Community


Though there are wind-blown seeds from other worlds
and forces unseen which shape who we are,
many a man is largely the product of his culture
It shapes us, and we shape it

Yet the advantage is not ours
for on the newborn child society begins from birth to exert a great influence,
whereas the child's open mind does not discern but learn... to fly or to hold his chains.
And most people grow to be not sculptors, but clay.
For this the form is crucial
Culture is the form

I have nothing but faith in our collective journey
I trust in the evolution of Man
but today we are bound by systems which do not evolve
but instead hold fast to fossils
We are limited in our progress as a people by institutions clinging to power
By governments without reason or integrity, who fear real democracy and deliver nonsense
By corporations without conscience who seek profit at any expense
and will spare no exploitation, including that of their own children
These things must be changed
These forms are as static at heart as dry hardened clay
awaiting the hammer of revolution

Why not water, instead?
for this hard block
we call the world
would soon be soft
and malleable in the hand
wet with the water of hope

Our society is ours to determine
the living world that our children inherit is ours to define today
We decide, everyday,
whether to leave them with freedom or trouble.
And there is no shortage of trouble.

What we need from community is sanctuary
We need sanctuary for consciousness
We need to create spaces where people can be safe, live free, and grow aware
Where their basic needs are met and where they can work with meaning
Our societies must be developed into systems that allow our evolution to progress unhindered,
with systems that inspire, and not oppress,
neither mentally nor physically.

We have the power of design
We are free from the chains of tradition
We choose the future
Lets put thought into the nature of our nursery







Much more coming...

The Sacred Pool

To speak of the sacred is not dogma.

There is sacred in the life of man, regardless of whether we are able to recognize it.
What is sacred if not the source of life? What is worthy of respect if not that which keeps us alive?
And how long would we last, you and I, without that which comes from the earth?

Our daily food and water? They don't come from the supermarket. They come from the ground.
The oxygen we breathe? The atmosphere which protects us from scorching sun and freezing night?
This is our salvation.

Unless one's religion is suicide, the natural systems of the earth meet the definition of sacred.
Without those resources, and the integrity of the natural systems which provide them, we are all dead.
Dead, dead, dead.
With them, we survive. In a potential paradise, no less.

It's that simple. There is no dogma involved.

Imagine a man, stranded in the middle of a desert, far, far away from anything else, with no chance of escape.
There is only one thing there where that man is, a small spring-fed pool. The pool gives him fresh water to drink.
There is a healthy population of fish and plants living in the water that gives him all the nourishment he requires.

Should he respect the pool?

Should he honor the water, feel graced by its presence?
Would honoring the "inanimate" water be a fools religion? A superstitious dogma?

If anything is sacred in this man's life, any actual physical thing, it is the pool. It is all that keeps him alive.
It is in fact inseparable from his body, for what happens to it is exactly what happens to him.
If the pool runs dry, he runs dry. If the pool is poisoned, he is poisoned.
It is an extension of himself, and he, of it. Were he to start pissing into the water, if he were to disrupt the balance of the system in any way, it would mean his end. For this man, to disturb the pool would be to commit suicide.

This man's story is our own.

We live in the middle of a desert.
It is called space. It is cold and barren, and we live far, far away from anything else.
The earth is our little pool, our beautiful little pool, and despite how grand and complex is the interaction of her systems, essentially, her balance is as fragile.

There may be another earth-like oasis out there somewhere, it even seems likely, but neither we nor our children will be swimming off this island for good anytime soon. And even if we were to find another planet to call home, and even if we were capable of making the journey, for how long would we keep it livable? Would we emigrate along with our ignorance? The practice of sustainability is planetary stewardship. It is a prerequisite to a good life anywhere in the universe, yet we appear to be unaware of this most basic concept. If we can't learn it here on the paradise that is the Earth, then we don't deserve another virgin pool to piss in.

The natural systems around us cannot be logically separated from the body of man. Any action that threatens their balance is a suicidal action. It may be a slow acting poison, but if it results in the permanent disruption of a vital system, the death will be sure.

In order for our societies to begin to act with this understanding, we must recognize the sanctity of the planet, and we must incorporate this understanding into every layer of the social fabric. This sense of preservation can be part of a cultural tradition that honors the Earth, and is thankful for life, or it can be merely a scientifically calculated understanding fueled by our innate sense of self-preservation, designed to protect the natural systems of the planet from the harm we may do to them out of ignorance. Either way is to our advantage, but until we absorb this understanding into every level of human society, we will continue to run down a path to ruin.

We must hold the earth sacred.

Do not waste time and energy pleading with your so called leaders
An appeal to conscience will be fruitless
The conscience grows in an loving environment
It is nourished by a respect for truth
These people don't live in that place
Their world turns on lies and they accept them to survive
They do not contemplate truth, as theory or as reality.
They speak empty words and they hear empty words,
so do not expect their conscience to be awakened by more.

So do not waste time and energy pleading
Your pleas will be in vain
Force the change
Force the change upon the leaders
Force a change in their actions
Don't worry about their intentions
Correct their actions.

With all power comes vulnerability
It is the tallest tree that fears the wind
and it is the greatest beast that fears a fall.
With all power comes vulnerability,
and as stronger grows a force of oppression
the more widespread grows it's opposition

There lies our strength

We can bring an end to this corrupt system
and we don't need to destroy anything to do it
We can bring it down by doing exactly the opposite
We can force a change by coming together and creating something better.

It's by creating a better world that we will see it come, not by destroying what already exists.
Together we can create new ways and systems which will make obsolete the failures of the past.

In the practice of Unity lies our hope.

There are so many more people disenfranchised than rewarded by this modern society
Which values so very little
There are seas of people who have lost faith in their state, were it ever there at all
These people, good people,
from all walks of life, and all political persuasions,
have the potential of an enormous force.
They are a flood that is held back by paper.

Bringing just some of these people together, into inspired, focused movements,
should be a goal of every socially-minded activist today.

Reaching out across perceived barriers of politics and culture,
as we work to redefine our society,
and to control the forces that currently define it,
we have so much more to gain from Unity
than from adversity.

THE GREAT ASIAN SUNBELT SOLAR OVEN BRIGADE

The number one cause of deforestation in the world isn't corporate logging, it's cooking fires.
The United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that more than 2.4 billion people lack adequate cooking fuels.
Many people spend as much money on fuel to cook their food as they spend on the food itself.

For these people around the world who need to cook their daily bread with fire, wood grows scarce, and every year more distant. The countless man hours of labor required to gather this wood (woman hours, actually), at farther and farther distances from the village, takes an enormous toll on these people's time. And the toll on the land, as millions of acres lose the vegetation they require to remain fertile, is devastating.

There is no solution so elegant to this problem as the Solar Oven.