I confess, besides catching up with work and such, I've been lost in space (cyberspace, that is), since our first meeting last weekend. It was just too much fun to be learning all the ins and outs of the twitterverse and following the "journos" (new word for me) at the teabagasm events around the nation. Oh, the tales I could tell, having heard all the quips and "personal" comments from behind the scenes! Lots of fun--almost like "being there".
Which brings me to the point I wanted to communicate today. About how we are all connected. It's a very simple thought, one that makes common sense when you think at a meta level about all life on earth being part of one large ecological system. But it has come more into focus these days in terms of the kind of social networking we do on the internet (Facebook, Linked-In, blogging websites, Twitter, texting, etc).
It seems to be important, though, to combine that e-socializing with the face-to-face in order to build the kind of personal connection needed for a relationship, whether that be a personal, a group, or a community kind of relationship. For example, while the recent political campaign of Barack Obama was successful in its use of the most advanced communication technology, use was also made of town halls and community organizing. In these venues, personal, face to face connections could be made--people could interact with each other and form a sense of kinship that encouraged them to trust each other and work together for their common good. The personal connection is a powerful component in what people can accomplish together because it goes back to the most primal instincts of human beings--that of forming close social groups. By living and working together in social groups, people were able to survive difficult primitive conditions.
The phrase, "Six Degrees of Separation" was coined by John Guare in a play he wrote in 1990. The play explored the existential premise that everyone in the world is connected to everyone else in the world by a chain of no more than six acquaintances, thus, "six degrees of separation."
In the play, one of the characters states:
"I read somewhere that everybody on this planet is separated by only six other people. Six degrees of separation between us and everyone else on this planet. The President of the United States, a gondolier in Venice, just fill in the names. I find it A) extremely comforting that we're so close, and B) like Chinese water torture that we're so close because you have to find the right six people to make the right connection... I am bound to everyone on this planet by a trail of six people."[16] (From Wikipedia).
I must say, I had a most striking experience of this phenomenon, this kind of six degrees of separation just today at lunch. I met a beautiful young African American woman at Kuff's (Charles Kuffner) Democratic lunch bunch. She is the "communications coordinator" for Anise Parker's Houston mayoral candidacy. In talking with her about how her boss, Anise, would be a good mayor, I told her about our meeting to explore how a local community group might provide mutual aid and support to each other in times of economic uncertainty. I told her how we'd talked both about forming a local currency for exchange of goods and talents that may not currently be valued in the mainstream economy.
I told her about how we talked about the possibility that foreclosed houses or apartment buildings inside the loop in Houston could be purchased and remodeled to LEEDS standards with some of the federal stimulus money, and how this could help many people who were struggling to find affordable housing. Moreover I told her how this conversation came about in brainstorming about how there are a rising number of aging single women (and others, of course) who would prefer living in the city where they could form relationships with others who shared their values (and she added, in affirmation, "whether they were brown, black, or white, right?"--to which I added, of course! --She had just told me how she struggled to find affordable housing as a single female when she moved to Houston from Chicago several years ago.) And I added that, in fact, there are several women in our group that fit that characterization I described.
I also told her how we talked about our visions for renewing the city's transportation infrastructure, using federal stimulus money for building a light rail system that would cut down on the fossil fuels being used for suburban-city commuting purposes. Of course, I told her one of Mayor White's reasons for suggesting the idea of making inner city homes desirable, affordable, and energy smart was to cut down on the number of people having to commute into the city, not only because we are using a declining supply of foreign oil, but also because we are polluting our city skies.
After she gave me the answers she thought her boss would support and initiate if elected, we continued to talk more and I found she was enthusiastic about the idea of urban intentional community. She told me the area of town in which she lived might be an excellent starting place for exploring such community building. She expanded upon the thought of a group buying an apartment building to buying up a whole block where everyone knew each other and "had each other's backs".
Before we said our goodbyes, she smiled really big and said she had just been smiling inside the whole time since she'd first heard my name in introductions, (Thurman), because that had been the name of some of her father's people in Illinois. Chicago, I asked, since she'd said she moved here from there? No, she said, her father's people came from southern Illinois. Oh, really, I said, because my grandfather Thurman and grandmother were from that area, and had, in fact, met, swimming where the Missouri and Mississippi rivers converge at Cairo, Illinois. She, looking surprised and kind of amazed, said her father's people only lived about 40 miles from there. We both looked at each other with that kind of "knowing" look, and it was hard to break contact with each other's eyes, because we were likely telepathing (or tel-empathizing) that we were "connected" (who knows, but that we are blood relatives?).
Six degrees of separation?
Back to the line in the play where the character says, "I find it A) extremely comforting that we're so close, and B) like Chinese water torture that we're so close because you have to find the right six people to make the right connection... I am bound to everyone on this planet by a trail of six people."
When a Tsunami of Truth Rises out of 'Peak Everything'
...it will wash over a populace in panic!
How may we even begin to prepare for the panic that will occur when mainstream awareness of our most likely future scenarios begins to dawn? On that day, I want to have something in place! I refer you to my previous post:
Peak (Everything?) Stress Syndrome, and Peak Oil Blues (written by my new netroots colleague, the peak oil shrink), which will give you some background for making sense of this continued effort I'm making here, today. My intention is to bring more awareness and direction to these pressing needs by repeatedly giving voice to this topic in my writings.
My dream vision would be to set up a niche, a sanctuary for all of us who are having "peak everything stress syndrome". There are many folks out there suffering situational depression--symptoms of PTSD because of the "early" knowledge we have about the global crisis we are facing. By "early" knowledge, I mean we are advanced thinkers, we see ahead of the mainstream consciousness, and realize what the future will require of us. We reel from the shock and when we get on our feet and start speaking out and calling our mates, companions, and fellow humans to action, we are scorned and repudiated and stripped of our credibility. As we persist in disseminating our message--the "news" we have (that is bad news no-one wants to hear), we are proclaimed to be "doomers" and exiled from our close social connections. The more we speak out about the "inconvenient truth" which now has piles and piles of hard evidence to support it, the more the conspiracy of silence builds the walls of denial stronger. (The monkey covers his eyes, his ears, his mouth--don't see, don't ask, don't tell!)
This is a form of killing the messenger--making him believe he is the crazy one. Then the messenger becomes swamped in his own anger, depression, self pity, and desire to retaliate. This only deactivates him and sabotages his ability to accomplish the original goal. That goal is to warn: to call his colleagues into action, plan a strategy, prevent the worst case scenario, provide safety in the storm to come. I think this is what many have been going through--and I have been through it myself. But it's time to snap out of it, regroup our energies, and direct them in a productive and self-regenerating way, one that is sustainable and has no hidden agendas.
What I have thought about doing locally (here in Houston), is to enjoin a group of people, including our mayor's department of sustainability, to consider supporting a foundational fund and effort for building an eco-center which would contain information, classes, not only on sustainability, but on mental health and the emotional mastery of change. (Mayor Bill White, a friend of green construction and a candidate for the 2006 World Mayor Award, was an attendee and supporter at the recent Peak Oil Conference in Houston.)
Maybe the establishment of this effort could best be explained if placed in coordination with a "heritage days" celebration, so as not to scare people or incite resistance. Classes such as cooking, food preserving, spinning, weaving, mechanics, and gardening with hand tools could be offered--classes in which skills in living primitively on the land, living locally, could be taught. Perhaps the reasoning could be presented as how "our heritage from the past can meet the needs of our future".
This eco-center could be a central source, an enclave, for storing information and local resources on providers of green design (architects savvy on LEEDS standards), on green builders, and on suppliers of green technology. Maybe the center itself could be a zero-energy design (one that supplies its own energy through wind and solar means, reusing water, etc.) It could be, in itself, a model for community use. This center could contain a database of current information on renewable energy technology and information about climate change and peak oil future scenarios. Films and videos could be made describing these conditions and possible outcomes.
This beginning would lay the foundation for the mental health support that will be needed when awareness of "peak everything" reaches a notable level in the public consciousness. Then we will be teaching about change, signs of stress--situational depression and anxiety and the skills for dealing with it. At the time it's most needed, the center will be established and already known as a place to go for of information and support. I can imagine that the foundation's funding could come through the use of an alternative/complementary currency such as Ithaca dollars, Time dollars, or other database currency points that become accepted for use in the larger community as Bernard Lietaer has suggested in the Future of Money.
Another thing I would like to do through this center is to begin, with a group of others, to envision a possible future beyond what we know is inevitable-a livable and sustainable future in which we would like to live. I would like to instill hope (beyond the depressing reality we are facing) that we can still carve out a niche of safety, sanity, beauty, and order-and some form of green mobility. I know we can't count on technological innovation to save us from the power-down energy crunch and from the relocations and massive migrations to come with climate change, from the scarcity of resources and the potential for resource wars/competition--from the future pandemic of death and diminishment of our population. We who are in the know realize there is no place to hide. We don't have mega-bucks to buy an energy efficient fortress guarded by Blackwater troops.
But we have to believe we have some power to save ourselves, to create something worthwhile that will help motivate us to go forward! Accomplishing this will require a positive vision and good leadership. I like to think of our future as being healthy, happy, green, and mobile, and I believe that with as many enthusiastic people as I've run into on the Daily Kos (environmental group) and in other areas of the netroots, we can, together, come up with a plan and course of action to build the future we want, in spite of our government and its economy. It just requires taking our way of life into our own hands, designing our own local economies and fortifying them with some kind of god-juice that will protect them from the madding crowds--the throngs of those who didn't do their planning.
And so I come back around now to the original point: that we must continue to disseminate accurate information so that all people will be adequately forewarned and forearmed. This information must be presented in such a way as to avoid panic and predation. Once we do this for ourselves in our local communities in the US, we need to try to facilitate this same kind of activity in other countries--China, India, Africa, Mexico...etc. The Netroots has a basis for building these connective threads between our communities here in America and out into our global community-our Mother Earth! I'm thinking of calling this center MotherSource! What do you think?
(Hope we'll see you in a bit, if you're in Austin! - promoted by boadicea)
I know it's only been five months since our last get-together, but it feels like ten years, so head on out Sunday July 22nd and catch up with your fellow progressives in the Austin area. Details after the jump.
I've known the Roberts family for years, and since their son, John, was born two years ago, I've learned firsthand that it really does take a whole village to raise a child, especially if that child has special needs. John Roberts has septo-optic dysplasia, a birth defect of the brain and eyes. Though rare, as of 2006 it is the new leading cause of blindness in infants. John also has cerebral palsy and three additional rare eye conditions. It takes a large community of family and friends to make it possible for John to receive the ongoing therapies he needs.
So... musicians, chefs, local farmers and business owners, and many others have joined together to put on an awesome benefit picnic tomorrow (Saturday, June 30, 4 pm till sunset) at the Roberts farm near Manor--rain or shine! (There will be shelter in case of rain.)
Sara Hickman, Barbara Kooyman (remember Grammy-nominated Timbuk 3?), and Rumbullion will play. Chefs will prepare a picnic supper from local foods, and the Roberts family will give tours of their farm, with opportunities for children of all ages to hold baby chicks, along with other surprises planned for attendees. A short documentary film on local farming featuring the family’s farm will also premiere at the picnic. All proceeds will go toward funding special-needs therapy for two-year-old John Roberts.
John's picnic benefit is meant to be fun for everyone, but the real purpose of raising money for his therapy is to allow miracles to happen and help John to be a productive and independent person. The therapies that have already shown us miracles with him are those that are not covered by Medicaid. Proceeds from the picnic benefit will be used to cover expenses for John's continuing work with his special movement therapist, Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen, of the School for Body-Mind Centering in Massachusetts, and other therapies. Providing this intensive help at an early age will allow John to have maximum function and self-sufficiency when he is grown.
(Didn't want to FP this till I was done editing. Come on yall, let's play! All three Texas teams made the playoffs, and I imagine they have some fans lurking around here. Put together your bracket and win nifty prizes from our Cafepress store! - promoted by annatopia)
Ok folks, I can't imagine I'm the only basketball nerd around here. =)
I want to do an NBA playoff basketball bracket competition. Since our user base is fairly robust now, I'm hoping there's enough b-ball fans here in order to make a real competition out of it.
So... I thought we could have a contest with real prizes given out to the winners. =)
Click beneath the fold for the rules, scoring system, and prizes.
Or to quote our secretary of defense, on my goodness gracious! We certainly have a lot going on in Central Texas this weekend and next week, so take advantage of one of these many opportunities to get together with other Kosites, instead of our usual Dog & Duck meetup.
This is where the rubber meets the road, folks. It’s time for another get-together of Central Texas Kos members. This Sunday will be a critical meeting as we’ll have Bruce Elfant in attendance to train and swear-in all those wishing to become deputy voter registrars for Travis County. We’ve promised him 10-15 new deputies, based on our average turnout these last few meetings, so bring us your bodies and get into this fight. Sccs and I already got deputized and it didn’t hurt a bit!
(Missed this one yesterday. Good way to get invovled.... - promoted by lightseeker)
(cross-posted at Daily Kos)
Last Sunday another big group of us got together to drink, gab, and plot with our fellow Democrats in Austin.
This was more of a working meeting than last time, with better acoustics and seating. I was joined by roses, rabidchild and his three guests, walkshills all the way from Burnet County, boadicea, refinish69, sciguy, Texas Tiger, Khereva, Sandia Blanca, and Andy30tx and his wife. We've come up with a project we can all participate in for the next meeting. Jump over and see what we're up to.
But honestly, though I love it, I don't eat BBQ all that often. In fact when I got to thinking, I eat Asian (Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Indian, Vietnamese, etc...) as much as "American" food.
(If you're not going to YearlyKos, please considered a trip upalong to Ft Worth. Yes, I know it's Ft. Worth in June, (I'm sweating already) but nobody said turning Texas blue wouldn't take some sacrifices. - promoted by boadicea)
Calling all bloggers and convention attendees!
Here's the details for the 2006 Texas Democratic Convention Blogger's Caucus.
Oh my, indeed!
