James Howard Kunstler sums up what we need to do beautifully, as always: “We have to work very hard to reconfigure the physical arrangement of life in the USA, moving away from the losses of our suburbs, reactivating our towns, downscaling our biggest cities, re-scaling our farms and food production, switching out our Happy Motoring system for public transit and walkable neighborhoods, rebuilding local networks of commerce, and figuring out a way to make a few things of value again.” Read this weeks Kunstler blog, and then read all the others. You’ll be smarter for it.

My last car had one of the best bumperstickers I’ve ever come across: “Speak Your Mind, Even if Your Voice Shakes”.  This is true for bloggers and letter writers too. The message of this post, despite any other minor details you might stumble over here, is exactly what the bumpersticker says: Raise your voice!

There is currently a tremendous outcry over a bill presently working its way through congress. This bill, HR 875, has the title of Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009. Click on the link and read through it. Then make up your mind how to respond – and then do it!

The fact is, the furor over HR 875 may be a bit overdone. But I am not one to suggest we shouldn’t be asking a lot of questions and expressing concern. And, the bill does provide for frighteningly sweeping powers and is vague in many of its definitions that would limit the application of the provisions and reduce administrative costs.

Also disconcerting is one particular argument for relative calm that I’ve been coming across. This argument states that the bill is poorly written and won’t even make it out of committee. This line of reasoning does not seem reliable.

There are other bills, namely HR 759, that may pose a more onerous threat to food choice than 875. This article in GRIST is reasonably balanced in my opinion: http://www.grist.org/article/2009-04-06-2009-catching-up-on-food-news.

There is a lot of conflicting information propagating on the internet about this. At first I felt plenty angry about allegations that the lead sponsor of the bill, Connecticut Rep. Rosa Delauro is married to a Monsanto executive. Actually, he is a pretty liberal, democratic strategist and CEO of his own firm. Here is a blogsite with some additional, clear-sounding information: http://crooksandliars.com/nonny-mouse/monsanto-and-hr-875-take-two. Note though, that Greenberg’s firm has worked for Monsanto – there is no doubt about that, and elements of concern exist with regard to the very tight little circle of influential elite that seem to continue to come into focus the more one looks into this bill.

I’m not saying which information is accurate. The fact is, I don’t really know. But I encourage you to investigate for yourself. I don’t think there is anything wrong with expressing concern about this bill or any other matter that concerns people. If you are treated with anything but respect and deference, then complain about that too – we pay for this representation and it needs to be sensitive and responsive.

Another good place to look might be FactCheck.org: http://www.factcheck.org/askfactcheck/would_a_new_bill_in_congress_make.html. They’ve looked at this and also conclude that there is a lot of misinformation being promulgated. They also referred to this website: http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/food/foodsafety/background-on-h-r-875. This website suggests that HR 759, may pose more of a threat to local food.

Despite any misinformation, let’s be clear about one thing: regulating food is a deeply disturbing concept and something that we need to be able to understand and react to cogently.

For the record, the following are sponsors of HR 875:

Ms. DELAURO (for herself, Ms. ESHOO, Ms. DEGETTE, Ms. SCHAKOWSKY, Mr. ENGEL, Ms. CASTOR of Florida, Mr. MURPHY of Connecticut, Ms. SUTTON, Mrs. LOWEY, Ms. SLAUGHTER, Mr. HINCHEY, Mr. MCGOVERN, Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ, Ms. HIRONO, Mr. GRIJALVA, Mr. SCHAUER, Mr. NADLER of New York, Mr. BISHOP of New York, Ms. LINDA T. SANCHEZ of California, Mr. MCDERMOTT, Mr. RYAN of Ohio, Ms. GIFFORDS, Mr. FILNER, Mr. HALL of New York, Ms. LEE of California, Ms. PINGREE of Maine, Ms. KAPTUR, Mr. BISHOP of Georgia, Ms. MOORE of Wisconsin, and Mr. DEFAZIO) introduced the following bill;

Want to know more about Monsanto ties to the federal government? Check out this site: http://members.aye.net/~hippie/monsanto.htm. Despite some mistakes that may or may not have been made with regard to reaction to this bill, the ethical foundations of the corporate/regulator revolving door are not sound.

Also for the record, here is a rebuttal from Monsanto: http://www.monsanto.com/monsanto_today/for_the_record/hr875_monsanto_dream_bill.asp in which they state that Stanley Greenberg is not an employee, but only consulted for Monsanto more than ten years ago.You might also check out Monsanto’s entire blog, dedicated to ‘debunking’ all the biased information about them. According to their blog, they are not as bad as people make them out to be. Go figure! I understand that playing Obama’s phrase, “We can do it” backwards yields “thank you Satan”. If this is true, where does that put Monsanto?

Try this Monsanto blog on for feel, it might be instructive: http://blog.monsantoblog.com/2009/04/01/gmos-improving-nutrition/. This is where they offer ‘10 Reasons We Do Need GM Foods’. Only there aren’t, like, ten reasons even listed and the argument is paperthin and dripping with spin.

I’ve written several times, and made numerous phone calls, including to our beloved Rosa DeLauro, expressing outrage about HR 875. Am I a little embarrassed? Yes, I suppose. But, still, its good practice: Raise your voice, it may count sooner than you think.

So after doing some more research and writing this blog post, here is the final version of a message to my representative, Joe Courtney. A bit shallow, I admit, but not nearly as headstrong as the first version. I think the point here, is to use these instances to get better at articulating that which you are for – what kind of world do you want? What are the real issues, not those put forth on the TV, but the underlying values, ideals, behaviors and ways of thinking that support that most flawed aspects of our society?  Are you willing to uncover them and look at them? Are you willing to raise your voice in favor of something better? Too much goes unspoken, unnoticed in our society. We live in a smoke screen, cover your ass culture that reinforces denial and repression rather than truth and ideals. We can’t afford this kind of behavior another moment. As I write this, I have the distinct feeling that our much admired President is, too, succumbing pragmatic pressures that are leading him away from his, and our, ideals. Or is it that he doesn’t think we can handle the truth – the truth that elements of our society are deeply flawed and need to change or we are all, literally, cooked? Let him and every one in a leadership position, including your own Mayor or First Selectman, know that you are in favor of transparency and ideal-driven policy including the elimination of corporate influence on food policy.  I know this may sound hopelessly idealistic, but why can we not expect our senators and representatives to respond to well articulated values that we, the people, offer up? Here’s a copy of my message to Rep. Courtney:

“I am writing to express my deepest concern about bills currently being considered with regard to food safety. One such bill is HR 875, over which there has emerged a lot of internet protest. But more importantly, I think the level of rhetoric needs to lead to a deep review of all food related bills including HR 759, which may be more onerous than 875.

The fact is, we need to support local food now, as fossil fuels diminish. We need to admit that world population is out of control and we need to show leadership in true sustainability: an ecological approach to life in this country that unwinds the growth-requirements of our money system and recognizes the immediate need to operate within the real limits of our planet.

Let’s take a step back from all of the food bills and fix the underlying assumptions. That would be true leadership, and we are relying on you!”

Below is a reprint of an email I sent to our state representative and state senator about the outrageous proposal to, yet again, raid the clean energy and energy efficiency funds to help balance the state’s general funds. The energy funds are derived from a hidden tax on our electric bill that is represented as a collective donation to the energy funds intended to support the development of renewable energy and energy effiiency. The renewable program was actually working. The energy efficiency fund appears to be a red herring, though there is plenty of written material about what they are or are trying to do. There seems to be little to show for all the staff and infrastructure that exists around these funds. Now the Governor wants to commandeer the funds for the state’s budget. Matt, an aid in Representative Linda Orange’s office told me it is because the state deficit will affect our ‘bond rating’ and cost us more in interest. I think this thinking represents the leading edge of where we’ve gone wrong.

At the very least, the bond rating issue is the tail wagging the dog: we are going to stop investing in solutions to the most pressing global, social, cultural, economic, moral issues in the history of the world to preserve our bond rating. And it will only make things worse because it will continue to fund the systems and institutions that have gotten us into this mess in the first place.

If you haven’t noticed, I’ m upset and angry about the stupidity. It doesn’t help that our hope in Obama seems to be ebbing away as he morphs into a political player from the promise of a visionary not afraid to address the real issues of the day. Ultimately this about is about finding solutions on the local level. Despite the morbid insincerity and lack of enlightenment of Louisiana’s Jindal, it appears he got one thing right: that government can’t get out of its own way to lead us to the real, substantive change we need NOW. Only the awakening consciousness of the grassroots can do that. Consider what you might do today.

Email to Governor Rell, State Rep. Linda Orange and State Senator Eileen Daily:

“I ask you to oppose Governor Rell’s proposal to use money from the ratepayer funded Clean Energy Fund and Energy Efficiency Fund to balance the state budget. This is an example of throwing good money after bad. We need to fund energy efficiency and renewable energy NOW, not the existing systems and institutions that have gotten us into the current problems we face. I understand you represent and are very good at operating within these current systems. We need you now to think big and act courageously and boldly.

Do not allow the governor and state government to tax electric ratepayers to balance the budget by taking money intended for the Clean Energy Fund, Energy Efficiency Fund, and eliminating the ratepayer-funded Office of Consumer Counsel. Rather, work to make these initiatives that are based on sustainable values operate better, more coherently and with transparency.

Clean energy investments are not optional- they are critical for keeping the lights on, meeting our energy needs at an affordable cost to consumers, reducing pollution and helping the world transition into a sustainable future peacefully and non-violently.  Every dollar not spent on renewable energy and energy efficiency supports war and violence, is ratepayer money wasted on building new power plants, continued consumption-ism and suburbanization, energy purchased from unregulated power plant owners, or rate hikes to pay the utilities to build new transmission lines that WE DO NOT NEED.

The effects of this proposal would be a hidden billion dollar tax on consumers through higher energy bills, increased dependence on non-renewable fossil fuels, and the lack of adequate representation in proceedings at the DPUC; not to mention continued support of a national perception that we need to unfairly take resources from other lands to subsidize our way of life.

As there is a waiting list of efficiency and clean energy projects for public buildings, we ask you to target these clean energy investments for public buildings, which will do more reduce the state’s deficit than raiding the money. It will also keep green jobs in Connecticut.

Lastly, I might ask that your office respond to this email as a courtesy. I have written before and received very very little in the way of acknowledgment and feedback. These are the most important issues we face today. We in the community expect that you, our representatives are treating these issues with great seriousness, compassion and inspiration. If not, than you must make room for people that are willing to do so. Please consider your actions for our greatest good – the good of creating a society that values constructive, interactive, sustainable living and not domination and so-called competition. Allow yourself to become aware of traditional issues that are used as a distraction to keep us from addressing real, deeper issues. I read your mailed updates and find that they focus on just these types distractions. They do not indicate a sufficient grasp of the depths of the real challenges facing us today. I implore you to dig deep in response to this email. I ask you to call upon your strongest values and heart-felt courage to begin making a real difference! Thank you!”

I attended a pre-opening screening of the upcoming film FUEL, directed by Josh Tickell.

Here I am meeting Josh Tickell, director of FUEL.

He’s the guy that created the Veggie Van ten years ago and drove it all over the country promoting bio-fuels by pulling up to fast food chains and ordering a small soda and all of their used fryer oil.

The opportunity to attend the screening came as a result of my telling my friend Bill Paglia-Scheff about the Last Road Trip project. As a participant in the Landmark Wisdom course, Bill and his wife Megan have a connection with the makers of FUEL.

Bill and Megan

So we ran down to John Jay college in New York City in Bill and Megan’s Prius to watch the screening.

This is an important film that everyone should go see when it opens in March.  It describes a positive alternative to our current fossil fuel addiction, and offers some explanation about the roots of that habit. It offered a couple of surprising pieces of information. Did you know that the oil spill resulting from hurricane Katrina was as large as the Valdez spill? Or how about the fact that a Time magazine article, featured on the cover in early 2008, effectively shut down the biofuel burgeoning market. It is only now, as the depths of our problems come into focus, are biofuels gaining acceptance again.

While searching for information about this issue, I found a lot of controversy about the food for fuel argument. Who is right? Well, one way of finding out is through experience and that is what I intend to do with the Last Road Trip. I urge you to do your own research and make up your own mind. Just be forewarned, the mainstream news media that would tell you biofuels are a bad thing are funded from oil companies and big corporations. They might not be objective about the issue. Meanwhile, I haven’t heard anybody complain about burning used french fry oil. It smells like popcorn.

If you think about how we expose our kids to cancer-causing diesel fuel exhaust on school buses, one has to wonder, what insanity would argue against reducing the use of fossil fuels? The fact is, when diesel engines burn vegetable oil, the burn clean. The engine technology was developed by Rudolf Diesel specifically to burn peanut oil. If you can take standard diesel motors and burn vegetable oil cleanly, why invest millions of dollars in so-called ‘clean diesel’? If you recognize the truth about depletion of fossil fuels, this investment seems even more stupid. Exactly how hard are they working on so-called ‘clean diesel’ technology…and why?

Go see FUEL

A word being bandied about lately is infrastructure. The more liberal view of stimulus that will move us out of our so-called temporary recession/depression is that we must invest in putting people to work building infrastructure a la’ FDR’s New Deal.  The thinking behind this goes something like this: even though it will cost a lot of money, we are putting money into the system by paying for things that will last. So we’ll get the use of these things for a long time, while paying wages that will in turn be used to buy things, creating demand and lift in the economy. The money being used is actually created out of thin air, which is of course inflationary, but that is the price of avoiding a more devastating collapse of the economy in which, literally, the things that we need to survive, food, water, shelter, become scarce.

My reaction to this conversation is, as usual, akin to nausea that rises from knowledge of the shaky foundation upon which the infrastructure is proposed. To the extent that this infrastructure represents the rebuilding and expanding of our fossil-fuel based systems and institutions, we are throwing good money after bad. Actually, given the rapid depletion of resources, the Perfect Storm of Peak Everything, to borrow the words of Richard Heinberg at the Post Carbon Institute, there is no more good money. Good money implies it will be good for something, someday. Sadly, that is a questionable premise.

Below I borrow much more from Mr. Heinberg and his excellent blog and Muse Letter. But first, there is an important personal context underlying this blog, and all of my upcoming writing: In about a week, my wife, daughter and I will fly to San Diego to pick up a new old car – a 1983 Mercedes 300d that has been converted to run on vegetable oil. The surprise of 2009 for me was a minor accident in a snow storm that opened the door to identifying a different way of meeting our still perceived transportation needs. Given the reality of the gathering Perfect Storm, no car would have been the right response. However, the pressures and tension of so-called normal life still prevail even at this late date, so I opted for a much less expensive vehicle (than say a fancy new hybrid), and one that could take advantage of a more organic fuel source – vegetable oil or anything the resembles it.

The event was a catalyst for a whole new realm of creative thinking. The trip has morphed into an idea for a documentary. A Canon XL2 digital video camera is currently en route. A plethora of interview subjects began coming to my mind, as well as images of the western US and a chronicle of our family’s cross country drive – a first experience for our nine-year old and quite possibly, the last chance we’ll ever have to visit the incredible beauty of the American southwest.  And more so, reflecting thinking that has been going on now for a number years, my vision of this story includes an investigation into the connection between our individual and collective spiritual condition and the circumstances we have yet to face.

As I toss and turn in the early morning hours, a great deal of energy has bubbled up around these issues. The euphoria of the inauguration has passed and the cold reality that we face has come into even starker relief. As always, I rely on that which comes forth through inspiration for direction. In this case, it has been the Post Carbon Institute and their website. Much of the information there has been provided by Heinberg. He has crystallized, for me, the issues of peak oil, climate change, global carrying capacity and resource depletion, as well as offering a vision of the future that has positive characteristics. This we need desperately from which to gain energy for the work that must be done. I’m deeply grateful for the wisdom available through the writings offered by Heinberg and the Post Carbon Institute.

Heinberg (RH) writes, “It’s not the end of the world—yet. There is still opportunity to manage economic collapse in such a way as to lay the groundwork for a recovery to low-flow sustainability. But not if we concentrate our efforts on denial, blame, or the propping up of old institutions and industries that have no chance of survival—all of which are the obsessions of our current leadership.” And thus my original idea for this blog, a comment on the disturbingly loose lips proclaiming ‘infrastructure’. From President Obama to Rachel Maddow on MSNBC, the American people are still being subtly brainwashed that somehow our current system will ‘pull out’ of this. We need to stop doing this. Heinberg points to the so-called leaders and their continued economic drivel:

“An article on the Bloomberg website today suggests that Asia will have a “V-shape” recovery from the current economic crisis, rebounding in 2010. This is opposed to a “U-shape” recovery, which would presumably take a little longer.”

“May I suggest another alphabetic possibility? What if the “recovery,” not just in Asia, but globally, is shaped more like a big capital L?”

The Bloomberg article is literally laughable. Written by people that have gotten where they are by taking themselves so-very-seriously, and getting good at operating within a very bad system. Unfortunately, this is going to continue for sometime and these same people, because they are quite powerful inside of this system, are not going to give up their views or change easily. It is going to be messy.

“Everyone’s fears for the social system are ultimately personal: in the worst case, instead of getting up in the morning and finding our way within a functioning collective hive of organized activity, we might end up just milling around looking for something to eat. But with almost seven billion of us milling, we would be bumping into one another eying the same nuts and berries.” Richard Heinberg, The Post Carbon Institute

So the opportunity comes into focus a bit more: “Thus as fossil fuels deplete, as water becomes more scarce, and as climate changes, it is essential that we humans make a plan for how to simplify our society with minimal destruction of the planet and of one another. The project is made difficult by the fact that most of us are completely unaware that this is what we must do: we labor instead under the belief that our current problems can be solved with ever more complexity in the forms of technology (genetically modified crops and hybrid cars) and government bailouts for failing companies.”

“Globally, there are two problems whose potential consequences far outweigh most others: climate change and energy resource depletion. If we do nothing to dramatically curtail emissions of greenhouse gases soon, there is the substantial likelihood that we will set in motion the two self-reinforcing feedback loops mentioned previously – the melting of the north polar icecap, and the melting of tundra and permafrost releasing stored methane. These would, if set in motion, lead to an averaged global warming not just of a couple of degrees, but perhaps six or more degrees over the remainder of the century. And this in turn could make much of the world uninhabitable and make agriculture impracticable in many if not most places, and could result not only in the extinction of thousands or millions of other species but the deaths of hundreds of millions or billions of human beings.”

“In summary: We have used the plentiful, cheap energy from fossil fuels quite predictably to expand our power over nature and one another. Doing so has produced a laundry list of environmental and social problems. We have tried to address these one by one, but our efforts will be much more effective if directed at their common root – that is, if we end our dependence on fossil fuels.”

“The only choice remaining for policy makers is whether to shift all of our collective societal efforts toward building new infrastructure for the low-energy future, or to try vainly just to prop up the credit markets, losing what will probably be the last opportunity to salvage industrial economies.

The amount of time left for dithering—if indeed there still is any—can perhaps be measured in only months.”

As I’ve written elsewhere, most people simply do not believe that these ideas have much pertinence. Through a combination of cultural conditioning, psychological mechanisms of repression and denial, pharmaceutically-induced numbness and lack of experience – and thus wisdom with regard to these longer term trends, it is easier to dismiss the threat and the opportunity of this great turning. As a result, there is an equally powerful counter argument.

“But how can we know that the current economic crisis represents our ultimate encounter with ecological limits, and not merely a major case of the financial hiccups that have recurred frequently over the past couple of centuries? Might the global economy rebound for a few years, maybe even a decade or more, before really hitting the wall? In that case, wouldn’t a premature declaration of limit-hitting lead to further humiliation of ecological prophets by the mainstream media? Gloomy talk about an “L-shaped” non-recovery is likely to provoke tar-and-feathering in any case, simply because people who are already suffering economically want good news, not bad—and they especially do not want to hear the REALLY bad news that the era of cheap and easy abundance that they have been told is their birthright is gone forever.”

In fact, no matter what arena one finds himself, the reaction of people to these ideas ranges from a glazed over stare to a palpable disdain. “None of this is easy to contemplate. Nor can this information easily be discussed in polite company: the suggestion that we are at or near the peak of population and consumption levels for the entirety of human history and that it’s all downhill from here is not likely to win votes, lead to a better job, or even make for pleasant dinner banter. Most people turn off and tune out when the conversation moves in this direction; advertisers and news organizations take note and act accordingly. The result: a general, societal pattern of denial.”

So much of it is our capitalistic conditioning. We have been taught and rewarded to pursue money, not human experience. And we have thus put ourselves into an isolation tank of civilization that has produced the self-reinforcing dissociation that keeps us from hitting the brakes and turning the wheel as we careen toward a literal and figurative brick wall of change. We even create criteria of measurement to reinforce the illusion.

“Growth in GDP tells us that we should be feeling better about ourselves and our world – but it doesn’t take into account a wide range of other factors, including damage to the environment, wars, crime and imprisonment rates, and trends in education. Many economists and non-governmental organizations have criticized governmental reliance on GDP for this reason, and have instead promoted the use of a Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI), which does take account of such factors. While a historical GDP chart for the U.S. shows general ongoing growth up to the present (GDP correlates closely with energy consumption), GPI calculations show a peak around 1980 followed by a slow decline. If we as a society are going to adjust agreeably to lower rates of energy flow – and less travel and transport – with minimal social disruption, we must begin paying more attention to the seeming intangibles of life and less to GDP and the apparent benefits of profligate energy use.”

But this isn’t just about the merits of the argument outlining the problem. We need to move on from there, and Heinberg recognizes this too. What lies ahead? How can we get coherent with these very real trends? Are there any positive aspects in the horrific scene from which we might draw life energy and will to work together toward a solution, any solution, even if it requires a vast revamping of everything we know (unless you go back far enough in history at which point there are useful lessons to be learned about connecting spirit with flesh and collaborating with one another as well as the whole of the web of life).

“Nevertheless, a decline in population, complexity, and consumption could, at least in theory, result in a stable society with characteristics that many people would find quite desirable. A reversion to the normal pattern of human existence, based on village life, extended families, and local production for local consumption – especially if it were augmented by a few of the frills of the late industrial period, such as global communications – could provide future generations will [sic] the kind of existence that many modern urbanites dream of wistfully.”

So Heinberg finds a way to sum up a potential source of inspiration from which we can draw. “We must focus on and use the intangibles that are not peaking (such as ingenuity and cooperation) to address the problems arising from our overuse of substances that are.” We should all feel deeply indebted for these words.

And these: “Thus, a conclusion of startling plainness presents itself: Our central survival task for the decades ahead, as individuals and as a species, must be to make a transition away from the use of fossil fuels – and to do this as peacefully, equitably, and intelligently as possible.”

And finally, Heinberg offers some insight into the psychological crux of the problem, an aspect that I find particularly interesting because it also is the doorway into seeing the current trends, and remedies, or at least outcomes whatever they might be, as having a spiritual component. How might we use spiritual energy to mitigate the pain and optimize the future?

“It is not just a matter of becoming intellectually and dispassionately convinced of the reality and seriousness of climate change, peak oil, or any other specific problem. Rather, it entails an emotional, cultural, and political catharsis…waking up implies coming to the realization that the very fabric of modern life is woven from illusion – thousands of illusions, in fact.”

“Again, the awakening I am describing is an ongoing visceral as well as intellectual reassessment of every facet of life – food, work, entertainment, travel, politics, economics, and more. The experience is so all-encompassing that it defies linear description. And yet we must make the attempt to describe and express it; we must turn our multi-dimensional experience into narrative, because that is how we humans process and share our experiences of the world.”

Thus he gives me the gift of understanding just a little better my urge to tell a story, as best I can, about these things.

“The great transition of the 21^st century will entail enormous adjustments on the part of every individual, family and community, and if those adjustments are to be made successfully, rational planning will be needed. Implications and strategies will have to be explored in nearly every area of human interest – agriculture, transportation, global war and peace, public health, resource management, and on and on. Books, research studies, television documentaries, an every other imaginable form of information transferal means will be required to convey needed information in each of these areas. Moreover, there is the need for more than explanatory materials; we will need citizen organizations that can turn policy into action, and artists to create cultural expressions that can help fire the collective imagination. Within this whirlwind of analysis, adjustment, creativity, and transformation, perhaps there is need and space for a book that simply tries to capture the overall spirit of the time into which we are headed, that ties the multifarious upwellings of cultural change to the science of global warming and peak oil in some hopefully surprising and entertaining ways, and that begins to address the psychological dimension of our global transition from industrial growth to contraction and sustainability.”

And so, in reading Mr. Heinberg’s excellent writing, and in creating this blogpost with some of his thoughts – I stumble upon an unexpected jolt of inspiration. In the right hand column is a link to just such a book as he describes, a book that I attempted to write over the last two years. It is an effort that has suffered recently from my own emotional blocks of self-perceived inadequacy, as well as the not-so-unexpected pressures of spreading myself thin enough to secure a modicum of income to help provide for my family. My wife is the hero in the story, continuing to work four, ten-hour days at the local gas utility to bring in a reliable income while I search and search for a response to all of the things written here – and try to make some money. I search for an expression that is adequate for our family right now, yet tells this story that literally emits from my soul – from a deep place of knowing that has been at odds with civilized life for so long it has caused all sorts of misunderstood emotional turmoil.

As Heinberg points out, our reaction to the implications of the future are achingly personal. We fear for ourselves and our loved ones, for their safety, health and comfort. But the answer, as always, is here, now. In understanding this, I take yet one more step closer to opening the flood gates of [coherent] expression; hopefully a story that resonates and contributes to the collective understanding of this journey with which we are engaged.

I encourage you to peruse the rough draft of  Abundance, The Journey Home through the link at the right under non-fiction. It is my vision of a book ‘that simply tries to capture the overall spirit of the time into which we are headed’.  There is, too, a new story idea: a documentary of the road trip upon which we are about to embark. I hope this trip, that you can read about in The Last Road Trip, might yet be an outlet for this story that burns in me, that Richard Heinberg has most recently helped crystallize just a bit more. A story that represents a simple, yet profound, response to what is here, now.

If you haven’t read Dr. Seuss’ book, The Lorax, you should. And then, I suggest, passing it along to a young person! Here is a cute review I wrote for the Amazon site. It ain’t Iambic Pentameter, but worth a read!

There’s not much to say, so many things to write
About this book by Seuss, a zinger with a theme that’s less than trite
As usual he invents words and things and animals to delight
There’s no stopping his inventiveness, his genius gives me to fright
But read on I must, and so must you
For he offers a commentary on the world around too
It isn’t so sweet really, and the kids would do well
To learn this early instead of thinking all’s swell
The trees of Truffula offered fruit divine
Until they were all chopped down by a capitalist swine
He doesn’t really say that, I phrased it myself
Forgive the intensity from this young scribe elf
But you see, just recently I had this vision
Of a culture that’s driven
Past the red line
I tried to convince the local middle school principal, yes I did
To simply show to a film to our kids
A film called The Story of Stuff, it’s really quite stunning
And not a stone’s throw from Seuss’s moral funning
But he said no and I learned convincingly
That our attachment to the status quo is practically instinctual
This book, and yes the film too I’m happy to say
Try to raise the bar
To admit that our growth economy has gone a bit too far
No he would not show the Story of Stuff
The kids might get upset, it would be too tough
To affect their belief in Santa Claus
And all that he stands for
Oh but that’s just one example of many
For me, a silly parent, a concerned ninny
So yes, Seuss does it well, surely better than me
He starts with a book about a simple tree
And then there are thweaters or something equally funny
Things you can wear when sleeping or running
They are most needed, we couldn’t be without them
So they cut all the trees and made enough for all, no doubt then
‘Cept a funny thing happened they didn’t expect
The water turned black and the air smelled like heck
The birds flew away, the animals fell ill
The price for the tweaters (or whatever they’re called) was a bitter pill
You get the gist – its an important message
Enjoy the education, take steps to unsuppress the suppressage
Whether with the books you read, like this one
Or the causes you champion, like challenging curriculum
Its for the kids I say this, for the kid’s future
We’ll all be better off – with the help of ideas Seuss help nurture

I’d Rather Teach Peace

While I’m on the subject of book reviews,  I may as well include the following review on the book I’d Rather Teach Peace by Coleman McCarthy. This book is so inspiring, I don’t know what to do about it. It describes a vision of a life that breathes pure oxygen on the embers of my heart. It creates a longing in me for a life of service that I have scarcely ever before felt. It brings right back to the surface those silly questions about how will I pay the mortgage, how can my wife retire, how will we pay for food? Silly. I know. That’s the blessing of this book for me – bringing those questions that I thought I had begun to shed back where they belong – in my face. Maybe I can disgorge myself of them yet.

Anyway, here’s the review. By the way, you can see all of my book reviews on Amazon by clicking on the word Amazon.

That’s the name of the book too. If you read this book, you may find yourself agreeing. Don’t read this book if you’d rather not find a place for your ideals in your life. That’s how many people will conclude they need to be. We are conditioned and rewarded to abandon our principles in the quest for success and in our striving to dominate and eliminate perceived threats to survival.

Coleman McCarthy understands that we have it upside down. Don’t read this book unless you want to be inspired. We are taught violence from the moment we are born and McCarthy describes a simple alternative that he has been living for more than twenty years; teach peace. He leads students of all ages – including elementary age, where we most need to begin – and prisoners, including the many young, black male victims of culturally ingrained injustice – to the study of Ghandi, non-violence, Dorothy Day, Martin Luther King, Jr., Daniel Berrigan and others like them. He suggests, yes illuminates, the fact that we can and must act on the ideals of peace and non-violence that exist in us all, but are only buried by the current institutions of our culture and the world.

Don’t read this book if you want to stay asleep. Right now, in today’s world, as the US financial system spins quickly into oblivion, we need to orient to the values of peace; need to quickly develop a felt understanding of the quality of life available to each and everyone of us if we teach peace, live peace, give peace, are peace. But we will naturally respond differently to the catastrophe. We will grip even harder onto that which we know, are comfortable with, have been taught. We have been taught violence. We will need to learn something new or suffer greatly.

In this book, Cole McCarthy describes his life of teaching in schools and prisons the elements of peaceful conflict resolution. He teaches the absurdity and ineffectiveness of pursing peace through violent means.

As we struggle in the coming years to resolve our personal confusion between survival and success, we will need to grab hold of peace and nonviolence lest we simply fall back into the dead end beliefs of fighting and overcoming instead of collaboration, compassion, relationship – not only with each other, but with the natural world as well. Our violent beliefs have brought us to where we are now, a catharsis of civilization.

Read this book. Pass it on and go forth into the emerging paradigm with an evolved consciousness. And if someone tells you that you are being too idealistic, politely, lovingly, emphatically teach peace. Suggest that they read the book too!

Steve Pavlina's Book 'Personal Development for Smart People'

Steve Pavlina is an incredibly smart, organized, driven person who is recognized as perhaps the most successful personal development blogger on the Internet. Yes, I said blogger. His first book, Personal Development for Smart People, with the subtitle of The Conscious Pursuit of Personal Growth, reflects all of his outstanding qualities and is drawn from the enormous collection of material he created through his blog site, StevePavlina.com.

The website is a tremendous resource of free material created by Pavlina based on his decision to develop a personal growth business. His strategy of providing free articles that reflected his experiences, thinking and articulation of personal growth insights helped him develop an amazing readership. It is from this platform that Pavlina was able to attract the attention of the esteemed Hay House publishing company, known for its work with spiritual and personal growth material. The book reflects Pavlina’s qualities of creative insightfulness and rational organization in a way that can be powerful for lots of people having a wide range of experiences and approaches to actualizing their highest human experience.

The book’s introduction describes Pavlina’s interesting life story including his catholic upbringing, a period during his late adolescence in which he rebelled by becoming a prolific shoplifter and his subsequent meteoric college career in which, after having been kicked out of UC Berkeley, he completed a double major at California State University Northridge in just three semesters by taking a triple load. The college experience lead him to study time management techniques and set the stage for his foray into personal growth ideas and theories. With a degree in computer science, he started a computer game development business and continued following his growing interest in personal growth.  Eventually the interest in personal development took center stage and, using all of the knowledge and experiences he had gathered, he started StevePavlina.com.

Working with incredible verve and focus, Pavlina created a massive amount of written content, as well as audio podcasts. All of it was offered for free. He developed income through advertisements, affiliate programs, promotional offers and donations. The website became the most popular personal development website in the world with readers in more than 150 countries.  The growth of the website was largely word of mouth. Personally, I recommended the site to lots of people including friends, family and wellness clients of mine.

As with pretty much everything he does, Pavlina saw the unique opportunity for developing the book as a chance to organize his accumulated knowledge on the subject matter. Although the website is extremely well-organized – having the necessary technical organization of interwoven links, outline and summary presentations, archiving and a flow of fresh material – it offers an organic network of ideas and threads woven together as a rich, diverse resource. The book, on the other hand, offered the opportunity to develop a conceptual organization that could distill the material down to core principles that would facilitate a deeper understanding and an ability to apply the material across a wider spectrum of people and situations.

From the introduction of the book: “While studying personal development for many years, I learned that this field is very broad and fragmented. Any area of your life can reasonably slide under the umbrella of self-improvement, including your health, career, finances, relationships, and spiritual beliefs. Each subset of this field has its own purported experts, all of them sharing different ideas, rules, and advice..Unfortunately, these experts often disagree with each other…Some say you can achieve success through hard work and self-discipline; others advise letting go and allowing God or the universe to handle the details. Some experts encourage you to change’ others say you should accept yourself as you are. If you try to incorporate all these different ideas into your life… you’ll end up with a fragmented, incongruent mess.”

“I soon realized that an intelligent approach to personal development would have to resolve these incongruencies somehow…It would have to make logical and intuitive sense, satisfying both head and heart.”

The framework of core principles of Pavlina's work.

The result of his efforts to organize the material are what Pavlina calls fundamental principles. These are core concepts that can be considered universal, complete, and basice. They are building blocks that are consistent with each other and can be practically applied to most if not all situations in everyday life.

What Pavlina did, when he set before himself this problem of finding an organizational solution to describing all of the things he had learned about life and personal growth, was organize the task of writing the book into a process of asking and answering the right question: how can I invent a model that will hold all of these things that I have learned and want to say?  As with everything else he does, Pavlina set to solving theproblem with his usual intensity. What he came up with is simply elegant.

The model that Pavlina put together is a triangle of three core principles that relate to each other through three other principles – a relationship among Truth, Love and Power. This is the framework of his book and his work.

The three principles are related to each other through three other ’sub’ principles: Truth to Love through Oneness, Truth to Power through Authority, and Love to Power through Courage.  Pavlina suggests in addition to these six principles, there is a seventh that comprises all of them. This he calls Intelligence.

The book is painstakingly organized around the model of seven principles. The first half of the book  focuses on the basic principles themselves, elucidating their characteristics and inter-relationships. The second half of the book draws out the application of the model to specific areas of one’s life including habits, career, money, health, relationships and spirituality.

If you want to read a passionate, thoughtful and thorough presentation of personal growth ideas, you will enjoy this book. It certainly offers those of us that want to organize ’spiritual’ principles into a rather neat package a way to do so. But it provides tremendous depth as well. Pavlina believes, and lives, the idea of walking the walk. His process involves literally experimenting with different ideas, thoughtfully observing, and writing about his experiences. One interesting example from the blogsite is his work with the idea of changing his sleep pattern from a dirurnal cycle to polyphasic, meaning multiple phases. He has some 36 blog entries describing a five and half month experiment in which he slept about twenty minutes every four hours instead of going to bed (at night) like most every other human being. Constrained by conventional ideas, he is not.

I strongly recommend this book! It is fresh, thorough and insightful. It offers a framework for thinking about and living your life that reflects Pavlina’s motto of ‘living consciously’. In fact, that is perhaps its most powerful attribute – on the simplest level. Buy offering an elegant framework into which we can put the challenges, disappointments, successes, highs and lows from any area of our life, with out even trying, we take a huge step towards mindful living that is the essence of a rich, satisfying experience. For me, this is so important and relevant to my own area of interest, the nexus of our own personal and conscious living and the survival of the planet. As we learn to re-emerge into ourselves, remembering who we are and taking control of our lives, the addictions and compulsions fall away; we become a trim tab on the rudder for our societies, helping our culture turn away from unsustainble beliefs in consumerism, the growth economy, nature domination and the need for violence to maintain the underpinnings of our shaky civilization.

The great fallacy of our technological age is that we could replace, with our human intelligence, the super intelligence, attraction, love that is the global, cosmic, earth brain.

Sitting on the front porch at six am, there was a gentle rain falling. It filled the air with patterns of sound, a white, spraying sound made up of thousands of tiny patters and pits. I sat under the porch roof facing west. The morning light was filling in behind the house and me. Through my closed eyelids, I perceived a waxing and waning of the light that seemed to correspond with the intensity of the rain that came in waves. I listened to the gift of the water being delivered. When I opened my eyes, it seemed darker than I remembered. The shape of the trees and bushes were attractive. Each plant seemed to standout as an individual being. I felt more able to see each as a unique living entity.  Throughout the process, thoughts came and went. At one point, I noticed my thoughts had become more empathic and compassionate. I thought of an elderly neighbor who longs to return to the activity of sailing. I thought about bringing him out for a sail some day – about the challenge that it might entail given his advancing age; at the possibility of his joy and gratitude as well.

The ubiquitous gift of air is all encompassing yet perhaps for this reason we loose touch with the blessing of it. It is always there, and, therefore do we take it for granted and sever the most basic connection with the natural world. I am grateful and attracted to being reminded of this gift with the additional hope that I might move through the ‘thought’ of air and into the experience of it; the joy and pleasant sensation of receiving the oxygen I need with each inhalation, and too, the satisfaction of offering back to the earth the product of my carbon dioxide.

I am attracted to the idea of sunshine-clean, rain-washed air. I long for the nurturing feeling of this freshness. I feel that my offering back to the earth is even purer, more useful and sustaining when it is built upon pure, clean air. I realize that my living can offer a certain amount of revitalization of the depleted air resulting from our technological society. Thus, even in our disconnected state, we have the opportunity for greater connection by realizing our role in replenishing, as always, that part of nature for which we have carved this niche of interplay.

I’m reminded of the spiritual basis of these simple life-giving qualities; inhalation, exhalation, atmosphere, psyche, psychological. I am both a human being and a spiritual, energetic being not separate but attached infinitely to the universe, yet differentiated. Being all powerful is  boring, so boring that even God has given it away to the rocks, insects, plants and animals.

Yes, I trust the natural attraction for air. There is simply no room not to trust it. It is only for the briefest seconds that I am able and willing to deprive myself of oxygen. Then the attraction simply overwhelms me and I give in to the flow of this attraction and the give and take of the interaction.

I am attracted to the idea that air loves me. It is a sensory experience to breath air. My life is more satisfying, more complete when I can experience the sensory nature of my most common breath in a flowing, give and take cycle of inspiration/exhalation. This feeling informs me and can be useful in creating a deep understanding of my role in sustaining the natural environment. This wisdom might guide me in every action and decision I take and make, if only it is kept in my consciousness through thought, but also by an openness to feeling and an attitude of being through feeling.

I both celebrate and trust feeling communication and connection with all of life. It is an ancient relationship that is worthy of my attention, respect, gratitude and trust. The concept that it is reasonable for us and the environment to cooperatively connect is attractive and meaningful for me. It is a distinct paradigm shift that holds the seeds of a new way of being (a human) in the world, where our experience is a filled with abundant connections to the natural world that reflect who we are in the cosmos, gives us meaning, purpose and satisfaction in our life. This is nutritious satisfaction unlike the unsatisfying reward of consumption that we are taught will someday complete us and make us happy. This is living a felt existence in the moment in a dialectic relationship with all that is other than our selves.

It is powerful to realize words have the ability to convince us to disconnect us from our natural attractions. It is equally important to realize the information needed to guide us back to connection is immediately available in our felt presence. It is easy to imagine that on some level I am afraid of the intelligence of my natural attraction to breath because it points out how uncomfortable I am. I am of course thankful for it rationally, in hindsight, but in the moment, it seems possible, and illuminating to realize there may be reluctance to connecting with this natural intelligence because it necessarily must bring to light my current misery as a contrast to the comforting, life-sustaining alternative it offers.

Thoughts become things. So says a leading New Age guru. If things are natural attractions manifesting themselves, then the saying might be expanded. True, it is energy coalescing that is the heart of the concept of relational density among all-that-is – thoughts, attractions, energies all manifest as things and then dissolve, only to remanifest again as something else. Thoughts become things is just fine as a saying because it illustrates the power of our rationality. But it is balanced and complemented by the ideas that life happens and all is one. This is the story of cosmic evolution, everything turning itself inside out, each time revealing a more complex pattern, more abundant connections. We are just in one part of the cycle of destruction now that will ultimately lead to our own existence turning itself inside out into a different reality, once again integrated and connected fully with the earth and the universe. Our natural attraction is to go with this flow. This is the unspeakable Tao, to which words can not be given; this process of unfolding, differentiating, reintegrating. We are but etchings on a great stone of existence washed by wind and waves, carved by the slimmest powers heaving together in great rhythm with the Way of life.

If our thinking is our destiny, thoughts become things. Gaining fulfillment is the first order and if done through the natural attraction process, it is aligned with the Tao, the Way of life – it offers a higher purpose while offering simple fulfillment. This is the meaning of not striving, but choosing that which serves our own personal life force as it is expressed through our unique journey through and connection with all-that-is. This is why our economized, capitalized, monetized, consumerized world is the ultimate false God, because it offers only a substitute for the true journey of meaning creation and experiential interaction with that which is other than our self. Thus we can serve our selves, our personal relationships, our communities, societies, cultures and the natural world through our work with natural attractions.

So simply might we reconnect with this intelligence by following our joy, love and satisfaction. Yet we are caught in a system that must convince us satisfaction exists in the future as a result of progress and that we can satisfy ourselves only through the consumption of the products of this progress. It is most definitely not reasonable that we should dominate nature, subdue earth and convert it into anthropomorphic objects. It is not reasonable, and even the source of great anger, grief and frustration. Thus the Bible would have God telling us to claim dominion over the earth. This example is probably the clearest evidence of the depth of the roots of our conditioning to disconnect and thus serve a viscous cycle of striving for satisfaction through the consumption of our mother. We can compassionately see this as a necessary step in creating the polarity that is the potential from which we will be catapulted over the evolutionary chasm between our super-developed frontal lobes and a state of integrated beingness with all of our sensory, natural attractions. While we might find this compassion, we must, too, allow for the energy of that anger and grief to move us forward. Yet we are afraid of that energy. Thus we are afraid of our natural attractions for what they will tell us, for what they will have us feel. Instead we live in a state of denergized-ness, desensitized-ness, numbness, dumbness and flatness; a capitalistic prison for which we toil to carve a great key to a door that leads nowhere.

Our culture and society is a ship that moves through the ocean of the universe with the power of ancient momentum; 6,000 years of imperialistic, male oriented, nature dominating energy. But even on the largest ships, there is a small device attached to the rudder, the steering mechanism of the boat. Our culture is out-of-control, moving in the wrong direction. It is so big and so powerful that turning it is virtually out of the question. The device attached to the rudder of the ship is called a trim tab. It is a tiny rudder on the rudder, used to initiate the movement of the rudder itself that would otherwise be nearly impossible to move because of the great mass and momentum of the ship. Such is the challenge of turning the course of our society today. Our natural connections are a trim tab with which we begin to turn the course of events, the course of history. As elements of that trim tab, we respond to a natural cycle of evolution that is helping us awaken to our role and power initiating this great new era, a different direction for mankind and the earth. It is important that we celebrate the trim tab capacity of our burgeoning understanding of ecopsychology, natural attractions and organic psychology. We should not shrink from the challenge of deeply knowing why our current state will never work because it substitutes the plastic goods of our economic philosophy for a reality made from felt interactions with each other, other beings, things and the cosmos. Instead, we embrace this new understanding as we exercise and develop our inherent, natural connections with the global community of life. Thus, we move into a state of consensus living.

It is, indeed, polluted thinking to prejudicially value material facts while devaluing sensory facts. Although it is only words that I have, to reach out with this felt understanding, I try to write from the deepest level of this experience, allowing the words to form as they will in response to bodily felt ideas that could never, otherwise, be articulated through my currently, fiercely rational, linear brain. The result is a mixture of insight and half-finished thoughts, pregnant with possibility, yet still just a flag of knowing for me that I am here, now in this current state of partial integration.

I am reminded to trust the experience, to continue to seek greater connection with all the natural sensory connections we have including not only sight, sound, smell, taste and feel, but urge, intuition and instinct. Perhaps it is a facet of evolution that we have the ability to increase our natural connections. In fact, the great regret of our current culture is that it serves to reduce, eradicate, eliminate, hide and repress our natural connections, a direct contradiction of serving life in which the life experience is defined as our ever increasing sphere of  interdependence. I do not agree that we should justify our work in this area for economic benefit. That is an approach that only keeps us in the sinking ship frame of our current systems. I happily conspire with all humans, animals, plants and things to try to guide my life to support the life process and experience of increasing my ability to access the quality and perhaps even the number of natural attractions available as I move through life. Indeed, this is truly living and as such, I am able to release myself from a fear of death, release myself from the idea of
future satisfaction and return to the present where I can be even more effective as a trim tab for mother earth.

Thought this was worth promulgating:

Letter from Michael Moore [reproduced below from his website]

Friends,

Who among us is not at a loss for words? Tears pour out. Tears of joy. Tears of relief. A stunning, whopping landslide of hope in a time of deep despair.

In a nation that was founded on genocide and then built on the backs of slaves, it was an unexpected moment, shocking in its simplicity: Barack Obama, a good man, a black man, said he would bring change to Washington, and the majority of the country liked that idea. The racists were present throughout the campaign and in the voting booth. But they are no longer the majority, and we will see their flame of hate fizzle out in our lifetime.

There was another important “first” last night. Never before in our history has an avowed anti-war candidate been elected president during a time of war. I hope President-elect Obama remembers that as he considers expanding the war in Afghanistan. The faith we now have will be lost if he forgets the main issue on which he beat his fellow Dems in the primaries and then a great war hero in the general election: The people of America are tired of war. Sick and tired. And their voice was loud and clear yesterday.

It’s been an inexcusable 44 years since a Democrat running for president has received even just 51% of the vote. That’s because most Americans haven’t really liked the Democrats. They see them as rarely having the guts to get the job done or stand up for the working people they say they support. Well, here’s their chance. It has been handed to them, via the voting public, in the form of a man who is not a party hack, not a set-for-life Beltway bureaucrat. Will he now become one of them, or will he force them to be more like him? We pray for the latter.

But today we celebrate this triumph of decency over personal attack, of peace over war, of intelligence over a belief that Adam and Eve rode around on dinosaurs just 6,000 years ago. What will it be like to have a smart president? Science, banished for eight years, will return. Imagine supporting our country’s greatest minds as they seek to cure illness, discover new forms of energy, and work to save the planet. I know, pinch me.

We may, just possibly, also see a time of refreshing openness, enlightenment and creativity. The arts and the artists will not be seen as the enemy. Perhaps art will be explored in order to discover the greater truths. When FDR was ushered in with his landslide in 1932, what followed was Frank Capra and Preston Sturgis, Woody Guthrie and John Steinbeck, Dorothea Lange and Orson Welles. All week long I have been inundated with media asking me, “gee, Mike, what will you do now that Bush is gone?” Are they kidding? What will it be like to work and create in an environment that nurtures and supports film and the arts, science and invention, and the freedom to be whatever you want to be? Watch a thousand flowers bloom! We’ve entered a new era, and if I could sum up our collective first thought of this new era, it is this: Anything Is Possible.

An African American has been elected President of the United States! Anything is possible! We can wrestle our economy out of the hands of the reckless rich and return it to the people. Anything is possible! Every citizen can be guaranteed health care. Anything is possible! We can stop melting the polar ice caps. Anything is possible! Those who have committed war crimes will be brought to justice. Anything is possible.

We really don’t have much time. There is big work to do. But this is the week for all of us to revel in this great moment. Be humble about it. Do not treat the Republicans in your life the way they have treated you the past eight years. Show them the grace and goodness that Barack Obama exuded throughout the campaign. Though called every name in the book, he refused to lower himself to the gutter and sling the mud back. Can we follow his example? I know, it will be hard.

I want to thank everyone who gave of their time and resources to make this victory happen. It’s been a long road, and huge damage has been done to this great country, not to mention to many of you who have lost your jobs, gone bankrupt from medical bills, or suffered through a loved one being shipped off to Iraq. We will now work to repair this damage, and it won’t be easy.

But what a way to start! Barack Hussein Obama, the 44th President of the United States. Wow. Seriously, wow.

Yours,
Michael Moore