Eighty Days

Natural building

Sat, 2 Jan 2010 20:03:18 -0500

Most parts of the world do not have to rediscover greenbuilding, they have to avoid losing it. Cultures which are industrializing stop making lovely rammed earth buildings from local clay, like the one above, and start using concrete blocks which pollute in creating the materials, and fail to insulate either from cold or heat. But people and governments choose “modern” concrete over local natural materials. How can we stop this while still respecting all people’s right to choose?

Blog post:
25. Construction

Men's and women's roles

Sat, 2 Jan 2010 19:03:31 -0500

The Masai men who guided me in the game parks were great conversationalists and I loved my time with them. I was shocked, therefore, to discover that my new friends mostly had at least two wives, that women have virtually no rights, and that the men I was having such fun talking with are reasonably satisfied with that situation, though there is also some openness to change.

Is it true that patriarchal family structures can make for strong and happy families?

Are there connections between the emancipation of women and solving environmental problems?

Relevant blog posts:
1. My hero!
13. Japan
23. Life in the Haa Valley
1. The Divine Madman
2. Talking with the Masai
3. Agnes Mako

Intentional communities

Sat, 2 Jan 2010 18:03:49 -0500

I visited intentional communities at Lotan kibbutz and Paran moshav in Israel, and lived for a week at Findhorn in Scotland. The benefits are great; the decision-making process sounds agonizing. In an intentional community, people help and support each other and there are some who take advantage. Is this real intimacy and do we need more? How can we incorporate the benefits of intentional community in a conventional lifestyle, as I hope to do? Those of us who plan to “age in place” will rely on some sort of intentional community we will need to create. What are some guidelines?

Relevant blog posts:
1. GNH instead of GNP
2. Kibbutz Lotan
3. Moshav Paran
4. Findhorn morning (Thursday)
72. Cullerne Gardens!

Spirituality and power centers

Sat, 2 Jan 2010 12:04:11 -0500

Have you experienced a sense of power when in a particular place or with a person you looked up to as a teacher or mentor? Have you wondered whether prayer really helps with healing, and if so what sort of energy is transferred?

I felt great force at the Taj Mahal, above, and at the Tiger’s Nest in Bhutan. I did not feel that sense of force at the great spiritual center of the world in Jerusalem although I was shaken and moved by connecting with my own religious tradition.

It was easy to feel spiritual energy each time a group at Findhorn meditated to “tune in” prior to beginning work in the kitchen or garden. It was easy to feel the force at my own family homestead in Virginia this weekend when we said good-bye to the house, which is to be sold, with song and prayer.

I ask science to direct attention to what spiritual energy is and where it can be found. There is research into prayer, for example, but so far as I know none yet aimed at detecting the energy fields which may be involved. Let’s do that.

Blog posts relevant to this topic:
17. People are like trees
1. Chelela Pass
2. Tiger’s Nest
3. Taj Mahal
4. Jerusalem
5. Meditation