The wealth of a nation doesn’t have a lot to do with the rising and falling numbers on Wall Street, numbers based on speculative value and as we’ve seen recently, imaginary worth. It doesn’t have to do with military might, patriotic fervor or unity of purpose.
It has to do with all kinds of unseen, unsung and poorly understood connections. For example, the connections between people. These mutual webs of caring and concern are the lifeblood of our society. Co-workers laughing together, neighbors looking out for one another, older children helping younger children, strangers talking at the bus stop, friends taking a walk. Scientists tell us these connections improve our physical and emotional health. Such connections also measurably improve our communities. These connections are deeply rooted. They stem from a beautiful diversity of interests, mutual need and the freedom to flourish in our own ways.
Even more poorly understood is our connection to the soil, and perhaps more importantly, the intrinsically complex interconnections of microbial life and mineral balance within healthy soil. To support growth, soil teems with life. It’s said that a handful of fertile soil contains more living organisms than the population of the planet. A nation’s soil is more important than any fuel, more vital than winning a war. Agriculture has a long history of abusing the land with profitable and expedient practices. Even the earliest agrarian practices removed perennial plants and natural cover, causing erosion and loss of topsoil. Later monoculture plantings sapped the soil’s vitality. Now agribusiness standards such as continual soil exposure, toxic chemicals and crushingly monstrous machinery have literally turned once bountiful farmland into nearly useless wasteland which requires the agricultural equivalent of ICU treatment to grow anything, and what it does grow is drastically reduced in quality, nutrient levels and taste.
We depend on the land to feed us. We cannot allow agribusiness to degrade our nation’s true wealth. We must turn back to the age-old wisdom of crop rotation, pastured animals, perennial and diverse plantings. We must listen to the warning call sounded by honeybees and our own failing immune systems. A national agriculture policy that resonates with the sustainability movement is necessary. Such a policy would stimulate young people to start up small farms. It would provide incentives for organic farming, homesteading and urban gardens. It would reawaken us to the true riches in living soil and healthy foods.
We are looking forward to a peaceful year in 2009 and beyond. Why? There are excellent reasons everywhere we look. In part it has to do with amplifying the good rather than spending so much energy on the negative. A little proof helps too. Here are three factual examples of our intrinsic interconnectedness and our beautiful tendancy toward cooperation.
1.“Has Science Found a Way to End All Wars? Given adequate food, fuel, and gender equality, mass conflict just might disappear.”
Discover Magazine reports that research on monkeys, apes and humans is dispelling myths such as “violence is in our genes” and “war will always be with us.” Aggressive groups can easily learn and continue to use peacemaking strategies. Researcher Robert Sapolsky doesn’t go so far as to assert that mankind will eliminate widescale conflicts, but Sapolsky does believe, “there is a great potential for dramatically decreasing the frequency of war and getting a lot better at intervention, termination, and reconciliation.”
According to Douglas P. Fry, author ofBeyond War: The Human Potential for Peace, 99 percent of our time on earth took place in pre-history, as hunter-gatherers, where cooperation and reciprocity were essential for survival. We homo sapiens have longstanding skills such as communication, generosity, cooperation and reconciliation. These skills are basic to who we are as a social species.
Many scientists agree that conflicts within groups and between nations decrease substantially when conditions are right. What we learn from their work can lead to a greater emphasis on the factors leading to peace. Some of the necessary conditions in today’s world include plentiful food, a stable population, equality, and sustainable fuel. Time to get started on those variables…..
http://discovermagazine.com/2008/apr/13-science-says-war-is-over-now
2. “A History of Violence”
Psychologist Steven Pinker describes a radical decline in violence throughout recorded history. Despite the emphasis of popular media, as a whole, civilization is actually evolving toward higher ethical standards of behavior.
Pinker says, “We enjoy the peace we find today because people in past generations were appalled by the violence in their time and worked to end it, and so we should work to end the appalling violence in our time.”
www.edge.org/3rd_culture/pinker07/pinker07_index.html
3. “How Kevin Bacon Cured Cancer”
We are all connected. This mini documentary looks at the science behind the “six degrees of separation” game to find profound discoveries in a branch of science called network theory.
http://gephi.org/2008/how-kevin-bacon-cured-cancer/
These are challenging times. Yet through struggle we can break through limitations, identify our core values and find ourselves more aligned with our true purpose. The limiting structures around us are breaking down as well. We see this as inflexible corporate structures collapse. Awareness increases that there are more egalitarian and honest ways to do business. The change is painful but ultimately good.
It's easy to go the other direction during difficult times and cling to narrow self-interest. But we can choose another way. Our daily choices can emanate meaning, hope and reciprocity.
We can choose to love the lives we are living exactly as they are this moment. Finding pleasure in a hug, a warm cup of coffee and a well-earned rest has a wondrously positive effect on the body and mind. Finding meaning in those things that are not pleasurable helps us learn the lessons inherent in any struggle, and that transforms what we experience as fully negative into a valuable experience. No matter the situation, our true freedom as human beings is our ability to choose what attitude we take.
We can accept what is happening in our lives as a process. Our savings may be gone and our career plans forever changed. Resisting what our lives are at the moment blocks the creative approach to new possibilities. When we complain, blame or remain in the past we hold on to what we don't want, and therefore aren't open to the generative impulse.
Everywhere around us there is beauty. No matter how long or fierce the storm.
Every year we order at least two free-range turkeys for the holidays from our friends Doug and Sue at Tea Hills Poultry www.teahillspoultry.com We appreciate the care they show the birds every step of the way.
We've been talking about adding a flock of turkeys here at Bit of Earth Farm. It's a big decision. We'll have to build housing and put up special fencing to keep the birds safe. We'll also have to decide if there's a market for heritage breeds (currently each chick costs nearly $8!) or standard breeds.
If you have any interest in ordering turkeys from us in 2009, add your comment below or contact us via email. Let us know what type of bird interests you, how many you'd be willing to order, plus any wit you care to add.
photo credit: Sam Weldon
If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, "thank you," that would suffice. ~Meister Eckhart
We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures. ~Thornton Wilder
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