back to our roots again
to hazelwoodeditor@yahoo.com
for http://hazelwoodhomepage.com
People think of the movement of the seasons from Spring to Summer to Fall to Winter as a circle which just keeps repeating, but this isn't exactly true. Oh, the seasons go round and round, alright, but every year is different. Time is a slow spiral of progress which never quite returns to the beginning. The Earth changes, we humans change, all living things change from one season to the next. We strike out on a new path each year, adapt to unexpected changes, and finish the year needing to rest and think about the results of the growing season. Every year we charge into Spring with big plans to create in our individual pieces of Earth what we think best. And each year our plans change, with or without our consent.
So one gets to spend the winter evaluating successes and failures. What are the good memories? Did I produce a good amount of quality of whatever all it was I was trying to grow? Did other people like what I grew? And how have my desires changed? What do I want to try next year?
Community gardening this year I learned a bunch of things. Everybody's different. You can no more change other people's way of seeing things than they can change yours. Variety is good, and cooperation is precious. I'm focused on making good soil and growing food, while other people are more into growing beauty and neighborliness. I'm interested in solving problems I see coming (such as human-caused climate change, steeply rising food prices, and pollution and disease hazard increases from our industrial agriculture). Many of my neighbors are more here-and-now oriented, concerned with making a living and getting along with those they come into contact with daily. I pay attention to both history and current events around the world, knowing they sooner or later will affect my part of it.
We humans are a strange bunch. Thinking ourselves helpless to change the world, we succeed by going along with any baloney that gets defined as normal. We equate normal with good. God help us if we ever get jammed up into a situation in which we actually have to think. We want to get TOLD what to think; going along with the crowd makes us feel safer. But what happens when you realize going along with the program is suicidal? What happens when you realize nobody's really any wiser than you, and you have to make some decisions on your own (and face the consequences alone)? My mother used to say, "If someone tells you to jump off a bridge, are you gonna?" Well, that's just what we're doing right now. We as a human species are stampeding over a cliff. Each of us has but a small piece of the puzzle, unable to see the whole picture. Unable to see ourselves in each other, we struggle as Earth's environment goes critical.
Is beauty the same as uniformity? The same garden felt by some as beautiful is thought by others to be ugly. I think sometimes when people say a garden is ugly or messy they're thinking not so much about their own perception but what they think others would think. Oh, you can't have plants growing up wild like that, the neighbors will think it's just a bunch of weeds. There's cultural baggage that makes us want to "civilize" everything by controlling all the life in a place. But I think that's the same fear of diversity that leads to conflict between peoples. Let Nature do it's thing, for crying in the bucket - that's what beauty is. We have to not only respect the other living things, but give them their freedom as much as possible.
There were talks in Durban, South Africa in December to try to slow down the climate change that everyone can see is happening now. But, of course, there was no agreement. So we're drifting along. Some of us know that environmental problems are coming to a head, so that the entire Earth ecosystem is in crisis.
So we're going into another winter in the Northern Hemisphere. It's a time of great change. Some of us are growing into greater relationship with other people and other species. Some of us are clinging to the past, deluding ourselves into thinking we don't need to change. Those of us who are awake know we have to change, radically, and NOW. Those steadfastly holding their eyes closed, paralyzed and blinded by fear (like stroke victims behind the wheel), need to be taken out of the drivers seat so as not to be a danger to themselves and others. Maybe by Spring 2012 we'll all be working together on this planet to deal with the mushrooming interacting crises we all are becoming enmeshed in. A new age of peace - among people and in Nature - is coming. But it's clear we're never going to get there by just going along with the program (business as usual.)
Jim McCue
St. Jim the Composter
412-421-6496
composter and biotech researcher
http://bioeverything.blogspot.com/2009/02/celebrate-earth.html
http://hazelwoodurbangardens.blogspot.com
http://facebook.com/alllifelover
http://plentyoffish.com/member498447.htm
http://hazelwoodhomepage.com
for http://hazelwoodhomepage.com
People think of the movement of the seasons from Spring to Summer to Fall to Winter as a circle which just keeps repeating, but this isn't exactly true. Oh, the seasons go round and round, alright, but every year is different. Time is a slow spiral of progress which never quite returns to the beginning. The Earth changes, we humans change, all living things change from one season to the next. We strike out on a new path each year, adapt to unexpected changes, and finish the year needing to rest and think about the results of the growing season. Every year we charge into Spring with big plans to create in our individual pieces of Earth what we think best. And each year our plans change, with or without our consent.
So one gets to spend the winter evaluating successes and failures. What are the good memories? Did I produce a good amount of quality of whatever all it was I was trying to grow? Did other people like what I grew? And how have my desires changed? What do I want to try next year?
Community gardening this year I learned a bunch of things. Everybody's different. You can no more change other people's way of seeing things than they can change yours. Variety is good, and cooperation is precious. I'm focused on making good soil and growing food, while other people are more into growing beauty and neighborliness. I'm interested in solving problems I see coming (such as human-caused climate change, steeply rising food prices, and pollution and disease hazard increases from our industrial agriculture). Many of my neighbors are more here-and-now oriented, concerned with making a living and getting along with those they come into contact with daily. I pay attention to both history and current events around the world, knowing they sooner or later will affect my part of it.
We humans are a strange bunch. Thinking ourselves helpless to change the world, we succeed by going along with any baloney that gets defined as normal. We equate normal with good. God help us if we ever get jammed up into a situation in which we actually have to think. We want to get TOLD what to think; going along with the crowd makes us feel safer. But what happens when you realize going along with the program is suicidal? What happens when you realize nobody's really any wiser than you, and you have to make some decisions on your own (and face the consequences alone)? My mother used to say, "If someone tells you to jump off a bridge, are you gonna?" Well, that's just what we're doing right now. We as a human species are stampeding over a cliff. Each of us has but a small piece of the puzzle, unable to see the whole picture. Unable to see ourselves in each other, we struggle as Earth's environment goes critical.
Is beauty the same as uniformity? The same garden felt by some as beautiful is thought by others to be ugly. I think sometimes when people say a garden is ugly or messy they're thinking not so much about their own perception but what they think others would think. Oh, you can't have plants growing up wild like that, the neighbors will think it's just a bunch of weeds. There's cultural baggage that makes us want to "civilize" everything by controlling all the life in a place. But I think that's the same fear of diversity that leads to conflict between peoples. Let Nature do it's thing, for crying in the bucket - that's what beauty is. We have to not only respect the other living things, but give them their freedom as much as possible.
There were talks in Durban, South Africa in December to try to slow down the climate change that everyone can see is happening now. But, of course, there was no agreement. So we're drifting along. Some of us know that environmental problems are coming to a head, so that the entire Earth ecosystem is in crisis.
So we're going into another winter in the Northern Hemisphere. It's a time of great change. Some of us are growing into greater relationship with other people and other species. Some of us are clinging to the past, deluding ourselves into thinking we don't need to change. Those of us who are awake know we have to change, radically, and NOW. Those steadfastly holding their eyes closed, paralyzed and blinded by fear (like stroke victims behind the wheel), need to be taken out of the drivers seat so as not to be a danger to themselves and others. Maybe by Spring 2012 we'll all be working together on this planet to deal with the mushrooming interacting crises we all are becoming enmeshed in. A new age of peace - among people and in Nature - is coming. But it's clear we're never going to get there by just going along with the program (business as usual.)
Jim McCue
St. Jim the Composter
412-421-6496
composter and biotech researcher
http://bioeverything.blogspot.com/2009/02/celebrate-earth.html
http://hazelwoodurbangardens.blogspot.com
http://facebook.com/alllifelover
http://plentyoffish.com/member498447.htm
http://hazelwoodhomepage.com
posted by St. Jim the Composter at 9:15 AM
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