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TechnoratiSurvival Tools — Farming, Stories, Poetry, Writing, and Leaning
I farm with an old-fashioned scythe, which I use to cut grass. I relish how my body feels as it dances in the field while swinging this long, efficient tool. I enjoy seeing what I am cutting and thus avoid killing small oaks and redwoods. The sharp blade takes my gaze to the ground, which holds up all of us and merits our attention and even devotion. Each creature--no matter how small--has an important role in the whole. The sweet sounds that the scythe makes as it swishes through the grass comfort me.
The loud, ugly, industrial sounds and smells made by gas-operated mowers do not appeal to me. Beautiful sounds like swishing grass and recited poetry relax me. I love the multiple utterances that my chickens release from their joyful beaks as they ecstatically celebrate their appreciations of the new day and still being alive. When the wind sweeps through the tall grass and bamboo I planted on my Kokopelli Farm here in the Redwood Empire of Northern California, it soothes me as if it were a harp. I hear Orpheus-the father of ancient Greek poetry and music--playing his enchanting lyre. The wind and the redwoods make incredible dance partners.
An incense cedar and giant sequoia on the land where I also live lean on each other and inspire me. I call them "the couple." At night I sometimes sleep out in the cozy forest bed beneath them and drink in the fragrant, sweet darkness revealed by the diffuse light of the moon and stars. I benefit from and bask beneath their leaning.
Everything that lives dies-individuals, nations, and even planets. The Grim Reaper gets all of us, even empires. The United States seems to be at the end of its rope in many ways-losing wars, a falling dollar and declining economy, decreasing prestige among the peoples of the world. A key question now is how to live during the transition from the no-longer of the American Empire, trying to salvage the best of America, and make it to whatever not-yet we can create. The deepening darkness can be more manageable if we lean on each other.
MOVING TO KOKOPELLI FARM
After 25 years of college teaching and administration, I left college as my primary work environment for agriculture in the early l990s. I sensed that many of humanity's support systems and the natural capital that sustains us were breaking down. I wanted to learn more about the basics of food, water, plants, animals, the soil, climate, and the elements. I wanted to be able to feed myself and others with good, nourishing food during an uncertain future of diminishing natural resources and heightening conflicts.
After a search I decided to move to Sonoma County, remaining in the state of my birth. Whenever this native son tries to leave my home-state, California, my body goes where I direct it, but only for a while; then my feet take me back home. Sonoma has nearly 500,000 people and is within the creative San Francisco Bay Area. I bought land with berry vines, apple trees, oaks, redwoods and a tiny house in the uplands of the Cunningham Marsh near the small town of Sebastopol, where less than 8000 souls live.
Our community actively deals with issues such as making a transition to alternative energy sources and the increasingly chaotic global climate. We have active neighborhood groups and support each other to buy local and re-localize. Among the effective groups here are the Climate Protection Campaign and the Post-Carbon Institute. Sebastopol citizens regularly elect well-informed officials who seek to deal with the real issues. We welcome newcomers as we work together to build community during this transition to a post-carbon future.
As the US begins to have more political, economic, and social problems, certain geographical areas where people have gathered to pursue sustainability and relocalization are more likely to prosper. Thinking strategically about where to live-where there is enough food, water, and the social capital of community-is crucial.
I recently returned to part-time college teaching. I sense that we are approaching a tipping point, so I decided to re-embed myself within institutions to have more contact with people and resources to help make a transition to whatever we can create to thrive during the changing times. I have also recently returned to working within religious institutions. I have been appointed to the arts and spirituality board of a local Episcopal church and have preached about the themes in this essay at three Unitarian Universalist churches in our region.
Kokopelli Farm is what I decided to call the place that I have inhabited with animals, plants, the elements and a few people for most of the last 15 years. I named it after the legendary humpbacked flute player of the pueblo Anasazi people. He went from village to village- even those who were fighting each other-and brought peace. Kokopelli is an agrarian deity, man of peace, and trickster. Known as the great sprinkler and fertilizer, with his antenna, Kokopelli is a member of the insect clan. I wanted the blessings of the insects on my food growing. They can have their part, as can the deer and others who also need to eat. I was, however, glad when a mountain lion returned a few years ago and thinned out the deer. Too much of even a good thing can be problematic. The old but short oaks-made into bonsai by too many deer--shot up tall in a few years, leaping with joy from their sturdy and deep taproots. Plants have so much to teach us about survival and adaptation, as do animals.
When obstacles to appropriate growth are dealt with, amazing growth spurts are possible. We need such growth spurts in public awareness to deal with the substantial problems created by over-population, war-making, increasingly extreme climate, and the depletion of natural resources such as fossil fuels.
As I write in my redwood cabin built with wood salvaged over a decade from old chicken coops, I hear my neighbor's dairy cows bellowing in the distance and I see his large, gentle workhorses calmly eating grass. The majority of people used to farm and live in the countryside. Now less than 2% farm in the US and most people live in urban areas. As our high tech energy sources diminish more people will have to turn to farming to survive. It is not such a bad option. Agri-culture, after all, is a basis of culture, which is more important than agri-business, in my opinion.
THE ORAL TRADITION OF RECITED POETRY
We have a small group of minstrels and troubadours who call ourselves the Kokopelli Players. Some of us met through the Sons of Orpheus, a group that gathered weekly for years to tell our stories, recite poetry, and play music. The oral, musical, movement, and artistic traditions take on a special importance during a time-such as ours-of cultural change. Political and social change are not enough; we need what Brazilian educator Paulo Freire describes as "cultural action" to dig deeper to craft new stories and ways of being to lead us into a better future where humanity can live in balance with nature.
The blind French resistance member Jacques Lusseyran was condemned to Buchenwald concentration camp by the Nazis. He survived by reciting poetry and helping organize other prisoners to do so. In "Poetry in Buchenwald," translated by Noelle Oxenhandler, Lusseyran writes the following:
"I saw the lines of prisoners who trudged toward the central square to report for work. I saw the cold, the hunger, the fear...I began to recite verses...Little by little, another voice was added to mine... the verses were being repeated in the darkness... More men came. They formed a circle. They echoed the words...They leaned toward me, gesturing, swaying, beating their chests, lisping, muttering, crying out, seized by a sudden passion. I was dumbstruck, happy like a child."
"One dark winter morning...we were about thirty exhausted men, shivering...Boris suddenly...recited from Peguy's 'The Tapestry of Notre Dame'...when the poem was over, a little man...said to me, 'Touch my forehead. It's sweat! That's what warms us up, poetry!' In fact, the iciness had disappeared. We no longer felt our exhaustion."
"...poetry is an act, an incantation, a kiss of peace, a medicine, one of the rare things in the world which can prevail over cold and hatred...To nourish the desire to live, to make it burn... Man is nourished by the invisible...Man is nourished by that which is beyond the personal."
The blind, young Lusseyran was one of the few to survive Buchenwald.
IN PRAISE OF SWEET DARKNESS
Our Kokopelli Players roam around blending earthy sounds with recited poetry in the oral tradition. We offer sermons at local churches on subjects such as "In Praise of Sweet Darkness, Luscious Berries, and Endarkenment." We honor the night, sleep, dreams, and chocolate, seeking to recover the benevolent aspects of the darkness that the ancients, mystics and indigenous people seem to understand. Some contemporary poets--including Wendell Berry, David Whyte, and Mary Oliver-also embrace sweet darkness. Industrial culture often hides in the glare of too much brilliant light, which combat needs.
The current over-emphasis on industrialism's bright lights needs to be balanced by the multiple gifts that the dark offers, which many 21st century Western people fear. As the Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu wrote in the 6th century BCE, "Darkness is the gateway to all understanding." The Greek poet Noonus requested the following in the 6th century A.D.: "Make long the sweet darkness." In his poem during the Vietnam War, "In a Dark Time," l966, the American poet Theodore Roethke wrote, "In a dark time, the eye begins to see." We once again live in such a dark time when global war-making threatens us; would that more of our eyes would begin to open and see.
In his song "Darkness, Darkness" Jessie Colin Young longs for darkness "to ease the day that brings me pain." As the great German-speaking poet Rainer Maria Rilke affirms, "I love the dark hours of my being/ in which my senses drop into the deep." From those depths we can create better futures.
THE VETERANS' WRITING GROUP
This past summer an attorney summoned me to Chile to appear in the torture and execution case of my good friend Frank Teruggi. We lived there during the democratic government of Pres. Salvador Allende. When Gen. Augusto Pinochet took over on Sept. 11, l973, he began killibng many people, including Frank, and continued his reign of terror for nearly 20 years.
The prompt for me to write this essay was the Veterans' Writing Group that I have been meeting with for over a dozen years. Initiated by the Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hahn, it has been skillfully lead by Maxine Hong Kingston. We recently published our first book, Veterans of War, Veterans of Peace (www.vowvop.org). Knowing that I would sit in circle again with these men and women evoked certain memories. Story-telling-both orally and on the page-can heal and help set us free.
In our vets group we investigate, reveal, and write from our memories, attempting to integrate them. We seek to distill the sweetness hidden within the darkness.
LEANING ON EACH OTHER
"I know I won't always be here," the co-host of our vets group comments as she looks out the window from her hilltop home into a marvelous Redwood Empire valley. "So I want to appreciate and care for the Earth while I can," she adds, leaning on her World War II veteran husband. We recently celebrated his 80th birthday.
"I see when I walk how well all things lean on each other," Robert Bly begins his poem "In the Month of May." As our vets group goes on its afternoon walking meditation, I notice how well the trees and other vegetation lean on each other. Such leaning can create great joy and capacity to endure pain and suffering. The reverence and humor of our being together enable me to speak more of my truth, ask for help, and lean toward others, thus breaking the isolation that characterizes industrialism.
I talk and write about my memories from Chile in order to replace them with sweet winter images of leaning on each other. It is warmer that way. I recently received a load of wool, which I am placing around the berry vines as mulch to help them through the winter and to suppress the weeds. Stories and poems can help us mulch and compost our experiences.
As we walk on our meditation through the giant trees, a women vet takes my arm as we go down the hill. "You can lean on me," I think. "May I lean on you?" I wonder.
Shepherd Bliss, sbliss@hawaii.edu, teaches at Sonoma State University in Northern California and has run an organic farm for the last 15 years. He has contributed to over 20 books.
27 Comments so far
Show AllSHEPARD BLISS -- Bless you for standing firm and declaring a new narrative of our existence, and possibilities. This is the healing side of lioving fully.
We all need to STOP the insanity going through our lives, if only for a moment, and be in the presence of our whole (holy) nature. Even a scant breath devoted to poetry, or watching a bird fly, is far better than the walls of our otherwise closing cubical walls:
I would envision a micro-subdivision. There would be two sorts of property: private and communal, and two sorts of rules. Private property would be minimal, the space one's house sits on, and a modest easement around it. Communal property would contain a farm, gardens, parks, city hall, roads and trails, etc.
There would be virtually no rules on the private property, other than square footage, a noise and litter/pollution ordinance. The goal would be to maximize individual freedom to the complete extent, so long as it wasn't infringing on someone else's liberty (the auditory aspect of noise, the visual/ecological/health aspect of pollution).
The communal property rules would be set up for maximizing group/social benefit. People would agree by consensus what crops to plant, how to maintain the parks, handle disputes, ensure that nobody is trashing the commons, and any other rules that govern the communal zone.
This is my own style -- but I would avoid all sorts of bureaucracy like the plague. I've been through Green Party meetings that more closely resemble corporate board meetings, with central committees and titled officers than the consensus-style systems they originally set out to emulate.
What a great discussion!
lpenek wrote: "A problem with the coop community/commune, whatever you would call it, is that it just takes that one ass to screw everything up, that one person who wants a bigger piece of the pie."
That tends to happen in groups with minimal written governance, or groups without written agreements, or groups that lack an ethic of being true to agreements.
It also depends on the form of governance. Although I'm a big fan of consensus, it does take more work and training. Groups that expect a lack of cohesion and "problem" dissenters might prefer a "Roberts Rules" sort of majority democracy instead of consensus. Then the "asses" can stomp off when they're out-voted.
That's not to say there is never dissent in consensus. The difference is that consensus crafts an agreement that everyone can buy in to.
mary ann wrote: "I've survived nearly 40 years of living in various intentional communities and live in one now."
Wow, I'm impressed!
"Though I live on less than $5000 a year, I have everything I need (except health insurance)... Another thing you will find out about living in poor rural communities is that barter is a highly developed art form."
That's a big reason we moved to Canada for our social experiment. The US simply has no support for such a community, although there's tons of support if you want to make lots of money off the labour of others.
I want to take mild objection to the characterization of "poor rural communities." Poor has so many negative connotations: "Look at that poor guy."
Another reason for leaving the US was the pervasive atmosphere about what is important. In the US, you're either rich (or trying to be rich), or poor (or trying to keep from being poor).
In the US, we tried to practice voluntary simplicity, but we were constantly made to feel "poor." In Canada, we're looked up to by friends and supporters in the greater community as "frugal" or "thrifty." Many of us have a friendly competition going about how little we depend on the greater economy.
Some thoughts on barter: I see quid pro quo barter as only once removed from the money economy. We strive to be twice-removed, by operating on a "gift economy." I formally provide goods and services to many others with the understanding that I'd like my out-of-pocket expenses reimbursed, and that there is a market value for these goods and services, and then I take whatever I'm offered in return.
Sometimes people offer me non-monetary gifts in return, sometimes they give me more than the market value. Sometimes they can only afford much less than the market value, and I'm happy to have helped them get by. In only one case, they consistently gave me very small gifts in return, even while enjoying a more consumptive life-style than my own -- if they need me in the future, I'll probably be too busy, and they'll have to hire at market rates.
sharono360 wrote: "The land was in one person's name and he had all the decision making control. The group eventually went bankrupt because of mismanagement and the whole group suffered for it."
This is one of the biggest reasons such things fail. You can't have community without equity. Otherwise, it's just a form of feudalism.
Yes Sharono360, a land trust with clear agreements is very important. Also get training in nonviolent communication and cooperative processes. This is a way of life that really works for a lot more people than you would imagine, but it takes work and committment and real maturity. Stay away from any group that has a charismatic "leader" who owns the land and runs things. Mature people can cooperate and share the leadership, the work and the benefits joyfully.
Jan,
Thank you for the sources! I'll check into them. I saw once how a charter school failed. There's a number of sociological, psychological and power issues which need to be anticipated ("Founder's Syndrome" is one of them).
A very clear charter and set of legal documents would be essential, but I think it ultimately won't be legalese that helps the community in day-to-day affairs. The real key, I suspect, is to have like-minded people from the onset.
I lived in an intentional community for most of my adult life. There is a lot to be said for that lifestyle. However, it depends on how it is set up and what your beliefs and goals are. We were supposedly based on the New Testament with all things in common but it didn't really work that way. The land was in one person's name and he had all the decision making control. The group eventually went bankrupt because of mismanagement and the whole group suffered for it. I think it would have been way better to have a land trust, for example, with clear agreements.
A unique and extremely interesting article and discussion. I agree that today's world has stripped the responsible unit down to the individual and I've always been repelled by having to purchase or pay for every commodity or service, or the reverse, the assumption that I will demand payment for every single thing I do for another human being. All of which is, of course, a hay day for capitalist corporate America. Keep them divided and keep them dependent.
A problem with the coop community/commune, whatever you would call it, is that it just takes that one ass to screw everything up, that one person who wants a bigger piece of the pie. That can arise in family situations too, of course.
The concept of "neighbor" is an in-between and neutral entity usually devoid of direct responsibility, or with a self-selected level of responsibility. The problem here is that "neighbor" is as often a hostile competitor, at least in America. I live in a rural enclave of houses/ranches and I can say that I would have grave misgivings in cooperatively owning or sharing anything with them -- just because we've been burned once too often. Any community must overcome the natural progression of mistrust that often ensues.
No need to cosmic sigh. We don't need to march in lockstep. We'll all be fine in the scheme of things, and I know that the peak energy notion is widely spread in progressive circles but in reality energy will remain cheap. The doomsday scenarios will arrive with Godot.
[moderator, please delete this]
[Moderator, I don't know what went wrong with my editing. Please delete all but the first of my three nearly-identical postings above.]
Living in community is indeed a challenge, but I've survived nearly 40 years of living in various intentional communities and live in one now. And it makes so much sense in this day and age. We have, for instance, a central water system that serves ten households. For each individual the savings are huge. If we can not work together in small social groups, how can we complain about the goverrnance of our states or nation?
The key, I believe, is as Thoreau trumpeted: Simplify, Simplify.
In the 60s many of us heard that call, gave away most of our belongings and hit the road searching for alternatives. Thoreau lived an experiment to learn first hand what is actually necessary to survive: simple food, shelter, and warmth. I've found that the more I've simplified my life, the richer my life has become. Though I live on less than $5000 a year, I have everything I need (except health insurance). My larder is stocked with food and herbs I raised myself or got from neighbors.
Another thing you will find out about living in poor rural communities is that barter is a highly developed art form. Every town has its "junk meisters". Once you connect with this network and way of interacting, it can be fun, a treasure hunt. I'll trade you Hopi squash and blue potatoes for those rain gutters or whatever. Some of it does prove to be junk, but you live and learn.
For those of you who complain that you can't possible embrace a simple rural life, I would say give your life a clear, hard look. Are you a slave to fashion? Do you really need all those shirts, shoes, etc etc. All those electric gadgets to brush your teeth, whip up drinks and food, etc etc. How about all that sports equipment with special outfits for each sport at exhorbitant prices. Or all that Yuppie lawn furniture -- a garden bench, a bargain at only $1099.99. I may spend months looking for one good thing, like a well made shovel or a good wooden spoon for the kitchen. Most of what I own is second hand, but probably higher quality than the utter junk that passes for merchandice today. You can buy functional and even beautiful clothes at any thrift shop in America. Stop buying. If you buy, buy One Good Thing. A sturdy pair of shoes. A good tool. If you are really radical, throw away your TV! Out here we may have computers, but there are very few TVs. See how much more time you have to grow at least a little of your own food if you get rid of the boob tube. Embrace simplicity. Community is a way to vastly simplify the infrastructure you require. Embracing this lifestyle is challenging, exasperating, but it can be done. It is a life-long journey. And it is truly rewarding! It requires outrageousness, imagination and perhaps most of all a sense of humor. You can do it.
Paul Bramscher wrote: "... this would be an excellent project for IC's to develop — some sort of clearinghouse for simple legal documents of purchase agreement for people to start IC's, handle governance, etc."
We practice radical transparency, and you all are welcome to copy our documents and use them as you will. Included is our complete articles of incorporation as a British Columbia Cooperative Association -- copy as-is and modify in BC, or see what fits into similar legal entities where you live.
I highly recommend two books by Diana Leafe Christian, who is also one of our advisors: Creating a Life Together, a "how to" book for those contemplating starting an intentional community, and Finding Community, a "how to" book for those who wish to join an existing intentional community.
twistoflex wrote "Tribes are generally related people. They are basically just large extended families."
Cultural anthropologists will tell you otherwise. Tribes typically contain multiple unrelated or partially-related families. The taboo against incest runs deep within our genes, and for good reason. Mating typically takes place between tribes, or within totally unrelated members of the same tribe. Tribes that don't observe this taboo don't last long, as they become overwhelmed with genetic defects.
smaxam wrote: "I have never in my life, ever, trusted people in groups."
I'm sorry to hear that. I can sense the pain you've suffered from one or more unhappy interactions with groups in the past.
It doesn't have to be that way. Just because you encountered dysfunctional groups does not mean they all are dysfunctional!
Many of the aberrations you cite come from poor communication practices. Diana Leafe Christian (op. cit., above) teaches that clear, written agreements are the key to successful group living. "Shunning" and similar practices are traditional ways that aberrant behavior is dealt with in anarchic groups, but in a consensus-based group with written agreements, it should never come as a surprise when one is cast out.
bakunun , dream on...barak obama will buy up the farm , so he can build a nuclear energy plant on it. wake up , and smell the aroma of burning flesh .
I enjoyed reading this column.
I don't know..I'm with Bramscher on this one..it looks like something only a pre-X,Y generationer can do...I'm too busy trying to support a family and get through graduate school to be out scything...although I must admit life on a farm with like-minded progressive people, poets, philosophers, artists, and just generally good folk is my dream..So I guess by choosing to live and work/study in a city I am part of the problem...*cosmic sigh*
I have never in my life, ever, trusted people in groups. I have seen too much unpleasant treatment of individuals, including shunning, persecuting, and exiling just for the purpose of making a group tighter and more self-righteously secure in its own structure.
I have chosen a lonely path, but I have chosen it. But, I wish well and good to those who are banding together to gain their goals in their good and honest reaction to the social and economic ills of this now benighted nation.
I live in upstate New York and can tell you that land prices here are nothing like California. It really doesn't take a lot of land to give you what you want, so sell that suburban monster for what you can and come out to what is left of America.
If you come to this area, I'll sure give you a warm welcome.
California is chock full of fruits and nuts.
Jan Steinman
Tribes are generally related people. They are basically just large extended families.
Jan Steinman,
I believe you are correct, and perhaps are speaking about what may be inevitable (not optional). There are at least two homes in my suburban (formerly small town) neighborhood which aren't owned by a single couple -- 2 couples in each.
I joked with a member of my extended family a couple years ago, who owns a family farm, about building a cottage somewhere on his property and helping out. His reply was more serious, and affirmative. I've got others who own farms as well.
But I think it would be best with people around my own age and of similar goals, purchased from the get-go with a charter agreement covering the various issues. Now that I think about this, this would be an excellent project for IC's to develop -- some sort of clearinghouse for simple legal documents of purchase agreement for people to start IC's, handle governance, etc. I know that charter schools can create a fair amount of political/management turmoil in situations where they don't work. So a very unambiguous set of guidelines would probably be important.
Thank you Jan Steinman for saying so well what I wish I had said about tribes and building communities as a way that underfunded people can get back to the land. And yes, it's very hard work to create that new kind of social group but well worth it. See the Intentional Communities website, www.ic.org . And for others not yet ready for such move, just start by growing some food wherever you are. In pots, in your back yard. And talk with your neighbors as you're doing it.You'll learn a lot and start feeling hopeful about life again.
I love the wise, Taoistic tone of this article. Barack Obama's presidential campaign offers hope and has attracted many people with that offer. But what sort of hope? As far as I can see it hasn't been well defined by Obama, and the hope rests in hope in Obama himself. That will not be enough! We need to listen to people of vision like Shepherd who are pioneering a new way of being or more exactly reviving old and time-tested ways of being. The habits we have developed in the era of false prosperity will soon be impossible to maintain, and in any case they have brought us mostly anxiety and alienation. I love what Shepherd says about the value of darkness. Try turning off you electric lights and lighting a single candle, and observe the effect that has on your imagination and subconscious. Go out for a walk on a star-filled night and marvel at the universe we inhabit.
Paul Bramscher writes: "The price of land has been ratcheted up so high as to make it virtually impossible today. What's a college instructor earn today? What does acreage cost today? What can the X and Y generation do, with regard to this dilemma?"
The answer is incredibly simple in concept, and incredibly difficult to execute: you need to buy land cooperatively.
This is more than a way for underfunded folk to join the land; it is an imperative in the coming energy decline.
From the dawn of civilization, humankind has banded together. Call them tribes, communities, whatever -- they were tightly-knit groups of mostly un-related people who gathered for mutual support. Individuals identified first with their tribe, then with their family.
Then came cheap energy. As the available energy grew, the need for the mutual support systems of tribes became less. The family became the dominant social unit, and up until very recently, was expected to be independent and autonomous. Family farm, family business, family gatherings -- this emphasis on bloodline was enabled largely by cheap energy. (Pre-fossil fuel, strong families were also enabled by cheap energy -- of serfs or slaves. Everyone else had community.)
When super-cheap energy arrived, the social unit devolved even further, to the individual. Here at Peak Energy, each of us are expected to be autonomous beings, albeit with the social memory of family and tribe. You hear of blended families, second families, etc. as though we as individuals are striving hard to find a social group to fit into. But meanwhile, we shove our kids in day care and shove our parents into assisted living -- even children and the aged are supposed to function as individuals, paying others to help them as needed.
So now let's prepare for life after the peak. Energy is about to get very expensive again. We can no longer afford the luxury of being autonomous individuals. Perhaps the family could be resurrected as a social unit, but most of us are probably too spoiled by our energy-fed individual autonomy. (How many of your extended family would pool their resources with you to buy some land?)
So that leaves the return of the tribe, intentional or accidental. Go seek out like-minded folk, and get entangled with them -- for better or for worse. (Community tends to not work so well if anyone can join or leave on a whim.) It will be full of joy, full of sorrow, full of accomplishment, full of pain -- a full life! And you'll be sharing that full life with wonderful, frustrating, talented, needy, stubborn, supportive people -- just like yourself.
We need to re-create the tribe. What a better way than cooperatively building a community from the ground up!
http://www.EcoReality.org
Beautiful article, very inspiring, thank you.
Wonderful article Shepherd. I recently moved to a rural intentional community, and at 67, am learning to swing a sythe. Also doing permaculture and planning for community food production. We sing and make poetry too. Food for the soul as we humans move into uncharted territory. Hope, like love, is a verb.
This guy, like Gary Snyder, has done what I can only dream about.
The price of land has been ratcheted up so high as to make it virtually impossible today. What's a college instructor earn today? What does acreage cost today?
What can the X and Y generation do, with regard to this dilemma?
Very interesting discussion,Shepherd. I have been imagining how many years it will take to get us back to where we were 200 years ago. It will be a little difficult for some of our citizens who have never done any actual physical labor to pick up those scythes and find out what a sore back and callouses on their hands feel like. I do agree that it is a shame so many felt the need or were forced to move to large cities when they would have had a better life if they had stayed in rural areas. It will be quite an experience to watch progressing backwards after going forward for so long.
Very cool article, keep up the good work. I would even go a step further, don't cut the grass! We use a scythe for a small grassy area in our backyard, but we let the rest of the front and back yard go to native plants, trees, shrubs and perennials. It takes time, the but the result is well worth it.