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La Carreta News
Recycling Field Notes
(Thoughts and Exploration)
Part II
Sylvia Ernestina Vergara
2008
An item that is no longer going to be used goes through a sort of death. In recycling, this death is resurgence--a renaissance of thought, action, vitality and healthy, beautiful way of life.
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Trash is our inability to recognize the potential of an object. Without knowing the origins of the object and the process by which it was made it is static without imagination. The material world is static without imagination.
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The Recycle Aficionado
(Who Could That Be? It’s Gotta Be You!)
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Credit Cards
(The Fast Lane to Over Consumption and Debt)
The credit card creates a false sense of wealth for many people. It’s power over our lives actually minimizes our personal power and ability to become stable.
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The purpose of small recycling centers is to re-establish physical reality as the primary reality and other realities such as virtual reality, cyberspace, television as important but secondary support.
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The day that recycling centers are no longer needed
What will life be like when we have re-entered the cycle of nature and we are so integrated and wholesome as a recycling culture that we no longer need recycling centers?
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As we seriously begin to incorporate recycling our personal lives are touched. More effort and imagination is put into nurturing relationships and family. Tendencies of casually throwing away life through suicide and drugs diminishes, as people begin to value potential, resources and imagination. Dignity of all life becomes self-evident and the desire to live and experience a more profound quality of life increases. The ability to draw out the best from each other rather than just throw relationships away increases.
Millenniums of Aesthetics and Craftsmanship
There is a belief that material beauty can only be acquired by the wealthy. In many pre-industrial cultures, beauty was an important value. Beauty and craftsmanship were not hindered by automation and anyone could create a beautiful garment, home, accessories, foods and shelter. Beauty, arts and craftsmanship were a part of daily living. Aesthetics were so a part of life that there was not a word such as "art" to denote it as a preferential, unique experience.
We are losing our past. Around the world acid rain is destroying our greatest sculptures, cities and monuments. Dams on rivers such as the Aswan on the Nile in Egypt and dams in China cause excessive flooding of ancient ruins and villages. Acid rain affects lakes and soils. It eats into metal and stone destroying buildings and statues (the Acropolis) of our past, what is it doing to our present and future as we breathe it in our air?
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Systems that Create Crisis
Social structures that make the individual parts of that structure strong, resilient and synergistic are very important. The structure functions as a network where the individual parts can function individually and also as a unit much like a jazz ensemble. Each player takes turn and shares through music an idea, then the group plays together--there is room for all the expression and it comes together into a vibrant whole.
Today we have social systems that have weakened the individual parts. When I speak of those parts I am talking about the individual--the millions of individuals that are part of these social systems. As individuals we have become completely dependant on these systems for our survival. We also have sacrificed our initiative, creativity and decision making. We basically have turned ourselves over to our social systems to make our life, cultural and personal decisions--essentially, we are operating on "automatic."
We need a new vision of rebalancing our social systems. That means that there must be a direct line between the system and the individual. The individual must be able to reshape and revitalize the system if the social system is becoming corrupt and incapable of facilitating and nurturing the vitality of the individual parts (that includes each and every incredible, wonderful, creative, human being, you and me).
Industry
I am not against industry. I am against consumer abuse. This is created when the industrial agenda is to make profit even if it compromises the consumer and the environment. When profit is achieved by using materials that endanger, when environmental health of employees is compromised, when consumers are grossly overcharged for the product, when the product is poorly made, when there is a lack of craftsmanship, when the product cannot be repaired and must always be replaced, when the industry creates waste by making products that promptly become obsolete for the sake of profit, when machines are the response that consumers get when they call "consumer services," when industries co opt education and charge students exorbitant fees for books that will quickly become obsolete, when industry produces, war, pollution, contaminates, controls and depletes resources, when industries are unregulated and can essentially do as they please. It is this abuse that I am against.
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Presently, our highways are only designed for auto transport. This has created an auto monopoly which dictates how we travel, where we travel and how fast. On these highways, modes of travel such as bicycle, walking, horseback riding, are totally compromised. Are these modes excluded because they are so diverse or is it that anything other than auto transport would compete with the monopoly of the auto/highway /oil industry?
Is there a future for solar trams and trains as we traverse to a more sophisticated mode of transport?
The Monetary System
The monetary system that we have can no longer support new trends in the evolution of technology. Because the system is based on division rather than synergy, it cannot help to evolve a synergistic evolution. A new system based on communication will emerge. Life will move towards a very sophisticated bartering system based on energy.
Television
(Globally We Perpetuate Consumerism)
Television promotes consumerism; a multiple bombardment of images, and advertising that is often more important than the actual programming. In many ways, television controls the world. The television experience competes with "life" by making its non-interactive reality more desirable than real physical life. By making this type of virtual reality the primary reality we are endangering our ability to counter global warming and all environmental issues. Television has the capacity to convey information, but it still cannot take the place of genuine human interaction in physical reality. Time spent in front of a television is taking away precious hours needed to move a society that is in severe crisis to a healthier, interactive, creative and problem solving way of life.
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The Power of Constructive Virtual Reality
Virtual reality can be used positively and is potentially a very important way to discover a way to neutralize toxic chemicals and nuclear contaminants without harming the researcher.
The Culture of Plastic
(Plastic, Infants, and Children: Growing Up with Plastic
and What It Has Done to Our Society)
Plastic has come to represent the "indestructible." Plastic is the most prevalent building material for toys. Its durability makes it so that children can bang, bump, smash the toy and it will not break. Unfortunately, this deprives the child of developing appropriate behavior and learning how to handle his or her world. Over exposure to plastic toys builds behavior that lacks observational skills, sensitivity and restraint. An over exposure to plastic toys re-enforces the practice of abuse.
I will never forget going to an exhibit that took place in Albuquerque 25 years ago of "destructible toys." These were toys from all over the world that were not made of plastic. They were made of other materials such as cloth, wood, paper, ceramics and so called destructible materials. Children were taught that the toy would break if it were not handled with respect and care. Children learned to discern and observe that the world is a place that can break if it is not handled with respect. In this way children learn a variety of important skills for adulthood. Life requires an appropriate response based on sensitivity. This is indirectly learned by having toys of various strengths, which encourages appropriate response through handling.
*Toys need to be age-appropriate and safe for the child.
Unfortunately the industrial world has instilled a very destructive approach to children's toys. The toy is often plastic which means the child does not have to differentiate what type of handling would be appropriate. Also, in observing the types of toys that are made, it appears that the toy that is produced tries to be more creative than the child. In essence, the toy is even more intelligent than the child. We have toys that think for the child and instill cultural values that are the values of the industry. Industrial cultural values seek to make the parents victims if they don't spend exorbitant amounts of money on these plastic toys. The toy and its invisible industrial parent are in conflict with the biological parents if they do not have the same values as the invisible industrial parent. This is when children and parents fight in the toy store when the child is drawn to toys that threaten the cultural values of the biological family if they are different. Often parents give in and feel defeated and console themselves with the idea that if the child "wins," at least little Pablita and Juan will fit into the larger fabric of society. If one were to assess the toys of the invisible industrial parent that is eager to instill the highest level of consumerism into the child, one would find that toys are about abuse, violence and socially exaggerated gender roles that perpetuate discrimination.
The Need to Experience Life through All Our Senses
(Early Childhood Development)
Some babies are fortunate to experience the mother's breast and father's warm embrace as first experiences of life. These bonds of nurturing are critical to the overall development of the child. Associations of love, safety, warmth, being appreciated and accepted enhance the life of the child. We should carefully seek to extend positive nurturing bonds with the world by giving babies positive experiences through all their senses that help build positive self-awareness and a capacity to respond, experience and relate. For example, giving babies safe objects to suck on that are made of natural materials is important. Through this stage of heightened sensorial experience, the child is learning all about the world as well as through other senses. By introducing the rubber/plastic pacifier and nipple bottle that exploration is limited. This is when babies begin to bond with plastics. Today we have a civilization that is bonded largely to plastic materials. Feelings of safety, stability and comfort have shifted to plastic and artificial environments and away from nature and a world that recycles.
The History of the Toy
We must go back to the history of the toy. What is a toy and what is it supposed to do? Is it supposed to educate and further enhance the sensitivity of the child to the natural world or are toys for distracting the child--in a sense, putting the child in a state that is similar to being anesthetized so that the adult does not have to think about the child? This may be the birth of psychic numbing. This is a psychological state of sensorial deprivation and lack of response. Perhaps it is instilled over time with toys that distract attention without developing sensitivity.
Toys do not leave us. We, in our teen years, early adulthood and mid years and old age continue to have our toys, which are the legacy of our earlier toys as children. They are the television, computer games and the trucks, cars and vehicles that little boys played with in their childhood. For girls, it is fashion fads taken to extremes, and unfortunately the plastic surgery to resemble the dolls they played with in their childhood. Plastic bi-products for women are largely synthetic clothing, panty hose, bras and girdles.
This culture of plastic that is derived from "the invisible industrial parent" is a culture in and of itself. What makes it invisible and takes on the most deadly trait of the invisible industrial parent is that over the years a fusion takes place that permeates culture of family and tradition. These are the older cultures that are not plastic oriented, but finally emerge weakened and corrupted by the fusion of the culture of plastic.
There are limits to what plastic can convey educationally as a toy or even as a teaching device. Plastic is not of nature in the same way as a rock, flower or tree is. It cannot convey anything about the relationship to nature. It can imply a relationship to nature through teaching materials that are incorporated into plastic, but it cannot re-bond its consumers to nature through its artificial physicality. When children, teenagers and adults touch, smell, taste, hear and see plastic it is not touching nature. It can only convey a relationship to nature in a secondary or even more distant way. It can only imply an idea about nature, but it cannot give a direct experience of nature. We are so surrounded by the world of plastic; a non-reality (in that it is not of nature) that it is not surprising that we have evolved into a death culture that is in the process of killing itself. Recycling and re-entering the cycles of nature is about life in its most beautiful, wondrous reality because nature is about the balanced, synergistic interplay of life and death. It is a cycle based on movement and vibrations that we as beings are connected to and depend on for our own health and well-being. It is important to expose children and babies to natural beauty through all their senses. This includes singing, dancing, riding a bicycle, a horse, flying kites, swimming, snow play, water play, cooking, painting, planting, responsible care and love of pets, storytelling, music, nature and materials that are of many textures, crafted rather than manufactured toys. Parents should incorporate toys that are hand-made, safe, that teach and instill confidence, love and wisdom.
Since we are almost completely surrounded by plastic, it is important to begin a healthy trend toward incorporating objects other than plastic. This means that the parent may have to build their own toys for their children out of wood and other natural materials. The most harmful aspect that needs to be addressed is the invisible industrial parent. This is the parent that through products tries in every way to instill consumerism and the values of an industry that is self-serving and seeks to control the consumer.
Toys that are the most beneficial are the sandbox, water, sticks, rocks and branches. These natural objects, which cost nothing, encourage creativity and imagination within the child. They help to create sensitivity. These toys encourage a child to build and create their world. They also, enhance communication with their piers through self-creating games, plays, songs and dialogue. This is the opposite of psychic numbing.
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As powerful as industries are, they are only as powerful as the number of consumers that support them by repeatedly buying their products.
Science has a natural momentum forward, but industry can stagnate and hamper the creative, evolutionary flow of discovery. Nuclear is becoming an obsolete form of industry that is preventing scientists from moving forward to more innovative and safer ways of producing energy. When industry becomes a hurdle, humanity is prevented from receiving the full benefits of science.
Moving With Flexibility through the World of Absolutes
(Do All Things Have a Positive Use?)
Plastic needs to be looked at very carefully in terms of its production (Does the production of plastic have to be a toxic process?) and also its role. Perhaps there are appropriate benefits that plastic can provide, which help society survive as a healthy species without harming themselves and the world around them. These areas need to be definitely pinpointed and identified. Perhaps there is a trend of plastics that are becoming non-toxic and biodegradable. It would be good to know the difference.
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The highest human awareness is when we can eradicate the concept of evil. We begin to see how all things are good if used under circumstances of integrity and benefit for all--that is to say, context of love sprouts good seed from all things and it is also a way to “grow” our own goodness without creating harm to others.
Environmental Medicine
(The Trash Doctor)
Healing will always be important. The trash doctor is the most important doctor. This doctor makes house calls. A name for this is Environmental Medicine. When a person is sick, the doctor examines the patient and their living and work environments. The house call includes monitoring the air and water, asking the patient about their diet, asking the patient about the type of work they do. Does the patient live near an industry such as nuclear, petroleum or other? Does the patient live near a land fill? More evidence is suggesting that environment impacts our immune system. As the environmental doctor uses monitoring techniques in the environment of his patients, the doctor can detect detrimental types of contamination. It is possible that recycled metals that are contaminated might be in daily use objects such as cars or other objects that have gone un-detected at the factory where they were incorporated into assembly lines.
Our present day approach is to treat the patient without treating the environment. The trash doctor starts by educating the patient about the environment that they live in. If the doctor finds an imbalance in the environment, the first recommendation is to simultaneously correct those imbalances as well as the patient’s physical condition.
What this means is that we must stop pollution, contamination and exposure to toxic chemicals and materials. It is hard to imagine how we can remain healthy if the environment is so very sick.
If we could imagine that we could bring the environment into a healthy balance, then the doctor could help the patient rebuild the immune system and develop ways of living that are nurturing.
Holidays: Looking Forward to Celebrating Life
(Bringing Greater Awareness to What We are Celebrating)
Holidays are important times when we can reconnect in a more sacred, celebrative manner and redefine our relationship to each other and the earth. New ceremonies, songs, prayers, rituals, symbols, help to manifest joy, love, peace and goodwill towards each other and the planet. It bonds us deeper with responsible living that feels really good and wholesome. A spiritual concept integrates our consciousness by creating opportunities to become more sensitive to our awareness and actions. These are opportunities to move away from materialism as always the holiday “gift.” Maybe there are more profound ways of giving to each other and maybe there are even more wonderful gifts than just objects. This is a time when we can reflect on just what is the object gift? If I give it: what is it? How was it made? Will it enhance the person’s life? Can it be eaten? Did I make it? Is it a lifelong gift? Will it be thrown away? Can it be recycled? We must make every effort to enhance our imaginations. We must greatly expand our creative vocabulary about the concept of giving and receiving.
Gift Suggestions
Organic fresh fruits
Organic dried fruits
Industrial Hemp products
Environmental books
Acoustic musical instruments
Bicycles
Music lessons
Dance lessons
Massage
Glass food containers
Seeds
Trees
Plants
Cloth bags made out of Hemp
Wine
Organic Fruit Cider
Organic farmer’s market produce
Poetry
An aesthetic experience (go to a concert, museum, feast day)
Humor
Books (Books can be recycled and can be a life-time gift)
Symbols ~Metaphors~Rituals
Instead of cutting down the tree for winter holidays, we can plant a tree. Instead of decorating with so many lights we can have a lighting ceremony with candles that inspire and renew our consciousness about all the important things in life like love, compassion, listening and caring. The ideas of the gift can bring high awareness about all our life relationships. Preparing for holidays can be a time of greater creativity and unique personalized self-expression. At the same time, it can help to re-bond family, friends and community in new and more meaningful ways. It is a time we can focus on how we are using our resources and how we are going to recycle them.
*Electric incandescent light bulbs- I feel that mercury in low use energy lights is still a hazard to the environment. There is no guarantee that billions of people will recycle them properly. I encourage regular lights with more thought put into shutting them off and also incorporating other forms of natural light until the new energy efficient light bulb is made without mercury.
The Energy/Recycle Parade
Parades have been a means of gathering communities around values. A demonstration of this type gives the community an opportunity to participate and also highlight the local entities that are focused on these issues. A most unique parade (the likes of which have never been seen) is really possible here. What would be in the parade? How about people riding bicycles, horses and latest innovations in the solar car? Vehicles powered by renewable sources. New theme songs and focus on nature, demonstrations of cycles and dynamics of nature.
The Energy/Recycle World's Fair
An environmental world's fair would bring global and national attention to many environmental issues. It would also give persons who are working to solve these issues a means and incentive to demonstrate their ideas. The ideas have a venue where they can be exhibited which would stimulate even more ideas and progress in finding ways to become compatible with the environment. Also, a world's fair could give the public a visual experience short of the actual experience of the state of affairs of the environment. On a global level it would feature futuristic ideas in all areas and also at the same time show the public the present situation of our world.
One of the most compelling issues is over population growth. Is it a cause or a symptom of how we live? Although grim solutions have been proposed to solve over population growth, I am completely opposed to any action that is murder through initiating diseases, wars or mass sterilization. For milleniums population has been in balance; that is when nature was also in balance. Over population represents our inability to successfully integrate communication and equity that reflects a new paradigm of ecological and bio diversity balance.
The Energy/Recycle Olympics
This is an opportunity for nations to "measure" their progress towards reducing emissions and for environmental goals to be set. It would be competitive, especially stressing speed of the accomplished goal and how it was done. Medallions are given to persons of different nations for their achievements in specific areas of creating greater ecological stability and swift change.
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Moving from Physical Beauty to Beautiful Being and Action
Although one can see physical beauty and can create beautiful houses, clothes, objects of art: this does not mean that the person is beautiful. It is very possible to appreciate beautiful music, art, have a beautiful house in a beautiful landscaped or natural setting and still be creating destructive, violent and sacrilegious (meaning destroying what is sacred—like rivers, mountains, people, children, etc) actions. This is why recycling physical objects needs to move toward the realm of creating beautiful action that creates beautiful space. We have relied heavily on establishing the physical as proof that we are good people. Even though space is invisible and action is invisible, they move us into the realm of deeper indications and acknowledgement. That is the intuitive balance and sense of what feels balanced, whole and harmonious. It is a beautiful dance in which we feel our own aliveness, vitality and are fully awakened to our true nature, which is free, and at the same time deeply integrated. It is when we have truly re-integrated into the cycle of nature. Proof is in action and experiencing.
Turning the Pyramid Upside Down
Awakening/Intermingling/Transforming/Regenerating
For centuries civilizations have maintained themselves by power to the few at the top of the pyramid and the larger populations being the workforce and man/woman power to maintain social, economic, and political infrastructure of the pyramid. If the pyramid were turned upside down, the potential from the larger population would be activated and would flow down expanding the base of ideas, energy and creativity. The pyramid would not be resting on its tip. It would shape itself into an hourglass. Ideas, energy and creativity would sift down and mix with previous ideas and energy that had been at the top of the power structure. The hourglass would turn again remixing once again all that had sifted down. What would be in existence is a constant shift, interactive "mix" of creativity and ideas that would no longer be in a state of dormancy. There would be no tip of the pyramid and no expanding base in a static, placed position to structure and implement civilization. The pyramid would be a form that is in constant motion. It would be a catalyst for making human potential a tangent reality on all levels, personal, economic, politically, spiritually, physically and intellectually. By understanding cycles within cycles we will learn that nothing is static. We will be able to move from a stagnating, deteriorating civilization to one that embraces process and transformation, which is a more holistic approach to life.
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If Aristotle could have imagined that he were not the center of the universe, perhaps he would have experienced more of the cosmos.
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The concept of "cleaning up" nuclear contamination and other severe toxic chemical pollutants is erroneous. We are simply taking contamination and putting it somewhere else. The solution is to stop making contaminants and intensify research and experimentation in developing non-contaminating and non-toxic fuels, energies and products. We must begin to imagine and at the same time create an innovative way of life that can move our technologies into a more sophisticated spiritual, intellectual and physical plane that embraces beauty and cycles of nature.
The Gods' and Goddesses' Best Kept Secret
After reading Joseph Jenkins multi award winning book called The Humanure Handbook (A Guide to Composting Human Manure), I can imagine billions of people making beautiful, safe, healthy compost that becomes a nutrient rich humus used to grow food. People would not be polluting drinking water with flush toilets and septic tanks. I can imagine Jenkins thermophilic compost system effectively killing pathogens that are dangerous. Overall health and sanitation would be greatly improved. I strongly encourage everyone to read this very well documented and informative book.
It took a while for me to change my attitude. It was a "shock" just like having what people unfortunately call culture shock (when one feels an initial revulsion because an idea is in opposition to one’s perception of reality).
One day, I checked out numerous environmental books and the Humanure Handbook was one of them. When I first saw his book at the library I cringed--I really felt all those taboos that say, "Don't think or talk about human shit. Do it very quietly and don't ever look like you actually pi or shit because--gods don't pi and shit."
If the deities don't poo or pi, what can they teach us about it? Humans are always trying to emulate the gods. I believe that doing shit, excrement, feces, urine, pi pi, poo poo, doo doo, turd, stool, taking a leak and so forth is done by the gods and goddesses. It’s gotta be their best-kept secret--but not anymore. The gods would never use a toilet that flushes the golden brown doo doo life force and the body's shimmering fountain of water down a dark, dank, pipe. Would they send it down with a flush and contaminate the ground and surface water? No! Not the gods I imagine. Nor would gods take sacred earth drinking water and flush enormous quantities of it to direct this excrement to a waste water treatment plant miles away where their doo doos will combine with deadly toxins, heavy metals and contaminants that kill the environment.
Again the issue resurges. Humans invent and actualize the concept of waste. It's an act of self-hatred that says that some parts of the human being just have to be bad. The gods would never do that. They would make compost with their sacred, godly doo doo's. In sublime meditation they would whisper prayers over the compost and with nature’s magic and miracles, the gods and nature would create what is called humus.*
What are people going to do with this amazing earthly/godly gift called humus? I see millions in large cities return to nature. People will be able to feed themselves by being able to create compost and have beautiful roof gardens, houseplants, community and family gardens. The entire city looks clean and healthy with beautiful trees, shrubs, flowers and plants. With healthy humus, there will be more natural balance and no need for chemical fertilizers and pesticides. With wisdom, respect and understanding of the hydrologic cycle, there will be fewer epidemics and diseases that are caused by dangerous pathogens that contaminate drinking water.
There will be no more need for those ugly terrain dead zones created with gravel derived from open pit mining that is destroying the environment somewhere else. With humus (thermophilic created compost), urbanites as well as populations in rural areas can feed themselves and thrive. Billions of gallons of precious drinking water* will no longer be used for flushing toilets, and will be redirected in environmentally healthy ways that intelligently sustain cities in a balanced way. There will no longer be pressure to deplete rivers and aquifers in order to flush toilets. Since most people will be able to grow their own food, large-scale mono agriculture will be minimized which is a main depletory of our fresh water. Small-scale farming and gardening require less water and can easily improve ways to reduce water usage.
*Of all the water found in or on the earth, 97% is found in the oceans. The remainder is fresh water. However, less than one-half of a percent (0.5%) is available in rivers, lakes, or accessible groundwater sources. When one considers the amount of water too heavily polluted for use, or those sources too expensive or troublesome to utilize, we are left with only 003% of the world’s water supply. To put this in perspective, if all the water in the world was represented by a 55 gallon drum, the readily available freshwater would fit in a half-quart bottle, and the usable unpolluted freshwater would be represented by half a teaspoon. However, this amount, if used wisely and not degraded irreversibly by humans, is still considered more than enough for the world’s current inhabitants, particularly since the hydrologic cycle continually purifies and disperses the water. (J.C. Stewart 1990)
Everyone has the potential to create beautiful, healthy soil utilizing their own body by-product resources (doo doo and pi) properly blended with nature combining air, nitrogen and carbon type materials like peat moss, rice hulls, grass clippings, straw, hay, weeds, sawdust (from non-pressure treated lumber and hopefully from tree prunings ground into dust for this very purpose). Our education has never taught us about how this can all be done safely. It can be done safely! And people have been doing it for years. We need more models of innovative, healthy living. That's what gods and goddesses are about--enlightenment--an example of how we can live more intelligently, responsibly and how every part of us is holy and sacred and when applied with wisdom we can discard our previous shame and experience a new, constructive self-image, as we humbly experience how magnificent, gracious and loving nature is. It's not from "ashes to ashes." It’s from "human to humus" or "from earthling to earth." Our whole lives are forever positively changed--and maybe there’s something about heaven in that.
*(Humus) To compost means to convert organic material ultimately into soil or, more accurately, humus. Humus is a brown or black substance resulting from the decay of organic animal or vegetable refuse. It is a stable material that does not attract insects or nuisance animals. It can be handled and stored if necessary with no problem, and it is beneficial to the growth of plants. Humus holds moisture, and therefore increases the soil’s capacity to absorb and hold water. Compost is said to hold nine times its weight in water (900%), as compared to sand, which only holds 2%, and clay 20%. Compost also adds slow-release nutrients essential for plant growth, creates air spaces in soil, helps balance the soil pH, darkens the soil (thereby helping it absorb heat), and supports microbial populations that add life to the soil. Nutrients such as nitrogen in compost are slowly released throughout the growing season, making them less susceptible to loss by leaching than the more soluble chemical fertilizers. Organic matter from compost enables the soil to immobilize and degrade pesticides, nitrates, phosphorous, and other things that can become pollutants. Compost binds pollutants in soil systems, reducing their leach-ability and absorption by plants. (Jenkins, Humanure Handbook, L. cantors Environmental Protection Agency, State of the World)
The Red Moon Cycle
Menstruation. Why does such a female word begin with the word “men?” I love men but do they have to co-opt the entire human vocabulary? All these words that describe our body functions (feces, menstruation, urine, shit, defecate, stool, eliminate) are so ugly--so unpoetic--without feeling. How can we possibly feel good about who we are when the words to describe ourselves are so very ugly. Even genital words are ugly (genital, vagina, urethra, penis, buttocks, testicles, etc).
I call menstruation The Red Moon Cycle. To me it is like the lunar cycle, which occurs every 28 days. Women feel this menstrual cycle inside their bodies. The blood we bleed is not of death. It is a blood that helps to create life. For thousands of years women have been shamed in most cultures by men for menstruating. In my imagination, the goddess of the Red Moon Cycle would not be ashamed. She would symbolize this blood of life that is not the result of violence, war, injury or death. She would not put this blood from her body in a flush toilet, or throw it in a trashcan to be later dumped in a landfill. She would have a delicate absorbent moss that would catch this blood from her body and she would add this to the compost and it would all biodegrade. Let's get poetic as we consider practical solutions that are influenced by our imaginations. Her blood would be like a special blessing. It would be actual life force that would magically invigorate the compost pile. Just as her blood would nurture a growing fetus, her blood would be good for the compost and an essential element to ignite the thermophilic process in that compost which is a very important part of creating a thriving humus material that would be highly beneficial and safe for growing healthy food and nurturing plants.
Great leaps in our attitudes and thinking are what’s necessary to successfully develop actions that will save our earth. These actions can be peaceful, beautiful, profound and help us understand who we are at a deeper level. We can derive a greater appreciation of our planet and ourselves as we poetically imagine new mythologies that can help to create new paradigms for healthy, synergistic living.
Modeling Change
Modeling has been and continues to be what creates swift change. Is it possible for world leaders, clergy, popular movie stars, singers, actors, engineers, physicians, healers, lawyers, artists, poets, philosophers, maintenance workers, computer programmers, builders, designers, chefs, librarians, writers, story tellers, agriculturalists, office workers, students, merchants, politicians, educators--anyone and everyone! To model new behavior that demonstrates a positive relationship with environment? Could a pope or president use and endorse a thermophilic compost system*? To me it would be a sign of real sincerity and love that requires us to go beyond what we consider socially and culturally acceptable. We would be admitting something true about ourselves--that besides giving birth; defecating is something we do that is connected on a primal level with nature. Like birth, death and sex, it is yet another link that affirms our mortality. The truth of things always requires a very radical realization of our kinship to the ecosystem. Our religions and mythologies are reluctant to reveal this very important aspect of ourselves by tabooing and demonizing. By constructively re-incorporating these fundamental hidden things we do into our whole experience of living, we can step forth to a greater dignity through understanding, compassion and acceptance that we too are a "part" of the ecosystem and we are subject to its mysterious wondrous cycles like all things that are of our planet.
*This recycling of all organic residues for agricultural purposes should be axiomatic to sustainable agriculture. Yet, spokespersons for sustainable agriculture movements remain silent about using humanure for agricultural purposes. Why?
Perhaps because there is currently a profound lack of knowledge and understanding about what is referred to as the “human nutrient cycle” and the need to keep the cycle in tact. The human nutrient cycle goes like this: a) grow food, b) eat it, c) collect and process the organic residues (feces, urine, food scraps, and agricultural materials), and d) return the processed organic material back to the soil, thereby enriching the soil and enabling more food to be grown. The cycle is repeated, endlessly. This is a sustainable process that mimics the natural cycles of nature and enhances our ability to survive on this planet. When our food refuse is instead discarded as waste, the natural human nutrient cycle is broken, creating problems such as pollution, loss of soil fertility, and abuse of our water resources. (Joseph Jenkins, Humanure Handbook second edition, 1999)
Hydrologic Cycle* Disruption
(Hydrologic Disruption: The Destructive Production of Terrain Dead Zones)
The popular idea of using gravel instead of vegetation in cities to cover areas around buildings and homes is a very destructive form of hydrologic disruption. People think they are saving water by graveling these areas. What they are actually doing is creating terrain dead zones. By laying down plastic and covering it with gravel, you are preventing rainwater and snow from penetrating the soil. When multiplying millions of small plot locations in thousands of cities, this graveling approach potentially could keep water from adequately entering its aquifer.
*Hydrologic cycle-Natural pathway water follows as it changes between liquid, solid and gaseous states.
Gravel is open mined far off and has to be trucked in. The environment where it is being stripped from is being destroyed. Rock tends to retain heat. By graveling and bringing in rock, people are making cities hotter places that dry the air out even more. By not planting vegetation that is of the locale, they are discouraging birds, butterflies and beneficial insects from creating beneficial bio diversity. Gravel is very difficult to remove*. Over time, the soil becomes compacted and most of the nutrients and biodiversity die from lack of small amounts of rainfall. What people are doing is ruining the soil, creating heat and conditions for drought. They are destroying land that could grow beneficial vegetation. People cannot eat rocks. They would never have the potential of feeding themselves by perpetuating this system. These rock environments intensify and augment an unfeeling asphalt and cement city ambience, they discourage biodiversity, create heat and disrupt the hydrologic cycle—they do not encourage life. I would even go as far to say that environments that are devoid of biodiversity and are largely cement, gravel, asphalt and steel encourage crime because there is a lack of "feeling."
*I was shocked to see an Albuquerque down town landscape graveled with broken colored glass intermixed with gravel. It may look attractive, but environmentally hard to justify.
People in urban areas should be planting various types of cover crops all over the city that would be beneficial to bio diversity. This would make cities more beautiful and less hot and would be a source of carbon that could be added to compost. City dwellers would be able to apply compost that they made themselves and enrich the quality of the soil. Dirt would no longer be looked at as sterile without life--it would be viewed as a resource--soil! Which has many beneficial uses.
Other forms of hydrologic disruption are asphalt highways, which leach toxins into the rivers and soil and intensify heat. What we need to do is help all hydrologic cycles to function without any disruption. All of them are inter-related. They are cycles within cycles that connect rivers and oceans, air and water currents that should flow without hindrance around the earth.
Pollution of all types are hydrologic disruptions. If it is air pollution, toxic particles are attaching to air molecules that should be lifting moisture into the air to create clouds in the sky. If pollution is thick in our air, then moisture cannot move freely up to become clouds. The water cannot move freely through the ground if pollution in our rivers and aquifers is attaching to water molecules. Rivers cannot pick up natural nutrients for fish and aquatic life when contaminants are attached to water molecules. What happens are dead zones, which stop the natural ability of water to flow in its miraculous hydrologic cycles. These dead zones are devoid of life. They can be in the oceans, lakes and as I describe them, they can be also be produced on land by introducing obstacles like gravel or asphalt that prevent the natural movement of water in its hydrologic cycle.
High Rise Buildings
(The Force of Gravity Creates Energy)
Tall buildings have potential for creating energy from just being tall. This energy would be gravitational force energy. Gray water systems could be terracing downward from the top of the high rise along the side of the building. This could be incorporated with compost filters and vegetation to purify the water. The force of the gravity would create energy to pump recycled, clean water back up into the building. Also, gravitational force energy could be used to produce heat and electricity. It could also be used to grind and shred compost materials into finer particles. There are probably other applications that gravitational force energy could be used for.
These multi-functioning recycling gravitational systems are imaginatively and aesthetically designed using the sound of water as a pleasant, soothing way of creating calm environments. Visually, in application, the water as it recycles would enhance the beauty of the building, by incorporating multiple waterfalls and drip sheets of water, vegetation and terracing downwards as it simultaneously draws up and re-enters the skyscraper building for purified water re-use. It could even have a function as a sort of clock or huge timepiece.
Demolition
Knocking buildings down in a day--is this Rome? Where is the rubble taken? It would be better to have a well planned, advertised period of time where the public can go and remove doors, windows, parts of the building that could be useful. These parts could go on an itemized list with measurements and people could remove what is useful for building materials.
All That Paper and Plastic
(Diapers, Adult Paper Briefs, Sanitary Pads and Tampons)
Baby rash! Mothers and fathers busily changing diapers. Seniors who have lost bladder and bowel control are dependent on the paper briefs. All this goes to the landfill. Tampons, sanitary napkins used for menstruation--all this ends up lying in the landfill. These paper companies need to figure out ways to create biodegradable products. Imagination needs to be applied to our approach to life. For adults it can be loosing weight and exercising that can help regulate bladder and bowel control. For women who are menstruating, biodegradable pads and tampons could successfully and rapidly compost. For babies--research creative approaches mothers have taken around the world. I know that babies don't like to sit in their urine or their feces--poor things, they cry! What would a happy baby be? It’s your turn to imagine the solution.
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Adaptation
Right action that can save our planet comes from one place--ourselves. Attitude is the most difficult thing to change--but if it can be done--it’s the fastest, most efficient, effective and economical way to create long lasting reliable and beneficial change. I envision a very vibrant, future and a beautiful natural world with clean water, healthy soil and many species thriving. I see a new balance and way of existence that is creative, loving and peaceful.
In this future, people are happy. They are smiling and now there is good reason too. Humor has always helped us to get through bad times and tolerate the pain. Rather than a mask covering sorrow, humor will be a mirror revealing a genuine experience of joy felt in our deepest selves. We are laughing because we are truly happy. People will be able to smile, laugh and really be happy with their lives and in their hearts.
We have been so occupied with trying to techno-change our world and implement industrial biased solutions that we have forgotten to look where the answers are and that is within ourselves. We are the ones that need to change. We need to change our attitudes and our actions.
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Send a group to talk about recycling at schools called "Trash Busters." They can use video and dance and music to educate about recycling.
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What continues to be encouraged are all forms of cross cultural exploration such as using no chairs, knives, forks cutlery, eating out of a large bowl, chanting, storytelling, appreciation of nature.
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The co-opting of recycling by industry--industry making profits from recycling while citizens are asked to pay to recycle--an unfair practice.
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Science can be co-opted by industry. Wisdom and common sense can never be co-opted by industry. We must move away from the self-serving industrial approach to problem solving when it does not benefit the health and well being of citizens.
Science has been here a short time. Wisdom and common sense have been here for thousands of years and is why the human race still exists today. I feel that we must turn to wisdom and common sense to help us through this Dark Age of Technology. Science can serve humanity. It has its importance, but only when the scientist is free of self-interest at the expense of others and free of being co-opted by industry. The best is when science, wisdom and common sense are functioning as inter-awareness for the beneficial balance of the ecosystem and benefit for all.
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What creates radical and rapid change is not so much what we "do." Most of our "doing" comes from patterns we have learned. Rapid change and innovation come from our ability to observe our interior world of imagination.
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We must go to the birthplace of "ideas" and let them come to life.
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An example of this is Masanobu Fukuoka, an organic agriculturist who saw in nature what he wanted to replicate in agriculture. Through observation he was able to radically change his approach to agriculture. He clearly understood the relationship of cycles in nature. This inspired him and gave him courage. His methods of farming were based on his observation of natural cycles of plants, insects, animals and weather.
Masanobu Fukuoka (The One-Straw Revolution)
An Introduction to Natural Farming
"I ultimately reached the conclusion that there was no need to plow, no need to apply fertilizer, no need to make compost, no need to use insecticide. When you get right down to it, there are few agricultural practices that are really necessary.
The reason that man's improved techniques seem to be necessary is that the natural balance has been so badly upset beforehand by those same techniques that the land has become dependent on them.
This line of reasoning not only applies to agriculture, but to other aspects of human society as well. Doctors and medicine become necessary when people create a sickly environment. Formal schooling has no intrinsic value, but becomes necessary when humanity creates a condition in which one must become 'educated' to get along." (Masanobu Fukuoka)
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Is There Such a Thing as Wealth?
It is quite possible that what we consider as wealth, the planet might consider as trash. The planet does not acknowledge such things as monetary systems, gross national product and world banks. These things are foreign to the planet. The planet recognizes cycles, principles and flows of energy. That which is static and used as a measure is not of the planet. The planet only recognizes itself. In that human beings are recognized it is in relation to the planet, its cycles and its perpetual process and transformation reality. There is nothing beyond this except the mind/intellect to observe and recognize this process as the primary function of life.
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I Was Wrong
Many will not say this because wrong is equated with defeat. Being wrong should be viewed in other ways.
- One can learn from the experience and learn that the way or approach did not work.
- That being wrong points out specifically and identifies wrong actions that produce wrong results.
- That being wrong gives the wrong person the opportunity to investigate other approaches and actions.
- That being wrong can show more clearly what works and what doesn't work.
- That being wrong gives the person the opportunity to say, "I am sorry, I was wrong."
- And also learn a type of useful humility that also must have the component of activating compassion and forgiveness.
- Compassion and forgiveness allow for attitudes to change. Actually there must be three components: compassion, forgiveness and acceptance of the person who has done wrong.
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Our education does not allow us to make mistakes. Thomas Edison's experiments failed thousands of times before he could create a workable incandescent light bulb. Now that it works we need to make it work without using mercury. Failure is an important part of process. We need that tenacious attitude to rebalance our relationship with the planet. Schools do not allow students to make mistakes/explore--find out what works and what doesn't work. Recycling centers need to find out what works and what doesn't work. It's important to experiment, try out new ideas, imagine and expand the pallet of possibilities.
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Trend of Agendas
The recycling idea is a layered trend of agendas.
- Reduce consumption.
- Successfully recycle and redirect recycled materials to earth friendly products.
- Rely less on products such as aluminum and plastics. * Much aluminum is used for carbonated drinks. It would be better to drink organic fruit juices that are fresh or pasteurized and bottled in glass.
- Move toward a way of life that is more space and action oriented rather than materialistic. Enjoy the beauty of the world. Incorporate nature, less television, less computer, cell phone and more dance, music, art, exercise, dialoguing time with family and friends.
- Become more knowledgeable about what is happening environmentally and socially on a local, regional and global level.
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How much pollution does work (the job) generate and how much pollution does the enjoyment of life produce?
How much pollution does war produce?
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The North American Buffalo
The North American buffalo is considered sacred. For thousands of years the buffalo was hunted and it became the hunter by being food. It also was clothing, shelter, and musical instruments; there was use for every part of the buffalo. It was completely recycled into the way of life by the hunter. It was an assimilation of the sacred, which gave protection, nurtured and sustained a way of life. The hunters took care of the buffalo herds and in turn, the hunter was taken care of by the buffalo. It was a mutually beneficial existence. The herds were abundant. There was enough derived from the buffalo to sustain the hunter, his family and tribe indefinitely. They were assured of the reality of abundance when they saw the many thousands of buffalo. The hunter numbers were small. The buffalo numbers were great. The greatness, graciousness and compassion of the universe could be experienced. Perhaps it was felt as a kind of love.
The Buffalo
Beyond the land of stories there is a place. This place is very sacred and can only be entered by way of the ancient ones. Sometimes this story is heard as a child. A great, great, great, great grandmother’s voice echoes in my consciousness:
"Nothing is wasted--ninguna parte..."
There is nothing left--every part is made into something
A gift--yes--
The buffalo gives many gifts
and they are all of itself--
The buffalo never forgets about us--
It gives us its coat in the winter
It's skin is our sky/earth shelter
It gives us its shoulder bone to hoe the ground
It gives us its body--
Its blood--
The great herds are bountiful
There are many buffalo
We are few
We feel the abundance of the herd as a blessing
The buffalo is sacred
It teaches us
It teaches us through its way of life
It teaches us through its many gifts to us
When we eat the buffalo it becomes us
and we become it
The buffalo never dies
After eating the buffalo
I see through the eyes of the buffalo
I smell the land--the grasses
I hear across the plains all the sounds of nature.
I am one, the buffalo are many
I am blessed
I am blessed
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The ultimate element that will create radical change is when we are able to experience the sacred. This is when we learn that we can never have dominion over the environment. We realize that the relationship is another reality altogether. When we experience rivers, forests, animals, plants, air and earth as "sacred" we are able to transcend our fears and limitations. We are liberated and at the same time experiencing a deep bond--a relationship that we are a part of every moment of life. We are alone and yet not alone when we experience the "sacred." Our actions and way of life changes and honors the life giving force, the grace of plants, mountains, clouds and other people. We experience the connections, the so-called web of life. We leave the job, the situation, the former illusions and embrace a deeper more nurturing reality. This is the miracle and the great lesson.
The Personal Experience of Life
I have always found working in my orchard a very rewarding experience. I water the trees, watch them grow and produce fruit. When it is time to make cider I gather the apples. Combining a variety of different apples makes good cider. It is a very colorful sight. I blend yellow, red, tart, sweet, green apples that have their own unique qualities. I named my red cider press The Red Dragon. It’s a very big, old press. The apples go into the auger and down the hopper. They are crushed, squeezed and out comes this wonderful apple juice. I bottle it and then I, my family, friends drink the cider.
This season was especially touching to me. When I was making cider, many wild and domestic bees came. In the past I always thought of them as a nuisance, but this season, I was so happy to see them--I realized how important they are (the world environment is experiencing a dramatic loss of bees)--they are my friends. I was so happy they were there.
Seeing this journey of the apple is very important. I know where the apples come from. When I pick them, they are sold as fresh or I make apple cider, syrup, preserves, applesauce, apple cider vinegar or dry apples or even make apple cordial or applejack. The apple shreds go into the compost. The apples are unsprayed. The soil is not contaminated with chemical fertilizers. It is a whole process that can be easily tracked.
We need that same re-assurance when we re-cycle. Where do items for recycling come from? How important are they in my life? Where do they go? The public must always know and never be lied to about this process.
I know of a young married couple that diligently recycled only to find out later that the materials had been taken to a landfill. I have heard this numerous times. That is why it is important to have a recycling center that is not associated with trash but has its own identity and is in the interest of the citizens. People would feel the reassurance that their well-meant actions were followed through with the process of recycling. People need to feel they have control, knowledge and impute into the process. They also need to have the opportunity to continue to creatively improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the recycling process.
Birthing Change
Making changes can be a challenge. For me, it has been a slow process. I have always felt intimidated by building projects, machines and in a way, what seems so easy for men to do. I am not mechanically oriented. So--what does this have to do with recycling? It’s about how to change the way I live. How does a person with very limited means structurally change a house to make it warmer, more efficient in terms of energy use? My area is art and ideas, writing, music and photography, farming, food processing, working in the orchard, dancing. How do I create a recycling culture with who I am? How do I change the world? How do I change myself? How can I save the planet? How can I save the bees and so many other animals? How can I keep the river from nuclear contamination and chemical contamination? How can I take care of my family, my aging mother? How can I continue to eat nutritious, organic food, take care of my health, love and nurture my friendships?
Changing the course of our actions is a challenge. I tell myself: "I live in a mystical reality." This really helps. In this mystical reality anything is possible. The stories say so, the myths and legends, the buffaloes say so and so do the apples and the bees.
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