Working with unknowns is always the dilemma for those cultivating on their
land. Not all unknowns are negative in essence, of course. On Maui, the winter
season brings more rainfall and cooler nights in the upper volcano slope areas.
For small market gardens or for the personal ag land garden project, what to
grow during this season depends on the maturity of the soil and Mother Nature.
One known unknown is the errant visitor who decides to pluck off the fledgling
shoots of seedlings. Creatures, particularly cats and dogs, like to forage for a
place to leave their daily remains. The human form of invasive species could be
considered the most damaging known unknown when living out some type of
inspiration to be "one" with all beings in the living spectrum.
Humans gravitate toward known knowns more than unknowns. My favorite
single-cell plankton meditation is a meditation to embody the condition of being
part of nature's food chain where some life forms are both the original source of
nourishment and hence life for the perpetuation of other life forms. Being at the
bottom of the food chain is about accepting a given known, then allowing the rest
to flow as evolution moves forward in its haphazard way to find its own develop-
ment.
Humans also exert free will based on certain knowns. Exerting free will while
living in the context of unknowns is, in my experience, the most gratifying part
of living the moment in sacred acts of trust in personal, professional and political
choices. As Yukie says, hope is not really necessary when living the moment in
sacred acts of trust.
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Sunday, November 8, 2009
moving toward dance and living truth
A few weeks ago, while sitting in a cafe on Maui, I met a few cafe dwellers who joined in on a friendly, spontaneous conversation while having breakfast. I had driven to this dry land region to visit a nearby farm reputed for its adherence to certain "permaculture" principles. We spoke about the endemic problem of drug use and addiction in neighborhoods and in rural areas. I had just reported an incident involving drug use and trafficking while living and working on a small commercial farm in Hana. In this economic crunch, small farms have been particularly vulnerable. At this site, there was a collusion of illegal workers from Europe, welfare fraud and drug pushing. One visitor shared his own experience while trying to find stable tenants for his rentals in an affluent town in California. I was struck by the fact that the problem of addiction, reckless, abusive behavior permeates all of our communities.
Our conversation continued for a while. I learned that this visitor worked in the technology industry as a system specialist. He was convinced that in the near future we would have a "cyber" stadium where spontaneous conversations such as the one we shared could take place via the internet. My perspective has always been that with rapid, universal sharing of information, the humanoid, in its daily grunge, has not been able to evolve, adapt and respond fast enough. The humanoid has needs, and we know that when these needs are not met, the humanoid behavior often takes an irrational course.
I decided to join the Twitter tweeting crowd after giving my vote to Twitter co-founders as the Nobel Peace Prize recipients instead of to this President. THE COMPOST PILE, originally entitled The Food Bowl, was conceived in the worst of hardship after having taken a stance of conscience. I found myself wanting to direct thinking back to the source of regeneration rather than a source of external nourishment. Given the juxtaposition of seamless digital information systems linking finance, energy and telecom with the disintegration of humanoid systems that have lost their connection to what makes sense, THE COMPOST PILE provides personal experiences that describe the inter-relatedness between the evolution of beings and vast systems of information that shape perception, commerce and security.
This past weekend, I had a phone conversation with this visitor who has since left Hawaii.
While sitting in another cafe, I queried about current policy shifts with regard to commerce and advertising with social media network sites. I mentioned that the Federal Trade Commission is considering how to manage conflicts of interests by advertising stakeholders with social media networks such as Twitter blogs. He acknowledged the need to have these types of discussions since articulated policy should direct "infrastructure" of information technology and that policies should consider more than just the dollars derived from choices.
When speaking with a journalist from Gannett today, tried to describe the frustration and destruction done to a small economy when the operational realities of information technology results in terror crime patterns occurring with wire fraud. Hawaii is known to have a problem with international drug crimes, and drug crimes are known to co-exist in the most corrupt financial systems.
Currently, the term "sustainable" has been popularized into mainstream use. I read an article
in a Hawaii magazine about the three pillars of sustainability: economic, environmental and social. This magazine features a food gallery of luscious, sumptuous photographs of meals and food products. Their feature editorial brags about using non-toxic ink on recycled paper with a local rather than foreign publishing company for their 5-star menu food gallery tastes.
In Hawaii, where rainfall is abundant in jungle areas where small farms have struggled to exist for a number of years, public officials are trying not to ask the obvious questions about why they have not implemented policies that optimize natural resources such as as rainfall, sunshine and plant life to create conditions for locally-owned micro-ag enterprises
I contacted this magazine to voice my concern that some of the "small family farms" advertised in their publication did not reflect sustainability while at the same time they use the concept of sustainability for their marketing approach. In fact, it was on this farm where I worked and lived
for a little over 2 months I experienced one of the worst examples of humanoid patterns of unsustainability possible.
An unsustainable pattern of human relations includes communication that is intentionally hostile and falsely derogatory when a power dynamic is assumed. Another pattern that emerges is seen with abusive impulse control problems where addictive behavior interprets all messages as a
means to victimize them. Drug abusers who are deprived of their substance feel victimized by those who do not have this dependence. Lies, lies and more lies becomes the basis of relationships in which the underlying denial is one of powerlessness.
A serious look at our systems will reveal that these types of unsustainable relationships use more time, attention and resources than relationships that seek to sustain mutual respect and exchange through clear boundaries. Another look will reveal that when system are impacted by humanoids patterns of unsustainability to such a degree that mistrust is the underlying premise of all humanoid contact fear becomes the tactic of control.
My own choices after having worked for over two decades in health and social services have left me vulnerable to systems that induce poverty as a means of control. My choice to leave this area of gainful employment was a statement of conscience outside any political affiliation. There was a point when compromise seemed to me a mechanism to aid and abet broad practices that intentionally deprive and imprint mistrust. I will not live a lie, nor will I perpetuate lies that are inherently abusive and counter-productive to cultivating individual, group and organizational participation in our systems.
Funding for environmental and economic sustainability leaves out the critical dialogue about self-honesty within humanoid relationships for a reason. The picture is not pretty. But telling the truth about humanoid patterns of unsustainability in the production of food, energy and spirit leads all discussions back to the evolution of what makes sense in a society where immense amounts of wealth do not provide the basic needs for their population to prosper and thrive.
Our conversation continued for a while. I learned that this visitor worked in the technology industry as a system specialist. He was convinced that in the near future we would have a "cyber" stadium where spontaneous conversations such as the one we shared could take place via the internet. My perspective has always been that with rapid, universal sharing of information, the humanoid, in its daily grunge, has not been able to evolve, adapt and respond fast enough. The humanoid has needs, and we know that when these needs are not met, the humanoid behavior often takes an irrational course.
I decided to join the Twitter tweeting crowd after giving my vote to Twitter co-founders as the Nobel Peace Prize recipients instead of to this President. THE COMPOST PILE, originally entitled The Food Bowl, was conceived in the worst of hardship after having taken a stance of conscience. I found myself wanting to direct thinking back to the source of regeneration rather than a source of external nourishment. Given the juxtaposition of seamless digital information systems linking finance, energy and telecom with the disintegration of humanoid systems that have lost their connection to what makes sense, THE COMPOST PILE provides personal experiences that describe the inter-relatedness between the evolution of beings and vast systems of information that shape perception, commerce and security.
This past weekend, I had a phone conversation with this visitor who has since left Hawaii.
While sitting in another cafe, I queried about current policy shifts with regard to commerce and advertising with social media network sites. I mentioned that the Federal Trade Commission is considering how to manage conflicts of interests by advertising stakeholders with social media networks such as Twitter blogs. He acknowledged the need to have these types of discussions since articulated policy should direct "infrastructure" of information technology and that policies should consider more than just the dollars derived from choices.
When speaking with a journalist from Gannett today, tried to describe the frustration and destruction done to a small economy when the operational realities of information technology results in terror crime patterns occurring with wire fraud. Hawaii is known to have a problem with international drug crimes, and drug crimes are known to co-exist in the most corrupt financial systems.
Currently, the term "sustainable" has been popularized into mainstream use. I read an article
in a Hawaii magazine about the three pillars of sustainability: economic, environmental and social. This magazine features a food gallery of luscious, sumptuous photographs of meals and food products. Their feature editorial brags about using non-toxic ink on recycled paper with a local rather than foreign publishing company for their 5-star menu food gallery tastes.
In Hawaii, where rainfall is abundant in jungle areas where small farms have struggled to exist for a number of years, public officials are trying not to ask the obvious questions about why they have not implemented policies that optimize natural resources such as as rainfall, sunshine and plant life to create conditions for locally-owned micro-ag enterprises
I contacted this magazine to voice my concern that some of the "small family farms" advertised in their publication did not reflect sustainability while at the same time they use the concept of sustainability for their marketing approach. In fact, it was on this farm where I worked and lived
for a little over 2 months I experienced one of the worst examples of humanoid patterns of unsustainability possible.
An unsustainable pattern of human relations includes communication that is intentionally hostile and falsely derogatory when a power dynamic is assumed. Another pattern that emerges is seen with abusive impulse control problems where addictive behavior interprets all messages as a
means to victimize them. Drug abusers who are deprived of their substance feel victimized by those who do not have this dependence. Lies, lies and more lies becomes the basis of relationships in which the underlying denial is one of powerlessness.
A serious look at our systems will reveal that these types of unsustainable relationships use more time, attention and resources than relationships that seek to sustain mutual respect and exchange through clear boundaries. Another look will reveal that when system are impacted by humanoids patterns of unsustainability to such a degree that mistrust is the underlying premise of all humanoid contact fear becomes the tactic of control.
My own choices after having worked for over two decades in health and social services have left me vulnerable to systems that induce poverty as a means of control. My choice to leave this area of gainful employment was a statement of conscience outside any political affiliation. There was a point when compromise seemed to me a mechanism to aid and abet broad practices that intentionally deprive and imprint mistrust. I will not live a lie, nor will I perpetuate lies that are inherently abusive and counter-productive to cultivating individual, group and organizational participation in our systems.
Funding for environmental and economic sustainability leaves out the critical dialogue about self-honesty within humanoid relationships for a reason. The picture is not pretty. But telling the truth about humanoid patterns of unsustainability in the production of food, energy and spirit leads all discussions back to the evolution of what makes sense in a society where immense amounts of wealth do not provide the basic needs for their population to prosper and thrive.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
THE COMPOST PILE by Karen Yukie Yamada
THE COMPOST PILE
by Karen Yukie Yamada
"not all compost is created equal"
This past week, the Wall Street Journal "Personal Journal" section featured an article aboaut composting products for the urban dweller and suburban home owner. "Go Green" has been used for the past two years or so as a corporate marketing campaign to describe their efforts in conservation and eco-correctness. The WSJ article features products by Sierra Club "Green" Magazine that make composting for the lazy urbanite much easier. San Francisco residens are breathing a sigh of relief, after all, the City by the Bay just enacted a county-wide rule that residents must separate food wastes from yard clippings in their recycling. The green jobs of the future are being designed by the fervent conservationists who envision an economy of needs and services to support Mother Earth.
Without delving into the question of how this rule will enforced, the "Green Police" wants you to know that you, too, can make a difference by eliminating that 24% of refuse from food and yard waste from entering our landfills. Imagine, a whole army of "Green Police" marching through the streets of San Francisco to peer into YOUR backyard. Creative thinkers say: Why not? We need jobs. We use compost. We must indoctrinate the public into responsible behavior given the threat to Mother Nature.
In the "green" economy of California, in particular in San Francisco, jobs, jobs, jobs is the mantra. Soon worms, worms, worms will be a special gift item for newlyweds to start their own composting when discarding cardboard from their new furnishing. As this article reminds us, worms eat and work. Very low maintenance. Try Uncle Jim's Worm Farm in Spring Grove Pennsylvania for your worm supply when starting your Worm Factory ($109.95). Worms may be the understated metaphor for sustainability in Marin County neighborhoods and villas. In fact, I can ust see Senator Barbara Boxer rolling her own controlled environment Ecocomposter filled with used Starbucks coffee grounds up and down her backyard.
In this not-so-glamorous reality of styrofoam-filled landfills, even the nouveau riche have found metaphors for regenration in their Naturemill Automatic Composter that turns and heats without a pitchfork. This creation, by a Massachusettes Institute of Technology engineer from San Francisco, makes composting part of the daily household doings. Available in colors, soon they will have entire school districts holding mural contests to see wh can design the best Naturemill Automatic Composter. Go green!
For the beginner green mind, meaning someone who has not lived, worked and socialized in a culture where mindless consumerism has been identified as the single source of waste and hazard to sustainability, there is something wrong with this picture, but it is hard to argue the point of promoting composting products. The Sierra Club conjures up the sense that these people really, really care, yet something just doesn't click. What is it about composting products in the Wall Street Journal that strikes one as out of context? Perhaps they are attempting to acknowledge the problem with our landfills while offering a source of revenue to microenterprises.
The "aha" moment has arrived. While these composting products cost about the same as cell phones, most Americans are concerned about whether or not they will have their basic needs met in the coming years. How to dispose of our rubbish is a matter that has been considered by City and County bureaucracies since the beginning of government. Why should citizens now have to be regulated for their behavior with regard to how food is packaged? This consumer culture of choice, convenience and speed has become the way professional routine and social rituals are organized.
This social marketing campaign by California, England and towns across America is to create a way of liviing, thinking and consuming. In the way that smoking cigarettes and tobacco once represented cool, tough and glamorous, composting is the way to responsible living on Mother Earth where there is limited space and resources. Behavior modification applied to going "green" will inevitably lead to the need for social pressure as well as the Green Police brigade. Guilt works, and in San Francisco they will likely find a way to surrender to shame and make a point about conservation.
Could we guilt the same stakeholders into acknowledging that mind control consumerism got everyone here for no other reason except that someone made a lot of money along the way? Who's responsible for this anyway? It better not be someone from the Massachusettes Institute of Technology. How much do you want to bet that the amount of electricity used by super computer systems that allow cyber-services to run information throughout the world will soon be posted on a Green Police website near you. The Green Police will demand conservation by all systems, even the systems that run the world of commerce and information. MIT has already figured the answer to THAT problem. For a profit, of course.
by Karen Yukie Yamada
"not all compost is created equal"
This past week, the Wall Street Journal "Personal Journal" section featured an article aboaut composting products for the urban dweller and suburban home owner. "Go Green" has been used for the past two years or so as a corporate marketing campaign to describe their efforts in conservation and eco-correctness. The WSJ article features products by Sierra Club "Green" Magazine that make composting for the lazy urbanite much easier. San Francisco residens are breathing a sigh of relief, after all, the City by the Bay just enacted a county-wide rule that residents must separate food wastes from yard clippings in their recycling. The green jobs of the future are being designed by the fervent conservationists who envision an economy of needs and services to support Mother Earth.
Without delving into the question of how this rule will enforced, the "Green Police" wants you to know that you, too, can make a difference by eliminating that 24% of refuse from food and yard waste from entering our landfills. Imagine, a whole army of "Green Police" marching through the streets of San Francisco to peer into YOUR backyard. Creative thinkers say: Why not? We need jobs. We use compost. We must indoctrinate the public into responsible behavior given the threat to Mother Nature.
In the "green" economy of California, in particular in San Francisco, jobs, jobs, jobs is the mantra. Soon worms, worms, worms will be a special gift item for newlyweds to start their own composting when discarding cardboard from their new furnishing. As this article reminds us, worms eat and work. Very low maintenance. Try Uncle Jim's Worm Farm in Spring Grove Pennsylvania for your worm supply when starting your Worm Factory ($109.95). Worms may be the understated metaphor for sustainability in Marin County neighborhoods and villas. In fact, I can ust see Senator Barbara Boxer rolling her own controlled environment Ecocomposter filled with used Starbucks coffee grounds up and down her backyard.
In this not-so-glamorous reality of styrofoam-filled landfills, even the nouveau riche have found metaphors for regenration in their Naturemill Automatic Composter that turns and heats without a pitchfork. This creation, by a Massachusettes Institute of Technology engineer from San Francisco, makes composting part of the daily household doings. Available in colors, soon they will have entire school districts holding mural contests to see wh can design the best Naturemill Automatic Composter. Go green!
For the beginner green mind, meaning someone who has not lived, worked and socialized in a culture where mindless consumerism has been identified as the single source of waste and hazard to sustainability, there is something wrong with this picture, but it is hard to argue the point of promoting composting products. The Sierra Club conjures up the sense that these people really, really care, yet something just doesn't click. What is it about composting products in the Wall Street Journal that strikes one as out of context? Perhaps they are attempting to acknowledge the problem with our landfills while offering a source of revenue to microenterprises.
The "aha" moment has arrived. While these composting products cost about the same as cell phones, most Americans are concerned about whether or not they will have their basic needs met in the coming years. How to dispose of our rubbish is a matter that has been considered by City and County bureaucracies since the beginning of government. Why should citizens now have to be regulated for their behavior with regard to how food is packaged? This consumer culture of choice, convenience and speed has become the way professional routine and social rituals are organized.
This social marketing campaign by California, England and towns across America is to create a way of liviing, thinking and consuming. In the way that smoking cigarettes and tobacco once represented cool, tough and glamorous, composting is the way to responsible living on Mother Earth where there is limited space and resources. Behavior modification applied to going "green" will inevitably lead to the need for social pressure as well as the Green Police brigade. Guilt works, and in San Francisco they will likely find a way to surrender to shame and make a point about conservation.
Could we guilt the same stakeholders into acknowledging that mind control consumerism got everyone here for no other reason except that someone made a lot of money along the way? Who's responsible for this anyway? It better not be someone from the Massachusettes Institute of Technology. How much do you want to bet that the amount of electricity used by super computer systems that allow cyber-services to run information throughout the world will soon be posted on a Green Police website near you. The Green Police will demand conservation by all systems, even the systems that run the world of commerce and information. MIT has already figured the answer to THAT problem. For a profit, of course.
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