My friend Lucas has this quote written in Sharpie on a metal shelf in his glass studio in Upstate New York "Work is Love Made Visible..." I don't know if he made the quote up, or read it somewhere, or what, but I've always really liked this quote because it makes sense to me that all work should be done out of love and passion, and if you are doing work you don't feel love for and passionate about, well, first of all that work probably doesn't really need to exist in the world, and secondly, you shouldn't be doing it! When I think about the jobs I had, and how I felt about each one, the ones that really mattered, that where really making a difference in the world, in one way or another, (nannying, working at a domestic violence shelter, working at a homeless shelter, taking care of people's pets and livestock while they where on vacation, working at an after-school center for kids, making vegetarian subs for people, working on farms) those where the jobs I loved and felt passionate about. On the other hand, jobs that probably need not exist in the world (working at a gun factory, working at McDonald's, working at Sears, the Peace Corps (more like Neo-Colonialism Corps,)) I did not love or feel passionate about.
Most recently, I've been doing a lot of unpaid work; (teaching an after-school garden class to kids, teaching people about medicinal and edible plants, wild ricing, digging dirt out of Rachel's basement,) and this type of work feels the best of all. Partially, it feels really right not to get paid for this sort of stuff because how can you put monetary value on say, teaching kids to appreciate nature? Also, you really start to notice the non-monetary ways you are getting paid when you don't get money for something...you really appreciate, for example, when a six-year old asks you if he can harvest some rhubarb and gets really excited about that...again, how do you put a dollar-an-hour worth on that type of thing? Last night I started helping with a guerrilla gardening plot...an empty lot right downtown, next door to an Enterprise Car Rental place and a bunch of bars and a dog boarding place. It is a sad lot, a former parking lot which was gravel but now has a bunch of weeds growing through the gravel; or I should say, plants reclaiming the lot. Well a group of us have decided to help this natural process along by collecting seeds and cuttings around the neighborhood of the types of plants we want to grow there (I of course want a bunch of medicinal plants, so that's what I'm looking for,) and planting them, as well as adding soil and compose to the lot to make things grow better. I really can't tell you how wonderful it feels to run around in the dark and collect seeds and then bring them back to this desolate area with the hope that the seeds we scatter will make the lot just a little less desolate, and bring the neighborhood just a bit more joy and connection to plants and nature. It feels really good, and it truly feels like love made visible.
After we where done, Ian, Andrew and I where walking to the trains to ride home, and Ian said "I wish that was what my life consisted of; I mean, I feel that is what my life is meant to consist of..." He stumbled a little to find the right words to express how he was feeling, but I knew exactly what he meant. As humans (and more especially, as primates and animals,) this is what we are meant to be doing...day in and day out, without ceasing. We are not suppose to just "commune with nature" when the time is convenient, we ARE nature, and we are meant to be an active participant in this. I used to say to myself, every so often, to remind myself of it's importance "I am a Lorax and I speak for the trees.." But lately I've changed this a bit, now I say to myself "I am the forest and I am the trees!" Because, really, what are we if not highly organized dirt and minerals?
Try repeating several times a day for more connectedness to your environment "I am the forest and I am the trees!"
Love ya,
Carrot
We'll all be detritus someday. It's realistic and yes, a little beautiful because I'm not connected to the technological cycle (cellular phone and computer) but rather the carbon and nitrogen cycles. Good read.
my documentary...
"some folks say that a hippie won't steal,
but I caught three in my corn field"
--John Hartford
I can't seem to respond to your message--must be a glitch in the matrix. Anyways, here's my response in a commentual format (and with italics).
I dig that aspiration. The other day I used that word at a city council meetin in defense of agricultural lands. Told 'em that I was one of those aspiring young farmas. "Give us a damn chance! Help us protect the soil" and whatnot.
Fourteen acres is a great start, man. Does it have a conservation easement status?
I'm going to apply to get my hands dirty (http://www.attrainternships.ncat.org/internDetail2.asp?id=1067) this spring so I'll have some of the pagan farming rituals we'll need--planting by moon cycles, maybe some permaculture stuff, etc. Keep me in mind when and if you decide to make your way on the New York path.
Best, Max
my documentary...
"some folks say that a hippie won't steal,
but I caught three in my corn field"
--John Hartford
No, this is just land my sister and my brother in law are currently living on, but basically anytime I want it for farming, it is mine. It already has a little apple orchard on it and a lot of Douglas fir trees and maples (I've made maple syrup there before from some of the trees!,) and is just a really pretty piece of the world, ready and waiting for a little hippy (or neopunkanarcho, however you view things,) commune on it! I can't wait to be the dirty woman in buckskin clothes, shitting into a bucket and recycling my own feces and growing comfrey and helping at births..yey! My ideal life!
Love ya,
Carrot
I agree that we are part of nature. We have evolved through the Darwinian processes from single celled organisms and this harsh evolutionary process has marked us with certain innate traits that cannot be ignored or denied. We, like ants, termites, bees, beavers, packrats, etc are compelled by our nature to harvest and build.
I have therefore modified your mantra just a bit.
"I am the saw, I am the mill". It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy.
Just as a beaver modifies the environment to meet its own needs, that is our genetic destiny.
Ultimately nature will run its course. When deer find themselves in an environment where they have no predators then there population explodes to the point where they devastate their own habitat. Starvation commences and the population collapses as weakened animals succomb to either hunger or disease. A few survive and the cycle begins annew.
Likely, since we are part of nature the same will happen to us. Arguably it has in the past. The Black plagues for example. I suspect some really ugly times are about to befall us and it will happen in your lifetime if not mine. It will be important, if you fancy perpetutuating your genes, to be among the fit.
I guess I've been pondering what you are saying a lot over the course of my lifetime Jack, and I realized, this summer, after sleeping where a porcupine slept, and waking up with quills all over my jacket, and therefore, thinking about porcupines and how they live for weeks and weeks afterward, and realizing that to eat, porcupines tear bark off of trees and "griddle" them, killing many trees in the course of a lifetime....well, I realized that to eat, all animals are somewhat "destructive" if that is the right word, but that doesn't mean any animals are "separate from nature" or inherently destructive on the level we've been destructive on. I came to the realization that we've been fed this idea that humans are "naturally destructive" to a very terrible ends...and that if we feed ourselves a new framework, we can, in fact, reduce our destruction by a large degree...(look at all the indigenous folks around the world as examples...)
Love ya,
Carrot