"I believe that more people staying put, learning their place, and taking on some more active role would improve our social and ecological life. I have said that people should try to become paysan, paisanos, péons, in the meaning people of the land, people of the place. But note: there's no limit to how big the place can be. The size of the place that one becomes a member of is limited only by the size of one's heart. We speak of watershed consciousness, and the great water-cycle of the planet makes it all one watershed. We are all natives to this earth. / Yet one has to start where one is and become nature-literate to the scale of the immediate home place. With home-based knowledge, it is then within our power to get a glimpse of the whole planet as home. As a rule though, local knowledge (combined with an understanding of the dynamics of systems) remains the most useful and the most delicious." Gary Snyder, Sustainability Means Winning Hearts and Minds
Thank you for your thoughts, they really resonated with me in a time where I have been feeling isolated in my wartime mentality. I think we are called upon to find new communities that are sailing to our same winds while also talking to everyone about this great cultural shift that is already underfoot. We desperately need to change "what is cool." I think you and Gary Snyder are cool, and I have kept coming back to this Snyder quote as I try to figure out my relationship to home. Currently living on a sailboat and calling the California Current system home.
I feel this deeply having come from a community and family that has rooted itself in the land for some time. I wonder if you have insight about this framework from a climate perspective (and, perhaps, from a fundamental being perspective lol) when juxtaposed against a community that actively fights back against your efforts (climate deniers, conventional farming, policy that rewards pollution, etc.)? To be place-based is certainly to accept its flaws as well as its possibilities, but can a person hope to thrive as part of an ecosystem that is largely in contrast to their values? So curious and so grateful for the thoughtfulness you've invoked here!
Great insights. In the 4 elements that determine relationships, I would rearrange them in their order of importance - as the intensity of one's experience has far greater weightage in determining the change in consciousness.
I've forwarded this to at least 6 people and I think I will return to it often - so interesting, so hopeful, so helpful
"I believe that more people staying put, learning their place, and taking on some more active role would improve our social and ecological life. I have said that people should try to become paysan, paisanos, péons, in the meaning people of the land, people of the place. But note: there's no limit to how big the place can be. The size of the place that one becomes a member of is limited only by the size of one's heart. We speak of watershed consciousness, and the great water-cycle of the planet makes it all one watershed. We are all natives to this earth. / Yet one has to start where one is and become nature-literate to the scale of the immediate home place. With home-based knowledge, it is then within our power to get a glimpse of the whole planet as home. As a rule though, local knowledge (combined with an understanding of the dynamics of systems) remains the most useful and the most delicious." Gary Snyder, Sustainability Means Winning Hearts and Minds
Thank you for your thoughts, they really resonated with me in a time where I have been feeling isolated in my wartime mentality. I think we are called upon to find new communities that are sailing to our same winds while also talking to everyone about this great cultural shift that is already underfoot. We desperately need to change "what is cool." I think you and Gary Snyder are cool, and I have kept coming back to this Snyder quote as I try to figure out my relationship to home. Currently living on a sailboat and calling the California Current system home.
What a wonderful way to explain the importance of place and community in the fight for our future. Thank you, Spencer!
I feel this deeply having come from a community and family that has rooted itself in the land for some time. I wonder if you have insight about this framework from a climate perspective (and, perhaps, from a fundamental being perspective lol) when juxtaposed against a community that actively fights back against your efforts (climate deniers, conventional farming, policy that rewards pollution, etc.)? To be place-based is certainly to accept its flaws as well as its possibilities, but can a person hope to thrive as part of an ecosystem that is largely in contrast to their values? So curious and so grateful for the thoughtfulness you've invoked here!
Great insights. In the 4 elements that determine relationships, I would rearrange them in their order of importance - as the intensity of one's experience has far greater weightage in determining the change in consciousness.