Guns and Roses

It turns out, guns are for Killing Yourself!
Now that's truth in advertising, which of course would kill the gun business instead of the gun buyers. According to Salon.com: "Suicides accounted for 55 percent of the nation's nearly 31,000 firearm deaths in 2005, the most recent year for which statistics are available from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention." One of my youngest son's best friends shot himself with a gun. What a horror that he had the gun available during a time when he was so young and in a deep depression.



Now for the good news. Humm, well let's see. The garden is growing by leaps and bounds. Tiny new re-plantings are coming up and there are blossoms on the jalapenos. We are swamped with beautiful greens of all sorts, and the cilantro has already created a batch of salsa. Say nothing of those amazing garlic spates from which we created the most amazing pesto. Got some rhubarb at this week's farmer's market and plan on making some strawberry rhubarb custard pie, something I haven't had for years.

More good news is that my novel is breaking through again enough that I think it will be finished by the end of the summer at least. I'm thrilled and anxious to get it out into the world and start on my next project.

Love in time of globally warmed summer. JJ

Gift Economy and Global Warming

It's amazing how fast the summer flies. Spent yesterday on a long steep mountain hike, only my second of the season. It's such refreshment to the soul and to relationship. We had so much snow this winter, everything is abundant right now. Babies of all sorts, wild flowers, insects all really born of the rushing creeks and rivers that feed and wash us away. A record four people have died in the river that runs through town and countless others have been rescued.

Relationship is the essence of life and we humans often forget our small place in the whole world and then even smaller place in a gorgeous Universe. Which brings me back to my constant harping on the Gift Economy and Permaculture. I read a great blogger http://simonreeves.blogspot.com/
on Gift Economy and relationships.

I've been struggling lately with my relationship to a community I returned to. Many of my attempts at giving gifts of time, energy, events, etc. have been ignored or rejected. After a year of that, I came to the conclusion that I should stop giving. Maybe I'm just in the process of learning something new. It's really new not to have what I'm offering the community, see: www.neighborhooduniversecity.com
not be received. In permaculture fashion, I have been watching the earth, my garden, etc. and one thing I'm observing is that during stressful times, e.g. global warming, etc. plants produce in great abundance. There are hundreds of small elm trees growing as tiny seedlings in my garden.
So, maybe instead of doing less, I'll do more.

That's all for today. Thanks for you comments. Love to hear from you.
JJ

Musings on Gift, Permaculture, Work

I just read an enlightening article on Gift Economy from a woman in France. Her take on the whole idea is fresh and helpful. Check it out by clicking below and then put in Gift Economy.
http://www.wisemandarine.com/ Opps, Mandarine wrote that she is a he. My bad.

A poet friend of mine and her husband bought and live at an orchard in western Colorado. She speaks of the struggle to get the crop that society requires. From a freeze of blossoms that did not stop the fruit, their apricots are now deemed seconds. I sent her this poem in response.

Naming Ceremony For

Survivors

i rename those miraculous

persistent wonders i call

them love bundles or

sweet dreams or

mama's delight

maybe wine makers

or apricot of my eye

or cherry's cherry

a chance to listen

to these other voices

of our world, listen

as in permaculture

as in let's make a

date and go out

under the stars and

talk all night as in

Meister Eckart's

conclusion that we

are all birthers of god.

Even in the fruit we eat, there is judgement, a requirement for a perfection that is an illusion and a missing of the real beauty of life. A gift economy could change all that. Gratitude, giving and receiving might take some of that out of the equation.

Sweet gift giving to you this gorgeous Sunday.
JJ

More on the "Gift Economy"

Wow, did I find a great treasure related to the "Gift Economy" today. There is a magazine devoted to it and one that functions within it! Click to find an amazing story, one that really personifies what it means. I'm really blown away. Hope you check it out!
Click on A Man Impossible to Classify. What an amazing story. http://conversations.org/pics/none/laurie.jpg
JJ

Revolution a Long-Term Already Happening Phenomnon

Rebecca Solnit, writing for Orion magazine did a great article on the fact that we are already in a revolution entitled, "Revolutions per Minute, Radical transformation is all around us." Going back to the 60's when many of us were just waiting for the revolutionary event, she takes us through many of the changes by showing how nonplussed we are by many things today that in the 60's would have excited and startled us. Examples are gays out in the open, women in politics, awareness of global warming, the environment and our food system. It's worth a read, but no matter how hard I tried I could not get the link to work here. Try going to Orion Magazine and go to the article on June 14th. It's the best I can offer.

Wikipedia defines revolution as:A revolution (from the Latin revolutio, "a turnaround") is a significant change that usually takes place in a long period of time. In light of this definition, we might take heart. Things are not the same as they were twenty years ago. Movie making is getting into the hands of regular people. Farmer's Markets are back in vogue. Hybrid cars are becoming common. Yes, there is a lot that needs changing, but I THINK if I really honestly look back without rose colored glasses, there are things to cheer and places to look for hope.

That's not to look away from the mess we are in, but to say that we are capable of change and actually things are moving at a fairly fast pace sometimes in a better direction. Other countries are showing improvements that very few U.S. citizens even dream of. Some ways of our European neighbors, which have much older cultures than any of our save our indigenous ones, are much more advanced. Health care, prison reform, drug treatment, environmental care, child care, and good work are some areas where we already have great examples of better proven ways close by. South America is leading us toward more rights for a greater number of people and away from the domination of Multi-national corporations. Even the fact that we have an eloquent African American man running for president is a sign improvement.

I say, let's not give up on REVOLUTION, but let's also not expect it to happen over night. Our culture is impatient and expects instant coffee, which tastes terrible if you are accustomed to slow brewed, carefully grown and roasted luscious cups of coffee. I'm all for fairly traded, carefully tended REVOLUTION. JJ

Gore Vidal and Denis--Start the Revolution

Click on today's title to see a great article by Gore Vidal. He just doesn't stop. When others in their 80's are slow and mostly moving on, he's in there bringing us clear, revolutionary messages of direction and even hope. Dennis Kucinich brought impeachment proceedings against George Bush which have been sent to committee for a slow death by the wonderful Democratic Congress who we elected to take us back to sanity.

My garden is suffering from huge contrasts in cold and hot. Daytime 80's night time freezes! The wind which is always a little over the top in the spring here in the rocky mountains has been way over the top this year. Some days it just makes me want to holler. It reminds me of what is going on in the world these days. Ups and downs, hots and colds, lies and sudden hope like Permaculture, Pangea Day, even Obama getting past the gate keepers so far.

Today I'm going to stay as true to my real self as I know how. That's my take on what might save us, all of us being as totally our true selves as we possibly can. I think that's what Gore and Dennis are up to. Till tomorrow. JJ

Habeous Corpus Returns to the U.S. Now We Need Peace.

Good news! Only 5 to 4, but at least the Supreme Court voted that the "enemy combatants" have right to have access to America's courts. At least that is something. Some of us who have been directly involved with the "justice" system in this country don't breathe easy at the thought of being put into it's hands. Still after 6 years for some prisoners, there is at least hope of getting a day in court.

Now, if we could just get Multi-National Corporations out of our government, we might have a chance to become a worthy country. Our culture is based on genocide, ecocide and nuclear arms.
Many humans now believe we are beyond war, but those in power are too fearful of loosing ill gained wealth and power to imagine a world of peace. Economics play the dominant role in the pursuit of peace.

How can we re-distribute the world's resources to provide a more or less equal earth? Got any ideas? Small beginnings often bring about ultimate change. Peace with economic justice. JJ

PERMACULTURE 101

Permaculture:

There are many definitions for Permaculture because there are so many applications. For an audios definition and more exploration go to: http://www.urbanpermacultureguild.org/

A wonderful 52 minute Permaculture film can be viewed at http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=-6370279933612522952

It’s a way of farming, gardening, and living. Basically I understand it as using observation of nature to understand the best way of doing just about anything. It is famous for not wasting, for everything being interconnected, which is what is understood by carefully studying things like forest culture, etc.

Many see it as one of the only possible solutions for our planet. Unfortunately, Bill Mollisen, one of the founders who travels all over the world promoting Permacuture, sees the U.S. as one of the only nations where conversion to Permaculture does not appear to be a posibilty because of our entrenched food systems and economic system.

There are a number of people, both Urban and Rural who are working hard to prove him wrong. I hope to throw my hat into that ring. How about you?

Peace with a future. JJ

We're in This Together

It's Monday morning and the news isn't good. Gas is over $4.00 a gallon. We have stolen Iraq's money and they want us out. Who knows what's really going on because the media has been bought out by big business.

In light of all that I just want to say, "Thanks for the Universe, the beauty, the wonder of community. For me that includes all of nature, all of creation and includes humans even though my family is in conflict, my nation is injust, and my heart is hungry for more kindness."

Short thought for today. Keep walking, it's good for the pocket book and the soul.

JJ

Ways We Can Save Money

Three major contributors to the economic depression in the U.S. are, THE WARS, Gasoline Prices, and FOOD SYSTEMS and Pricing. Some ideas that we are all probably doing are:
1. Driving more gently and slowly. Edmunds says not driving aggressively can save up to 37 % and slowing down up to 19%. That's a whopping 56% possible! That's a bunch. It's also great for our beloved earth so.... Adding bicycle riding and walking when possible could make us healthy as well.

2. STOP the WARS. I'm not sure what more to do, but at least almost 80% of us want it over.

3. FOOD. Buy locally, grow our own, trade, barter, local currency. Use real food, not manufactured plastic expensive junk!

Something I never thought of however, is that as a nation, we can save money by treating instead of jailing drug addicts! This is the result of a major conventional type study, not a bunch of pot smoking activists! I copied parts of the article below.

"American taxpayers would save more than $46 billion if drug addicts now in prison were instead treated, according to a study released Friday at a national convention of drug court professionals. Retired Army Gen. Barry McCaffrey, a former U.S. drug czar, and actress Melanie Griffith joined experts in calling on lawmakers to increase funding for such courts. "This is not a war on drugs," McCaffrey said. "This is a problem for our families in America. In order to turn drugs around in this country, we're going to have to treat those 1.5 million people who are addicted.". . .

The study from the Urban Institute in Washington found that about 3 percent of arrested addicts are referred to a drug court, which offers supervised treatment to nonviolent offenders whose records are expunged if they complete the program. "Most addicts need something more than being warehoused," said Judge Charles Simmons Jr., a drug court judge in Greenville, S.C. "Drug courts are putting families back together, and they are decreasing crime at a tremendous savings to taxpayers."

Housing an inmate in prison can cost up to $40,000 a year while drug court treatment costs up to $3,500 per offender a year, Simmons said. McCaffrey said 15 years of research has yielded definitive proof that drug courts significantly reduce crime by as much as 35 percent. He said legislators and the public may get behind the system once they understand its cost savings."

And how about energy from sand. Click it to check it out below. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10514381

Interesting Related Blogs

Here is an interesting blog with some great poetry and poet's connections out of Aspen Colorado.
Kim is a poet who has her hand on the pulse of life. Check it out.
http://www.heartofeverything.blogspot.com/

Also check out the comment by Stephanie, a member of the Youth Engagement and Action Team at Plan USA. She says, "our team runs several programs working with U.S. youth who are interested in global issues. One of our programs is the Global Connections School Linking Program. Through this program classrooms in the U.S. are connected with schools in a Plan program country. Through the exchange of artwork and media students on b oth sides of the globe learn what life is like for a student in another country.

As members of YUGA, the youth run campaigns in their schools and communities raising awareness about issues like Child Exploitation (including child soldiers, child labor and child trafficking), Climate Change, HIV and AIDS, and Global Poverty. Link is on Post below.

Another amazing poet, teacher, speaker, lover of life, Rosemerry Trommer can be reached and read at

www.wordwoman.

And last, but definitely not least check out writer Susan Tweit's blog athttp://communityoftheland.blogspot.com/. Beautiful writing well worth reading.

Happy reading and connections.

Home with Family in Maine

Sorry for the week of relative silence. I deeply appreciate hearing from you and exploring your blogs and websites. It helps me understand and remember how many gorgeous people populate this world. I spent the week in Maine, land of my ancestors, where I celebrated my sister’s 60^th birthday and spent some good time with my parents who are in their 80’s. They are still independent in their own home, but for me, it was a deeper facing of the fact that they will go on their final journey in the near future.

My favorite brother-in-law and I talked into the night about what happened in his family when his father and then his mother died, quite recently. Families who already have conflicts, a lot of us I think, will really suffer when the parents die. I’m looking for wisdom on what steps to take to help the process. I am the oldest child in my family. I guess I should step up and take the matriarchal position of counselor, helper, instigator of what needs to happen.

Any insights, suggestions, places of guidance? There are great rifts and wounds in my family. Maybe we will heal through all that is coming up. Who knows, but it may be like having a baby to save a bad marriage. It rarely works.