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