Advocates...

...I need you.

I met a girl on the train from Canada. Her name was Corey. She was in town visiting the University of Chicago, where she will soon begin the pursuit of her PhD. She reacted to the book I was reading, Art as History, History as Art by Dipti Desai, et al.

When I made the comment that production is a fundamental human need I instantly, on reflex, qualified that statement by saying that well, maybe not EVERYONE needs it... because I am quite used to the opposition I encounter when I make unqualified statements like that (although I often firmly believe them). Corey looked me right in the eye and said yes, everyone. She was right there with me, on the page that there are fundamental human needs satisfied by the process of making things.

I think it is safe to say that I instantly fell in love with her.

The point is that she has been on my mind for weeks because she reminded me that there are many, many, many people out there who are tapped in to the same hunch as me. The hunch that we need to adopt some practices for modern life that have featured into every epoch but this one. Practices like the production of our tools and belongings, practices like growing the food we eat. Practices like belonging to community and dancing around a fire.

And look, if I am to be true to my beliefs, I need to remember the other people who are on to the same hunch, and forget the system-oriented peers with which I am surrounded. I need to remember that I am not Alone, only alone here.

Ouroboros

Plato on the first living creature in universe:

The living being had no need of eyes when there was nothing remaining outside him to be seen; nor of ears when there was nothing to be heard; and there was no surrounding atmosphere to be breathed; nor would there have been any use of organs by the help of which he might receive his food or get rid of what he had already digested, since there was nothing which went from him or came into him: for there was nothing beside him. Of design he was created thus, his own waste providing his own food, and all that he did or suffered taking place in and by himself. For the Creator conceived that a being which was self-sufficient would be far more excellent than one which lacked anything; and, as he had no need to take anything or defend himself against any one, the Creator did not think it necessary to bestow upon him hands: nor had he any need of feet, nor of the whole apparatus of walking; but the movement suited to his spherical form was assigned to him... that which is most appropriate to mind and intelligence; and he was made to move in the same manner and on the same spot, within his own limits revolving in a circle. All the other... motions were taken away from him, and he was made not to partake of their deviations. And as this circular movement required no feet, the universe was created without legs and without feet.

Time Passages

For someone as attached to words and books and chairs as I am, gratuitous physical labor wouldn't ordinarily hold much appeal. Yet I had lately developed--in the garden, as it happened--an appreciation for those forms of knowledge that seem to yield most readily to the hands. Different kinds of work, performed with different sets of tools, can disclose different faces of the world, and my work in the garden had revealed a face of nature I'd never seen before, not as a reader or a spectator. What I'd gleaned there was a taste of what the "green thumb" has in abundance, this almost bodily sense of plants and the earth that comes from handwork, sweat, and a particular quantity of attention that involves very little intellect, but all of the senses. It reminded me just how much of reality slips through the net of our words, and that time spent working directly with the flesh of the world is the best antidote for abstraction.

-Michael Pollan, A Place Of My Own

MAT

I had my interview today for Graduate School. I think it went quite well, and I will know by the middle of March! Wish me luck, internet.

So, sign up for this website immediately, it's like Facebook for Permaculturists.

It is a great way to get involved with people who care about things like peak oil, climate change, community building, local foods and economies, and such. Just check out the groups, there is a little of everything.

I started a discussion just today about a slice of my vision.
Art in a Post-Oil World.

Food Fight

Another film that I'd love to see:

Watch the Trailer

Transition Rogers Park is hosting an event on April 14th.

Study in Homemade Tempera

This video was part of my application for grad school :/

If that isn't working, here's the link.

Guerilla Gardening

Ok, apparently Yes, people are doing this.

Isn't it great? It feels like no one is doing anything... but the minute you start researching how to do something, you find people are way ahead of you.

Webinar

The start of an 18 part YouTube series that is just fantastic.

The Case for Permaculture
Thank you, Bill and Becky Wilson.

I wish I could afford to take a certification course.

And see to me, this is another problem. The money thing. Say, Fred cannot afford to go to permaculture school, because Fred is broke. And he can't get a permaculture garden started on his apartment balcony, because he's broke. But what if Fred is just as passionate about permaculture as Bill Wilson? What are his resources? This is a problem for Fred if he lives in Lakeview or if he lives in Englewood.

At least Growing Home has an Urban Agriculture plot in Englewood. (I applied to work there- please hire me.)

Or here's another option... Mr. and Mrs. Wilson, please sponsor me through one of your design courses, or work with me to find someone who can afford to sponsor me, so that I can take this knowledge to low income communities. There are so many resources down there... talk about converting the "waste" of the industrial system into bounty.

Not to mention that people with passion from better communities can come and learn, too. Create a free learning-and-doing permaculure community. We put our brains together, I bet we can gather enough resources to get some things done.

What about guerilla planting? Anyone doing this? I'm talking about sprouting fruit and nut trees and planting them across low-income communities or in vacant lots around the city. Or scattering seeds of food-bearing plants in niches where they might prosper.

I'd love to see low income neighborhoods bursting with urban vertical gardens. Tomato plants hanging from every balcony. So much food could be grown in these communities... where organic produce is a fantasy.

But I'm broke. What happened to apprenticeship? I'll sleep on the floor. I'll clean your house. Just feed me and teach me.

...I sound like a zealot. Creepy.

Ingredients

Look!

I've found another promising documentary, though this trailer isn't quite as emotional as the FRESH trailer :)

The film is called Ingredients, and it talks about small, diversified family farms.

Here's to you, Mrs. Donaldson

Here is a great interview on a show I've only just started watching but that so far, seems good. It is called Peak Moment and the guest is Bill Wilson, head of Midwest permaculture. I am going to hear him speak soon!
The Heart of Permaculture

Here is another interview from that show that I quite like.
How Do I Invite You to Grow Food?

This one features a woman's rousing success in her own backyard
How Much Food Can I Grow Around My House?

And here is a man who teaches people how to garden on renter's lots, if you're a mobile type.
An Experiment in Backyard Sustainability

Great article

A Peak into the Future

When It Rains

I have been flooding myself with resources lately and I feel that I may be a bit pushy putting them all up on facebook. But I need to keep these sources for reference... and I also want to share them.

So, if you are looking for web content about permaculture, transition towns, sustainable lifestyles, organic food, urban agriculture, or any of these related topics, I will be compiling as much information as I can here in this blog. Please point me to any resources you may have as well.

Let's start broad:
I, like many people, knew there were things going wrong with the way the world works, I knew there was something weird about what we're all doing, you know in the context of Everything, but I just didn't actually think it could be significantly different. And it's hard to have dialogue about a lot of these things because we don't have any facts; who can you trust? The whole issue seems too complicated to penetrate. So I just lived and tried to do good and have fun, tried to keep from getting ripped off as best I could (hope nobody steals my identity today), and kept my ears pricked.

I have to say that the gateway to my understanding was Michael Pollan's book, The Omnivore's Dilemma. It is a great place to start. He sorts it out, and it looks so simple it could make you cry. He makes the point that what we are talking about here is our food; Our Food. The enormous player in our everyday lives that we take shockingly for granted and know virtually nothing about, and that seems to be at the root of a lot of other things, too.

He is far less aggressive than I am, though, and much smarter so I'll leave that to him. It is a beautiful book, and definitely ascends in the second half to a place I am very eager to reach.

Now I'm reading his follow-up, In Defense of Food. Also amazing.

The point is, at least for now, the biggest way we can improve our lives, our culture, Everything, is by taking back our food. The beauty is, this is surprisingly doable. And lots of people are, well... doing it.

Here is a film that showcases some of these people, watch the trailer

"Food is at the foundation, but it's really about life."
-Will Allen

Good company.

I'm reading Michael Pollan's excellent book, The Omnivore's Dilemma, which has sufficiently impacted me in a way no other single literary work ever has.

I've been referring to him as my latest hero, a role filled since high school by men like Carl Jung and Joseph Campbell.

So check this out, a passage I read today after writing the previous post last night:

"Isn't it curious how in so many of our pastimes and hobbies we play at supplying one or another of our fundamental creaturely needs--for food, shelter, even clothing? So some people knit, others build things or chop wood, and a great many of us "work" at feeding ourselves--by gardening or hunting, fishing or foraging. An economy organized around a complex division of labor can usually get these jobs done for a fraction of the cost, in time or money, that it takes us to do them ourselves, yet something in us apparently seeks confirmation that we still have the skills needed to provide for ourselves. You know, just in case. Evidently we want to be reminded how the fundamental processes that sustain us, by now hidden behind a globe-spanning scrim of economic complexity, actually work."
-Michael Pollan, The Omnivore's Dilemma

Thanks for backing me up, g.


The fact is that many modern children are, by neglect and the devices of many other forces, deprived of these human satisfactions. Where children in the US can no longer rely on such conventions as family or culture or community (dying institutions indeed) to teach them these vital traditions, public education could step in. Alongside such enlightenments as mathematics and literature, shouldn't children be learning such practical arts as gardening and carpentry? I can only imagine the impact that hands-on programs might have in low-performance public schools. Look at the inspiring work of Alice Waters and her Edible Schoolyard.

Get down

I don't know how to summarize the drastic changes in my philosophy. Suffice it to say, I am making things from scratch now. I am sewing, building, growing, cooking and learning; getting down to grassroots. I find that life makes more sense this way.

And I have a hunch other people will, too. I look around me and I don't understand any of it; why are things done the way they are done? What is a sharpie made of?

There was a time when everyone knew how to make something, because they had to know. To eat, to work, to live... making things was a part of every day life. But in this modern world, we don't have to make anything if we don't want to. What a luxury! Everything is given to us in complete, inscrutable packages, from our pre-made clothing and furniture and houses to our pre-made food. Many kids these days are being raised in a pre-made world--automated robotic toys ensure that even play can be programmed beforehand.

But the more we are alienated from the process of bringing things into being, the less we seem to value things. Quantity has replaced quality. We have gobs of shoddy products that beg replacing on a regular basis, and toward which we feel little loyalty or responsibility. What I'm afraid of is that we are losing our potency as creators and our investment in the real world around us. We, as humans, are hard-wired to make things, and we're good at it. Look at civilization! It exists partly because of the human urge to make things. It makes us feel good, about life, about the world around us, about ourselves. And we are naturally more invested in the things we create. We take pride in them and in ourselves for making them. Not to mention that in many cases, hand made goods are simply better; longer lasting, sturdier, healthier (in the case of food).

But the interesting thing to me is that less tangible part. It seems that the greater value in making things from scratch is the process itself, the impact that creating has on the creator, the changes that can take place in a person's life when their potency is given back to them. Children are especially hungry for it in this plastic world that markets cereals and toys and video games to them all day long-- things a child has little hope of making from scratch. Fewer and fewer children are even acquainted with the concept that most of the things they need can be made, and quite easily, from cheap, raw natural ingredients, by anyone. It doesn't take a team of researchers, a corporate investor and a factory to make paint... it takes a little time and effort and a few ingredients you probably already have in your house. What they are missing out on is more than quality hand-made products. They are missing out on the fulfillment, confidence and purpose that comes with knowing their own powers of creativity.

I want to give children their potency back, plain and simple. I think a lot of children will be glad to have it.