There’s so much going on in the “outer (political, cultural) world” right now, and so much of it completely and devastatingly mind-blowing, that I’d feel foolish focusing here on any one thing in that swirling, kaleidoscopic layer of “reality.”
Instead, I appear, at least for now, to be focusing on both Above that outer world hoopla and Below it. Both Above, in the meta world of what I’d call the apparent esoteric architecture of the “news” (both mainstream and alternative) viz, three posts in the past two days concerning the numerology of the 9o days total of 1,2, 0 emphasis in the years 2020-2022, on the one hand,;and on the other, the nitty-gritty world of what’s going on down here Below, in Green Acres Permaculture Village, right now.
For example, we held our weekly family dinner last night, and pulled out a used copy of the old Whole Earth catalog that podmate Chris had suddenly gifted to us at last week’s Thursday dinner. When he pulled it out of his bag we were all shocked, delighted! Wow! One of the icons of the ’60s!
At this week’s dinner, noticing the catalog, my 54 year old son Colin commented, immediately, “That’s where I learned about sex, through porn.” WHAT?
“I was four years old. And it was in that catalog — finely detailed drawings of men and women in sexual positions. I was shocked, to find out about sex!”
Fifty years later, and I just now hear this story from him! Geez!
Podmate Marita immediately picked up the catalog, and found the porn page — it was easy to find, she said, because it was obvious from the book’s condition that others had been to that page too. Colin was right, and the drawings were from an advertisement for The Joy of Sex. Wow. Remember that? Marita proceeded to curl up on the couch with the catalog open to the porn page, to the cheers and jeers of the rest of us.
This morning, we held our usual Friday morning work party. However, it was raining outside, so Charisse put us to work making sage bundles, gathered from our gardens. Nice! Now the rest of us know how to make them, too.
And at 12:30 pm today, I met with Angelika, a student at Eastern Kentucky State college, who is pursuing a Masters in Sustainability, and doing a project on intentional communities. When she emailed me, I told her it was best if she would just come here, and I would show her around, while talking.
So she did. We spent an hour touring the whole place, blowing her mind with both words and views.
Thus it is that I have just now sat back down to my computer, where, for my ongoing Recapitulation Project, I have been spending an hour or two each day gathering, often retyping, and archiving my entire body of written work, especially since 1986, when I switched from electric typewriter to computer. But: about two weeks ago, I took out my PhD dissertation from 1972! Hadn’t opened it for nearly 50 years! Mind blown at how I was already, back then, at least in my work as a philosopher, in 5D consciousness, looking at the entire spectrum of the academic philosophical community from Above, sociologically, asking the question not, how DO both disciples and critics see Wittgenstein? But instead, how COULD they see him, given who they ARE? More on this later. Just know that this long-ago (and extremely controversial in the Boston University philosophy department) manuscript will also end up on the archive site. Perhaps now, nearly 50 years later, people will be able to actually grok it. Brianna, for one, who used to live here, who gave us the motto, “growing community from the ground up,” and who is approaching her Saturn Return, told me when she visited about a week ago that she wants to read it. Then yesterday, I received a card in the mail, reminding me of that. Okay!
So yeah, haven’t spent much time, except for quick twitter grabs, lately, on the political drama playing out so powerfully and, it appears to me, timed so masterfully, as the most important election in the entire history of the United States draws near.
Instead, I’m busy engaging with real life, here on the ground in cooperation with others.
One more story: this morning, as I was explaining how hugelkulture worked in the main garden, a man drove up and got out of the car. He had seen puppy Shadow out there, and was afraid he might hit him. I asked him if he lived on that street. “Yes,” he pointed, “down at the end.” “Which side?” “On the right.” “Oh wow!
“And,” he slid it in in like a master, “I’m familiar with exopermaculture.”
“WHAT?” I was truly stunned. “Nobody in this town knows about this website . . .We should hang out!”
” Yes, except that I’m always at school, graduate work!”
“What degree, and in what?”
“PhD. Comparative Literature,” he answered, wincing.
“Well you never know just why you’re getting that degree until later. I got my PhD in Philosophy, and look at what I’m doing with it. This place is anal world application of my philosophy.” He brightened, as a light suddenly went on in his mind.
Meanwhile, Angelika, whose mind had been blown from the moment she walked into the little paradise we have been creating here, was stunned to witness this interaction between a neighbor and myself. I had just been emphasizing to her the extreme importance of getting to know your neighbors . . .
So, while the political world is fulminating, purging corruption from the deepest shadows, during this extraordinary Saturn/Jupiter/Pluto in Capricorn year, we are here, offering a transformed way of seeing, and being, with each other that presages the Aquarian Age, just around the corner as 2021 begins.
That Whole Earth Catalog showed that way towards the Aquarian Age. Back in the late ’60s and early ’70s, as someone last night pointed out, that book was our internet, where we found out what each other was doing, how we were living, the low-tech ingenuity that fueled us back then, just out of ’50s sterility, and onto our communal homesteads; learning how to be with each other and the land. And that catalog is just as relevant today as it was back then. The world truly does “turn round and round.”
I sent Angelika on her way with a copy of my book, This Vast Being. Told her I’d be glad to help her with any questions she might have. She said her mind was so blown by the whole experience that it will take her awhile to calm down. Good.
Angelika is one of many who find themselves “taking the tour” here, learning how we can begin to transform the entire suburban landscape of America by beginning to share and cooperate. What stops us? Simply a failure of imagination. Plus, the risk of taking a chance, and trusting your neighbor. So: do one little thing differently . . . and what happens? The whole world opens! For example, decide to share a tiny garden bed in the space between yours and your nearest neighbor’s house. Little by little, inch by inch, that’s how our cooperative culture’s garden grows.
