In order to justify the outlines of the previous post, it is necessary to establish this basic premise:
All things have a right to be.
Which is to say that the basic requirements for existence should not be denied. In a human being this would mean air, water, food, and the space to secure these things. This is, in fact, the same list of needs for all living things to some degree.
( One might argue that a fish does not require air, but in fact the oceans and waterways are part of a greater system that is dependent on the existence of air. This is true even for micro organic life in that they too are part of a larger system.)
Once we establish that all human beings have in common, a right to air, water, food and the space to use them we can then proceed to the idea that any action that denies these essential rights for another, cannot be an inherent right. All laws and conventions should thus precipitate from this ideal.
This is not to say that it is the responsibility of society to provide these things for each individual. It is to say that it is the responsibility of person not to corrupt another beings access to these essentials, and possibly, it is society's role to protect individual access to these common rights.
Sunday, July 31, 2011
Monday, July 25, 2011
An exercise in Responsibility
It would be a novel thing if the entities that used the common wealth (see definitions below) for the generation of money, as oppose to survival, were to pay for that use accordingly. What could our society look like?
Would a situation work that was structured as such:
A person using the common wealth to create, manufacture, posses anything greater than his sustenance would be taxed with increasing rate according to increased use of said commonwealth and also additionally for any pollutants or corruptions inflicted upon the commonwealth.
A government would be established by these taxes to enforce these laws, the collection of said taxes, and regulate the public service providers.
Ownership of land would not be allowed. Use of land would be a right. Corruption of land would be a crime. Stewardship of land a responsibility. See division of land use.
Ownership of property would be limited to ones own duration. No thing could be inherited, no condition could be inherited. Any legal ownership of material goods would have to transpire during the lifetime of both parties involved.
Punishment of citizens would be at the expense of the commonwealth.
In a society as such a persons real and primary occupation in life would be to eat and have shelter. This would also be the persons fundamental right. Also, his fundamental responsibility.
A person who was not capable of gathering, hunting, or growing his own food would be provided for by his community. The impetus for this would be derived from the scale of such communities and the direct impact of the well being of each person on the well being of each other person.
A person who wanted to specialize in shoe making, or medicine, would be free to do so. The motivation to do so must be pure because the financial incentive would be removed by the increased tax for doing something other than seeing to ones own needs.
A shoe maker, for example would be taxed higher if he needed to gather materials from the commonwealth other than those for his own needs. He would exchange shoes for his sustenance or material goods, but the incentive to greater production would be limited by the increased taxes for increased burden on the commonwealth that increased production would cause.
A doctor would not require much of the commonwealth to practice his art, and thus would be taxed accordingly, but exchange for other than sustenance would give diminishing return because of the greater taxes on production of material goods. The same would hold true for any public service providers.
The ideas of a governmental surplus, or deficit, do raise concern, but since the government would be enforced by every citizen, for a limited duration, the risk of corruption would seem greatly reduced by the virtue of the fact that government office is more duty than privilege and little lasting power or influence is held.
Common wealth: All that is. The air, water, land, flora and fauna of the planet and of the universe.
Government: A rotating body of people whose responsibility it is to enforce the laws of Responsibility. Membership in this government would be required of each citizen for a limited duration of time. Compensation for time served would be only sustenance and surplus time if any existed. This government would include any military forces. Military service would also be a requirement of each citizen for a limited duration.
Military Service: The responsibility of each citizen to defend the rights of the commonwealth. This is a defensive role, not an offensive one. Opposition to service on moral and religious grounds could be answered by renouncement of privilege to any material possession and a career of public service i.e. Doctor, fireman, veterinarian.
Public servant: Any role that requires the trust of the commonwealth and is for the good of others.
Crime: The oppression of another person, or the corruption of the commonwealth.
Rights: Those realities available to every part of the commonwealth.
Responsibility: The obligation of each person upon the commonwealth of no oppression, or corruption historically or forward in time.
Oppression: The restriction of the natural progress of another by outside influence that would compromise the natural cycle or spirit.
Taxes: A contribution of ones sustenance, or production, for the benefit of the commonwealth.
Punishment of citizens: would be in the form of limiting access to social and economic exchange and public service or possible relocation of the convicted to locations of limited resource. Imprisonment would be appropriate in cases where the criminal is an ongoing threat to the commonwealth (murder, rape, arson, pollution)
Pollution: The result of activity by a human being that cannot be absorbed by the environment in such a way as to not be harmful to the commonwealth.
Just the idea of a shift in responsibility for each of us, and for all of us can be enough to promote change for the better. This is really just the idea of a tune, a whistle or hum, if you will, rather than a complete score. You can decide if it has the qualities of a pop hit, a symphony, or a dissonant noise. Rewrite it, create a variation, or a chorus, or verse, or auto-tune it. Do a punk version or a musak version, what ever, but at least if you've read to here, you have heard it once. The theme may come back at some point in your future.
Would a situation work that was structured as such:
Premise
A person living on some piece of land and growing food on it for his and his families sustenance would not be taxed beyond what he offered.A person using the common wealth to create, manufacture, posses anything greater than his sustenance would be taxed with increasing rate according to increased use of said commonwealth and also additionally for any pollutants or corruptions inflicted upon the commonwealth.
The Commonwealth, and thusly those entities with rights, would be limited to physical beings. Non tangibles, ideas, concepts would have no limitations to use and dispersement. (copyright and patent are nonexistent)
Ownership of land would not be allowed. Use of land would be a right. Corruption of land would be a crime. Stewardship of land a responsibility. See division of land use.
Ownership of property would be limited to ones own duration. No thing could be inherited, no condition could be inherited. Any legal ownership of material goods would have to transpire during the lifetime of both parties involved.
Punishment of citizens would be at the expense of the commonwealth.
In a society as such a persons real and primary occupation in life would be to eat and have shelter. This would also be the persons fundamental right. Also, his fundamental responsibility.
A person who was not capable of gathering, hunting, or growing his own food would be provided for by his community. The impetus for this would be derived from the scale of such communities and the direct impact of the well being of each person on the well being of each other person.
A person who wanted to specialize in shoe making, or medicine, would be free to do so. The motivation to do so must be pure because the financial incentive would be removed by the increased tax for doing something other than seeing to ones own needs.
A shoe maker, for example would be taxed higher if he needed to gather materials from the commonwealth other than those for his own needs. He would exchange shoes for his sustenance or material goods, but the incentive to greater production would be limited by the increased taxes for increased burden on the commonwealth that increased production would cause.
A doctor would not require much of the commonwealth to practice his art, and thus would be taxed accordingly, but exchange for other than sustenance would give diminishing return because of the greater taxes on production of material goods. The same would hold true for any public service providers.
The ideas of a governmental surplus, or deficit, do raise concern, but since the government would be enforced by every citizen, for a limited duration, the risk of corruption would seem greatly reduced by the virtue of the fact that government office is more duty than privilege and little lasting power or influence is held.
Definitions
Government: A rotating body of people whose responsibility it is to enforce the laws of Responsibility. Membership in this government would be required of each citizen for a limited duration of time. Compensation for time served would be only sustenance and surplus time if any existed. This government would include any military forces. Military service would also be a requirement of each citizen for a limited duration.
Military Service: The responsibility of each citizen to defend the rights of the commonwealth. This is a defensive role, not an offensive one. Opposition to service on moral and religious grounds could be answered by renouncement of privilege to any material possession and a career of public service i.e. Doctor, fireman, veterinarian.
Public servant: Any role that requires the trust of the commonwealth and is for the good of others.
Crime: The oppression of another person, or the corruption of the commonwealth.
Rights: Those realities available to every part of the commonwealth.
Responsibility: The obligation of each person upon the commonwealth of no oppression, or corruption historically or forward in time.
Oppression: The restriction of the natural progress of another by outside influence that would compromise the natural cycle or spirit.
Taxes: A contribution of ones sustenance, or production, for the benefit of the commonwealth.
Punishment of citizens: would be in the form of limiting access to social and economic exchange and public service or possible relocation of the convicted to locations of limited resource. Imprisonment would be appropriate in cases where the criminal is an ongoing threat to the commonwealth (murder, rape, arson, pollution)
Pollution: The result of activity by a human being that cannot be absorbed by the environment in such a way as to not be harmful to the commonwealth.
Division of land use
One idea would be a mathematical formula calculated by taking the usable land and dividing it up by the population, adding a buffering factor and using that result as the bases for each persons reasonable land use. This would be the premise for no actual property lines, but rather to determine what division would be acceptable to the commonwealth.Just the idea of a shift in responsibility for each of us, and for all of us can be enough to promote change for the better. This is really just the idea of a tune, a whistle or hum, if you will, rather than a complete score. You can decide if it has the qualities of a pop hit, a symphony, or a dissonant noise. Rewrite it, create a variation, or a chorus, or verse, or auto-tune it. Do a punk version or a musak version, what ever, but at least if you've read to here, you have heard it once. The theme may come back at some point in your future.
rough, not just around the edges
In China, the death penalty has been given for taking bribes in big business. I wonder how our congressional representatives would feel about that possibility of that degree of punishment here, and a serious assessment of their relationships to big corporations?
Robots are irresponsible. In a recent radio report, during the time of power outages in the N.East due to high demand and high temps, researchers were discussing the future of robots in the home. How does this make any sense, when we can't even supply the power needed now, with current demands? Increasingly technology has replaced human ability and work. With this increase has come an increase in power requirements, as well as resources to produce these technological products and methods. We are in a challenged time with regards to energy sources and pollution. I don't see how the path to more of the same makes any sense. If anything, stepping back and unplugging and using human power, or just less seems the only logical path to the future. In this country people don't sacrifice due to physical limitations. Other parts of the world sacrifice(die) so we can be comfortable.
Heat wave, power outages, sewers dumping into the Hudson. Ban on swimming and boating just when people need to get cooled off.
UN discussing how climate change could threaten world peace, duh.
A Winston Churchill quote recently that seems to fit the situation, as well as the optimism that we choose to have after a week of debt-limit pessimism. “Americans can be counted upon to always do the right thing, but only after exhausting all other possibilities.”(from some news source on the web) This quote seems to be very applicable to many other issues as well, Climate change, immigration, poverty, health care, imperialism/colonialism... However it doesn't seem that we have exhausted all the other possibilities yet, because we still haven't done the right thing.
In reference to the GOP and Obama's conflict over the debt issues of the United States, Max Kaiser, a political analyst called it "A financial lynching" by a racist party. This is the thought I expressed last week. It is so blatant now that I think only people who are closet racist or white and extremely embarrassed about it could deny it.
"We've come a long way Baby"--- NOT!
I was reading a right wing appraisal of climate change (Global Warming Panel to Earth's Rescue, on the UN's Dime? by Rachel Marsden ) or more precisely, of climate change scientists call for concern and funding, and was very impressed by yet another fairly ignorant, juvenile, even stupid, assessment of the science, and the situation.
I will say that even the smallest measurable difference in distance, weight, temperature, volume.....can have great consequence if it occurs at the crucial point, the "tipping point". One can be on the edge of a cliff, or just over it, the physical difference in small, but the reality is great. Water and ice are not so far away in degrees, but how they act is very different. One drop can be the difference between full and overflowing. It is said that it is just one straw that breaks the camels back!
"Merely quantitative differences, beyond a certain point, pass into qualitative changes." --Karl Marx
Ms. Marsden references the melting glaciers, as well as the ocean, as a source for an abundance of waters. Here proximity and salinity might be concepts she should acquaint herself with.
It is not the lack of intelligence in articles like this that gets to me, but rather the bombast with which it is all presented, the cocksure attitude of the ignorant and uneducated. It all smells of high school mentality and social structure. It is sometimes truly embarrassing to share titles of adult, and american, educated, and human with some people sometimes. Don't these publications have editors? In a blog I would be much more accepting of uninformed attitudes and statistics, but in a publication that claims to be "leading conservative media since 1944", I'd think somebody would have sent Marsden back to her notebook for a rewrite. Then again, considering "conservative media", it kind of figures. Pathetic, truly sad.
Robots are irresponsible. In a recent radio report, during the time of power outages in the N.East due to high demand and high temps, researchers were discussing the future of robots in the home. How does this make any sense, when we can't even supply the power needed now, with current demands? Increasingly technology has replaced human ability and work. With this increase has come an increase in power requirements, as well as resources to produce these technological products and methods. We are in a challenged time with regards to energy sources and pollution. I don't see how the path to more of the same makes any sense. If anything, stepping back and unplugging and using human power, or just less seems the only logical path to the future. In this country people don't sacrifice due to physical limitations. Other parts of the world sacrifice(die) so we can be comfortable.
Heat wave, power outages, sewers dumping into the Hudson. Ban on swimming and boating just when people need to get cooled off.
UN discussing how climate change could threaten world peace, duh.
A Winston Churchill quote recently that seems to fit the situation, as well as the optimism that we choose to have after a week of debt-limit pessimism. “Americans can be counted upon to always do the right thing, but only after exhausting all other possibilities.”(from some news source on the web) This quote seems to be very applicable to many other issues as well, Climate change, immigration, poverty, health care, imperialism/colonialism... However it doesn't seem that we have exhausted all the other possibilities yet, because we still haven't done the right thing.
In reference to the GOP and Obama's conflict over the debt issues of the United States, Max Kaiser, a political analyst called it "A financial lynching" by a racist party. This is the thought I expressed last week. It is so blatant now that I think only people who are closet racist or white and extremely embarrassed about it could deny it.
"We've come a long way Baby"--- NOT!
I was reading a right wing appraisal of climate change (Global Warming Panel to Earth's Rescue, on the UN's Dime? by Rachel Marsden ) or more precisely, of climate change scientists call for concern and funding, and was very impressed by yet another fairly ignorant, juvenile, even stupid, assessment of the science, and the situation.
I will say that even the smallest measurable difference in distance, weight, temperature, volume.....can have great consequence if it occurs at the crucial point, the "tipping point". One can be on the edge of a cliff, or just over it, the physical difference in small, but the reality is great. Water and ice are not so far away in degrees, but how they act is very different. One drop can be the difference between full and overflowing. It is said that it is just one straw that breaks the camels back!
"Merely quantitative differences, beyond a certain point, pass into qualitative changes." --Karl Marx
Ms. Marsden references the melting glaciers, as well as the ocean, as a source for an abundance of waters. Here proximity and salinity might be concepts she should acquaint herself with.
It is not the lack of intelligence in articles like this that gets to me, but rather the bombast with which it is all presented, the cocksure attitude of the ignorant and uneducated. It all smells of high school mentality and social structure. It is sometimes truly embarrassing to share titles of adult, and american, educated, and human with some people sometimes. Don't these publications have editors? In a blog I would be much more accepting of uninformed attitudes and statistics, but in a publication that claims to be "leading conservative media since 1944", I'd think somebody would have sent Marsden back to her notebook for a rewrite. Then again, considering "conservative media", it kind of figures. Pathetic, truly sad.
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Big Brother forgive me
Barrel Hoop update!:Barrel Hoop Garden
A new blog has been created for the goings on in the garden, sooooo, no more updates on that here. Check Out The New Blog!!!!
There is a benefit to having a brain that has the qualities of a colander. I not only can't retain a lot of the information I read, but I don't have to worry about trying to give credit where it is due because I usually can't remember where I got the information. I can just make all statements with the preface that I have no original ideas and anything useful I come up with was gotten from someone else. Which is true, if you believe in a higher power than oneself, named or otherwise.
The other benefit of this type of mental capacity, or lack of, is that I tend to remember only the good parts, or the parts that are important to me. This has it's liabilities of course. I am always humbled when in the presence of people who can recall events, names, and places from history. Current studies are showing that the internet is not going to help my case at all and is causing many people to lose their recall abilities because access to information is so instantly available.
I have, since returning from the long trip across this country, almost all of it in silence, or at least quite, started once again to find joy in music and song. For sometime now I have only been interested in listening to talk radio, news and informational types of media. I felt that there was too much to learn about, to much going on, to be just listening to music for fun.
Death puts things in perspective. The loss of a loved one, and the confrontation with ones own mortality and the cycle that is and has seemingly always been, of life and death and birth and aging hasn't exactly trivialized the news of the world and the struggles that go on all over, but it has reminded me that man's life has always been such. I don't take this to mean that it is pointless to try to improve the state of man, not at all, but I do get the real value of joy in my life. Simple joy in waking up to the sound of birds, or the pleasure I get from singing along with the radio songs from my youth. Joy should not be overlooked or undervalued.
The desire to help others, to see joy in the faces of other people, especially people who have nothing to do with me has grown. I sometimes drive a vehicle that can make people smile, especially children and adults of a certain age. When I was a boy I got an ego boost from driving a car that made other guys look twice. It was egotistical, shallow and I outgrew it pretty quick. Now when I drive by in my yellow 29 yr. old VW van I see people who were just frowning, smile and stop to watch as I roll by. It works even better when I wear a tie dyed shirt. Their isn't much reason to puff out my chest in a car that looks like a shoe box on wheels and goes slower than some bicycles, but there is supreme pleasure in seeing other people break their serious, driven, stern character and just smile, even laugh.
When I think of my elders who are no longer here I almost always smile. I have little use for melancholy remembrances. They seem self indulgent. I remember with a deep sense of gratitude for having known them, for having loved them and for being able to carry with me the lessons they taught me.
I am, because of all those who came before me. I am, the culmination of the history of man, of life, of love. As part of the signature from a merchant that I have been doing business with I got sent this quote:
"It seems to me that if you or I must choose between two courses of thought
or action, we should remember our dying and try so to live that our death
brings no pleasure to the world." ~ Steinbeck
As a further I would add:
"so that the memory of our living brings joy to the world"
I think upon my elders with "An Attitude of Gratitude".
A new blog has been created for the goings on in the garden, sooooo, no more updates on that here. Check Out The New Blog!!!!
Big Brother forgive me, it's been 12 day since my last blog. (before that it was a month!) Since my last blog I have cursed the internet news several times and I have consorted with actual humans on several occasions and even conversed in person.............
 |
| Dirty and worn from walking the path |
Actual life, and death, has gotten between me and my virtual life. A recent passing of a human being that I dearly loved and respected, and the trip to try to see her before her passing took a bit of the stuffing out of me. It made sitting here and punching away at this keyboard seem a little bit empty. Maybe because the world is a bit emptier with out her in it. The world is a bit less with out her kind of persons in it and everyday there are fewer and fewer of them. It is for us to remain and make the most of what we have and to remember those that have come before us, knowing that they too faced a time when their elders were no longer among them.
There is a benefit to having a brain that has the qualities of a colander. I not only can't retain a lot of the information I read, but I don't have to worry about trying to give credit where it is due because I usually can't remember where I got the information. I can just make all statements with the preface that I have no original ideas and anything useful I come up with was gotten from someone else. Which is true, if you believe in a higher power than oneself, named or otherwise.
The other benefit of this type of mental capacity, or lack of, is that I tend to remember only the good parts, or the parts that are important to me. This has it's liabilities of course. I am always humbled when in the presence of people who can recall events, names, and places from history. Current studies are showing that the internet is not going to help my case at all and is causing many people to lose their recall abilities because access to information is so instantly available.
I have, since returning from the long trip across this country, almost all of it in silence, or at least quite, started once again to find joy in music and song. For sometime now I have only been interested in listening to talk radio, news and informational types of media. I felt that there was too much to learn about, to much going on, to be just listening to music for fun.
Death puts things in perspective. The loss of a loved one, and the confrontation with ones own mortality and the cycle that is and has seemingly always been, of life and death and birth and aging hasn't exactly trivialized the news of the world and the struggles that go on all over, but it has reminded me that man's life has always been such. I don't take this to mean that it is pointless to try to improve the state of man, not at all, but I do get the real value of joy in my life. Simple joy in waking up to the sound of birds, or the pleasure I get from singing along with the radio songs from my youth. Joy should not be overlooked or undervalued.
The desire to help others, to see joy in the faces of other people, especially people who have nothing to do with me has grown. I sometimes drive a vehicle that can make people smile, especially children and adults of a certain age. When I was a boy I got an ego boost from driving a car that made other guys look twice. It was egotistical, shallow and I outgrew it pretty quick. Now when I drive by in my yellow 29 yr. old VW van I see people who were just frowning, smile and stop to watch as I roll by. It works even better when I wear a tie dyed shirt. Their isn't much reason to puff out my chest in a car that looks like a shoe box on wheels and goes slower than some bicycles, but there is supreme pleasure in seeing other people break their serious, driven, stern character and just smile, even laugh.
When I think of my elders who are no longer here I almost always smile. I have little use for melancholy remembrances. They seem self indulgent. I remember with a deep sense of gratitude for having known them, for having loved them and for being able to carry with me the lessons they taught me.
I am, because of all those who came before me. I am, the culmination of the history of man, of life, of love. As part of the signature from a merchant that I have been doing business with I got sent this quote:
"It seems to me that if you or I must choose between two courses of thought
or action, we should remember our dying and try so to live that our death
brings no pleasure to the world." ~ Steinbeck
As a further I would add:
"so that the memory of our living brings joy to the world"
I think upon my elders with "An Attitude of Gratitude".
Friday, July 8, 2011
An Embrace
Put your arms out in front of you as you would if you were to give your Mother a hug. You know how far apart to space your arms because you have an understanding of the size of your Mother, right?
Now, imagine that instead of taking your garbage cans to the curb each week or so, you just put cans, one after another, of garbage in your living room, or hallway, where ever you can fit them inside the house. How long until that becomes pretty unpleasant, and overcrowded?
At one time, your Mother provided all of your needs. Your home holds all of you and your stuff. Try to think of the earth as your Mother and your only home. Do you have any idea how big she is? Do you have any idea how much capacity she has?
I have been fortunate in my life to have travelled a bit around the planet. I have also had the privilege, and at times the task, of driving from one side of this continent to the other, and from the top to the bottom. I have crossed it high and low and thru the middle. I have a pretty good understanding of how big this continent is.
From this understanding it is not to difficult for me to extend that knowledge to the rest of the planet and to be able to grasp the size of the rest of the earth. It's pretty big, and, it's pretty small.
Traveling 5 days and stopping to sleep at night I can cross this country, sea to sea. During that crossing I could note, in detail all that lies between those to shores. I have done this. I could do this about 8 times and I would have gone around the world at the equator. 8 times is a pretty understandable number of times, in fact, I have done it more than 8 times.
There are those who speak and act as if the earth and it's resources are limitless. If the are being honest then I can only guess that they have no real idea of how big the earth is. They also must have no real idea of how many of us are on it, using it, and polluting it each moment. How many is 7 billion really? can you imagine that number in any real tangible way?
In traveling across the land I came to think about a few things. How much of it is actually inhabitable by people? How much of the land can actually supply us with fresh water, or a climate that can grow food? In how much of it is the weather, the environment friendly to humans?
The earth, it's resources, have a limit to them. The rate at which the earth can absorb and produce the things necessary to to support human life, clean air, healthy soil, fresh water, actually has a physical limit to it. Most of us don't seem to realize this, or at least, our actions don't reflect any knowledge of the limits of our situation.
We often turn to "technological advancement" to give us the answers and remedies to our insatiable hunger for energy and materials. Science is born of the earth and technological advancement is simply the twisting of materials and principals that already exist, in limited supply, and within certain physical laws.
You can't make a cake with just a recipe. With out the flour, sugar, and all the other ingredients all you have is the idea of a cake.
It is not human habitation that is threatening the environment we live in. It is not human waste that is corrupting our soil. It is the industrial machines and their methods that are taking at a rate that is unsupportable, unsustainable. We keep buying the products of these machines and that is their life blood. The pump will find a way to keep pumping, no matter what the cost (it will be past along) and no matter what the laws say (the laws will reflect the will of the people) as long as we keep paying at the pump.
My outlook can swing wide from day to day. Today, I see no real hope that people, each of us, will change our lives in any way that would cause industry, and the governments who support them, to slow the rate at which they plunder and pollute the very place that we depend on for our health and existence.
Now, imagine that instead of taking your garbage cans to the curb each week or so, you just put cans, one after another, of garbage in your living room, or hallway, where ever you can fit them inside the house. How long until that becomes pretty unpleasant, and overcrowded?
At one time, your Mother provided all of your needs. Your home holds all of you and your stuff. Try to think of the earth as your Mother and your only home. Do you have any idea how big she is? Do you have any idea how much capacity she has?
I have been fortunate in my life to have travelled a bit around the planet. I have also had the privilege, and at times the task, of driving from one side of this continent to the other, and from the top to the bottom. I have crossed it high and low and thru the middle. I have a pretty good understanding of how big this continent is.
From this understanding it is not to difficult for me to extend that knowledge to the rest of the planet and to be able to grasp the size of the rest of the earth. It's pretty big, and, it's pretty small.
Traveling 5 days and stopping to sleep at night I can cross this country, sea to sea. During that crossing I could note, in detail all that lies between those to shores. I have done this. I could do this about 8 times and I would have gone around the world at the equator. 8 times is a pretty understandable number of times, in fact, I have done it more than 8 times.
There are those who speak and act as if the earth and it's resources are limitless. If the are being honest then I can only guess that they have no real idea of how big the earth is. They also must have no real idea of how many of us are on it, using it, and polluting it each moment. How many is 7 billion really? can you imagine that number in any real tangible way?
In traveling across the land I came to think about a few things. How much of it is actually inhabitable by people? How much of the land can actually supply us with fresh water, or a climate that can grow food? In how much of it is the weather, the environment friendly to humans?
The earth, it's resources, have a limit to them. The rate at which the earth can absorb and produce the things necessary to to support human life, clean air, healthy soil, fresh water, actually has a physical limit to it. Most of us don't seem to realize this, or at least, our actions don't reflect any knowledge of the limits of our situation.
We often turn to "technological advancement" to give us the answers and remedies to our insatiable hunger for energy and materials. Science is born of the earth and technological advancement is simply the twisting of materials and principals that already exist, in limited supply, and within certain physical laws.
You can't make a cake with just a recipe. With out the flour, sugar, and all the other ingredients all you have is the idea of a cake.
It is not human habitation that is threatening the environment we live in. It is not human waste that is corrupting our soil. It is the industrial machines and their methods that are taking at a rate that is unsupportable, unsustainable. We keep buying the products of these machines and that is their life blood. The pump will find a way to keep pumping, no matter what the cost (it will be past along) and no matter what the laws say (the laws will reflect the will of the people) as long as we keep paying at the pump.
My outlook can swing wide from day to day. Today, I see no real hope that people, each of us, will change our lives in any way that would cause industry, and the governments who support them, to slow the rate at which they plunder and pollute the very place that we depend on for our health and existence.
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Circles, hoops, Tortillas of Love!
It is July, summer, again. Fruit is ripening on the vines, the northern hemisphere is warm again, hot. Another of us has been put into the earth after years of standing upon it and eating from it. It would seem right to say that the body of those who have just passed away, is now put back into the earth, that body to continue to be a part of the great circle of life and to feed the soil and the plants and the living things that will in turn feed others. And in this way we are none of us ever gone or ended. That would be good to say. That would seem right to me, reasonable. But what we do in this society is bury our dead in vaults of metal and cement, keeping our bodies from the earth, saving them, for what I know not. It seems absurd to me. It seems confused to me. It seems unnatural to me.
There seems to be a stability in the circular and ever changing that allows for healthy life. One elder dies and a child is born. The seasons roll one into the next and back again. The sun rises and lights the day, only to give way to the night and the dark and then back to day. A forest grows, burns and then is reborn.
Cycles, circles, reoccurring patterns are absolute. They are the path that cannot be avoided. Even when a straight line seems obvious, it can still be a small part of the arc of a great circle.
Our lives and our actions all return from whence they came and are ever connected to what has been, and what will be.
Looking around at what is not of human origin I see evidence of seasons, of circles. I see it in the rain, the rivers, the sea, and the rain. I see a moment of it while standing at the foot of a 1000 year old giant sequoia. I taste it in this year's wineberries that I eat for breakfast, sweet with sunlight and cool with morning dew. I recognize it as I find my eyes not able to read the fine print I once could.
Looking around at what is of human origin I see evidence of denial and defiance and fear of those cycles. A constant struggle for that which is consistent, though I see little results from this struggle. I see little acceptance of that which is bigger than the individual.
None of us begin and end, but rather continue on in our circular patterns, just as all things do, changing day to day, year to year, lifetime to lifetime. I know nothing of reincarnation, nor do I need to. The love that I felt from my grandmother, the kindness and caring that all of her relations knew is carried on in each of us and it is ours to share with others and in this way she is never really ended. Her children live on, and her love lives on. Her body being in a vault in the ground, may not immediately feed the worms and the soil and the plants above and the rest of the living world, but, in earth time, eventually will be reabsorbed and put back in the cycle of life, some how, I am sure. This is just the way the world works.
The circular tortillas my Nana used to make for me, round discs of flour, lard, salt and love, I ate and consumed the love that she put into them. It is a part of me and mine to put into my life and to pass on to those I love. And so it goes.
There seems to be a stability in the circular and ever changing that allows for healthy life. One elder dies and a child is born. The seasons roll one into the next and back again. The sun rises and lights the day, only to give way to the night and the dark and then back to day. A forest grows, burns and then is reborn.
Cycles, circles, reoccurring patterns are absolute. They are the path that cannot be avoided. Even when a straight line seems obvious, it can still be a small part of the arc of a great circle.
Our lives and our actions all return from whence they came and are ever connected to what has been, and what will be.
Looking around at what is not of human origin I see evidence of seasons, of circles. I see it in the rain, the rivers, the sea, and the rain. I see a moment of it while standing at the foot of a 1000 year old giant sequoia. I taste it in this year's wineberries that I eat for breakfast, sweet with sunlight and cool with morning dew. I recognize it as I find my eyes not able to read the fine print I once could.
Looking around at what is of human origin I see evidence of denial and defiance and fear of those cycles. A constant struggle for that which is consistent, though I see little results from this struggle. I see little acceptance of that which is bigger than the individual.
None of us begin and end, but rather continue on in our circular patterns, just as all things do, changing day to day, year to year, lifetime to lifetime. I know nothing of reincarnation, nor do I need to. The love that I felt from my grandmother, the kindness and caring that all of her relations knew is carried on in each of us and it is ours to share with others and in this way she is never really ended. Her children live on, and her love lives on. Her body being in a vault in the ground, may not immediately feed the worms and the soil and the plants above and the rest of the living world, but, in earth time, eventually will be reabsorbed and put back in the cycle of life, some how, I am sure. This is just the way the world works.
The circular tortillas my Nana used to make for me, round discs of flour, lard, salt and love, I ate and consumed the love that she put into them. It is a part of me and mine to put into my life and to pass on to those I love. And so it goes.
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