04.27.07 SURVIVORS

Muscadine grapes are a native grape to the southeastern U.S. They are quite different than European grapes and have a very distinctive wild and musky flavor. We actually live outside of the range of the wild vines, but I thought I would try growing some in the garden. Last fall I planted two varieties, one called a scuppernong. During the bitter cold days of winter I looked at these scraggly little shoots and thought surely they will not have survived this mountain cold. But there they are today bursting into leaf!

04.25.07 ITS TRUE

Yes, even jaded old folks like me get a big spark of hope when we see a scene like this on our morning commute. Perhaps these occasional comments on "hope" of mine are a bit "too pollyanna," but I am just reporting what I witness. And you know a little hope goes a long way, at least in my life.

04.23.07 BUILDING GOODNESS

Walking through town on a beautiful Saturday I see many signs of the health of our community. The city is having a parade to honor the Dogwood Festival. Hundreds of families are on the street enjoying the weather, the noise, and the activity. At the University the yards of fraternity houses are packed with students enjoying music, food, and grand spring weather. And halfway between the University and the downtown, passing through an older working class neighborhood, I witness the two groups, "town and gown," working together to improve our common community.

The Building Goodness Foundation, a grass roots non profit, grew out of the desire of highly-motivated skilled builders in our area to use their talents and to organize others to apply the wealth of our community to the improvement of the built environment locally and in other countries.

On their website this foundation lists its "core values":

Community
We promote positive community development.
We represent and respect cultural, religious, and ideological diversity.
We work as a collaborative partner with grassroots, religious, and community organizations.

Service
We are volunteers in service to our community, nation and world.
We are joined together by our compassion for others.
We value and teach transformational leadership.

Craftmanship
We are united by our passionate dedication to the building crafts.
We value excellence in design, methods, and workmanship.
We respect indigenous building practices and styles.
We value excellence in our volunteers, our organizations, and its outcomes.

04.22.07 COMMUNITY OWNERSHIP

Driving through the countryside not far from home I pass this roadside sign. Community organizations in our state "adopt" portions of highways. Once a year they come out and pick up the litter along their section of road. The folks in this neighborhood obviously decided they would share the "ownership" of their road equally.

It seems that smaller communities have no difficulty feeling ownership of the things they share in common. It might be roads but it also is often neighborhoods, schools, and local government. Likewise, there is often a size at which a community stops feeling this sense of ownership as individuals begin to feel more alone and anonymous. They see a problem and think "someone else will take care of it." If we foster community size which encourages this natural sense of common responsibility we might be able to solve more of the problems which we often expect the government or churches and non-governmental organizations to take on.

04.18.07 MEMORIAL MOMENT

My town has built a large slate wall and provided chalk so that passers-by may make a public comment. Instant memorials appear to express our grief and pain.

04.17.07 POSSUM PUP

The big storm of this past weekend washed some baby possums away from their nest. Hassled by neighbor dogs, they let out a steady "weep, weep" hoping for rescue. I set all five of them in a safe place where mom could find them again. Each possum baby held tightly to the grass with tiny fists as if it were it's mothers fur. A litter of five increases the odds that one or two will finally survive to continue to harvest the refuse of this residential area.

04.14.07 COMMUNITY

The sign from the previous post is a reminder to the members of this community that it is COMMUNITY that gives them their strength. The positive energy of this particular village and its naturally nurturing abilites are described on their website:

"Innisfree Village, a residential community with adults with mental disabilities, is nestled in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Coworkers (residents with developmental disabilities), volunteers and staff create a dynamic lifestyle on 550 acres. Located near the center of our community are eight homes, a community center, weavery, bakery, woodshop, office, and gardens. Innisfree is dedicated to providing a lifesharing home and work environment in an atmosphere of beauty, warmth, and respectfulness. All community members are valued and all are encouraged to explore a meaningful and challenging life."

04.13.07 SIX GORILLAS AND SIX BANANAS

TOGETHER WE CAN MAKE IT

Sherri Tepper, the science fiction writer, created a character who mentions in passing that humans are motivated by a selfish "ape-mind" in addition to the other layers of our evolutionarily developed consciousness (a more basic drive for reproduction coming perhaps from the inner layer of a "reptilian mind," and the ability to use language and to reason abstractly coming from the outer layer of a "human mind.") As an example, this story's character cites that if you, "give six gorillas six bananas," you will invariably end up with the biggest gorilla with six bananas unless the other five discover how to defend themselves as a team.

Why does the biggest gorilla always HAVE TO HAVE all of the bananas? Is it really from a sense of self preservation and an insatiable fear that he won't have "enough" that this huge animal feels compelled to take the other bananas? Or perhaps it is his sense of competitiveness, he feels he must always be on top, again due to fear (that others might dominate him).

Now, when I compare this to the human condition, I see a world created with more than enough resources for all humans, yet these resources distributed, much like with the gorillas, unequally, based upon power and probably likewise motivated by fear and competitiveness.

How do we create a social system which helps us rise above fear and insecurity to guarantee that all of mankind may reap the benefits of this bountiful world without injuring one another? Jeffersonian-inspired democracy (with the assistance of a capitalist consumer economy) suggests that we each have a right to the resources of the world in proportion to our individual ability to obtain and protect them. Communist and socialist thought suggests that as a group, humans are capable of owning the world's resources in common and distributing them to each person according to his or her needs. Practice has shown that communism and socialism have not been capable of counteracting man's natural fears and competitive nature.

So, if we could only overcome this fear of not having enough for ourself to survive and this drive to be the dominant individual, we might be able to develop a system which allows us to live in harmony with the world's magnificent resources. Is this only a dream of Eden, or is the problem-solving ability of the human mind up to the challenge?

04.11.07 MUSIC FOR FOOD

On my way home last night, I pass a student adding music to the quiet of the shopping district after hours. Her sweet voice inspire many passersby to contribute small amounts to the fund she is raising for World Vision, the international Christian relief and development organization.

04.09.07 BEAST BEAUTY

Artist Cynthia Burke has a show in town of her amazing animal paintings. From her artist's statement she says:
"As I thought about beauty in the animal world I considered our own relationship with "Her," the feminine just seems right. Some of the big fellows are displaying a touch of their feminine side: the veil on the Kudu, the nest in the antlers of the stag, the dainty hankie on the horn of the Big Horned Sheep."

Looking at the painting I wondered if the hankie hanging near the animal's eyes didn't project our emotion of despair on the Big Horned Sheep as it contemplates the gradual and inevitable destruction of its habitat by humankind.

04.08.07 EASTER SURPRISES

The mountain people where I live were missionized in the early twentieth century by the Epsicopal Church. The church built a number of chapels in the mountains and also constructed schools and housing. Many of these structures were built of wood and have long since disappeared to termites and rot, but some were built of mountain stone and still provide witness to the rich history of this area. Like the buildings, most members of the congregations are gone and their descendants moved away. In the 1960s three dwindling mountain mission churches were combined into one, Good Shepherd of the Hills. I occasionally attend services with my neighbor who was born on the mountain. Usually a Sunday draws five or ten people and a reserve pastor from town drives out here to conduct the service. On Easter Sunday we had several surprises. The church had over twenty attendees, and many of them children, coming, I imagine, upholding their family traditions. The second surprise was that several of the families brought their dogs with them! Perhaps this was a memory the parishioners have of the Epsicopal Church providing a blessing to their animals, or perhaps they just brought their lapdogs for company. At any rate, the pastor generously blessed the animals as well as the congregants. The final wonderful surprise was music! The pastor brought a student from town to play the dusty, unused organ and we all struggled through some basic Easter hymns. This blessing was all the richer, for me, when talking to the organist, I asked her if she attended the big Episcopal Church in town. Her answer, "Oh no, I am a Muslim."

04.07.07 THOUGHTS ON A SNOWY SPRING MORNING

Is man an alien to this earth? Is he an outsider to the natural order of things? I don't think so. When we can accept the true nature of our biological environment, the violent insistence of the life force, its overwhelming avalanche-like fecundity, the single-mindedness of its drive to prevail, its natural opportunisim and propensity to exploitation, then we can see that humankind is an organic part of the whole. That nature evolved the conscious mind and the tool-making hand to satisfy that pernicious drive to find an advantage, to succeed, to survive.

04.05.07 DITCH DAFFODILS

Washed out of someone's garden and carried away into a roadside drainage ditch like so much trash. They take root and flourish, flowering beauty to remind us of the indestructibility of life.

We cannot know, except by faith, that the son of man triumphed over death in the great christian easter story. But seeing the beauty of these roadside blossoms is witnessing tangible evidence that LIFE prevails.

04.01.07 NATURE'S TUG

On the opposite wall of the art studio I just mentioned is a small letterpress-printed postcard with this quote from John Muir. While eating breakfast this morning and reading E.O. Wilson's little book on the need for all political and religious factions to wake up to the environmental disaster we are witnessing (his book is titled The Creation), I come across this statement by Mr. Wilson:

"Scientific knowledge, humanized and well taught, is the key to achieving a lasting balance in our lives. The more biologists learn about the biosphere in its full richness, the more rewarding the image. Similarly, the more psychologists learn of the development of the human mind, the more they understand the gravitational pull of the natural world on our spirit, and on our souls."

Mr. Wilson states:

"Civilization was purchased by the betrayal of nature...the revolution encouraged the false assumption that a tiny selection of domesticated plants and animals can support human expansion indefinitely."

"...the modern technoscientific revolution, including especially the great leap forward of computer-based information technology, has betrayed nature a second time, by fostering the belief that cocoons of urban and suburban material life are sufficient for human fulfillment. That is an especially serious mistake. Human nature is deeper and broader than the artifactual contrivance of any existing culture. The spiritual roots of Homo sapiens extend deep in to the natural world through still mostly hidden channels of mental development. We will not reach our full potential without understanding the origin and hence meaning of the aesthetic and religious qualities that make us ineffably human."