WORD OUT! The Blog to Build a New Society

Janaia Donaldson and her crew from Peak Moment TV are spending the months of August and September on the road. They are visiting communities from Ashland OR to Victoria BC - including a stop at New Society Publishers on September 15th so stay tuned!

Peak Moment TV is visiting key locations and examples in the the localization/transition network. They are investigating many aspects of sustainable living including community share agriculture, ecovillages, natural building, community gardens and more! You can see the entire tour schedule here. She is interviewing such influncial people as David Korten on Bainbridge Island, WA, Cecile Andrews in Seattle WA, Guy Dauncey in Victoria BC and Derrick Jensen in Crescent City, CA. Janaia is blogging about each of their visits in her journal.

Peak Moment TV is an online television series featuring people creating resilient communities for a more sustainable, lower-energy future. Peak Moment TV emerged out of the desire to find models among grassroots entrepreneurs working to create a sustainable future. Click here for a list of networks and times for Peak Moment TV.

     

Our blog and Facebook postings have been a bit thin as of late (ok actually they've been as skinny as a Calvin Klein underwear model), and now they're about to grind to a temporary halt. The annual July one-two knockout punch of real-world publishing deadlines and commitments and impending (sorely needed) vacation time is upon us yet again.

Until we get back, here's a couple of things that I've been really wanting to write about but haven't had the chance to:

1. Keeping Deepwater Horizon on our horizon - It's been two and a half MONTHS since the spill started, and despite the fact that many thousands of barrels a day are still pouring into the Gulf, it seems like the disaster is beginning to fade from the collective consciousness. Just like Haiti. Just like the tarsands. Just like any massive event once it's reached media saturation. But we have to keep this one front and centre. We can't afford not to. The only question is how.
2. The G8/G20 protests - I feel particularly badly for not having blogged this, given that the summits were in Canada, but if you were following the action at all, then I really, really suggest that you check out Starhawk's Webs of Power - many consider it to be the defining book of the anti-globalization movement - well worth your time.
3. Also for some positive ideas, check out the Buckminster Fuller Challenge - so, so cool!
4. Oh, and this - up-cycling anyone?

See you all in a couple of weeks!

As the oil continues to pour into the Gulf and the environmental and social impacts accelerate, we feel anger, grief, deep frustration and overwhelming despair.

Joanna Macy is a Buddhist teacher, writer, activist, and scholar internationally renowned for her pioneering work in deep ecology and the healing of our world. She facilitates workshops worldwide using The Work that Reconnects - a unique and powerful form of group work that demonstrates our interconnectedness in the web of life and our authority to take action on its behalf. The Work that Reconnects has helped thousands to find insight, solidarity, and courage to act in the face of the rapidly worsening conditions around us. Based on systems theory, spiritual teachings, and deep ecology, its methods are described in Coming Back to Life.

In Coming Back to Life, Joanna introduces The Bestiary - a poem that interweaves poignant lament with a compendium of threatened and endangered species. This poem is meant to be performed as a ritual to both honor our loss and inspire our work. From The Bestiary:

Dive me deep, brother whale, in this time we have left. Deep in our mother ocean where once I swam, gilled and finned. The salt from those early seas still runs in my tears. Tears are too meager now. Give me a song... a song for a sadness too vast for my heart, for a rage too wild for my throat.

anteater
antelope
grizzly bear
brown bear
Bactrian camel
Nile crocodile
American alligator

Ooze me, alligator, in the mud whence I came. Belly me slow in the rich primordial soup, cradle of our molecules. Let me wallow again, before we drain your swamp, before we pave it over and blast it to ash.

gray bat
ocelot
marsh mouse
blue pike red kangaroo
Aleutian goose
Audouin’s seagull

Quick, lift off. Sweep me high over the coast and out, farther out. Don’t land here. oilspills coat the beach, rocks, sea. I cannot spread my wings glued with tar. Fly me from what we have done, fly me far.

golden parakeet
African ostrich
Florida panther
Galapagos penguin
Imperial pheasant
leopard
Utah prairie dog

If you find yourself struggling with grief, despair and angst, now is the time to explore Joanna's powerful teachings.

   

Hi Everyone,

I just wanted to take the opportunity to thank you all. It was great to see how many of you came out to celebrate World Oceans Day with me - the songs, the stories, the education programs for the kids, picking litter up off my beaches, all of that really meant a lot. Despite everything that's going on, I had a really great day and I appreciate it. I wish we could all get together more often.

I got to thinking though, and I have one favour to ask you. I hope you don't think it's rude, especially after you just put on such a great party for me. But you know, this thing in the Gulf, it's really, really hurting me. I know that you know that - I know you've seen the pictures and read all the horrifying statistics. I know that thousands of you have dropped everything so that you can rush to help, and hundreds of thousands more are making donations and signing petitions. And that's great, it really is. It helps.

But the thing is that what happened to me in the Gulf - it's easy to blame it on the big oil companies and all their greed. It's easy to demand that everyone boycott BP (and I'm not saying you shouldn't). But from where I'm sitting, things aren't so black and white. BP and all the other companies wouldn't be engaging in more and more dangerous, expensive and environmentally sensitive drilling if there wasn't such a huge market for their product. As the easily accessible fossil fuel deposits run out, unless demand decreases dramatically the companies are going to resort to more offshore drilling, more mining of the tar sands, and more and more dangerous methods of exploration and extraction.

So this is where that favour comes in. It's something I can't do - only you can. Here it is.

Stop driving so much. Put down that factory-farmed hamburger. Eat local when you can. Remove as much plastic from your life as possible. Get on your bike or take a walk once in a while.

Please. Do it for me. Do it for yourself. Do it for your kids. Do it for the whole planet. You'll be glad you did in the long run.

So that's it for now. Thanks again for the great party. Let's do it again soon.

Your friend always,

The Ocean

This weekend a friend here on Gabriola Island told us that he was expecting some unusual house guests - a family who call themselves the Pedouins, and who are trekking on a 5 person tandem bicycle from Kentucky to Alaska. This family calls themselves "ordinary people on an extraordinary journey" and it's an apt description - the Pedouins consist of Dad, Mom, and daughters Cheyenne, Jasmine and Robin, and their goal is to pedal 7,000 miles across North America from Kentucky to Alaska. They left their home August 1st, 2009, and they are currently on the Vancouver Island leg of their journey.

Knowing this, we were less surprised than you might think to pass a crazy, bright yellow contraption with 2 adults and 3 adorable little girls aboard labouring its way up the ferry hill on Sunday afternoon. We screeched to a halt and I leapt out of the car to somewhat overenthusiatically introduce myself (fortunately they appear to be used to this sort of reaction). The Pedouins are lovely people - friendly and open and positive, even in the face of lousy weather, mechanical challenges and steep terrain. Meeting them was a memorable moment.

It absolutely amazed me how little stuff the Pedouins carried - by the end of their journey they will have been on the road for at least a year, and yet all their belongings appear to fit in a small trailer and a few bags. What an incredible lesson for anyone who wishes that they could live more simply. The next time you agonize over whether you *really* need that extra gadget or sweater or pair of shoes, consider this family of 5 that has redefined the concept of treading lightly on the earth.

The scope of their journey is inspiring. It seems like such an audacious goal - packing up three children and cycling across a continent with them. But when you meet the Pedouins they make it seem like it's nothing all that unusual really - something that anyone can do if they just take things one step at a time. As they say on their website, "In this life we can only live life to the fullest. Take action upon your dreams. Love, live, be kind." There's a lesson for all of us here.