Earth Day 50th | We Love The Earth | Confronting Anthropocentrism | Look for the Good

Here is to looking forward! Change our hearts from our anthropomorphic view of only seeing the earth and all of its different creatures as resources and objects to use, to loving all earthlings. and recognizing our interdependency.

We Love The Earth

We Love The Earth animated video By Lil Dicky – Earth

The

50th Anniversary of Earth Day

was officially April 22, 2020. I watched the ongoing broadcasts and listened to many very articulate youth activists who fully impressed me. There were numerous featured scientists, artists and musicians and indigenous people bringing forth informative and inspiring messages as well. Thank you all so much for sharing and being part of the voice of the new evolving story.

What prompted me to write this blog in the first place, was synchronistically coming upon this powerful 20 minute video presentation by Eileen Crist, in her ‘Confronting Anthropocentrism’. Powerful information as a mirror for humanity to look into the mirror, and move forward.

Confronting Anthropocentrism presentation by Eileen Crist

Even Pope Francis speaks to power. The pontiff said that the (Wuhan virus) Coronavirus outbreak offers an opportunity to slow down the rate of production and consumption and to learn to understand and contemplate the natural world.

“We did not respond to the partial catastrophes. Who now speaks of the fires in Australia, or remembers that 18 months ago a boat could cross the North Pole because the glaciers had all melted? Who speaks now of the floods?” the Pope said.

Pope says coronavirus pandemic could be nature’s response to climate crisis

Imagining a Post-Coronavirus World: Ending Ravenous Capitalism and Our Consumer-Driven Promiscuity

Imagining a Post-Coronavirus World: Ending Ravenous Capitalism and Our Consumer-Driven Promiscuity, Andy Worthington

The Solutions to the Climate Crisis No One is Talking About with Robert Reich

Storyteller and film maker Julio Vincent Gambuto wrote an excellent article talking about moving forward. “Prepare for the Ultimate Gas Lighting”

“What happened is inexplicably incredible. It’s the greatest gift ever unwrapped. Not the deaths, not the virus, but The Great Pause”

And with this, I only will add two wonderful music videos by artists who contributed their work for Earth Day.

This astoundingly positive message by Jason Mraz – Look For The Good

Bedlam US Prisons as Mental Asylums | Car Free Cities | Let’s Build Bridges, Not Walls

I was in tears as I listened to this.

https://www.democracynow.org/2019/12/27/bedlam_documentary_mental_health_criminal_justice

Seeing images of people from the 1930’s through to the present of wasted bodies, limp and diminished spirits, people emotionally wasted, like zoo animals surrounded by concrete. I was moved to hear the producer talk of the difficulty of putting this out to the public, because of the ‘shame’ he and his family and many other families felt because of the tarnished interpretation of emotional, mental health disorders. 

What this discloses is that many, many of the homeless people in the streets of the USA and in the prison system, are there because of their own mental health issues. and that in fact when dumped into this environment in which there are no programs to rehabilitate and create a nurturing environment towards their improvement, they are instead institutionalized.

Thing is, there are some who declare that institutions are the problem, and that all people should have the ‘right’ to not go into an institution. However, as I discovered when I saw a double amputee – probably Vietnam Veteran – fall from his wheel chair in San Francisco, which was already on the rise to being one of the most expensive cities in the country, with a huge abscess the size of a basketball in his back. I had been bicycling by on Market street, and saw this aghast, wondering how this could possibly happen right next to so much wealth. One person informed me that the Reagan era ‘reformed’ things in a way as to declare that people have the right to ‘freedom’. Yet what if they really don’t have the faculties to make the best decisions for themselves? It provoked me to write an article Cultural Abscess. However because recently my computer ceased, I temporarily don’t have access to the HD. 

Many people could be rejuvenated or at least have a much better quality of life and feeling, if they were living in a caring environment among kind people, and not criminalized because of their decision impairment. I feel that this is a very important documentary to expose these truths and re align our values. Just as climate and war refugees whose lives are fragmented and who must flee their homeland, should be fully embraced and helped, since the northern hemisphere wealthy western countries who have been living phat and comfortable lives as our consumption of energy for our material comforts and energy and transportation needs, have been literally wiping out habitats, killing species of birds, insects and animals at an alarming rate – as much due to habitat loss as global warming. The citizens of the world must be informed of how their habits have affected wildlife and the natural world internationally, and come together to work together in an unprecedented manner, and do everything that we can to help the stream of refugees which will be increasing dramatically as they lose their homes.

I bring these topics together, because I believe that many physical and emotional illnesses are contextual. I believe that if people have a comfort and security and models of kindness and caring around them, they will develop habits that improve their own health and attitude, which will naturally ripple to extending their caring and kindness to others.

Health, car free, health care, kindness, caring, build bridges not walls, empathy, caring, quality of life, emotional and physical health contextual

 

Already there are dozens of cities around the world where there are no cars. Regardless of the terrain and topography, any environment or city could be dramatically improved and beautified by clearing out the cars and planting more trees and gardens.

https://www.hotcars.com/20-cities-in-the-world-where-there-are-no-cars/

Dozens more major European cities who have designated ‘no car days’; establishing the city center as pedestrian only. 

https://www.businessinsider.com/cities-going-car-free-ban-2018-12#in-paris-the-first-sunday-of-every-month-is-free-of-cars-2

My sister who is presently in Nice, informed me that the city extended their tram system which was already quite extensive, with a multitude of inexpensive public transportation options, has now eliminated benching buses. We could be subsidizing train and clean energy and public transportation to lure people out of their cars and create jobs to massively produce clean sustainable energy and transportation. It could become hip and fun to take the train, as well as affordable. If people could own and be part of the transition into clean energy, improving the quality of the air and water and life, they could circulate the money back into the community and feel directly involved in maintaining this as a right, as well as protecting public lands and waterways and natural habitats. Train and safe infrastructure for pedestrian and bicycle transportation could increasingly transform public spaces into beautiful ones that draw people to congregate and interact in public places with one another. The community of people could at the same time choose to design with thoughtfulness about other creatures: insects, pollinators, birds and mammals, to live with them and allow them to live. 

What would you choose? A job with excellent pay (such as new highway, new bank or box store, nuclear power plant, fracking, oil drilling or pipeline or massive agricultural spread…) that will destroy a beautiful place and wildlife habitat, 

just to get that promise of good pay?

Pretending somehow that the money is the essential thing, the GDP and one’s paycheck more important than anything else? 

Indigenous native Americans historically thought hard before making any decisions about how it may impact the NEXT SEVEN (7) GENERATIONS.

Or will you recognize that more destruction and dismantling and razing of nature, or purchase that involves destroying nature on the other side of the globe, is your responsibility, and see that there is and can be a completely different approach to what is considered progress, that values nature above everything, and will utilize your best effort and skills and allow you to do what you love and work together with others in revitalizing nature and empowering you and your sense of community at the same time? 

These are choices we all need to make. Yet it’s very difficult if people are completely blinded by the incentive to make another buck.

We can choose to educate ourselves, listen to scientists and knowledgeable people who know that there is a better way, and as we talk with one another and support one another in our awareness, we can make these changes. 

It is our choice. Helping to support all life and empowering other life with respect and love, while empowering one’s own spirit with the joy of empathy, or somehow only considering oneself and one’s immediate family, and not giving a fuck about anyone or any creature outside of your own immediate walls. 

Let’s build bridges, not walls, in every respect.

Nothing Lives for Itself – Pantheism | Nothing Sacred before Cold Blooded Cash | Indigenous Murder in Amazon for Lumber | Plutocracy Bleeds – Corpocrisy Feeds

And just like that, going from here to there and in between, I was captivated with colors and textures and took 107 photos today. Here are most, except for three that I retouched, wysiwyg.

I was simply going to post the 106 pics whose subject matter grabbed my attention today, and then it morphed, into the topics that stabbed my attention.

nov 7 autumn leaves photo album
beauty of the natural world

Pantheism
nothing in nature lives for itself
systemic interdependence and harmony

 

Horrible events are occurring among Amazon Indigenous people who have been repeatedly attacked, killed, mostly by loggers who want to get to their trees. I’m sure the convoluted story includes international corporate and banker criminals of the USA as well. There was also a recent news story in the BBC about lumber thugs killing a man in Romania, who wished to protect the only virgin forests left in Europe. Perhaps there should be an international team who can get information from the sources of people who wish to protect the forests and act as liaisons. They should have within their tools a bunch of drones, that can quickly and accurately see what’s going on, and a team of scientists and data analysts who can help to interpret the data. A body of teachers and negotiators who can work with local and national governments and more specifically, talk to the culprits in the industries that have been doing the attacking, and figure out a way for them to be subsidized and brought into training in various different renewable industries.

There are plenty of people with skills and needs, and plenty of changes that need to be made in the world. These people are acting out of desperation. I presume that if the lumber or whatever trade these people have (lumber, palm oil, plastic, coal, oil, gas, chemical industries) if they were provided with alternative work, other options and subsidized as they are educated and trained in new skills towards renewable, regenerative agriculture, planting trees, being guardians of the forest, clean energy, building animal bridges, windmills, solar, growing hemp, bamboo, fungi for growing building material as well as cleaning up toxic waste, that they would choose to do it. If there were educational outreach systems and options for training in any one of a dozen of relevant new trades that can help to safeguard the planet and the habitats of other creatures, they would do it.

I’m sure that all of the weapons, ships and aircraft and warcraft of the world could be melted into some pretty functional items, other than to kill people. Okay, I’ll stop now.

 

A young Brazilian indigenous leader was killed days ago in the Amazon, and according to Democracy Now, 135 indigenous people were killed in just 2018.

He wanted only to be a guardian for all the life in the forest. Simply put down, he was in the way of cutting down trees.

Brazilian Indigenous Leader Killed in Amazon
he wished to be a guardian for all life
murdered by lumber thieves

 

 

This story doesn’t seem to go away. People with greed or desperation, only see through the filter of their desire to make gains.

They’ve lost their soul. The Brazilian leader along with the US and dozens of right wing plutocrats around the globe, prefer to turn a blind eye, and cold heart.

 

 

Sacred Giving, Sacred Receiving by Joseph Bruchac June 20, 2016 The American Indian Giveaway

 

 

Parabola, Search for Meaning
Sacred Giving, Sacred Receiving, by Joseph Bruchac
June 20, 2016

 

There appears to be a spiritual malaise, whenever faith encounters the market place. This existed since the time of Jesus Christ, who was a huge threat to the Romans, because he wanted to empower people and expose the truths. The market place won.

“Wealth, among American Indian people, is not seen as the accumulation and keeping of money or goods or land. The strengthening of community is much more important in the American Indian practice, a gifting more akin to prayer than self-aggrandizement and acquisition. American Indian giveaway practices have often been viewed as a threat by government officials, both in the United States and Canada. Government policies in the nineteenth and much of the twentieth century were designed to suppress such activities.”

Indigenous people who are closest to nature and respect all life the most, just keep getting massacred, by what is propelled by the power of fascism driven by economics. The US governenment, in protecting their economic interests, continue to grab weapons first and contemplate their actions, never.

Living with Less is Living with More: Co-creating a New Story – Our Relationships

I was going to tack this video within the post c-change conversations with respect to the spiritual relationship we need to co-create, with ourselves, between one another and with the water, the sky, soil, a spider, a bird or rhinoceros. Yet his words and viewpoint needs to stand on its own.

Living with Less is LIving with More Co-Creating a New Story A New Relationship with Earth and her Creatures

 

Living with Less is Living with More: Co-Creating a New Story A New Relationship with Earth and her Creatures
Our hearts and intuition contain the answer to co-creating this new story. A story in which we are not clumsily or hurriedly passing through, busying ourselves and not-wasting-any-time in our stress-filled harried lives.

“Can you imagine a more beautiful world your hearts knows is possible?

We have inherited a culture without any critical inquiry.”

 

Leo Murray talks of the need to decouple the relationship between standards of living and quality of life.

Authors, visionaries and thought leaders who are inspiration to less is more: Charles Eisenstein, Daniel Pinchbeck, Niki Harré, Yuval Noah Harari, David Holmgren, Masanobu Fukuoka, Bill Mollison.

 

authors visionaries and thought leaders inspiration less is more

Here is information some of these visionaries have communicated.

Masanobu Fukuoka states that man does best by doing as little as possible. He unlearned culture and science and realizes that nature does everything.

Masanobu Fukuoka Talks About the One Straw Revolution

Charles Eisenstein’s speech New Zealand

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Niki Harré talks about her book “Psychology for a Better World”

Niki Harré talk about her book “Psychology for a Better World”

 

 

 

Niki Harré talks in this video about the Psychology and the Infinite Game In it she describes the distinction between the Finite and Infinite Games.

 

The purpose of the infinite game is to continue the game.

The purpose of the finite game is to win.

The infinite game invites others in and is full of creativity, the rules continually change and all are flexible in their interactions.

The finite game includes only select people, it is all about replication and does not bend. In life, the finite game winnings are such as getting a trophy, owning property, getting a degree, a promotion, publishing an article, get funded for a program.

She talks of the amazing power of symbol and metaphor. And that in order to keep the infinite game in play, we need to trust people and promote creativity. It’s up to all of us to bring this awareness into our workplace, schools and communities.

Yuval Harari Sapiens A Brief History of Humankind – 5 year anniversary

A Brief History of Humankind Yuval Noah Harari

 

Carol Keiter aka nomadbeatz welcomes donations for her writing, photography, illustrations, eBook & music composition

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carol_keiter_greg_altman copy

 

UN Report Millions Species Extinct | Anti-Idling Fines | 10 Things We Can Do | Strike for Climate September 20

I talk with people ‘strangers’ all the time – at the grocery store, post office, art events, walking by – about plastic, the climate crisis (el cambio climático), idling engines, etc. I learn things in the process.  There was a massive heat dome sweeping the United States this past weekend. A few days ago I was informed of this report about the level of emergency of the climate crisis we are in, written by people in the Australian Navy, divulging the truth that they have learned.

Shocking UN Report Warns Millions Species are at Risk of Extinction due to Human Activity Democracy Now

Frankly, what does it take to get people’s attention and leaders to have the strength to go against the status quo of thinking about their coffers, and actually taking unprecedented action by enforcing sweeping informational campaigns and establishing regulations to change peoples’ habits – and particularly industry practices? As in Burningman, when people are facing the extremes together (as opposed to the wealthier ones remaining insulated from the elements), when we are all participating together to make the changes that we need to, then brilliant minds will continue to have great ideas to help out in different communities. I think the only way we can do it, is when ALL PEOPLE PARTICIPATE.

Australian Military Report High Liklihood human Civilization Ending 2050 Independent

As long as the truth is not out to the public, we can keep shopping and acting as if we are clueless about how our actions affect this. Thing is, it appears that many people are. News feeds are lined with sleek automobile ads, seducing you to believe that you’ll suddenly have that exceptional strength and fire to finally do what you want. As if.  We can not let government inaction, choosing to ignore the truth as they bow and cater to the oil oligarchy, to steam roll ahead. There are the few politicians who are principled and brave enough to speak the truth; i.e. Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, the Squad of newly elected women of color democrats – each one ferociously eloquent, each one could cause DUMPH (CHUMP/TRUMP) to just melt or start screaming like a toddler and covering his ears. Yet we really sort of have to help to steer this, and do something, rather than waiting for ‘the next election’; ad infinitum.

BUSINESS AS USUAL, NEEDS TO COMPLETELY STOP.

 

The Climate Reality Project the Climate Crisis and Your Health

Here are 10 examples I thought of, that we can do [with money earned through idling fines] to better our environment and build a nature friendly infrastructure. At the post office, mentioning idling cars, one of the postal workers responded that the state of New Jersey imposes a $75 dollar fine for a car parked with an engine on (idling). New York city, $150 for idling buses. There could be bicycle cops in cities who are only hired to enforce this, to gather tens of thousands of dollars a week, just here in the small city of Providence, to contribute to:

 

1. bicycling lanes to invite more ease, comfort and safety bicycling
2. bus transportation system that is electric or solar powered
3. fines to homes that are using too extreme of a power usage to air condition their homes (unless the inhabitants are elderly, disabled or ill)
4. paying people to plant trees in their yards, streets and parks
5. create community gardens where people can grow their own food and enjoy community participation in the process
6. putting money towards transportation and building architecture that is renewable
7. creating more parks and pathways for animals such as: animal bridges and tunnels, bee highways
8. encouraging people to bicycle, rather than drive in a car
9. creating local transport that is not gasoline based, but bicycle powered, solar or electric trollies that are fun
10. stop buying water in plastic!!! please
…etcetera

Why Are You Striking for the Climate

“Millions of people across the world are going to be striking for climate on September 20, all with different experiences of the climate crisis. We’re all a part of this movement for a better world, and all our stories and reasons matter.
Are you joining in? If so, tell us why. We want you to take a selfie or record a quick video explaining why you’re going to take part and show your support for the incredible mobilizing already happening from our youth.
We also need you to do more than just take a selfie though, don’t forget to sign up at globalclimatestrike.net. We need you on the streets in September.”

I just wrote to a local educational institution and then to the Congressman in the state where I reside presently, about making legislation to enforce anti-idling laws.

Congressman David Cicilline of Rhode Island

subject: Establish Anti-Idling Laws for RI > Funds from Fines to Create Jobs Transportation Infrastructure

Back of the Envelope: Establish Anti-Idling Laws for RI > Funds from Fines to Create Jobs to Build Community Greenways & Renewable Energy Transportation & Building Infrastructure.

The state of NJ has anti-idling fines of $75./automobile. New York city fines idling buses, $150. Nova Scotia, Canada just passed laws against idling vehicles waiting in fast food take-out lines. There are plenty of state, county and city anti-idling laws. It is a no-brainer that in Europe, where many vehicles are diesel, turn off the ignition when they aren’t moving. Many countries have excellent train transportation. Train transport could be subsidized, to invite people to use public transportation because it is cheaper and more efficient than driving.

https://www.edf.org/attention-drivers-turn-your-idling-engines

When Federal government leaders in large countries such as the USA and Brazil are in climate change denial, and more in the pocket of the Oil Oligarchy, they tend to ignore the present extinction and climate crisis. That is when individual State, County and City leaders need to set precedents and show their accountability and ‘best practices’, as leaders for others to follow.

How about a ‘Have you Heard’ educational campaign, to inform the public about the consequences of idling (among other habits)? We are currently in an unprecedented climate crisis. It is not 10 years away, it is happening now, around the globe.

The habits of individuals, collectively, quickly add up.

My encounters as a bicyclist residing in Providence and having visited Block Island, RI, after living in multiple US cities, states as well as abroad, has lead me to being completely astounded at the apparent total lack of awareness of individuals. I see dozens of idling cars and trucks, daily. Most individuals simply are not aware of the impacts of their idling cars and trucks; of the toxic fumes released in the immediate vicinity of their vehicle nor awareness of how the heat and exhaust affect global warming. Because of this general lack of knowledge, nothing will raise their attention or raise your budget faster, than establishing legislation and fines, to set the precedent for others to follow.

I have contacted the RI Governor, Mayor of Providence, RI DEM, Brown University and am finally contacting the most appropriate recipient, the one who can establish state-wide laws to prohibit idling, and fine people.

Allison Archambault, Supervising Air Quality Specialist
Climate Change & Mobile Sources Programs – RI DEM –
Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management, retorted to my letter, that “Motor vehicles may not idle unnecessarily for longer than five consecutive minutes during any 60-minute period.”, siting https://rules.sos.ri.gov/regulations/part/250-120-05-45 a law on paper.

However, there is absolutely no enforcement nor awareness of this law. Various police officers know nothing of anti-idling laws. A woman officer in Providence mid July, 2019, told me she knows of no anti-idling laws and ‘what people do in their cars is their own business’.

She is unequivocally incorrect in her response. It is not up to the individual, when collectively, each contribute to poor air quality that affects others directly in their vicinity and long term effects of CO2 emissions leading to the potential extinction of humans, along with the human induced 6th mass extinction of life on earth. it is everyone’s business when the quality of the air, water, the temperature and fumes emitted in the immediate vicinity of a vehicle and temperature of the global environment is warming due to ever increasing CO2 levels.

I implore you to take a stand and impose legislation and fines. You could accumulate tens of thousands of dollars a week, hundreds of thousands a month, if you’re interested in deterring peoples actions and at the same time utilizing the money towards creating jobs to build green infrastructure.

Please impose laws and fines. $75/car, $150/truck, $300/diesel engined vehicles. Double the fines if they are caught a second time. Create a task force for this issue, police on bicycles, to regulate and enforce it. $300/dirty institutional air conditioning systems. Enact a statewide campaign.

I can not emphasize the huge number of vehicles i come across daily, on every block. It is so excessive, that it is blowing my mind. I have resided in several states and abroad, and have never come across such an excess of idling vehicles and complete lack of awareness as well as blatant hostility in response. I’ve encountered parents sitting in their idling SUV’s while waiting to pick up their kids from school.

Students test ozone levels where cars idle at schools

Students test ozone levels where cars idle at schools

There is no age, ethnic, or socio economic divide, there is a tremendous lack of awareness.

I just sent a letter to Brown University to implore them to educate their Facilities’ staff about the implications of idling vehicles, to encourage them to enforce anti-idling rules and be leaders with ‘best practices’ for other organizations to follow.

I’ve blogged about the IPCC report and the need for particularly the developed wealthier nations and the US in particular, as the leader in emissions from the transportation sector and a major player in habitat destruction and industrial pollutions, to be accountable to the world community and be leaders in creating jobs, rebuilding renewable energy infrastructure.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reported that we have ten years to avoid outright disaster and extinction of the human race, while human activity has already triggered the six mass extinction of all other creatures, mostly due to the human energy demands tied to the Petroleum industries, along with excessive building, global warming from CO2 emissions with the transportation sector responsible for most.

https://digesthis.wordpress.com/2019/05/18/ipcc-climate-change-report-highest-recorded-co2-levels-arctic-temperatures-bill-mckibben-discussing-significance-of-rising-co2-greta-thunberg-ted-talk-enforcing-legislation/

I routinely encounter people sitting in their idling vehicles talking on their phone, saying that ‘they’re just about to leave’. I encounter people who are working in houses, in construction, in moving businesses, who leave their trucks idling while they are working outside of the vehicle, yards removed from their vehicle. I can not ignore this issue, because it is scorching my nostrils and heating my skin, literally every day, every block. I do not have the time to approach people – as i do frequently to gently communicate this – nor do I wish to risk my life with some hostile reactions, because people become defensive when approached. The public needs to be informed and educated through campaigns, the media and most effectively, by laws that spell it financially, since that appears to be the main driver, not just running the world but ruining the world.

Please contact me if you want to hear what I encounter on the streets, in dirty detail.

Sincerely,

I’m doing this on my own time. This blog is not for profit, no advertising.

Carol Keiter aka nomadbeatz welcomes donations for her writing, photography, illustrations, eBook & music composition

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Carol Keiter on Block Island
lens through convex lens

 

Blast at Block Island, Rhode Island | Intuitive Minute Choices > Introduce Magical Consequences

For those of you who are not native American English speakers, ‘blast’ is slang for a ‘killer’ time, which is slang for a really fun, great time. Bliss on Block Island. he he he

I decided at the last minute, the night before, after seeing the weather forecast and having investigated transport a week earlier. My sister Joan kept recommending Block Island. This was her gift. Afterwords, I asked her about how she knew about the place, and she said that back in the day when she lived in the East Village in Manhattan, she had done stand-up comedy not only in nYc, but also went a few times with other comedians to a club on Block Island to perform, and had rented a bicycle…

The night before I quickly perused on the internet suggestions of things to do, attractions on the island. I drew my map of things to do.

hand drawn map of attractions on Block Island, Rhode Island

marine_map_block_island

I was quite proud of myself to get up early enough to catch that 8:15 bus; up at 6, to bed at 3. Had a wonderful conversation on the way. I was the only person with a bicycle at that time of the morning.

Fabulous experiences, the animal petting zoo, wildlife reserve, the southern light house, the northern light house, the bluffs, and the enormous amount of bicycle and moped traffic 🙂 taking photos the whole time.

Block Island photo album bicycles and mopeds abound

I had miraculous timing! I had drawn a map, quickly looked up and jotted down points of interest, was so proud of myself to actually plan and wake up (alarm had been set for pm) and take an 8:15am bus. Fab person (25 year postal worker going back from his night shift in PVD) and made it to the ferry at Point Judith with literally minutes to spare! (sat. morning traffic). then set off bicycling. asked what looked like a local, elderly gentleman where the petting farm is, he pointed it out. I then went to the south point lighthouse. At that time, I wasn’t sure if I’d try to do everything in one day or not. I managed to find a fab beach to swim, strokes, no life guards there, lots of people, little waves, then as soon as I finished swimming and body surfing, I left the beach in my bathing suit, got on the bike wet, with back pack and continued my exploration. found the wilderness sanctuary, the north point lighthouse where all the baby birds were!!!…..decided as I wandered around, that I’d stay the night, fuck it, I’ll ride around if I have to. I also was scoping out potential places tucked away to come back to late at night to lay down. I didn’t even have a towel, just some layers of clothes.

then I found myself at close to dusk in a town area and remembered someone telling me about the historical society, oh yeah, a woman in a wheel chair I had asked a question to. I saw the building, saw a tent and people in the lawn. had went into a store to purchase some food with my food stamps and a bottle of beer with my debit card. the store refused the EBT food stamps, the island doesn’t cater to this. I thought, fine, I’ll have a liquid dinner, pint of IPA beer I bought. the trickle of food had cost $18 which I didn’t buy. Then as I was about to cycle this other direction, I remembered the tent of the historical society and made a 180º turn, and as I approached, there was a very gregarious woman sitting with several other people on these large lawn chairs before the tent. She said to me, come over here, join us. She was calling out to other people that passed by as well. She was in her 50’s, 60’s elegant. I laid down my bicycle and sat down with her, another woman about the same age and an elderly man. They were all residents of the town. I sat down to join them and cracked open my bottle of IPA. I chatted, very meaningful conversation, this woman was very prescient, sort of psychic or extremely psychologically alert with attention to character. She was ebullient in welcoming me, said she was so glad i was there. I had my cooked oatmeal breakfast with me that i brought in a tightly sealed plastic container. (I ate that 24 hours later in a lawn, slightly tinged with the beginning of becoming spoiled after riding with it in a baking sun all day the first day. Figured oatmeal wouldn’t go bad like meat.

This soiree was a historical society Ferry boat fundraiser. She said, go help yourself to food, I had sashimi and sushi, cheese and crackers, chips and dip (the food i hadn’t managed to purchase 30 minutes earlier).

She asked where I was staying, I mentioned that I didn’t have a place yet. She welcomed me to stay on her boat. Dream! However, after one by one the others left, the gentleman (in his 80’s) wife came, they left. The other woman (also writing a book) her mother came, she left. I asked if she goes to bed early, and she retorted yes. It was about 8:30pm. I decided to risk it, and told her that it being my only night here, Saturday night, i think I’ll not join her, thanking her. Got her #.

I wandered around a corner where a bar had had a musician outside, now he left, and there was a flurry of people. I locked my bike to go inside, and the door guy said $5. I usually NEVER pay a cover. I never go out to eat. I go to the bars with no cover, dance instead of drinking. I smiled and walked away, then as I was about to unlock my bike, i thought, now wait, i have my sketch pad and pencils, eraser, sharpener with me. I went back and asked if i could do a portrait of him in exchange for the entrance fee. He said, with amusement, if you do a portrait, I’ll buy you your first drink as well. I wound up standing there, more and more people lining up to go in, a band starting inside, i was chatting with the people working there and getting close to the guy then moving back to let him check peoples’ id’s. I did it pretty quickly, and it really was looking like him, and he was completely an open, nice friendly guy who was very happy to have the portrait.

I finished it, full house at this point. He let me in. I stashed my pack. Came out several times to ‘get that drink’, and had to wait quite a while cuz there were so many people coming in. Then finally he asked the one guy working there to run to his car to get his money, and the guy then handed me a $10. (I had just enough cash to pay the $2 bus and $32 ferry, because i was cat/plant sitting for my friend and he had given me some cash up front). Then as I went inside to order my usual cheapest beer on the menu, as I was about to get it, a man standing next to me with his boyfriend, who joked to me that they were the only gay couple there, bought my beer, because he said he saw my portrait and liked my energy – i guess that i had the enthusiasm to even try this exchange and that i was happy.

The crowd was going wild, not students but people in their 20’s, 30’s, 40’s, 50’s, all going wild with the great band that had the place packed. The band were not only fantastic musicians, with almost each member singing and harmonizing, but their energy, positive messages, were fantastic. I danced, people were having a fabulous time. Then when it ended and I was leaving, i somehow met a man on the street and we exchanged a few words and he said to join them. I said how far, and the others were hopping in a car. I said, i have a bicycle, he said, i’ll walk with you. It was a boat! And when we got there, 2 other woman were on board, 2 other men, then another. And the guy Chris who i walked with started playing guitar. The other guy is the house musician who plays as a prof. guitar singer at a bar, 4 docked boats away. He played and sang with a fabulous octave range.

The 7 of us, sat singing loudly on the boat, the songs that Chris chose to play, were one’s which everyone knew the words to. It was a dream. Then i was invited to stay over. Declined a bed with another guy, but said yes to a single bed to myself in the captain’s room. Really quite amazing.

I bicycled and swam, and biked more and swam more the next day, cycling again to each side of the island, until taking the early ferry back, only because i was concerned that if i waited till later, there might not be a bus back to PVD, or more importantly, there might be bikes in front of me, and the rack accommodates only 2 bicycles! I went back to Providence thinking there would be Bastille Day celebrations, ready to celebrate, but there weren’t (the American way, to coordinate something on weekends, rather than the actual day of the anniversary, to accommodate the work/life balance rather than life/work. That’s okay, i met a couple with whom I talked about Berlin after asking them if they knew of any Bastille Day festivities in Providence. She answered, know, but we know people who are in Europe. Their son lives in Berlin, a writer, his French wife, a food stylist photographer. Ahhh, life’s synchronicities, and listening to one’s ‘gut’ intuition.

I curiously looked at Rob Brezny’s Freewillastrology horoscope. I looked at my moon in Scorpio sign and it was this. It couldn’t have been more accurate. Because I was making little decisions that ushered in dramatically unexpected experiences.

Rob Brezsny Free Will Astrology with humor and spiritual insights

It was amazingly lovely weather and just quite magical synchronicity of timing. A turn, an intuition, minute decisions that made tremendous differences in my experience.

Fabulous, unrepeatable 48 hours!

Now I’m back in Providence, delighting in providing water and wild bird seed to the flurry of birds that come.

Baby black bird fed by mother on roof

white blossoming Crabapple tree | Swan Point cemetery, Providence, Rhode Island, USA

I fortunately left just enough white area and took pictures of this Crabapple white blossoming tree on the first sitting. She had already lost her blossoms by my second sitting in the Swan Point cemetery on Memorial Day. I just completed it at home – I usually always sit before my subject live. – just completed it May 29, 2019.

 

Crabapple white blossoms photo progression google

 

carol_may25_selfie_smile

Carol Keiter aka nomadbeatz welcomes donations for her writing, photography, illustrations, eBook & music composition

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Sacred Economics by Charles Eisenstein | You’re at Your Best – Doing What You Love

Charles Eisenstein, I discovered through a Facebook group initially, “The More Beautiful World”, that our Hearts Know is Possible.

He created a short film to introduce the concepts of his book, through the direction and production of Ian MacKenzie

Sacred Economics with Charles Eisenstein 2019 remix

Sacred Economics with Charles Eisenstein 2019 remix

“Sacred Economics traces the history of money from ancient gift economies to modern capitalism, revealing how the money system has contributed to alienation, competition, and scarcity, destroyed community, and necessitated endless growth. As we imagine new ways of interacting with one another and with all life on the planet, we may find great opportunity to transition to a more connected, ecological, and sustainable way of being.

Sacred Economics with Charles Eisenstein is a book he wrote.
Here’s where you can learn more about Sacred Economics and purchase the book.

Sacred Economics book with Charles Eisenstein

 

 

 

Why is there a biodiversity crisis? Why are we drilling for more oil?…Many questions that you ask about the world come down after several layers of why, to the answer of money.

You can read the pdf file online, http://sacred-economics.com/read-online/ translated into 12 languages

This new narrative of sacred economics, shifts the individual to following what they inherently love doing and do best, so that rather than feeling incapable of pursuing what they love to do because of the lack of economic support, they are free to do just that. This is why I’ve incorporated the message of Joseph Campbell, a

The writer Joseph Campbell coined the term Follow Your Bliss.

The Power of Myth is the full transcript of 24 hours of interviews by Bill Moyers of Joseph Campbell

Great advice from Joseph Campbell – Follow Your Bliss

“Campbell saw as the greatest human transgression “the sin of inadvertence, of not being alert, not quite awake.”

 

You’re at Your Best – Doing What You Love

 >Make Your Play Your Work, and York Work Your Play<

His introductory short film ‘Sacred Economics with Charles Eisenstein 2019 remix‘, directed by Ian MacKenzie reveals a lot of information about quite a different narrative of perceiving and feeling about the natural world.

Sacred Economics with Charles Eisenstein 2019 remix directed by Ian MacKenzie

Charles Eisenstein’s book Sacred Economics. Is what he’s come to offer to the world as his gift, realizing that by following the truth and what is in our hearts, this concept will really take on a life of its own and spread physically, as more people become aware of it. Like reaching a critical mass, we can adopt it as a new universal way of looking at our world and our place in it. He talks of the money economy that we have been in, as both the source and the symptom, of an old narrative that has had to do with continually wanting and needing to take things that were once free and plentiful in nature and shared between people as gifts, and turned these into goods and services that we then sell back to one another.

Charles talks of the planet as a living being whose organs and tissues are all the natural systems and biomass; of the different natural waterways, forests, coral reefs, watersheds, elephants, bears, wolfs, butterflies and insects are all part of the planet and its health. The health of humanity and all creatures depends on the health and balance of all of these systems of life.

Here’s an interview of Charles Eisenstein by Russell Brand. Video · Climate Change – What’s The Whole Truth? | Russell Brand & Charles Eisenstein

Climate Change What is the Whole Truth Charles Eisenstein interview by Russell Brand

Charles Eisenstein who’s written a book on the subject, says that in the traditional sense, people are reducing all problems of the Earth from an environmental perspective to climate change.

Within it Charles talks of the living earth narrative.

In it Charles mentions that we are not recognizing the earth as a living being, with its tissues and organs equivalents to forests, grasslands, coral reefs, elephants, birds…He mentions that only talking about the environment and carbon output, is reduces the problems to one thing, CO2 levels, and completely ignores all the other different factors that are part of this massive ecocide (mass extinction) by reducing things only to numbers.

Sacred Economics with Charles Eisenstein 2019 remix

Sacred Economics traces the history of money from ancient gift economies to modern capitalism

 

 

Thanks for reading.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Carol Keiter aka nomadbeatz welcomes donations for her writing, photography, illustrations, eBook & music composition

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Joel Sartore photo ark picture and the blogger, Carol Keiter

Care for the Natural World – Treat it with Respect and Reverence | The Duke of Cambridge interviews Sir David | WEForum

Sir David Attenborough interviewed by Prince William aka the Duke of Cambridge, at the World Economic Forum, in Davos – the 22nd to 25th of January. Prince William has very thoughtful and prescient questions. It’s evident that Princess Diana’s son is very in touch with what is essential, and is bringing these points out in his interview to the esteemed Sir David Attenborough, who has a great deal of wisdom to share (working 70 years bringing the natural world to people’s homes through television and documentaries).

Sir David Attenborough interviewed by Prince William, HRH Duke of Cambridge

I think this should be required listening, required in schools and by world leaders, especially the bimbo in the Whitehouse and any Republican climate science deniers. Sir David Attenborough says,”presently we’re living in the paradox, in which there have never been so many people out of touch with the natural world (more than half of the worlds population live in metropolitan areas), and yet every breath of air and every mouthful of food that we take comes from the natural world. if we damage it, we damage ourselves. The essential part of human life is a healthy planet. We are in danger of wrecking that.”

Asking what he wishes to communicate to the audience of global leaders, Sir David Attenborough responded.

“Care for the natural world. Treat it with respect and reverence. The natural world is the source of all wonder. The future of the natural world is in our hands. We have never been more powerful or populated. We can wreck it with ease, and without even realizing that we’re doing it.

We wreck it, we wreck ourselves. DO NOT WASTE THE RICHES OF THE NATURAL WORLD ON WHICH WE DEPEND. Do not throw food away, do not use energy wastefully. THIS DISASTER OVERTAKING THE WORLD STARTED IN BRITAIN IN THE 18TH CENTURY, THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION. > THE AIM WAS TO CONQUER THE NATURAL WORLD, SHOW OUR MASTERY, WHICH WAS TO DESTROY IT. We know better now. It is time to act.

Tragedy of the Commons | Oskar Eustis | George Monbiot | Invest in our CommonWealth

I’m from Pennsylvania, one of four States of the 52, which is a Commonwealth. I never really knew how that distinguished PA from any other state. I learned of the concept of the Commons through the writings of George Monbiot. He wrote this article published in the Guardian September 27th, 2017. Don’t let the rich get even richer on the assets we all share – It’s time for communities to seize back control of resources upon which their prosperity depends

Monbiot states that the commons has three main elements. “First a resource, such as land, water, minerals, scientific research, hardware or software. Second a community of people who have shared and equal rights to this resource, and organise themselves to manage it. Third the rules, systems and negotiations they develop to sustain it and allocate the benefits.” He goes on to state:

The commons have been attacked by both state power and capitalism for centuries. Resources that no one invented or created, or that a large number of people created together, are stolen by those who sniff an opportunity for profit…those who capture essential resources force everyone else to pay for access.”

What comes to my mind immediately is companies that for example take (extract/steal)  a region’s water, and then force the local people to pay for what they bottle. Or the fact that various individuals and companies throughout history who tried to buy, destroy or steal the plans of various individuals who designed medical or energy devices that could have provided a product to the public for almost no cost. Instead, they were hidden from public knowledge so that the perpetrators could make a profit through their own devices. By obscuring the competitor’s inventions, they were able to bank on their own goods or services.

Monbiot subsequently published essentially the same themed article in his blog Common Wealth on the 2nd of October, 2018. Entitled Common Wealth – Hope lies with a great, neglected sector of the economy, through which we can create a system that is neither capitalist nor state communist.”

Commons is managed for wellbeing.

Tragedy of the Commons video by Nicholas Amendolare

The Tragedy of the Commons is eloquently described in this video. Basically if a community consumes a common resource too fast for regeneration to occur, people must choose between restricting their own consumption for the good of the community, for if they continue to consume at a rate that satisfies their immediate “self-interest”, there may be dire consequences later. That seems to be what is occurring on the earth presently. However, in terms of consuming and/or spoiling resources, the fact is that it isn’t really the individuals who make up communities who are necessarily at fault. In the last several generations, the resources and supply has for the most part been in the control of a very few. This has upset the balance and tweaked the demand curve.

We’ve gotten into a weird state of affairs in the USA, which is being replicated all over the globe. It used to be the land of effulgent possibilities. Labeled the Land of Opportunity, the American Dream. The land of entrepreneurship. The place where people could be assured that their ideas and efforts could be strengthened and developed. But the dream has been taken hostage by just a small percentage of individuals and groups, who have been able to use their money to buy their passage, gobble up competitors, purchase the media and think tanks to hurl out propaganda and crush anyone in their way.

In the last decades, as a friend says the last 70 years, the emphasis in the States has become top-heavy towards enriching the industrial interests, which has coincided with buttressing the military. A handful of people have been controlling these interests. The process has downright gutted many of the small businesses. Anyone who has been alive long enough in the United States of Amnesia, has seen their local hardware stores, five & dime stores, pharmacies, grocery stores, local boutiques etc, in which you knew the families of the people who owned and operated them, disappear. Now Big Box Stores like Walmart have replaced them. They can’t compete. I mention this in my other blog. https://digesthis.wordpress.com/2018/12/06/the-photo-ark-half-earth-project-plastic-ocean-dolphin-deaths-sonar-seismic-tests-patriotism-to-finance-the-military-industrial-gdp-ecocide/

Robert Reich explains in this video THE MONOPOLIZATION OF AMERICA: The Biggest Economic Problem You’re Hearing Almost Nothing About about how this phenomenon evolved. He says that a century ago there were anti-trust laws preventing any company from getting too large, but that these protections disappeared during the Reagan years. Reich points out that the less businesses there are in competition, the more the few who are in control can create their own prices as well as the wages. No competitor, no problem, for those making the rules.

Robert Reich Monopolization of America Health Care Monopolies 2016

Robert Reich Monopolization of America Walmart Drives Down Workers Wages

The USA according to what businesses ‘control’ each state. Walmart Nation, Health Care Boeing

 

What we need to do is to step by step, reinvest in our own communities, and take the tools to work side by side. Forming relationships with people and seeing our own work and voices mirrored, empowering people to be intimately tied to their own land. I’m living in a town next to the birthplace of the industrial revolution. A number of people told me how toxic the river was that flowed through this town. The townspeople and any other life that had been here certainly suffered, while the industries reaped financial rewards. The trend in the USA has been for cities to clean up their waterfronts and create common spaces that people can enjoy. That is their heritage, to walk and commune freely with others in public spaces. That’s what I’m talking about here. Except not just riverfront property. I’m talking about fields and woods surrounding towns, forests on the periphery, about national parks, about creating once again and maintaining spaces that are naturally the habitat of other life forms. About taking picks to break up parking lots and creating community gardens instead. About people engaging in these public spaces, with love of the land, connectedness among the people and the desire to protect and allow the land and all the other life forms to flourish.

What I understand in the idea of ‘taking back’ the commons – is for community members, you and I, to have joint ownership of the land; for community members to be entitled to make decisions on how best to use this resource and to together create community works, community theatre, community stores, community gardens, community farms. Because when something is shared and invested in physically and monetarily, one will put effort, love and pride into maintaining it. We have had this tremendous land grab by companies, private sectors, who own vast stretches of land which, one would think, should rightfully be a heritage of the people who walk on the earth. So if the people collectively owned these swaths of land, fields, forests, grasslands, natural parks and so forth, then we the people would be engaged in participating in protecting it. It would be something that belonged to the people, and therefore, instead of being neglected or some other owner reaping vast rewards while the local populations received little, the people could benefit from either choosing to create fields, community gardens, parks with fruit and nut trees. In other words, this would deliver the ownership to the people and the wealth of the land would be valued by the people and recirculated among the people, not trickled off to enrich an owner far away.

Oskar Eustis TED Talk
Why theater is essential to democracy

I had the pleasure of listening to Oskar Eustis, the director of Hamilton, speak at a salon coordinated by the Athenaeum in Providence, Rhode Island. His words echoed the same concepts, of the need to bring back community theatre and arts and take back the country from all who have been dispossessed and cheated. The idea of power coming from below, from the community. He launched the audience with his humor and great storytelling into the past, to the first theatre and the fist actors of ancient Greek history. He mentioned Thespis, the first person ever to appear on stage and Aeschylus, the father of tragedy. He mentioned that it was the Persians who brought to the stage for the first time – not just one actor donning various masks – but two actors to stand side by side on the stage. This new perspective, with dialogue revealing that there could be more than one isolated truth, but a dialectic in which a discourse between two or more people holding different points of view could establish a truth through reasoned arguments, happened to coincide with the beginnings of Democracy at about this same time period.

Eustis stated that the Truth is dialectical. Precedent to Hegel’s dialectic, dialogue asks the audience to listen to two points of view, recognizing that each lead to the truth. Thus theatre, storytelling in its beginnings, came with this perception of each person having a voice. And this recognition through theatre, precipitated Democracy.

Oskar spoke at length about how bringing the theatre to the public, to allow actors and non actors to participate, empowers people. Project Discovery, which Trinity created is theatre of, for and by the people. He mentioned that creativity is inherent in all people, and that it is human to have the desire to create. Some people have had more practice. Creativity simply needs to be nourished.

Oskar Eustis spoke of the fate of the marketplace. That the economy and technology of the last decades has turned its back on the people. Wall Street and corporations operating in this global economy have robbed people of jobs. As the jobs disappeared – outsourced to other countries for cheaper labor – it has pulled communities apart. He talked of revitalizing communities through investing in projects such as theatre. When people can see their own story and speak their own story, they are empowered to share their stories.

Oskar states that “It is our job to knit this country back together, not to be right.”

Oskar Eustis’ TED Talk weaves together the idea of a public theatre, common voice and a democratic government.

The Work That Reconnects Pat van Boeckel

 

 

One of the practices within The Work that Reconnects is an exercise called the Riddle of the Commons Game. It brings to awareness the fact that people need to balance between their own self-interest and collective self-interest. Each is necessary for the common good.

Greta’s powerful speech to Swedish people before the Parliament

 

 

 

 

‘We Have Not Come Here to Beg World Leaders to Care,’ 15-Year-Old Greta Thunberg Tells COP24. “We Have Come to Let Them Know Change Is Coming. We can no longer save the world by playing by the rules,” says Greta Thunberg, “because the rules have to be changed.”

There’s nothing more important than recognizing that change can happen. Coming through education and arts and activities within your own communities. We can drive that change. If one young girl has already sparked and inspired students in Australia, in another continent, this can ripple. We need to look very, very hard, at what we are choosing, so that we don’t lose what is most precious. You may think your own immediate children are the most precious, but what if there are no trees, woods, grasses, available food, no clean oceans or rivers or lakes, or air, and no other life? It is an astoundingly clear choice to me. We’ve got to make some changes, and we’re going to do this together. And plenty of people are pointing the way, and your own ideas will be as valuable as anyones, collaboratively we will create this change.

My friend Loren Booda states, “Start with hope, funding of positive efforts to return nature and, with native education, make everyone responsible for and aware of their use of resources. The major problem? Almost all of us usually put other needs or wants before the environment.” Full-circle back to The Tragedy of the Commons.

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December 10th, 2018 Carol Keiter