Money doesn’t grow on trees…

BACK:

…but food does.

My understanding of the word is someone who interprets how the world (translated as our way of life or the system we find ourselves a part) works, and tries to act or live in recognition and / or respect of that interpretation.

It’s a pretty admirable thing to be. There are pros and cons of course.

On the one hand, such a person is more of a pragmatist and less of a fantasist.

On the other, such a person could act as a barrier to innovation and experimentation, an ardent defender of the status quo.

So in a system dominated on the one hand by the average Joe conforming to a way of life that is slowly destroying the very essence of everything he or she relies on for their daily survival, and the Green-Eco-Do-Gooder-Environmentalists on the other, who has their pulse on what is REALLY going on?

I suppose the only way of answering this is by pondering another question. ‘What constitutes reality?’

The average Joe is living within, and conditioned to, a particular way of life. Culturally, economically, politically, even spiritually, he is tied to that system. He is dependent on it. He is a realist in that he is merely playing the cards that it has dealt him, and this is something that is easy to understand.

Often, he sees those who question that system as fantisists, biting the hand that feeds them, and this is something that needs to be destroyed in the same way that Fascism and Stalinism was.

This is just one way of life among many that now exist, and have existed.

At that rate, there are so many ways to life. The key component is choice.

But there is a far greater reality that supersedes all of these. That is the earth. It’s physical and natural make up.

Just as life needs to conform to the realities of the physical planet, so too our way of life must conform to the realities of the physical and natural earth we have the good fortune to call ‘Home’.

So for me a realist is someone who can see how the world (interpreted as the physical and natural earth) works and chooses to build a way of life in recognition and respect of that reality.

These are people who have the ability to look beyond the contemporary system of banks and the mortgage holders, manufacturers and consumers, economic theorists and the working man, politicians and the proletariat, and see the world as it is, a grand natural system, unique in known universe; ancient, alive and bountiful.

A system from which we were borne and to which we remain a very important part.

A system that we are throwing dangerously off balance every time we switch on a light bulb or start up our cars.

I don’t call these idealists, do-gooders, eco heads, hippies or environmentalists. Within our current cultural system it’s understandable that they have been tagged as such.

To me they are realists. And I am proud to count myself as one of them, in theory anyway.

What I am going to do about that in a practical sense I will deal with in later posts.

The question you need to ask yourself is, who would you rather be?

Are you going to accept the way of life around you as it stands, and be a realist in terms of ‘it’. Are you going to continue to view the earth as a sewer and a pantry?

Or are you going to accept reality in terms of the earths grand natural systems? Are you going to build a way of life for yourself that respects that?

This is the real choice of our age.

But before I do I wanted to share a thought with you that kept running around my mind throughout the heavy snowfall we had out here in January.

I went on numerous walks around the locality during that time. Granted you couldn’t get far. Bikes were a no no and cars rarely moved.

But the great thing out here was that you didn’t have far to go to be completely immersed in the natural order of things. The world entire, every field we have marked out, every house we have built and every contraption we have laid our hands on was covered in a deep blanket of snow.

Cars wouldn’t start. Workers were stranded. Services stalled. Sales missed. Meetings cancelled. Transactions delayed….

And yet the real world carried on just as it has done for millions of years.

Clouds formed. Moisture rained down. Water flowed. And life continued to shape the world around itself on a never ending journey towards…. balance.

And we, as humans who had enough food in the pantry and wood for the stove, felt what anyone living within this crazy system we have constructed for ourselves over the years has genuinely lost.

Wonder. Awe. Peace. Home.

Despite our best efforts at superimposing our own reality (one driven by fossil fuels and a mentality that the natural world is nothing more than a sewer and a pantry) over the natural order of things, we must always ground ourselves and realise that this earth, its physical make up and its natural systems, are OUR reality. Everything we do must be done in respect of the Earth’s needs. Her needs are our needs.

It sounds so ridiculous to have to say that out loud – so obvious. And yet, considering how we live our lives,  it must be said. In fact it must be etched into our souls so that it affects every thought we have and action we make from the time we rise to our last thought before we drift off into dream time.

We believe we have created a way of life that exists outside of the natural order. Separate from her. Independent. Superior.

We have not. We should not. And frankly, I believe, we cannot.

Granted we have tried. And we have suffered greatly as a result.

Saying that we are separate from the natural world is like saying a fish is separate from the oceans in which it swims, feeds, breeds and, inevitably, dies.

Within that there is a great lesson to be learned, probably the greatest lesson we can learn as we face into a century when human beings must decide whether they can accept and live within the boundaries (and the bouty) of the real world around them, or whether they are going to continue to live in a  fantasy world where certain dangerous actions have no consequences.

We must work with the Earth rather than against it. We must open our eyes to the greatness that is all around us. We must show some respect. And we must restore some inkling of pride in how we choose to live.

The benefits of doing this, (culturally, socially, economically, environmentally) are too numerous to mention in one post, and I’ve got fresh air that’s dying to breath live into me.

In closing I encourage all of you to spend an hour or two in Nature over the next week or so.

Close your eyes. Listen. Think. Open them again.

Don’t worry. You’ll work it.

Here will exist proof that I have not abandoned the written word.

More to follow….