sister jay & our mother
May 11, 2013 § Leave a Comment
More & more our creative palettes take after our planet
hers far more grounded than my own
here’s what painter jay’s up to these days . . .
( jack up your screen for a better read )
fellow floridians – mother needs us . . .
March 31, 2013 § Leave a Comment
Where we stand, right now !
what better way to honor her-day this month
takes an act of congress to preserve what we’ve got ?
well, nothing short of state’s constitutional amendment to keep florida florida
sorry to say, our florida won’t continue to be our florida without it
and to do that we must collect half a million signatures by this fall
to put the amendment on next year’s november ballot
so, extremely motivated volunteers have been at it state-wide for over a year
please neighbor, check out THEIR SUPER SITE
everything’s provided, including excellent video tips
then please join us, sign up to do your part
i’ll be pitching-in in three weeks, right here in my own backyard
when SEMINOLE COUNTY CELEBRATES ITS 100TH, EARTH DAY WEEKEND
looking forward to a good turn-out of motivated neighbors
wondering if the idea’s well-backed ?
telling votes of approval HAVE A LOOK
but remember – significant $ or signatures don’t accompany
we’re all looking forward to YOUR CONTRIBUTION OF SIGNATURE GATHERING
click on logo to go to site
thank you, fellow committed earthlings all
February 22, 2013 § Leave a Comment
Forward on climate, 2/17/13 DC rally
asphalt nation
January 25, 2013 § Leave a Comment
How the auto took over america
and how we can take it back
main difficulty in restoring a viable mode of human presence in the land is that we’ve found ourselves so locked into and dependent on existing industrial systems for food – shelter – clothing – transport – jobs that any thought of an alternative way of living appears more dream than possibility.
thomas berry, THE SACRED UNIVERSE: EARTH, SPIRITUALITY, AND RELIGION IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY, ipad kindle loc 1918/2110
my first 2013 post; getting behind at this, sorry folks, engaged like most – presidential candidates included – in everything but biggest topic at hand – our very planet’s survival. how on earth can this be ??? truth to tell, been fully absorbed too in this, another monumental work, one more consciousness / action turn-around.
jane holtz kay, nothing less than the rachel carson of the road ( tho ms kay herself ascribes that role to another ). the way she tells it, there’s no end to what fixation on our car is doing to our society. and not from just behind the wheel either – our roads, our architecture, our way of life, our very notion of place, and of course our planet’s declining health.
kay’s writing background as journalistic architecture critic underscores not only well-versed language of building, she verily breathes the high art of cultural design & purpose.
as with CARSON’S SILENT SPRING, as with so much else making its way here at shemovesme.com, it’s taken this long for news of this import to reach this one bumbling reader. doubtless a good number of you are already here; hopefully this post serves at least to re-open a few driver-distracted eyes.
and this time it’s so close to home. i have to say i’m caught squarely in the bullseye of ms kay’s target cultural offenders. who could be more attuned to cars from well before his very own driver’s license? who can readily recall even in his waning years that two-tone of dad’s new ’53 ford country sedan . . . ? polynesian bronze and sandpiper tan. or my own unbridled explosion into that culture with bouncy henry-j ?
and talk about bouncy! kay’s pages are written with as much enticing forward vigor as they are with rewarding detailed backup rich with stats & contributions from all sides of our auto equation. take a look at these catchy contents . . .
part I the car glut: a nation in lifelock
bumper to bumper
geography of inequity
landscape of the exit ramp
road to environmental ruin
harm to health and breath
cost of car culture
part II car tracks: the machine that made the land
model T, model city
from front porch to front seat
driving through the depression
asphalt exodus
braking the juggernaut
three-car culture
part III car free: dead end to exit
none for the road
zoning for life
putting transit on track
centering of america
depaving of america
righting the price
what strikes me is it’s no longer that legendary love of the automobile holding us to our costly affair. we’re now helplessly locked in. how do i get around anywhere off my wheels – they’re part of me now.
like for any book that counts, kay doesn’t leave us there fully wound and locked in the wake of disastrous conclusions. to be sure, we’ve reached the dead end of our all-encompassing car culture. but the road doesn’t stop here: there’s much we can yet do, albeit at costs to our way of life heretofore rarely considered. what, back to the city ?
if you’re the rare reader like me who has yet to catch up to kay, i urge you to waste no more time getting hold of a copy of ASPHALT NATION. i leave you with these two quotes ringing in my ears from the book’s first and last chapters . . .
statistically, most of our expanding hours behind the wheel, nearly eight of every ten vehicle miles we travel, have nothing to do with work. neither are these miles vacation trips or long distance travel, the reasons americans give for buying the first -or second or third- automobile. such holiday trips consume . . . a scant 8 percent of our total mileage.
what sets the odometer reeling . . . is something less than life, liberty, or the pursuit of happiness. and that is errands. according to the highway administration study, one-third of the miles we travel go to consumption and family chores. p 31
the way to stop the auto age begins with affirming the value of place and the role of transportation in easing our access to it. the mission is to evoke the very root of transportation in the word ‘transport’ ( accent this time on 2nd syllable – me ) that can carry us to a loftier place and state of being. p 355
2012 in review
December 31, 2012 § 1 Comment
WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog
Here’s an excerpt:
600 people reached the top of Mt. Everest in 2012. This blog got about 2,600 views in 2012. If every person who reached the top of Mt. Everest viewed this blog, it would have taken 4 years to get that many views.
seeds of freedom -or insanity
December 20, 2012 § Leave a Comment
Stop! take the 30-min to tune into this vital look at the story of seeds from GAIA FOUNDATION and AFRICAN BIODIVERSITY NETWORK, narrated by jeremy irons . . .
( be sure to watch in full-screen. click on expand arrows between “HD” and “vimeo”, lower right corner of video window )
check the site SEEDS OF FREEDOM
The nonhuman world was seen as a collection of objects to be exploited not as subjects to be communed with. We have continued this exploitation in these past four centuries with such passion that the devastation has flowed over into the larger dimensions of the planet, and now we are at a planetwide impasse as regards human consumption and Earth limits. These two are on a collision course. ( thomas berry’s THE SACRED UNIVERSE: EARTH, SPIRITUALITY AND RELIGION IN THE TWENTY FIRST CENTURY, ipad kindle loc 1572/2110 )
from shattering earth mother warning . . .
December 12, 2012 § 1 Comment
This moving invitation to all the Americas -south, central, north- from the indigenous kogi people of colombia’s sierra nevada de santa marta, on this special calendar date of 12/12/12.
close by mother-in-full
( gift from amparo -my special gang-of-six colombian friend, i pass along this special invitation to you, dear blog reader, as my own pagamento in our mirroring internet firmament )
We Mamos ( shamans ) of the Kogi people invite you to sow Anugwe with us in Mother Earth (Seynekan), and deeply in our very selves too. It is our pagamento ( offering ) to her.
Anugwe cannot be maintained if it is not accompanied by commensurate behavior on our part. The spirituality that reigns in our Mother impregnates us and is tinged in turn by our own actions.
Plants or animals are not the ones that distort that spirituality, because they follow her naturally. We can too through our coherence, our unconditional love, our adherence to the word, our intentions, and our attitudes. When we sow the Anugwe in Mother Earth we harmonize with her, express our inner love -the unconditional one, the one that respects her laws of nature.
We align mind, soul, and inner self. We take an amethyst stone in one hand and an ambar stone in the other. We invoke Arwaviku, Father of Intuition; I’narwa, Father of Food; Sokakurwa, Father of Plants & Animals; and Geinigeka, Father of Energy and Spiritual Strength -present altogether in Kankurwa, our cosmic universal temple.
We ask these spiritual masters to cleanse and harmonize the energies of Mother Earth in the four directions, the four colors, the four elements, and the four essences of being- physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual.
We invite you to follow this our Mamos ritual with us. Or prepare your own pagamento for Mother Earth using fruits, seeds, flowers, and / or personal belongings of your own choosing. During your meditation, keep that pagamento close. After the ceremony, sow it in the ground -your very own Anugwe- where it can remind you of the presence of Mother Earth- her harmony and her unconditional love.
watch BBC’s 1990 one-&-a-half hour from the heart of the world – the elder brothers warning, a deeply meditative consideration of kogi earth-wisdom.
watch the three-&-a-half minute preview of ALUNA, BBC’s updated 2012 production of the kogi lost civilization and their message to us, their ” younger brothers “.
Now we find ourselves in a period of the greatest disturbance that the Earth has ever known, a period when survival of both the human and natural worlds in their present modes of being is threatened. The identification of our human fate with the destiny of the planet was never more clear. . … Now a new sequence of liturgical celebrations is needed. Even more than moments of seasonal renewal, these moments of cosmic transformation must be considered sacred. … First among these celebrations might be a celebration of the emergent moment of the universe itself. This was the beginning of religion just as it was the beginning of the world. The human mind and all its spiritual capacities began with this moment. ( ipad kindle loc 1477/2110 in thomas berry’s THE SACRED UNIVERSE: EARTH, SPIRITUALITY, AND RELIGION IN THE TWENTY FIRST CENTURY )
transition culture’s top ten films
December 7, 2012 § Leave a Comment
Terrific narrated filmed reviews of where we’re coming from, where we need to be going. check each out in order on TRANSITION CULTURE’S UK SITE: 6 abbrev trailers, 2 5-6 min trailers, a 35-min animated film, and yet one more fine BBC documentary on living with Mother ( 50-min ).
but first, promised word on-topic from favorite commentator THOMAS BERRY
The story of the Western world is the story of how the peoples whose culture took shape through the religious inspiration of the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament, the humanism of the Greek world, the political-legal genius of the Romans, and a brilliant medieval period became so entranced with a secular, scientific, industrial civilization serving limited human needs that it was willing to devastate the entire planet for the immediate benefits received ( by the few ). Their assault upon the Earth has been so violent in modern times, both to its geological structures and its living species, that we ( now ) face a tremendous crisis . . . This new situation is so inherent in cultural structures that it seems to be the inevitable consequence of ( those very ) religious, political, educational, ethical, and economic establishments of Western peoples. ( ipad kindle loc 1686/2110 of thomas berry’s THE SACRED UNIVERSE: EARTH, SPIRITUALITY, AND RELIGION IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY )
here’s rob hopkins’ own review of his transition network’s chosen top ten films.
click on embedded trailers & films directly @ TRANSITION CULTURE’S SITE
here is my own favorite, their #2 selection, naturalist filmmaker / farmer rebecca hosking’s deeply honest, probe into her own farm of the future.
come home, earthlings!
November 25, 2012 § 2 Comments
SACRED UNIVERSE shows the way like none other i’ve read
one must-read
this is hard
yes of course, she moves me
beautiful shots of mother -the colors,
textures, sweep who can ignore
then those places loosely heard tell
someone now describing in moving detail
places where ma most hurts -those melting poles
there’s been undeniable science
pointing to horrendous overstepping
facts hard-&-fast, the evidence ever mounting
so much of all of that
to blog about here
to take in, digest
even breakthrough guides
like brave go-it-aloner james lovelock
father of holy cow, she’s alive!
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
and then there’s thomas berry
1st thought: my god!
how come so long to hear this prophet?
talk about she moves me!
does mother ever move him!
words rung clear as chiming matins
THE SACRED UNIVERSE to be sure, but
not just religion any more
not even earth by herself
let’s start with alienation
ok, one hellofa way to start
but clearly the one we chose
here in the west straight from day one
say, so-called enlightenment day. and on those heels
industrial revolution: enslavement days
thence our god, our land
even our constitution, our very one-another
look around to see -what’s left??
but berry doesn’t leave us there
takes us back to places deep-known
a great looking back w/o going back!
no way i can summarize this work for you
so here on out, in blog posts to come
rattling-pillar quotes -as they have my own
meantime please, if you haven’t already, and
if still hobbling on this trek with me
do pick up thomas berry and see for yourself
insights original, work that glows
sure to change your life on earth
can’t now imagine other way to get going . . . !
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The future must be felt as already present. Humans cannot long sustain ecstatic bliss that is the culmination of all great cultural traditions. If this is not granted in the immediacy of the present in its legitimate reality then we will seek illusory fulfillment in whatever ways are available to us. We must live in paradise not tomorrow but today.
. . . The primordial symbolism and the spiritual disciplines of the ancient traditions were not ephemeral productions of passing human fancy. They are tough and enduring realities capable of carrying the weight of the centuries and the larger hopes and destinies of humankind. They are more real and more needed today than ever before if human life is to have the serenity and vigor required to move the peoples and civilizations of the world into deeper integration with earth processes.
( loc 575-579/2110 on my ipad kindle )
What is needed is a new pattern of rapport with the planet. Here we come to the critical transformation needed in the emotional, aesthetic, spiritual, and religious orders of life. Only a change that profound in human consciousness can remedy the deep cultural pathology manifest in such destructive behavior.
. . . The poets and artists can help restore this sense of rapport with the natural world. It is this renewed energy of reciprocity with nature in all its complexity and remarkable beauty that can help provide the psychic and spiritual energies necessary for the work ahead.
( loc 634-637/2110 )
