of with Guinea Pig noises. I’m not making that up! Who says that communards don't have a sense of humor?) We spent more than a half hour of that call talking about just some of the conflicts and problems that were going on at a member community dealing with some serious issues. When it was finally decided that we had talked through stuff as much as we could and figured out what kind of support the FEC could bring to the commune in question, we decided to turn to other business and the woman facilitating the call announced to a completely different community, “I should make you a certificate for being the ‘Community with the Most Problems, Spring, 2018’. You could put it up on your wall.” (Again, humor. Very necessary.) We then launched into a discussion about some of the many difficulties that this other community was dealing with. </span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Commune dramas happen (and dramas happen at co-ops and cohousing communities, although not as often and intensely since people at those communities aren't as intimately involved) because you have lots of very imperfect people trying to work closely together to do some really tricky stuff. </span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">On top of that, even the most isolated communes have lots of people going in and out and these people bring all of the problems of society (competition, scapegoating, racism, patriarchy, privilege, homophobia, intolerance, sensitivity, judgement, etc) in with them. Communes are always struggling with the question of who they will accept and who they won't and when to ask someone to leave and what behaviors can be tolerated (or not). If you limited communities to only people who have it all together, they would be empty. As a result, there is lots of struggle and lots of drama at the communes. Given that, it's amazing, when you think about it, that a community like Twin Oaks could last more than fifty years (and it's still going). I think that’s an an incredible victory. </span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I have little illusions that communes are all wonderful utopias. I see the myriad problems that they deal with. I’ve seen the dark side of communal living. It comes with the territory. </span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So, when you hear me go, “Rah! Rah! Community!”, know that it's because I believe strongly in what they are trying to achieve. Yes, in many ways they are poor vehicles for social change. But I don't know of anything better. </span></div>
<br /><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="color: magenta; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Quote of the Day</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: “Folks have found their own level after the first years of being overwhelmed. Some of them have been disappointed with the lack of emotional intimacy, while others, especially teens, have felt uncomfortable living in a fishbowl.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“At times, most of us have probably asked ourselves, ‘What am I </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">doing</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> here?’--a question, I believe, that arises from a complex calculation of time and energy spent and one’s tolerance for conflict. Sometimes I’ve asked myself, after a difficult confrontation, why I should put so much of my life energy into something that seems, at the time, to give back little. Yet I’m sure that at other times each of us has surely declared: ‘I can't </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">imagine</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> living anywhere else!’--a response to the very personal exchanges that make living in community so rewarding.” - Roberta Wilson </span>MoonRavenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03010194761440202586noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5301855515376548538.post-70736652615635937952018-05-21T02:00:00.000-04:002018-05-21T02:00:02.041-04:00Difficulties, Tragedy, Complexity, and Kindness <div dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-5e9d86c8-5f71-ca5c-233c-9f7cb85301a8" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I generally try to be optimistic. </span><a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-optimist-health-idUSTRE5247NO20090305" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Optimists live longer</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, for one thing. And they are more likely to be listened to, for another. </span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I know a man who launches into a tirade about mass extinction on very little provocation. It doesn't make others want to do anything about climate change; it makes others want to avoid him.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But, as much as I want to be optimistic, I try to be realistic as well. The world isn't going to be the way that we want it to be, the world is the way that it is and it is very complex. There are a lot of wonderful things going on and a lot of worrisome things going on and one doesn't negate the other. </span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I try to keep a fairly positive tone in this blog but lately I have been thinking about some of the difficulties with social change (social change being the focus of this blog) and I think it's important to talk about them. </span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As much of a communities booster as I am, communities are far from perfect and acknowledging that and pointing out the pitfalls and difficulties is part of showing what real community (not an ideal utopia) is, warts and all. Knowing the problems with communities doesn't make me want to give up on them, but it makes me appreciate even more how difficult building them is and some of the limitations of communities as vehicles for social change. I will write more about this in my next post. </span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Even more difficult to look at is climate change and the ways we are destroying the earth. This, indeed, is tragedy. The man I spoke of could be right, we could be headed for extinction, or, at the very least, one poisoned planet. And we need to look at that as well--and I intend to in a future post. </span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And then there's population, which I want to talk about. And the slow pace of social change, which I may also devote a post to. </span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There are just so many problems in the world. </span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I don't plan on tackling all of them in this blog, but I will say that I am grateful for anyone working on any of them. I do want to acknowledge three in particular that I don't intend to write a post on at this point, but I think are particularly difficult and troublesome. These are racism, male domination, and economic inequality. </span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">More than fifty years after the civil rights movement began, black men are still being shot by police, and being incarcerated at horrendous rates. Recently, two black men were arrested at a Starbucks for asking to use the restroom and, even more recently, three African-American women were stopped by the police as they were moving out of an Airbnb because a white woman in the neighborhood saw them and was afraid there was a burglary in progress. It turns out that there was also a white woman with these women, but she wasn't seen as “suspicious”. Unfortunately, I see articles like this on a regular basis. </span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Women are finally being heard about the abuse and harassment and exploitation they receive from men, particularly rich and powerful men. Unfortunately, that continues as well. The #metoo movement is exposing a fault line in sexual relationships that has been needed to be looked at for a long time. The communes have been pushing consent culture even before this, but even in the communes, there are a great many problems. As long as men have more power than women, this is going to continue, and changing power dynamics is far from easy, especially when men don't want to give up power. </span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The point of income-sharing communities is to reduce economic inequality, but I don't see that changing in this society any time soon, either. In fact, with the current administration, I suspect economic inequality will be increasing. And even if we got it under control in the US, our lifestyle causes poverty and hunger around the world. And that's hard to change as well. </span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">My question is always, what can we do? At the very least, we can care. We can live simply and treat others well. Above all, we can be kind--to others and to ourselves. It's not accidental that my first two Quotes of the Day on this blog were about kindness. As Kurt Vonnegut said, “There's only one rule that I know of… you've got to be kind.”</span></div>
<br /><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="color: magenta; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Quote of the Day</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: “Love and kindness are never wasted. They always make a difference.” - Barbara De Angelis </span></div>
<br /><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
MoonRavenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03010194761440202586noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5301855515376548538.post-77259318999393025662018-05-14T02:00:00.000-04:002018-05-14T02:00:05.083-04:00Compost Tea <div dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-5e9d86c8-4a03-037e-c096-8f128a589701" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I made compost tea many years back (probably close to a decade ago now), after reading </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Toolbox for Sustainable City Living</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> by Scott Kellogg and Stacy Pettigrew. (See my post on </span><a href="http://social-alchemy.blogspot.com/2010/07/rust.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">RUST</span></a><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> for a bit about the book.) I was reminded of this a couple of weeks back when I arrived to do an urban agriculture work day and walked into a mini-workshop on compost tea. The woman providing the information gave the best summary I’ve heard for using compost tea. </span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Think of it as probiotics for plants,” she said. </span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Compost tea is derived from compost but it is used differently. The main purpose of compost tea is to build up life in the soil. And, depending on what kind of life you want to build up (fungal or bacterial), you brew it differently. All this is explained in the book, </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Teaming with Microbes</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> by Lowenfels and Lewis. Both this book and </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Toolbox</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> have good descriptions of how to brew compost tea. </span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">On the other hand, the method for compost tea described by Stephanie Davis in her book, </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Composting Inside and Out</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, (I talked about the book </span><a href="https://social-alchemy.blogspot.com/2018/05/the-joys-of-compost.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">in my last post</span></a><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">) doesn't involve aeration and so it creates an anaerobic ‘tea’, what Lowenfels and Lewis call ‘compost extract’. If you want the right kind of microbes, you need to aerate it. (For a detailed, fussy description of how to brew compost tea, </span><a href="http://www.thesoilguy.com/SG/CompostTea" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">see this page</span></a><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> by ‘The Soil Guy’.) One way to get aeration is to use one of those pumps that you aerate fish tanks with. That's what I used, so many years ago. </span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It's not something you will need all the time, but if you really want to add life to your soil, compost tea will do it.</span></div>
<br />
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="color: magenta; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Quote of the Day</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: “The simplest definition of compost tea is: </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A brewed, water extract of compost. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Properly made compost must be used… Compost tea is therefore, a ‘cold brewing’ process, allowing growth of the organisms extracted from the compost.” - Elaine Ingham </span></div>
<br />MoonRavenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03010194761440202586noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5301855515376548538.post-82097689872223793642018-05-07T02:00:00.000-04:002018-05-07T02:00:07.384-04:00The Joys of Compost <div dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-5e9d86c8-2c79-730d-471d-b2efc21389e2" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I realized at some point that most of my favorite things in the world began with the letters C,O,and M--communes and community, naturally, but also compassion and communication, and,of course, compost. </span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I sometimes joke (but I’m more serious than you might think) that compost is my religion. I point out that Hindus and Buddhists think that when you die, you are reincarnated, Christians and Muslims believe that when die, if you are good, you go to heaven, and I believe that, if I’m very good, when I die, I will be composted.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’ve talked a bunch about composting in this blog, particularly in my posts, </span><a href="http://social-alchemy.blogspot.com/2010/08/compost-happens.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Compost Happens!</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and </span><a href="http://social-alchemy.blogspot.com/2009/05/waste_25.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Waste</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. And I’ve written about the reasons composting is so important in my post on </span><a href="http://social-alchemy.blogspot.com/2013/01/thinking-in-circles.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Thinking in Circles</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. When we compost, we mimic the way that the world works. And there are lots of different ways to compost. </span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In my “Compost Happens!” post I talked about there being two main ways of composting. I wrote that eight years ago, I wouldn't say that now.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I got out a book from the library called </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Composting Inside and Out </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">by Stephanie Davis. The subtitle of the book is “14 Methods to Fit Your Lifestyle”. What's strange is that, even though it also says on the back cover, “Step-by-step instruction for 14 different composting methods”, there is no listing in the book of the 14 methods. I had to tease them out by trying to look at all the options she provides. As far as I can tell, the 14 methods are:</span></div>
<ol style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Compost bins </span></div>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Tumblers </span></div>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Three bin systems </span></div>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Digesters </span></div>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Piles or heaps </span></div>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Barrel tumblers </span></div>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Bins </span></div>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Wire mesh</span></div>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Trench </span></div>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Lasagna </span></div>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Humanure </span></div>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Nature Mill Auto Compost Bin </span></div>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Bokashi </span></div>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Worm bins </span></div>
</li>
</ol>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The first eleven methods are outdoor methods, the final three are for indoor composting. Also, numbers 6, 7, and 8 cover DIY ways of composting as opposed to several others where you purchase a finished product. </span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Smiling Hogshead Ranch, where I am now helping out, lists six different ways to compost in their explanation of what </span><a href="http://www.smilinghogsheadranch.org/committees" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">the compost committee</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> does (you have to tap on the word Compost), saying, “How much do we love compost? Let us count the ways…”</span></div>
<ol style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">3-bin system </span></div>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Windrows </span></div>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Leaf mold</span></div>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Vermiculture </span></div>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Bokashi </span></div>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Mushroom composting </span></div>
</li>
</ol>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(Vermiculture is using worms. Worm bins basically.)</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’m sure that, even between these two lists, they don't cover all the different ways of composting. The joys of composting are endless. </span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And, best of all, for me, I get to do a lot of it.</span></div>
<br /><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="color: magenta; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Quote of the Day</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: “Compost has rewards beyond our imagination. We benefit specifically in our gardens and, less obviously, within our thinking. … Can composting encourage you to see the world differently? Many compost converts have told me that it has done so for them, and I have to admit it has changed my perspective as well.” - Stephanie Davis </span></div>
<br />MoonRavenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03010194761440202586noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5301855515376548538.post-59119035564358734522018-04-30T02:00:00.000-04:002018-04-30T02:00:46.243-04:00High Spring <div dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-5e9d86c8-093f-2796-0730-23b4c49467ad" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It’s the eve of May, a time the pagans in the US call Beltane. </span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I have written </span><a href="https://social-alchemy.blogspot.com/2009/05/mayday.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">about this</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><a href="https://social-alchemy.blogspot.com/2013/05/life-erupts.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">before</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> often spelling it </span><a href="https://social-alchemy.blogspot.com/2010/05/life-and-love.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Beltaine</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. (Which the internet says is the traditional Celtic spelling.) Whatever the spelling, this is the time of year when everything is bursting into bloom. It’s high spring. If Samhain, which I’ve written more about, is a time of acknowledging darkness and death, this is a passionate celebration of light and life. </span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It was a fairly mild winter here in New York City, but it was also cold, raw, damp, and dark. Spring has been oh so welcoming. As I’ve written, with the collapse of Point A, I had been wondering what to do with myself. That's not a problem anymore. </span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Our community, Cotyledon, is connected with a bunch of urban agricultural projects, like Smiling Hogshead Ranch and Hellgate Farm. There wasn't much to do with them in January and February. Now I need to be careful not to do too much. (See </span><a href="http://social-alchemy.blogspot.com/2018/04/self-care.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">my last post</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.)</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Spring won't last. One of the reasons I follow the pagan calendar is the reminder that the seasons flow into each other. Spring will become summer, summer will become fall, and fall will become winter. Beltane is just the opposite pole from Samhain. Life and death are intimately connected, as are light and dark. </span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The point is that I am going to enjoy all this while it's here. Everything is in bloom and it won't last. And I am not getting any younger. I want to enjoy each season fully while I am here to enjoy it.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I hope you are enjoying your spring. </span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="color: magenta; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Quote of the Day</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: “The most dramatic part of the Beltane celebration was the community bonfire. People would gather around it, often bringing chairs or stools in order to ‘sit out the wake of winter.’ … The fire was usually lit on May eve - fed by whatever a village could spare - and was kept going until sunset on May 1st. In general, most people extinguished all fires in their homes on May eve. … In keeping with the old ways, ‘new fire’ had to be brought back into the house from the Beltane flames.” - Bridget Haggerty </span></div>
<br />MoonRavenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03010194761440202586noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5301855515376548538.post-35737603356679624532018-04-23T02:00:00.000-04:002018-04-23T02:00:12.344-04:00Self Care <div dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-5e9d86c8-e05c-e649-6633-de432f815a84" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I guess we all need this kind of reminder once in a while. I got mine recently. </span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The first and most important piece of social change is taking care of yourself. I’ve heard this as the oxygen mask strategy. When you fly in a plane, they inform you that in an emergency, an oxygen mask will descend from overhead, and when it does, you are to put on your own first before helping anyone else. Really, you can't work on changing anything or helping anyone if you aren't able to function. You are one of the most important parts of social change--whether you are building a community or out in the street committing civil disobedience--and you need to be in decent shape to do this. </span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">My own reminder came after several hours of working hard with others on a compost project--mostly shoveling compost out of piles and into bags. Like I said, I worked pretty hard and was happy with the job I did, but the next morning I was in rough shape. For anyone new to this blog, in spite of my name, I am not a young woman, I am an old man. I’d like to pretend that I am thirty but I am well over twice that. And I don't know exactly what I pulled, but I was hurting. </span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As I said in my last post, I have stopped doing things like Point A and Commune Life--a lot of which was internet work. I spent much of the winter reading or on the computer. Now that spring is here, I want to be outside doing stuff. But not having done much over the winter, I think I overdid it.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Usually I get away with things like this because I stretch every morning. So there are certainly things that I do to take care of myself. Obviously I need to do more. I need to slow down and pay attention to how I move when I am working. I have not had a very physical life and now there is a bunch of real work that I want to do, and the only way I am going to get to do any of it,is to be careful and take care of myself. </span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I often support others in focusing on taking care of themselves, first. Now I get to follow my own advice. </span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="color: magenta; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Quote of the Day</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: “If I wished to defeat those who wanted to use their lives to make a difference, this is exactly the way in which I would go about it. Few such people would be tempted from their purpose by fame, or power, or even wealth. … I could use their own dedication against them, driving them to work until they became so depleted and empty that they could no longer go on. I would make certain that they never discovered that blessing life is about filling yourself up so that your blessings overflow onto others.” - Rachel Naomi Remen</span></div>
<br /><br />MoonRavenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03010194761440202586noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5301855515376548538.post-70653955877501177272018-04-16T02:00:00.000-04:002018-04-16T02:00:12.420-04:00The Trip Gets Longer and Stranger <div dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-5e9d86c8-92ff-35b0-0c72-acec51a509f2" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The title of this post is a play on the title of a previous post, </span><a href="https://social-alchemy.blogspot.com/2012/06/long-strange-trip.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A Long Strange Trip</span></a><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, which in turn was taken from the lyrics of a Grateful Dead song, </span><a href="http://www.dead.net/song/truckin" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Truckin’</span></a><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. And I have been putting off writing this post for quite a while now. </span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">One reason is that there are delicate and personal issues involved with the direction my life has been moving in and this limits what I can say here. </span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What I can say is that I really didn't expect to find myself quite in the situation that I’m in.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">On the positive side, I am now living in the income-sharing community that I came to New York City to build and I am building it with a couple of wonderful people (DNA and Gil) who I have known for almost three years now and who are every bit as committed to this as I am. On top of this, we just got a fourth member who also seems really interested in our community. We're calling the community </span><a href="https://communelifeblog.wordpress.com/2018/01/31/introducing-cotyledon/" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Cotyledon</span></a><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and it is a real joy being here. (And if you follow the link, you can see pictures of the place, DNA and Gil and me, and Smiling Hogshead Ranch--which I will write a bit more about later.)</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The first strange piece is that I came to NYC solely because I was doing this work as part of Point A--and now I am not involved at all with Point A. (This is the difficult and very personal part of the saga that I can't go into.) I'm also (for related reasons) no longer managing or in any way part of the </span><a href="http://communelife.org/" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Commune Life</span></a><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> blog--which, sadly, seems to be floundering a bit since I left. (Or, at least, the posts seem a lot more sporadic.) I would still strongly recommend looking at it, since it has an enormous amount of information on what communes are, how to build them (and how not to build them), and a bunch of information on particular income-sharing communities around the US and around the world (or at least in Canada, Spain, and Israel).</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Leaving Point A and Commune Life has been a real loss for me, but with spring here, I am preparing to dive into several urban agricultural projects, some of which are connected with </span><a href="http://www.smilinghogsheadranch.org/" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Smiling Hogshead Ranch</span></a><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, which I’ve been slightly involved with for nearly three years (and DNA and Gil are very involved with). So, in a real way, my losses have opened up space for me to take on these new things.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Another strange thing is that I started working on this community project in New York City after I left working on a rural community farm project in upstate New York </span><a href="https://social-alchemy.blogspot.com/2014/07/and-again.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">back in 2014</span></a><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. But there are plenty of connections between the two. The guy that I had difficulty with ended up at Ganas while I was living there. The community farm project did happen and is now called </span><a href="https://communelifeblog.wordpress.com/2017/12/20/welcome-to-east-brook-community-farm/" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">East Brook Community Farm </span></a><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">and we have talked about building connections between our community and them. And, in another strange interconnection, our newest community member is someone I knew from the upstate project. </span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This may be the strangest part of this trip. I think I am done with something and yet I find myself reconnecting again and again. I'm learning that I can't say I am completely finished with something. I just don't know. So who knows, I may yet reconnect with parts of Point A or Commune Life. I’m absolutely not planning on it, but I am learning that I can't know. </span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="color: magenta; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Quote of the Day</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: “</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Collaborative groups that last over time reinvent themselves periodically</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. They may need to change their structure, organization and ways of working as they grow and develop. They are not static, but dynamic, not artifacts, but living organisms.” - Starhawk </span></div>
<br />
<br />MoonRavenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03010194761440202586noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5301855515376548538.post-83082683580526238972018-04-09T02:00:00.000-04:002018-04-09T02:00:00.183-04:00Studying Nutrition <div dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-5e9d86c8-92eb-58af-485e-efacbb9279c3" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Many, many, many, many years ago, I was ever so briefly a nursing student. (Yes, among many things, I am a nursing school drop out.) I did well in the academics but I was a disaster doing the bedside work. One of the things I enjoyed learning about was nutrition. </span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And nutrition is still one of the things that I’m interested in. When I think about agriculture, a question arises. What should we plant? Which leads me to the question of, what foods are better for people? How do we know? And one way of knowing is by studying nutrition. </span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I have been looking in libraries for a really good nutrition textbook. I’m not interested in the latest diet or food fad, I want to know what mainstream nutritionists currently think. (Okay, my nutrition education was from the 1970s, some things have changed since then.) I finally found one that I liked this winter, but then I left town for some traveling and returned the book. Since I got back, I have been looking for that book, but it's no longer in the library and, stupidly, I didn't write the name of the book down. I went looking in the Queens library system catalog and did find something that looked okay in the catalog but turned out to be some kind of outline rather than a text. (The book itself has the additional heading, “Student Note-Taking Guide”. Unfortunately, that part wasn't in the catalog.) Rather than just return it and try again, I decided to use it in conjunction with one of those ‘Idiot’s Guide’ books (which generally have decent information, even if the format is very commercialized and silly). I figured between the two, I should get some halfway decent information. In the future, I may go looking for that good textbook again. </span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So what did I learn? Here's some basics. First, there are six categories of nutrients: carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, minerals, and water. Yes, water is a nutrient. The first three categories all have calories--as does a seventh non-nutrient, alcohol. Something that I did remember from my nursing years is that carbohydrates and proteins have four calories per gram, alcohol has seven calories per gram, and fats have nine calories per gram. All of the first six categories pay important parts in your diet. </span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Most of this stuff is common knowledge. You want to get enough calories to thrive but not much more. Exercise as well as nutrition is important in maintaining your weight as well as your health. You need to get all your vitamins and minerals. Eat plenty of vegetables. (Really. Probably the best piece of dietary advice I can give.) Drink plenty of water and get plenty of rest. </span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But a couple of things that aren't so obvious. Your body needs sodium as well as potassium, but the ratio is important. You need to make sure that you are getting more potassium than sodium. Fruit is a good source of potassium. Likewise, some fatty acids are essential, but you need to get more omega three than omega six. Fish is a good source of omega three, but for vegetarians like me, nuts and seeds (especially flax seeds and chia seeds) are also a good source.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Not all vegetables are alike. I am a strong advocate of leafy greens (like kale, collards, spinach, and dandelion greens) and the orange veggies (like carrots, sweet potatoes, winter squashes, and pumpkin). And, of course, you can never go wrong with broccoli. </span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Finally, for vegetarians and vegans, make sure that you get enough B12. Unfortunately, the best way to do this is to take a supplement, since B12 is only found naturally in animal products. </span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Social change depends on strong, healthy people, and since the society I want to create is one that meets everyone’s needs, knowing what we need nutritionally is important. And thus I study nutrition. </span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="color: magenta; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Quote of the Day</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: “... </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">nutrition</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> is the science of how the body uses food. In fact, nutrition is life. All living things, including you, need food and water to live…. If you don't eat and drink, you’ll die. Period.” - Carol Ann Rinzler </span></div>
<br />MoonRavenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03010194761440202586noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5301855515376548538.post-37170420562815639272018-04-02T02:00:00.000-04:002018-04-02T02:00:16.227-04:00Radical Lichenology <div dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-5e9d86c8-8225-0af3-1fb5-fcf66d0b0cb8" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’ve talked about lichens before in a post about </span><a href="https://social-alchemy.blogspot.com/2015/12/viruses-lichens-and-slime-molds.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">viruses, lichens, and slime molds</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, all things that don't easily fit into the usual biological categories. The easiest thing to say about lichens is that, although they aren't a single species, they act as if they are. What lichens really are is a relationship. </span></div>
<br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In the book, </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Radical Mycology</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, which I’ve referenced in the last </span><a href="http://social-alchemy.blogspot.com/2018/03/the-three-pillars-of-social-change.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">two</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><a href="http://social-alchemy.blogspot.com/2018/03/a-really-fungi.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">posts</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, there is a chapter on lichens called, naturally, Radical Lichenology. It's written by Nastassja Noell, who apparently has a degree in Lichenology from Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington. She defines lichens as being at least “a symbiotic relationship between a fungus and algae and/or photosynthesizing cyanobacteria.” She goes on to point out that a lichen often contains more than that--sometimes including many other microbes and even fungi, becoming a “miniature ecosystem.”</span></div>
<br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">According to her, there are three ways of looking at lichens. The first is the ‘Reductionist Perspective’, seeing a lichen as just a fungus and a photosynthesizer working together. The second is what she calls the ‘Mycocentric Perspective’, seeing the fungus as being in charge and treating the algae as if it were a plant that the fungus is raising. The third is the ‘Systems Perspective’, where the lichen is an ‘emergent property’, an ecosystem that includes all the living things that make up a lichen, as well as the light, and temperature, and gas levels, and nutrients involved. </span></div>
<br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Lichens grow very slowly, at the rate of perhaps a millimeter a year, but some of them last for thousands of years. In dry times, they can go into a dormant, desiccated state in which they can survive for more than a hundred years only to revive when rehydrated. However, they are very sensitive to pollution, so much so that they can be used as indicators of the environmental health of an area.</span></div>
<br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The chapter contains a lot more about lichens, how to harvest them, how to cultivate them, and how to use them for food and medicine, but what interested me was the fascinating relationships involved in a lichen as well as the systems perspective that Nastassja Noell takes in looking at lichens and talking about them. </span></div>
<br /><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="color: magenta; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Quote of the day</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: “Lichens are expressions of pure joy. … Inside the ecosystem of a lichen are most of the primary components of life: fungi, bacteria, algae, and cyanobacteria, all living in a discrete synergistic system that can rarely be synthesized </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">in vitro</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> but can withstand the extreme conditions of outer space…. The fungal symbiont creates a thick protective skin around the algae to protect it from desiccation. In exchange, the algae gives the fungus photosynthesized sugars. And together, they form shapes and pigments that help them survive and thrive in their other-worldly surroundings.” - Nastassja Noell </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
MoonRavenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03010194761440202586noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5301855515376548538.post-4655015838702852442018-03-26T02:00:00.000-04:002018-03-26T02:00:00.190-04:00A Really Fungi <div dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-5e9d86c8-4bb3-98d7-355c-3fec1573043d" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I mentioned in my last post that I have been studying mycology, which is the study of fungi. (Here's a joke from the book, </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Radical Mycology</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: “Why did the mushroom go to the party? Because he was a fungi.”) Most people, when they think of fungi, think of mushrooms, but mushrooms are just a small (but very visible) part of the fungal world.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There are single celled fungi, including yeasts and ‘chytrids’, but many fungi form long strands of cells called ‘hyphae’ (singular: hypha) which join together to form a network called mycelium. These are the white threads that you can find in the earth, in compost, and in rotting wood. These are also the many colored molds you see on decaying foods. One of the largest mycelium ever found is a fungus in Oregon that is 3.4 </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">miles</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> in diameter and thought to be more 2,400 years old!</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Mushrooms turn out to be the ‘fruiting bodies’ of the mycelium. Basically, when the mycelium decides that it is time to reproduce, it forms a mushroom, which contains spores that germinate to start new fungi. </span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Fungi are divided (by mycologists and other scientists) into several phyla. The various books that I looked at disagreed as to what many of these were, but there were two that all the books agreed on. These are the ones that produce some of the more visible fruiting bodies, the Ascomycota (which produces, among other things, truffles, morels, and cup fungi) and the Basidiomycota (which produces most of your standard mushrooms).</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A different way of looking at fungi is to understand how they nourish themselves. Fungi can be put into four categories: saprophytes, parasites, mycorrhizal, and endophytes. </span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Saprophytes are the decomposers of the fungal world. They live off of dead matter: dead plants, dead animals, even dead fungi, as well as fecal material. They (along with the bacteria) are the reason the world isn't filled with dead bodies (and leaves and logs and plants). The saprophytes recycle organic matter--especially wood, which is hard for bacteria to break down. </span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The parasites go after living tissue. These are the fungi that cause diseases in plants and animals (including people). And sometimes the lines are blurry between the saprophytic and parasitic fungi--especially when a creature or plant is old, weak, and/or dying. Some saprophytes get a head start, so to speak, before the tree, or whatever, is truly dead. </span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The mycorrhizal fungi are extremely important for the soil. Their mycelium are connected with plant roots and feed the roots minerals and other nutrients in exchange for the sugars that the plant provides. They are a huge part of the ‘soil food web’ that I mentioned in </span><a href="http://social-alchemy.blogspot.com/2018/03/four-scientific-minds.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">my piece about Elaine Ingham. </span></a></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Finally, the endophytes actually live inside plants, mostly in a mutualistic manner, protecting the plant while the plant nurtures them. </span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Some books that I have found useful in my study of mycology include:</span></div>
<ul style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A 1963 British text, </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Soil Fungi and Soil Fertility</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, by S.D. Garrett </span></div>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">My 2002 old standby, </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Biology,</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> by Campbell and Reece </span></div>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Another old favorite, </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Teaming with Microbes,</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> by Lowenfels and Lewis (2010)</span></div>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The book that I mentioned in my last post and at the beginning of this one, </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Radical Mycology</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, by Peter McCoy (2016)</span></div>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And the well known book by Paul Stamets (the real person, not the Star Trek: Discovery character), </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Mycelium Running</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> (2005) </span></div>
</li>
</ul>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(Incidentally, Jeff Lowenfels has a new book out called </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Teaming with Fungi</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> that I haven't gotten to look at yet.)</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Next, Radical Lichenology. </span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="color: magenta; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Quote of the Day</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: “Imagine yourself as a fungus!... Where do you live? What do you like to eat? What do you observe in the environment around you?” - Mitra Sticklen and Maya Elson </span></div>
<br />
<br />MoonRavenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03010194761440202586noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5301855515376548538.post-27118186640167618512018-03-19T02:00:00.000-04:002018-03-19T02:00:14.187-04:00The Three Pillars of Social Change <div dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-5e9d86c8-3b3c-1c8d-f176-0a9ceda13483" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I'm currently studying a bunch of different things, including mycology, which is the study of fungi. I was reading a book on </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Radical Mycology</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> (by Peter McCoy) where I read the first description outside of my writing or Joanna Macy’s of what I think of as the best strategy for social change. Peter McCoy briefly talks about what he refers as ‘the three major pillars of social change’: “education and awareness building around important issues; resisting, slowing, and stopping ineffective or disastrous social systems; and designing functional and appropriate alternative systems that increase quality of life.” He then goes on to other things, but I was surprised. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-5e9d86c8-3b38-db93-7885-3f63bd3668cf" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If I have any long term readers left, they probably have heard all this several times, most recently with my essay on </span><a href="https://social-alchemy.blogspot.com/2016/01/strategy.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Strategy</span></a><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. The short version, for recent readers, is that I believe that for social change to happen, you need three things: Analysis (that is, a clear understanding of what is currently going on), Vision (knowing where you want to go to), and Strategy (figuring out how you can get there). </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I think there is a lot of good analysis and vision around but for a long while I felt there wasn't much in the way of clear strategy. Then I heard Joanna Macy talk about what she called The Great Turning. She said that there were three dimensions to it: actions to stop or slow down harm, creation of ‘structural alternatives’, and a shift in consciousness. I immediately related it to a chant that I heard many years ago in Detroit: “Agitate, Educate, Organize!” Her point is that we need to do all three of these to create change. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Yes, the order shifts around between her version, Peter McCoy’s version, and the labor organizing chant, but the same pieces are in each: the need for ‘holding actions’, for building alternatives, and for getting information out that can change people's perspectives. We need folks out there agitating--marching, demonstrating, and doing civil disobedience--to buy time for us to not only create those alternatives, but get them up and running and make sure that they work, and then networking them together to put something in place that can replace the current, oppressive system. (I love what the International Workers of the World say in their ‘Preamble’ : “...we are forming the structure of the new society within the shell of the old.”) But all this alternative creation doesn't mean much unless people know about it and understand why it is necessary. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I truly appreciate all those folks out there, putting their bodies on the front lines. For my part, I have been working on creating communes as well as various sustainable structures, and supporting others as they built stuff. I plan to talk more about what I’m currently up to in a post soon. And I think of this blog, as well as the one on Commune Life that I managed until recently, as educational work, letting folks know about alternative ways of living. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And I want anyone reading this to think about what you can do to help make a better world. Which of these is the better strategy? The one that calls to you. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="color: magenta; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Quote of the Day</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: “The first dimension of the Great Turning is… heroic work… It serves to save some lives, and some ecosystems, species, and cultures… for the sustainable society to come. It is, however, insufficient to bring that society about. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“The second dimension of the Great Turning is equally crucial….We are … creating structural alternatives. … They may be hard to see at first, because they are seldom featured in the media, but if you keep your eyes open… they come into view… The actions that burgeon from our hands and minds may </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">look</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> marginal, but they hold the seeds for the future. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“These nascent institutions cannot take root and survive without deeply ingrained values to sustain them. … They require… a profound shift in our perception of reality… It is the third, most basic dimension of the Great Turning.” - Joanna Macy </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<br /></div>
MoonRavenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03010194761440202586noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5301855515376548538.post-90007655113318710132018-03-11T01:30:00.000-05:002018-03-11T01:30:27.116-05:00All-American Communes <div dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-5e9d86c8-0b8f-5cb6-26ad-e96c701bd3df" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’m far from patriotic and so it seems wild to me to label anything, “All-American”, but I also realize that at the beginning of this blog, I spent four months (from a post labeled <a href="https://social-alchemy.blogspot.com/2009/01/us-history-1-why.html" target="_blank">“US History 1:Why?”</a> </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">on January 1st, 2009, to <a href="https://social-alchemy.blogspot.com/2009/04/ush30-what-about-now.html" target="_blank">“USH30: What About Now?”</a> </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">posted on April 27th) focusing on American history. </span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In fact, the most popular post on this blog, by far, is one of the history posts, <a href="https://social-alchemy.blogspot.com/2009/04/ush25-social-movements-in-80s.html" target="_blank">“USH25:Social Movements in the Eighties”</a>. </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> It's had over three thousand page views, which isn't a lot for a blog, I know, but the next most popular post has only five hundred something page views. My guess is that the reason it's so popular is that it shows up in searches, and it may be one of the few pieces on eighties social movements, and it's being used by high school and college students for writing papers. </span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’ve talked extensively here about communes and communities as laboratories for social change and, in my history posts, I also talked about communal histories, especially <a href="https://social-alchemy.blogspot.com/2009/01/ush7-utopian-communities-and-new.html" target="_blank">the utopian communities of the nineteenth century</a>. </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I have thought about that as the beginning of the communal movement in the US.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Finally, I have a Google newsfeed set up to flag any articles on “Communes" or “Intentional Communities”. Recently <a href="http://www.eveningtribune.com/blogs/20180226/free-love-and-silverware--oneida-community" target="_blank">this showed up</a>. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
</div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It's a promotional piece for a talk on the Oneida community. I’ve always been fascinated by this community, but what grabbed my attention was the beginning of the piece. </span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The author mentions the communes of the sixties and how ‘counter-culture’ and, for some people, ‘un-American’ they were. He then goes on to say: “In reality, though, they were as American as apple pie. We often miss the fact that the English colonies in America started out as experimental utopian societies: the Pilgrims with their communism and commitment to the simple life; Massachusetts and the other Puritan colonies, with their austerity and a commitment to self-examination and self-criticism that would make Chairman Mao cheer; Rhode Island, with its commitment to anarchy; the Pennsylvania Quakers, with their pacifism and their mysticism; the pacifist anabaptist sects, with their semi-closed communities; Georgia, where the rulers imported misfits and criminals so as to reprogram them after isolating them in the wilderness. </span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Our pioneer settlers were the lunatic fringe, and when they sailed away, folks back in Europe were delighted to wave goodbye.”</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It’s a very different view of American history, and one that makes me appreciate that the communal experiments that a bunch of us are engaging in, go a long way back. </span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><strong><span style="color: magenta;">Quote of the Day:</span></strong> “We got another burst of utopian communities in the middle of the 19th century, as the world was turning toward the modern age, away from lifestyles that had endured for a thousand years. … While dozens of such communities speckled the American landscape, they lay especially thick in a band then ran from Boston to Buffalo. “ - Kirk House </span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-5e9d86c8-0b8f-5cb6-26ad-e96c701bd3df" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />MoonRavenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03010194761440202586noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5301855515376548538.post-72771669905819743402018-03-05T02:00:00.000-05:002018-03-05T02:01:00.568-05:00Four Scientific Minds<b style="font-weight: normal;"><div dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-69ffd948-ec84-767f-8b36-0f0f84de1fd7" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As I’ve been saying, I have been reading a lot of science over the past few years. Not just soil science and chemistry and biology, but mycology and nutrition and microbiology and social science and, of course, system theory. While I have learned a lot from a lot of different people, I realized recently that I have had four major influences. As I said at the end of my last post, they are all women and I don't think that is an accident. </span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I am not opposed to ‘reductionist science’. I think there are a lot of things that can be learned from it. But there is only so far that you can go with it, before you need to connect the dots. System thinking is essential to understanding the world and system thinking is all about relationships. And, no surprise, women are a lot better at thinking about relationships than men.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So,here are four women who have strongly influenced my thinking. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And the first, since I’ve been talking about soil science and ended my last post with a quote from her, is Elaine Ingham. </span><br />
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elaine_Ingham" target="_blank">Elaine Ingham</a></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> is a soil microbiologist who has studied and popularized the interactions of the inhabitants of the soil. She uses the term ‘soil food web’ to describe these complex relationships that support the health of the soil, the plants living in it, and the food we eat from those plants. While a bunch of it concerns who eats who in this subterranean ecosystem, a lot of it is also about how plants interact with bacteria and fungi, trading with each other and literally feeding each other. I love how she uses the term ‘soil food web’, rather than ‘food chain’, to point out that it is not a linear process. It’s about relationships and interactions and, of course, systems. She has gotten many people to rethink how they garden and grow plants and treat the soil. </span><br />
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A second microbiologist who has had an influence on me, is <a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynn_Margulis" target="_blank">Lynn Margulis</a>. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I think of her as a microbiologist because of all of her work with bacteria but, like many important thinkers, she would hardly stay in one category. She studied genetics and zoology, taught in the Biology department at Boston University, the Botany department at the University of Massachusetts, and the department of Geosciences at Amherst College. She came up with the theory of endosymbiosis (that mitochondria and chloroplasts were independent organisms that were incorporated into eukaryotic cells), and then spent decades fighting all the opposition to it. By the 1980s, it was generally accepted science. She (along with James Lovelock) was one of the originators of the Gaia Hypothesis. She was an opponent of Neo-Darwinism, believing that life moved forward by cooperation rather than competition. I love the quote from her and her son, Dorion Sagan, “Life did not take over the globe by combat, but by networking.” Sadly, she died in 2011.</span><br />
<br /><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">My third influence is <a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donella_Meadows" target="_blank">Donella Meadows</a>, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">who I have <a href="https://social-alchemy.blogspot.com/2012/01/learning-from-modeling.html" target="_blank">written about</a> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> <a href="https://social-alchemy.blogspot.com/2013/01/thinking-in-circles.html" target="_blank">several times</a> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">here. I’ve<a href="https://social-alchemy.blogspot.com/2012/02/leverage-points-and-graphs-of-future.html" target="_blank"> promised</a> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://social-alchemy.blogspot.com/2015/06/statified-nesting-and-hierarchy.html" target="_blank">a few times</a> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">to do a full fledged review of her book, <strong><em>Thinking in Systems</em></strong>, but have never done it. It’s been an influence on me, nonetheless, especially her chapter on 'Leverage Points'. She was the principal co-author of <strong><em>Limits to Growth</em></strong> which was a major warning that capitalist growth couldn't continue indefinitely. It seems obvious, but in 1972 it was a shock to many leaders and routinely criticized by people who couldn't believe it. Now it seems prescient. She left MIT and their computers and moved to Vermont where she founded the Sustainability Institute along with an ecovillage and an organic farm. Unfortunately, she has died as well, in 2001.</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Finally, I have recently grown to appreciate <a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elinor_Ostrom" target="_blank">Elinor Ostrom</a>, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">a political economist, who, ironically, was rejected from UCLA’s economics department (getting a PhD in political science, instead) and went on to become the first woman to win the Nobel Prize in economics. She directly challenged the idea that a shared commons would always end in tragedy, doing research and field studies that showed examples of societies that successfully managed natural resources together. She championed multifaceted, grassroots approaches, arguing against any single answer for social and ecological problems. She outlined the basic principles involved in these sharing systems and you can actually <a href="https://youtu.be/ByXM47Ri1Kc" target="_blank">watch her</a> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">explain how to get beyond the tragedy of the commons. And, while doing the research for this post, found out that she, too, died, in 2012.</span><br />
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In honor of these wonderful women, all of whom taught the benefits of cooperation and relationships, I would like to request that anyone who reads this, further explore the work of any or all of them. Their ideas and thinking deserve to be spread. They were true pioneers and I think we can all learn from them. </span><br />
<br /><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><strong><span style="color: magenta;">Quote of the Day:</span></strong> “... communities of individuals have relied on institutions resembling neither the state nor the market to govern some resource systems with reasonable degrees of success over long periods of time.” - Elinor Ostrom </span><br />
<br /><br /></b><br />MoonRavenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03010194761440202586noreply@blogger.com2