The John Croft Gaia Pilgrimage Project
Thursday 2nd March - Departure Day minus 5
Noongar Greeting for Visitors
Gaia
Yes! Hello There
Nitja ngalaar kaalalgap, noonagat nitja bookadja yaalbillie woortbillie,
This is our fireplace home, you all here/this over there this-side away-side,
nitja boodjar ngalaar kaalagap
this land-soil-earth our fireplace home
-----------------
Wodern-ngat, Moord-ngat, Victoria Park nidja, yarkin doorntch
Ocean by (near by the ocean), Darling Scarp by (near the Darling Scarp) Victoria Park this, standing together
We are here together at Victoria Park.
Nidja Noongar boodjarr, nidja kwopidaa boodjarr, nidja yaarkin doorntch
here (this) Noongar country, here (this) beautiful land, here standing
together
Why a Greeting in Noongar?
The Wadjug Noongar people are the traditional owners of my hearth-place, Gaia House, 35 Camberwell Street, East Victoria Park, the place from which this Pilgrimage will commence, and the place where in 12 months time, the Pilgrimage will end. For people looking for information on the Wadjug Noongar I invite them to check out the information at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whadjuk and at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noongar.
From these sites you will learn that the Aboriginal inhabitants of this land are not only the oldest surviving culture on the planet, that they constitute amongst the oldest modern Human Homo sapiens group found outside Africa, and that they have been living in this region for over 70,000 years! Considering that modern humans have only lived in Europe fro about 35-40,000 years, this is an amazing achievement. You will also learn a little about how Wadjug Noongar dispossession of their country has resulted in enormous social distruption and continuing cost to all Western Australians.
Also, Western Australians generally understand a number of ways of saying "Hello" in other languages (eg Bon Jour, Guten Tag, Buenas Dias etc), but very few can say hello (i.e. Gaia) in the indigenous language of their own home. I include the Noongar greeting as an unapologetic attempt to educate us settler people in the languages of the country we have seized from the indigenous first nation peoples of this land.
A little more Community Education.
To acknowledge the traditional owners of this country of Australia, I invite everyone reading this Weblog to change your mailing address to include the Aboriginal name of your bioregion. What is a bioregion? The Global Biodiversity Assessment defines bioregion as "A territory defined by a combination of biological, social, and geographic criteria, rather than geopolitical considerations; generally, a system of related, interconnected ecosystems." Most people in Western countries can relate to the geo-political units to which they are a part but are woefully ignorant of the bioregions they inhabit, with the result that their lifestyles are cancerous and destructive of the integrity of the environments in which they live.
So what is your bioregion? Look at the map attached at the site http://www.samuseum.sa.gov.au/page/default.asp?site=2&page=TIN_Tribal and you will be able to find your own natural bioregion.
Now on your address, insert your bioregion name IN EVERY LETTER YOU WRITE FROM NOW ON!
In my case
My address for snail mail (which can be forwarded to me) is
John Croft
Gaia House
PO Box 1417
East Victoria Park
Wadjug Bioregion
WA 6981
Australia
Enough Education for the moment!
Welcome to John Croft's weblog for his world-wide "Gaia Pilgrimage" Project. This project will be John's major Gaia Foundation project for the next 12 months, and will end with his return to Perth Western Australia, in March 2007.
Are you in the right place?
There are many John Croft's in the world. My GP has 5 all of whom attend the Victoria Park Medical Service (it makes fun when I go to my doctor, I have to make sure he is entering my medical details on the right file. The attached photo is of the creator of this Weblog.
This weblog will contain photos, stories and information of my journey around the world. This is not just a tourist jaunt. My intention is that this project will meet the three criteria of all Gaia Projects
Noongar Greeting for Visitors
Gaia
Yes! Hello There
Nitja ngalaar kaalalgap, noonagat nitja bookadja yaalbillie woortbillie,
This is our fireplace home, you all here/this over there this-side away-side,
nitja boodjar ngalaar kaalagap
this land-soil-earth our fireplace home
-----------------
Wodern-ngat, Moord-ngat, Victoria Park nidja, yarkin doorntch
Ocean by (near by the ocean), Darling Scarp by (near the Darling Scarp) Victoria Park this, standing together
We are here together at Victoria Park.
Nidja Noongar boodjarr, nidja kwopidaa boodjarr, nidja yaarkin doorntch
here (this) Noongar country, here (this) beautiful land, here standing
together
Why a Greeting in Noongar?
The Wadjug Noongar people are the traditional owners of my hearth-place, Gaia House, 35 Camberwell Street, East Victoria Park, the place from which this Pilgrimage will commence, and the place where in 12 months time, the Pilgrimage will end. For people looking for information on the Wadjug Noongar I invite them to check out the information at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whadjuk and at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noongar.
From these sites you will learn that the Aboriginal inhabitants of this land are not only the oldest surviving culture on the planet, that they constitute amongst the oldest modern Human Homo sapiens group found outside Africa, and that they have been living in this region for over 70,000 years! Considering that modern humans have only lived in Europe fro about 35-40,000 years, this is an amazing achievement. You will also learn a little about how Wadjug Noongar dispossession of their country has resulted in enormous social distruption and continuing cost to all Western Australians.
Also, Western Australians generally understand a number of ways of saying "Hello" in other languages (eg Bon Jour, Guten Tag, Buenas Dias etc), but very few can say hello (i.e. Gaia) in the indigenous language of their own home. I include the Noongar greeting as an unapologetic attempt to educate us settler people in the languages of the country we have seized from the indigenous first nation peoples of this land.
A little more Community Education.
To acknowledge the traditional owners of this country of Australia, I invite everyone reading this Weblog to change your mailing address to include the Aboriginal name of your bioregion. What is a bioregion? The Global Biodiversity Assessment defines bioregion as "A territory defined by a combination of biological, social, and geographic criteria, rather than geopolitical considerations; generally, a system of related, interconnected ecosystems." Most people in Western countries can relate to the geo-political units to which they are a part but are woefully ignorant of the bioregions they inhabit, with the result that their lifestyles are cancerous and destructive of the integrity of the environments in which they live.
So what is your bioregion? Look at the map attached at the site http://www.samuseum.sa.gov.au/page/default.asp?site=2&page=TIN_Tribal and you will be able to find your own natural bioregion.
Now on your address, insert your bioregion name IN EVERY LETTER YOU WRITE FROM NOW ON!
In my case
My address for snail mail (which can be forwarded to me) is
John Croft
Gaia House
PO Box 1417
East Victoria Park
Wadjug Bioregion
WA 6981
Australia
Enough Education for the moment!
Welcome to John Croft's weblog for his world-wide "Gaia Pilgrimage" Project. This project will be John's major Gaia Foundation project for the next 12 months, and will end with his return to Perth Western Australia, in March 2007.
Are you in the right place?
There are many John Croft's in the world. My GP has 5 all of whom attend the Victoria Park Medical Service (it makes fun when I go to my doctor, I have to make sure he is entering my medical details on the right file. The attached photo is of the creator of this Weblog.
This weblog will contain photos, stories and information of my journey around the world. This is not just a tourist jaunt. My intention is that this project will meet the three criteria of all Gaia Projects
- It will be a project of personal growth for me
- It will be a project that strengthens the communities of which I am a part
- It will be a project that works in service to the Earth.
So folks, I invite all visitors to this blog site to Indroduce yourselves and start by creating for yourself personally, an intention for you that would make my journey (and your frequent visiting of this blog) worth your while.
"Em tasol, bai mi lukim yu"
(That's all, see you later)
For the Earth
John
posted by John at 1:01 AM
9 Comments:
Sunday 5th March at 9.43am
Second post. It is the morning after the night before - last night untiol 3am I was at Kate Kelly and Pete Stone's wedding. How much I love Hippy Weddings - the ritual was a most amazing sharing of joint vows of people who had been together for 14 years. (Apparently the groom had asked the bride to marry after 3 weeks, but she said she was never going to marry - Pete was persistent and 14 years and one glorious child later - well it was marvellous). I loved the way when Pete shared his vows the seawater was tipped from his full glass to an empty glass Kate was holding, and then Kate repeated Pete's vows and added her own, passing on the water she had been holding into an empty glass Pete held. Back and forth in a dance of the rhythm of teir relationship.
And now, on this last hot day Paul Pule, Jonno and KT have been working on the wishingwell. Honour to Paul, who has committed to having this well complete, and to Kerry Kalcraft who has committed to assisting Paul raise a roof over Vivienne's final resting place and to get a memorial stone organised.
This time on Tuesday morning I'll be on the plane to Sydney. This time next week I'll be in Los Angeles, heading for Brazil!
From the start of this crazy project I have said that I want this 12 months to be not just travelling, but to be a journey in service to Gaia. In particular I will be meeting and interviewing a range of amazing people in the fields of Ecologically Sustainable Community Economic Development and Deep Ecology/ Gaia Theory, information which I will be bringing back to Western Australia. Therefore I ask anyone who, at any time, logs on to this Web Log
1. Are there any people in any of the places that I will be visiting (See Itinerary Below) that you would (if possible) like me to visit and interview on your behalf?
2. Are there specific questions you would like answered, that I can take, on your behalf, to these people?
Well folks
Much more work awaits before I leave
Love to all readers
John
Dear Friends
It is my last day in Perth for 12 months.
The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with eager feet,
Until it joins some larger way
Where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then? I cannot say.
It was good to see so many good friends at Kate Kelly's wonderful wedding on Saturday, and catch-up with so many of you. And yesterday (just in time) we finished the wishingwell, as Paul Pule said as we came inside at 8 o'clock - a Gaia Project completed. Nearly half of Vivienne's ashes have now found their resting place. The rest will be going to Basil's "Gaia Sanctuary", and to the Balingup Botanical Gardens.
Thanks to Paul Pule for his amazing effort and persisting in construction. Also to Jonathan Bastiens for helping prepare the site, carting bricks and materials. By the way folks, now that I am going Jonathan is looking for a new local chess partner! KT Winter, thank you so much for your initial sand and concrete mixing effort, and your stone placement and spongeing with Phoebe Coyne. And Sam Nelson, thanks for the quiche for lunch, and your shaping of the limestone and mixing the concrete in the morning. Thanks too to Robyn Williams who also contributed food (like Phoebe and Sam), and helped with the rendering.
So how is the wishing well to be used? Vivienne said that anyone considering doing a Gaia Project had to sit by her well, toss in a coin and make a wish. As soon as the coin hits the water, she said, she would work from "the other side" (wherever that is) to make your wishes come true.
I owe an especial debt of gratitude to Phoebe and KT who are taking over Gaia House for the next 12 months. As Paul Jack came yesterday and we put down the intentions for Gaia House
"That the property will be held either in trust or owned privately or by some other body for the purposes listed below in perpetuity
That the property will never be sold, rented or otherwise employed in any dealings for the purposes of private or personal gain
That the land and all improvements on it will be treated with respect as an integral part of the living Earth, and that all activities carried out theron will uphold and enhance an attitude of respect and sacredness for all life
that the activities undertaken at the property will be for the benefit of the Earth in ecological terms, for the benefit of the wider community as a place of ecologically and socially constructive education, emotional and spiritual solace and refuge, meeting together for socially constructive and widely beneficial purposes,
and that while fulfilling these purposes the property may also meet the simple needs of whoever may occupy it for the carrying out of the above purposes."
Where will I be? If you want to catch me, the only thing at the moment that is fixed is the flights. This is the itinerary as it stands (but even this may change)
CONFIRMED FLIGHT QANTAS AIRWAYS QF 642
07 Mar 06 Tue - Check in Perth Terminal 2
07 Mar 06 Tue Depart Perth 08:45am Economy Class discounted
07 Mar 06 Tue Arrive Sydney 16:00 Non-stop
Total Journey Time 4hrs 15mins
CONFIRMED FLIGHT QANTAS AIRWAYS QF 149
10 Mar 06 Fri Check in at Sydney Terminal 1
10 Mar 06 Fri Depart Sydney 11:35 Economy Class discounted
10 Mar 06 Fri Arrive Los Angeles 06:00 Non-stop
Aircraft Type Boeing 747-400
Total Journey Time 13hrs 25mins
CONFIRMED FLIGHT CATHAY PACIFIC AIRWAYS CX 888
17 Apr 06 Mon Check in at Vancouver Terminal M
17 Apr 06 Mon Depart Vancouver 13:10 Economy Class discounted
17 Apr 06 Mon Arrive New York John F Kennedy 21:15 Non-stop
Aircraft Type Boeing 747-400
Total Journey Time 5hrs 05mins
CONFIRMED FLIGHT BRITISH AIRWAYS BA 182
01 May 06 Mon Check in at John F Kennedy Terminal 7
01 May 06 Mon Depart New York John F Kennedy 22:30 Economy Class
02 May 06 Tue Arrive London Heathrow 10:15 Non-stop
Aircraft Type Boeing 777
Total Journey Time 6hrs 45mins
CONFIRMED FLIGHT BRITISH AIRWAYS BA 714
06 May 06 Sat Check in at Heathrow Terminal 4
06 May 06 Sat Depart London Heathrow 11:55 Economy Class discounted
06 May 06 Sat Arrive Zurich 14:35 Non-stop
Aircraft Type Airbus Industrie A321
Total Journey Time 1hr 40mins
CONFIRMED FLIGHT BRITISH AIRWAYS BA 711
31 Oct 06 Tue Check in at Zurich
31 Oct 06 Tue Depart Zurich 11:20 Economy Class discounted
31 Oct 06 Tue Arrive London Heathrow 12:20 Non-stop
Aircraft Type Airbus Industrie A320
Total Journey Time 2hrs 00mins
CONFIRMED FLIGHT BRITISH AIRWAYS BA 155
01 Nov 06 Wed Check in at Heathrow Terminal 4
01 Nov 06 Wed Depart London Heathrow 16:30 Economy Class discounted
01 Nov 06 Wed Arrive Cairo 23:15 Non-stop
Aircraft Type Boeing 777
Total Journey Time 4hrs 45mins
CONFIRMED FLIGHT BRITISH AIRWAYS BA 154
28 Nov 06 Tue Check in at Cairo Terminal 2
28 Nov 06 Tue Depart Cairo 08:45 Economy Class discounted
28 Nov 06 Tue Arrive London Heathrow 12:10 Non-stop
Aircraft Type Boeing 777
Total Journey Time 5hrs 25mins
CONFIRMED FLIGHT BRITISH AIRWAYS BA 143
06 Jan 07 Sat Check in at Heathrow Terminal 4
06 Jan 07 Sat Depart London Heathrow 11:40 Economy Class discounted
07 Jan 07 Sun Arrive Delhi 01:25 Non-stop
Aircraft Type Boeing 747-400
Total Journey Time 8hrs 15mins
CONFIRMED FLIGHT CATHAY PACIFIC AIRWAYS CX 752
20 Feb 07 Tue Check in at Delhi Terminal 2
20 Feb 07 Tue Depart Delhi 07:40 Economy Class discounted
21 Feb 07 Wed Arrive Hong Kong 15:05 Non-stop
Total Journey Time 4hrs 55mins
CONFIRMED FLIGHT QANTAS AIRWAYS QF 68
01 Mar 07 Thu Check in at Hong Kong
01 Mar 07 Thu Depart Hong Kong 23:30 Economy Class discounted
02 Mar 07 Fri Arrive Perth 07:15 Non-stop
Total Journey Time 7hrs 45mins
About the poem above, it comes from Lord of the Rings. Frodo said of it, "Certainly it reminds me very much of Bilbo in the last years, before he went away. He used often to say there was only one Road; that it was like a great river: its springs were at every doorstep, and every path was its tributary. "It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out of your door," he used to say. "You step into the Road, and
if you don't keep your feet, there is no knowing where you might be swept off to."
Love to you all
John
From Saturday 12th March 2006
I am sitting in the house of Judy Bletinck, a Servas Host and most
generous woman, who lives at Sherman Oaks, Los Angeles, where I have been for the last 48 hours. Claudia and I flew into Los Angeles on Friday, arriving at 6.30am, having departed Sydney at 11/45 am on the same day. Yes folks, we arrived before we departed, after a 13 hour flight across the Pacific and across the international date line.
We had three days in Sydney during which time Claudia was trying to organise flights to Brazil, but it proved impossible to get a visa for Brazil for me until the 27th March (Claudia as a German citizen had automatic entry!). During that time I met John Minson of the Blue Mountains World Heritage Institute (have a look at their web page at http://www.bmwhi.org.au/about.shtml). John Minson is of the same belief of James Lovelock that we must review our opposition to
Nuclear Power, especially when we look at the economnic development
of India and China. I argued strongly that nuclear proliferation would hasten the arrival of a Dark Age of the type John Minson was trying to avoid, and it would ensure that the dark age, when and where it arrives would be doubly dangerous.
Unlike him, I argued that the Dark Age is coming and could not be avoided. What could be ameliorated was the depth of the darkness that will follow, and I put forward my litany of five things we must all do.
1. Build supportive community as if your life depended upon it -
because it will
2. Live simply, avoid dependency upon complex systems, because in
civilisation collapse such as we will see, complexity collapses first.
3. Cultivate creativity - artistic, social, technological, economic. Those that live most creatively will suffer the least when the Dark comes.
4. Preserve true knowledge, because in a Dark Age supersition reigns and knowledge gets lost, sometimes for a thousand years.
5. Cultivate non-violent wisdom. In a Dark Age militant ignorance
(i.e. evil) spreads its wings, and fundamentalism of all kinds spreads
If we do these five things and no collapse comes we still come out
ahead, so to do these five things is still important if we see no
general systems collapse (as John Hopes for) or if we do (as I
believe is inevitable).
The flight across the Pacific passed uneventfully and we arrived at LAX, Los Angeles Airport - one of the biggest in the world, and found our way through the tight US security and onto a bus for Van Nuys Flyaway, where we were being met by Judy, who works for New Line Cinema, the producers of Lord of the Rings, so Shirley the Bilbo
connections continue even here!
Where to from here? I am on the way to St Luis Obispo fairly soon.
Claudia, as her health has been precarious, has the option of
continuing to Zurich the day after tomorrow. We will know how she feels and will either continue tomorrow on to visit our first non Australian seedling of the future, or else, put Claudia on the plane and contuinue on alone.
Either way "L'Aventure Continuera!" More to follow
Love to you all
For the Earth
John
John,
What a great workshop in San Luis. We are all inspired!
My daughter is interested in attending in San Francisco and several friends in Ithaca will be, too, when you get there.
Could you post details of those workshops here when you know when and where they'll be held?
Thanks!
Eve
Catch up on the News
Dear Friends
It has been some time since I have had the chance to update my dairy record to you all.
Since arriving in Los Angeles, much has happened and it is now time to update my records.
At the airport we were struck by the extra security arrangements. A big black woman directed us into a long queue where we were fingerprinted and our faces were computer scanned. They were obviously looking for some feature that corresponded with known criminals, and it was a little daunting to know that the USA now has me “on record” in this fashion, in a way that the Australian government has been trying to do with the talk of the Identity Card.
What strikes you most when you enter the USA? Two things I think. The first and most obvious is the fact that everyone does speak with an American accent!! No, everyone asserts, they don’t have an accent, it is you who speak with an Australian accent! The second thing is the number of “black” and “hispanic” people, who, in processing jobs at the airport, as bus drivers, orderlies, cleaners, security staff and information personnel clearly outnumber whites by a large number, but who – when taken collectively with “Asians” are now said to outnumber whites altogether. This shows up at Los Angeles especially with the fact that all signs are in Spanish as well as English.
There are also many small things to get used to. For instance, yes, my Australian readers, Americans do drive on the wrong side of the road! That too is something that they assure us that it is the Aussies and British who have it wrong! And as we hired a car – essential in LA where despite millions of separate buses arriving at the airport from separate competing bus companies (usually affiliated to specific hotels and hire car companies – seeking to ferry you to their offices), public transport is still poorly developed. Despite the fact that http://www.experiencela.com/GA.html boasts that Los Angeles has the second best public transport system in the US with over 1500 buses, its train system seems as poorly developed as is Perth’s – and don’t forget LA, with an official population of about 3.8 million of the continuous Southern Californian Urban Area, which has a population of 18 million! We have found, that unlike WA buses, where each major city bus stop has information on what times buses will arrive, no one here seems to know when buses come but they tell you, you will only have a short wait – we have found 45 minutes is about the length of time we have had to wait. It seems that LA is still suffering from the fact that the public transport system was purchased by major car producers and shut down. As a result LA has the largest freeway system of any place on Earth, and commuters, it appears travel a staggering 160 million kilometers daily, or 10 million kilometers more than the distance from the Earth to the sun!
Driving on the right has proven an interesting hassle. I have become aware that in driving my awareness is centred on having the car’s body to my left, a body which when you drive almost becomes a part of your own nervous system. But here, it is on the right, and I find myself inclined to “take it a little too tight” in turning corners or parallel parking, being inclined to run into the curb easily. Also when getting into the car, as either driver or passenger, I find myself trying to get into the wrong door.
But there are other little things too. Like the fact that in the USA light switches are down when they are off and up when they are on, (of course they would be – we’re down under, they are “up-over”) or the fact that the US houses we have stayed in have double sinks, where one has a chewing machine to “digest” compost waste, which gets flushed into the sewerage system. In the LA house of Judy, that we stayed in I was amazed to find that there was no footpath at all, on either side of the street. When asking directions we were told – it is just 5 minutes down the road – the automatic assumption being we were traveling by car.
And the amazing generosity of the average American seems a national characteristic. Judy for instance insisted on buying us maps of the Los Angeles and Californian areas, had purchased special food for our arrival and made her home at our disposal while she was at work. Her house was filled with amazing collection of nick-nacks and souvenirs in every room which must have been difficult to keep dusted and cleaned, and copies of the great masters like Gaugin and Modigliani painted by her father. She insisted that we sleep in her bed under a huge Modigliani nude, and gazed upon by a painting of a very obese Mona Lisa whiles she made do with a single bed in the guest room. She had a huge part mastiff dog, a deterrent to any intruder, but who accepted us with good grace, despite the fact that we had displaced the dog as well as the owner from her customary sleeping place. Judy tended to curl up and sleep each night on the couch with her dog in front of the TV before going off to bed long after midnight. She worked at New Line Cinemas (the makers of Lord of the Rings), and a fair proportion of the people she introduced me to during the time I was in LA (from Friday to Monday) were also in the film industry. On the Sunday evening, as I was beginning to recover from the jet lag, she invited us to a party at a friend’s house. Claudia unfortunately was suffering badly from pains of her rheumatoid arthritis and so stayed home, but it was a fascinating experience for me. Chris, the woman we visited, was a single parent mother, who had known Judy for a long time. The other people at the dinner party were three sets of gay men; a retired engineer and his younger Hispanic partner, a retired accountant and his South African hairdresser partner, and another couple who worked in the film industry too. It was a wonderful convivial meal, the six men it appears had traveled together recently to South Africa so they could appreciate my jet lag. The amazing thing I found was how publicly humiliatingly and shockingly offensively the South African spoke of his older partner, who seemed to take the abuse without a murmur.
And then on Tuesday morning we departed Los Angeles heading north to San Luis Obispo, and the home of Linda Seeley, one of “our Americans” that came to the Joanna Macy “Seeds for the Future” thirty day workshop in Denmark that the Gaia Foundation organized in January-February lunar month long workshop in 2005. We were following in the footsteps of Ruth Yeatman, another “seedling” from Victoria who had also stayed a while at Linda’s.
The country here was wild and magnificent. Mountains! We don’t have mountains at all in Western Australia and it was great to be amongst mountains again. Judy lived in the San Fernando Valley, north of Hollywood (where she worked) separated from the rest of the city by a small range of mountains, but away to the north we could see the Sierra Nevada range of snow capped peaks. We traveled west to Santa Barbara, where on the pier we stopped, and I had my first “clam chowder” (a soup I have seen in US movies but never had myself – it was delicious – and served inside a bun!) What struck us most is the diversity of this country. People dressed in all kinds of clothing proclaiming identity – young Hispanics in pants that seemed to have fallen to the knees and football sweaters 15 sizes too big, with a young woman in a pleated skirt and sweater – like a throw back to the nineteen fifties. Ancient hippies and “flower children” now in their sixties like a time warp of the late sixties. Many people over-weight, but then a young svelte black man dressed totally in black striding along wearing a fedora hat as though he owned the world. Marvelous just to watch the passing parade.
The country around San Luis Obispo was the land of the Chumash Indians, who fought against the Spanish missionaries when “it began with the founding of Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa in 1772 by Father Junípero Serra as the fifth mission in the California chain of 21 missions (stretching north from Tijunana in Mexico as far as San Francisco). The mission was named after Saint Louis, a 13th Century Bishop of Toulouse, France. (San Luis Obispo is Spanish for "St. Louis, the Bishop".)” (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Luis_Obispo). These missions completely dominated the lives of the Indians, who were doubly dispossessed with the arrival of the Mexican rancheros and later gringo miners. Today, out of sight and out of mind, they operate a casino, which is forbidden by white law, but allowed on the Indian reservation, and is their major source of income. The town of SLO as it is called is nestled attractively between the mountains and the remains of a series of seven volcanoes, created when the crust moved over a geological ‘Hot spot’ in the Earth’s magma, spot welding the volcanoes like successive punctures in the Earth’s crust. The volcanoes have eroded, with the outer layers stripped off the summits to leave a Morro (or a Moor’s hat) shape, with crown and conical brim. The Moors, of course, were the Arabs and Berbers who ruled in Southern Spain and Andalucia and Grenada during most of the Middle Ages. One such summit was just behind Linda’s house and a walk through a ranch, donated to the community by the heirs of the owner, gave us amazing views of this pretty town of 44,000 people. Of this number 17,000 were enrolled students at California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly), where Linda’s husband, Michael, worked as Professor in Electrical Engineering. As a university town, most people here were not born in SLO, but have moved here fairly recently. A big group of very wealthy retirees also complements the student population. On the negative side, San Luis Obispo is the home of the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant (just to the south) built on a major fault-line which is part of the very active Californian earthquake zone. The danger is that the nuclear power plant is heavily dependent upon electricity for its operation. A power black-out and a failure of their back up systems (highly possible in a major Earthqake) will result in a Chernobyl-like major core melt-down, a fear which is ever present in the minds of all the people I spoke with. Those people who have read Starhawk’s “Fifth Sacred Thing” may remember SLO as the home of the “mutants”. Well folks it is now 8 o’clock and the day has to begin. More later.
Love to you all
John
It is a long time since I posted anything to my weblog diary. I am sitting at Westwind on the Oregon coast, at one of the homes of Melany Berry, wife of Duncan Berry, a retired textile and clothing retailer. The late afternoon sun strikes the sea at some distance from the shore, creating a swathe of silver light, and the breakers curl to pound upon the sandy shore. Before me lies a yellow-white beach – the first I have seen in the USA between a rocky headland and offshore rock outcrop – a rookery for marine birds. Out to sea the whales are making their annual migration north. The trees here are usually varieties of conifer trees, larch, and spruce, hemlock, yew, pine, juniper, cedar, cypress, and redwood. Spring is on the way and the deciduous trees are covered with a fine new apron of pale green. The silver of the sea is mirrored by the white of the clouds and the pal blue sky. Turkey condors, a type of vulture, are circling along the shore.
Whilst staying at Linda and Michael’s we were amazed to hear that Michael had been caught in a traffic jam whilst traveling north from Santa Barbara by a police chasing a man who had hijacked a passenger and their car. The police shot the man dead. Also at the same time, in a nearby locality there had been a man who killed three people in a restaurant, who had shot himself before the police shot him. In the papers the next day it was explained he was a man who was made homeless by his refusal to pay some land tax or another, and had been living in his car. He was clearly deranged, but unable to afford the medical treatment – the cost of the medication he was on was too expensive, and he had discontinued treatment – with a reversal to his delusional paranoid state causing troubles with his neighbours, who he believed were plotting against him. Welcome America….. Driving north we passed the brand new prison that has been built for San Luis Obispo. It was bigger than Canning Vale, but intended only for the City of San Luis Obispo. Each County in the USA has its own jail, and there are also state and federal penitentiaries. The building and running jails is now the biggest industry in the USA after the defence (i.e. war) industries. This is because profits are very high. The owners of prisons rent their inmates as workers for large companies, and as the jails pay no wages, the profits for the company that runs the prison are very high. In this way the USA has reintroduced legal slavery, nearly 140 years after it was abolished. Of course, you can easily guess which race comprises the majority of the prisoners. Back to negro slavery.
The major debate at the moment politically is the problem of so called “Illegal Migrants” – the 12-20 million largely South Americans who have no legal papers to be here. America, the home of the “poor, yearning to breathe free”, is building a wall to the south to prevent Mexicans and others ((Guatamalans, El Salvadorians etc), entering the country. The debate seems to be between those industries wanting to have cheap Mexican labour, and those wanting to put the migrants in jail as law breakers. The major prison builders are lobbying t get new prisons made, perhaps so the economic refugees from the countries to the south can be imprisoned too. I find it interesting how those who believe in free trade, believe in the free movement of finance, the free movement of resources, but not the free movement of people. And yet free trade is supposed to be about the movement of all factors of production. So much for the North American Free Trade Treaty – just imagine the outcry if Western Australia allowed the investment of Eastern States firms, and the import of Eastern States goods but would not allow any person to travel to Western Australia or settle without a Greencard or an entry visa! This is not free-trade, instead it is a form of exploitative empire building, as US firms relocate to Mexico for the cheap labour, but sell their products in the USA (where people all buy on credit and are in debt up to their eyeballs). Enough raving!
Since leaving Linda and Michael Seeley at San Luis Obispo we traveled up the coastal highway, past Piedras Blancas, the home of many elephant seals marooned on the beach, and the Whale Watch Café where we stopped for lunch (and saw whales blowing off shore) to Big Sur, one of the most beautiful locations I have seen. It was there I began my love affair for Californian redwoods. The first trees were saw were at Lime Kiln Camping, where we stopped for a few minutes. Claudia posed in front of a sign advising people to be wary of Mountain Lions (the sign advised you to raise your hands and m, and make a loud noise, and report any of the big cats who didn’t flee – they would probably be hunted down and killed – the arrogance of man). After trying to get into Esalen Institute, the very exclusive and very expensive New Age capital of the West Coast, and failing, we over-nighted in the Ripplewood Chalets, very reasonably priced just to the north. This was very pleasant as some of the accommodation here was for 4-500 dollars per night.
That next morning we traveled south for a little way visiting one of the many Art Galleries in the area, and also the Henry Miller museum, the place where he lived he last years of his life. We then traveled north, cutting across to the 101 to travel to San Francisco. I had earlier obtained the directions to Joanna and Fran Macy’s house from Fran, but proceeded to get badly lost in Oakland. Everyone I asked begged for money, and when we approached a policeman we were told to stay where we were and not come any closer. He had his gun out and was proceeding to handcuff a Hispanic looking man – shades of a TV Cop show. We quickly escaped “the scene of the crime” not wanting to become innocently embroiled, before finding our way to the proper house just in time for supper. Joanna and Fran welcomed us warmly, we stayed in Fran’s study, although on the nights that Claudia’s pain from her rheumatoid arthritis troubled her greatly, I slept in Joanna’s study. Joanna and Fran have the perfect living arrangement. Her daughter Peggy and her husband live down-stairs, and the two families are completely independent except for the sharing of a washing machine and clothes drier in the basement.
The following day Claudia and I traveled to Telegraph Street, where old unreformed hippies from the 1968 Summer of Love ran stalls. It was amazing to see how critical they were of George Bush, who has an approval rating at the moment of only 30% of those who would vote. You must remember, less than 50% of Americans vote, as the candidates, both Democrat and Republican, are not supported by 50% of the population, but the American system of electoral colleges (which even I have not been able to fully understand) discourages the formation of Third Parties (which just do not exist). As such the people have no choice except a Republican Party which has corporate support or a Democrat Party equally in bed with the big corporations. It used to be “What is Good for General Motors is Good for America”, but now it is what is good for Halliburton and the oil and media tycoons is what is good for America. This country is an obvious plutocracy where money rules.
Joanna had just purchased Kevin Phillip’s book “American Theocracy”, subtitled “the peril and politics of radical religion, oil and borrowed money in the 21st century”. The religious fundamentalism of the USA was something I did not expect. Apparently some 62% of residents in the USA believe that the Bible contains no errors, that the world was just created 6,000 years ago and that Noah did collect two of each kind of animal (koalas and kangaroos included) for his voyage on the Ark during a flood which killed all humans except his family some five thousand years ago. The effect these people have had on the election and re-election of George Bush should not be underestimated. They believe that the antichrist is already alive and that the Wars in the Middle East are just a preparation for nuclear Armageddon, an a tribulation from which all believers will be raptured by Christ in his second coming, so it doesn’t matter that we are destroying the Earth, as America is “God’s own country” and Jesus will save us all.
Joanna took Claudia and I to the First Congregational Church of Christ for the ordination of a woman Minister. Now the First Congo, as it is called, is not an ordinary church in that they preach to homosexual and the gay community, and take a very progressive view against the Televangelists, but the service was filled with cries from the congregation of “Amen”, and “Praise the Lord”, and histerical preaching of a kind I had never seen before. And people were asked to give sums of three hundred dollars and above for “The Lord’s Work”. With Gospel singers, Saxaphones, an upbeat Choir, and a Music Director and Soloist with a pop-singer’s strap on Microphone it was a very slick piece of entertainment to whip people into a state of ecstatic frenzy.
Joanna had invited a number of people, including Cristhal Bennet, the ordained minister whom Vivienne and I met in 2001 at the “Opening the Global Heart” 10 day Joanna Macy workshop. Cristhal is a very attractive black woman, who unfortunately suffers acutely from periodic migraine headaches. She was to prove very helpful in the following days, in helping me by booking workshops at the Starr King Seminary and Theological College at Berkeley were she had been ordained, and where Joanna had worked as a teacher. To these workshops came a range of impressive people, including Patricia Ellsberg, the wife of Daniel Ellsberg of the Pentagon Papers fame, and a representative from Julia Butterfly Hill’s Foundation. Julia Butterfly Hill was the young woman who lived on top of a Californian Redwood for two years to prevent it being felled by a logging company. Cristhal also helped me by recording my workshop and making a CD of my presentation. Richard Page and his partner, Paloma, have also videotaped the entire workshop which I will have shortly. Unfortunately Cristhal had a migrane and could not join us when we celebrated the end of the workshop, going to a Himalayan restaurant which produced very fine food – the nicest Indian food I have ever eaten.
The following day Joanna had a visit from Marshall Rosenberg and his wife Vallentina, together with Kit Miller, a coordinator for Non Violent Communication. We were in the kitchen when they arrived, and Claudia could not help herself but kept saying of Vallentina “What a beautiful woman!” Shortly after they arrived Joanna came and asked me to explain how we organize Gaia Projects, as Marshall had just asked her did she know of any organizations that had modeled their operations on deep ecological principles. I gave an explanation of organisations with an empty centre and how systems theory explains the Karabirrdt. When I had finished, Joanna asked Marshall what was the direction of his latest work and he explained how he was gaining a great deal of satisfaction in working with Vallentina. She explained that her grandmother had been a Mayan shaman and that she worked on bodily healing whilst Marshall focused on further developments of nonviolent communication. Both Claudia and Joanna asked could they work with her as she was suffering great pain from the rheumatoid arthritis which she found began after a meeting with her father. I then witnessed a most remarkable illustration of Marshall and Vallentina’s work together that was truly stunning in its authenticity, but which had a huge effect upon Claudia and her condition. Shortly after they left, we received a phone call from Kit saying she an Vallentina were coming to have a longer explanation of the Karabirrdt process the next morning, but unfortunately on the day Kit phoned to explain that Vallentina’s mother had died during that night and she could not come. Instead Miki, the Bay Area organizer came and I gave a presentation to her.
Claudia left for Atlanta, and Germany the previous day, and on the way home from the Bay Area Rapid Transit Authority public system, of which San Francscans are justly proud (it is certainly the best public system I have seen in America, but doesn’t compare to the Paris metro or the London underground for comprehensiveness of coverage – to get to Joanna’s involved a mile long walk along empty sidewalks (as Americans call footpaths). It is interesting too, the number of streets that have no sidewalks – it is expected that everyone has and uses their car). Equally I have been surprised that every American home we have stayed in has both a dishwashing machine and a clothes drier as well as a washing machine. When I have questioned people about this, they tell me that they feel a drier makes the towels more fluffy, or even that there are certain suburbs where it is illegal to hang your clothes to dry in the sun and fresh air! Apparently you can even have your house seized from you for the “crime”! Another surprise about the USA is both its beauty and squalor. The beauty is a natural beauty – great snow capped mountain ranges, deep gorges, spectacular scenery. The squalor is human – endless advertising billboards, streets that have a zero aesthetic and like many billboarded streets and highways of Perth, but 50% worse and seemingly everywhere. But I stopped at the Civic Centre of San Francisco at the Place of the United Nations, where the body was created more than 50 years ago to find some of the civic beauty one associates with Paris or elsewhere. It was like an oasis in the commercial jungles.
And then again, in College and Russell Streets, just around the corner from Joanna and Fran’s was the most delightful retail sector. Every shop was owner occupied, no retail chains or franchises here. I bought batteries from a small hardware store and was greeted with a level of friendly service I have not found elsewhere in the super-market chains. Joanna was known by name in half a dozen of the shops we visited, and it had the oldendays charm of something from the 1950s – the date at which, according to the American surveys showed people were most happy and most content. (The surveys show that statistically the situation has been getting progressively worse with now 70% of Americans think the country is on the wrong path). I found this same friendliness in the Otis Café near here. The owner has been working in the Café for 17 years and has owned it for the last nine. The place was crowded at 10.00am even though it was in the middle of a farming district a long way from town. I left feeling that the greatness of this country was contained in its small family owned businesses. These people were the salt of the Earth, and everyone there I spoke to seemed very happy in their work, which was of high quality – they baked their own bread on site. It was the small rural towns and family businesses that created the heart and soul of this country. A pity that it has been taken over by sprawling endless suburbs and huge corporations.
Well folks, enough ramblings of John for the present.
See you all soon
Love
For the Earth
John
Dear Friends
I have set up a way in which you can view photos on line. If you are interested, go to mail.yahoo.com and sign in using the name "guestpilgrim". The password is "visitnow". In the inbox you will find a message from me giving instructions of how to access the photo album.
I am currently in New York. More news to follow.
Love to you all
John
Dear Folks
It is a long time since I posted to the blog, although I have been uploading photos to the site for you.
After the workshops and time in Berkeley and the Bay Area, San Francisco, with Joanna and Fran Macy, I drove north to Mendicino County, Ukiah, to a local Brewery, where I met Doug Mosel, a Friend of Joanna's. At the Real Goods Centre, of the Solar Living Centre, Hoplands, I bought myself an amazing "Solar backpack" or "juicebag", which has a small flexible solar panel on the front that can recharge the battery of my laptop. See http://www.renewableenergyaccess.com/rea/news/productstory?id=33962
It is an amazing product, and I have suggested that they make solar paniers for electric bicycles too. If they do I'll but one when I get home. I was to see one later on in Mount Shasta and it is really great.
In Ukiah, it poored with rain but the workshop was a great success. The group involved have are starting an ecovillage and have just put an offer on a 2 million dollar (US) property. They now have a plan for their project. The building we ran the workshop was a round one, theb first of the round buildings I have conducted a workshop in. I must confess to having fallen in love with round spaces. More on this later.
That night I stayed with Jenny Burnstad abd her husband. I had to leave early the next day as I was trying to catch up with Doug again, but became badly lost, twice, and finished up going to Marin Couny and the home of Hallie Austin Iglehart, founder of the Seaflow organisation (see http://www.seaflow.org/), which aims to protect sea life (particularly dolphins and wales) which is threatened by large undersea noises from the military and industrial uses. I gave an effective talk that night after wandering along a wonderful beach, just to the north of the magnificent Golden Gate Bridge. Next morning as I set off for Molly Brown's house (Molly was the co-author with Joanna Macy of "Coming Back to Life") I saw a deer wandering through the labyrinth and garden that Hallie had built. Amazing.
Well folks, I have to go and pick up Rebekah Sue now so more stories coming soon.
Love to you all
John
It has been the sunniest two das since I arrved. The weather here at Ithaca has become spring and I am suffering a hay feaver. It may in part be all the moving I have been doing.
Hallie took me to the Sea Flow meating the following day, and it was a very interesting meeting. Firstly opportunity was given for people to introduce their guests. A period of contemplative silence followed during which people identified with a particular sea creature - which was shared amongst participants. Progress made since the previous meeting was briefly reported. People spoke of a lobbying campaign that was being conducted, and people wrote post-cards to politicians on the spot - congratulating them for good actions as well as condemning the bad.... A whole range of local products were for sale, and people brought food so it was a meal as well as a meeting... and then came the main business of the night - myself (I was expected to sing for my supper) and a very good local poet. People then checked out, tasks were allocated and confirmed and people were free to circulate for further discussion. It seems that all meetings tend to have the same format, which impressed me as a highly effective small organisation which knows how to balance the head, the heart and the hand. Everyone came away with something.
After leaving Hallie's place the following day, after getting no joy in getting cheques changed in San Rafael I travelled east, getting lost in the outskirts of Sacremento before going north on the Insterstate 5 Highway (very boring) towards Oregon. Looking back I wished I had gone up the Coastal Highway 1 or even Highway 101, but it was raining very heavily, and I had a long way to go to Mount Sasta where I was sleeping that night. Molly Brown and her husband Jim had moved to Mount Shasta from the Bay Area via Arizona, and had a modest house backing into the mountain itself (see the Photos). Molly works as a school teacher at the local school and is not having much joy at the moment (reminded me of when I was full-time teaching), and Jim is a retired engineer. It was amazing for me to be in snow and mountain country for the first time. Jim took me up on the mountains where snow ploughs were flat out and for the first real time in my life I went snow shoeing through the snow. I had been on snowshoes (like tied on tennis raquets) at Mont Geneve near Briancon in France once before, but that was back in the period from 1975-6, more than 30 years ago, and these snow shoes were long, like skis, and seemed to work very much like skis as I walked. Molly and Jim were very impressed with my juice bag, and I was equally impressed with her electric bike. I have been thinking that for someone like me, getting around the city (or most places I wish to go to - an electric bike, travelling at 20 miles per hour, and with a battery range of 35 miles - is perfect), who needs a car. If I can get the makers of juice-bags to make a panier for the bike that would be solar - then I would have a vehicle which was totally independent of fossil fuels. It was good to be able to stop moving for a few days also. And Mount Shasta is such a good place to stop. I know Melanie Stephen spent time at Shasta and I can understand why. Certainly for alternative lifestylers it has more crystal shops than Denmark or Margaret River. We met a stain glass maker at the fountain at the spring source of the Willamete River, and he took us into an amazing crystal establishment to show his work (see the photos).
Leaving Jim and Molly after three days, I then travelled on to Ashland. I wish I had allowed more time here as I was to discover later that Ashland is where Jean Houston lives, and Ashland is also the home of a very famous Sakespearian festival that lasts 10 months long. Pity I was at the right place but not knowing where and what this place was like. Ashland is also what it says - the Ash outflow of a major late glacial landslide of the Mount Shasta volcano, with the results that it is an area of very different vegetation than that on the other side of the Mount Shasta volcano, which is all Douglas Fir. From Ashland it was on to Salem where I was staying with Werner and Abigale Brandt, a couple recently married, who had been yong sweethearts, but had separated for various reasons before rediscovering each other years later as mature people. Werner is also one of the people who is helping to organise "Seeds for the Future" II in September 2007. He also hosted a Dragon Dreaming presentation for me, which was a great success. It was at this gathering that Melanie Berry, one of the Seedlings who came to Denmark, attended. Melanie invited me to Westwind - the site at which the next 30 day will be held. It was magnificent - a wild coast with seals in the estuary of the Salmon River as we kayaked across to the other side (Basil, you will be glad to hear that it was more successful than my attempt in the Denmark River with Claudia). Walking along this wild windswept beach Melanie explained that it was quite a recent feature, produced by longshore drift from the rocky outcrop ahead.
After two days I went to Portland and stayed at Melanie's new house there. I also met Duncan, Melanie's husband, with whom I was immensely impressed. Duncan has been working with Paul Hawken (of "Natural Capitalism" and "the Ecology of Commerce") and was challenged by what he learned of the unsustainability of conventional business practices. Being in the textile buisiness, he set about organising the production of a wholly organic non-insecticide cotton, working through a producers' cooperative he helped set up in Pakistan, which has now spread to give people access to safe drinking water and education for schools children outside of the Muslim madrassahs (from which girls are excluded). They are now using a "food centred" curriculum, modelled upon systems established in Oakland. Determined to be part of the solution rather than part of the problem, Duncan has been working with Wallmart to ensure that their whole production and distribution system is sustainable. Although Monsanto and the other big chgemical companies are attempting to fight back there have been some significant wins - Walmart will be purchasing a fleet of light-weighyt biodiesel vehicles replacing their current trucks. Portland is the home of the biggest bookshop in the world - a whole central city block to the height of five stories. I was like a pig in clover. Books are so cheap here, and so I must confess I have been splurging somewhat. Gaia Library will be benefitting significantly.
It was in Portland that I caught up with Rhea Wolf (another one of our "Seedlings") She was very big with her first baby due the next week. One thing I have noticed with meeting Seedlings is that it is as if the conversations just finished a few minutes earlier. And it was that way with Melanie and Rhea together too.
After one more night at Melanie's, Brietenbush was my next stop. It is an intentional community running for over thirty years, centred on natural hot-tubs in the mountains. I took the wrong road and found my way blocked by heavy snow-falls less than 15 miles from my destination. I had to turn around and only arrived there four hours later! Bummer, but an interesting trip nevertheless. That eveing there was a performance by a Exiled Migrant Jewish Russian Greenie, Lesbian Feminist Singer. She joked about being part of every minority groups except Native and Black. She had a most amazing piece of equipment she worked with her feet, enabling to lay multiple tracks of her own voice in live performance. I thought of KT's skills and felt she could have benefitted from being there. I meant next day to purchase a copy of her CD for you KT but she had left before I could catch her. It was a much less tired and much relaxed John who hit the road back to Werner and Salem the next day.
It was good to see the folks back at Werner's house again (see the photos), before going on to Portland where I met Bettsy Toll, a friend of Rhea Wolf's. Rhea was going to come but begged off at the last minute, not feeling well and with a baby due in the next week I understood completely!
And then it was thr drive up Highway 5 (after heading the wrong way and going in circles 2-3 times) to go to Vashon Island, and Dana's place.... but this adventure will have to await my next posting.
Love to you all
John
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