To me, this one really seems like a no brainer, but then I sit and really think on it, how many of this world's issues and questions are formed around not going? So much certainty is expressed in the space of question, the fear of not going building such a deep insecurity that it is then expressed as complete certainty.
It reminds me of a conversation I was fortunate to have with Dr. Neil Degrasse Tyson a few weeks ago. He was talking about how so many folks are critical of space exploration, using the argument that we have earth problems to deal with first so there is no need to head to space. I admit that I have had this exact thought and have expressed it more than once. Dr. Tyson's logic made use of the cave metaphor. If our ancestors who dwelt in caves would have used the justification of not going, where would we be?
Imagine, Joe Rockcrusher is chilling with his cousin Demarcus Stoneface and Demarcus says, "Joe, do you ever wonder what is out past that land-bulge?" Joe, having heard his cousin's wild notions before, sighs and says, "Look, man, I've told you this before. Out there, there's nothing there. Besides, we've got cave problems to deal with. We need to sort those out first before we go running off into THAT!"
Where would we be if Demarcus didn't say Fuck It and run for the hills? Well, we would still be sitting in caves scratching our butts with sticks probably. Now, don't get me wrong, I love a good butt-scratching just as much as the next, but the Quest is as integral a part of our DNA as procreation. The unending urge to explore and press ourselves past current limitations is essential to our growth as individuals, cultural speaking, and certainly for the evolution of our species.
Looking at modern times, if we do not fly past our current set of paradigms, then we will perish from this earth. Perhaps like never before, our very survival requires us to radically shift every aspect of understanding and to re-imagine our relationship with every angle of life. Simply looking around oneself and seeing the division and destruction that is a result of our current modalities makes it abundantly clear the level of change needed for our continued existence.
Simple enough, right? Change if what is happening is not working. Well, the problem lies in two basic ingredients: 1) Folks are unwilling to let go, 2) Folks are unwilling to go. If your cup is full of dirty water, ain't got no room for clean water. If the faucet that gives you that dirty water is right here, ain't got no reason to go trekking for that clean spring you've heard about.
The recipe I follow for this is nothing new or special, but it could be perceived as difficult if you're looking with your current lenses. So first, clean out those old and tired eyes, and let's check it out with some freshness. First, if you think you know something, forget it. That's really step one. You have to make space for new information for come in, the processor that is your brain does not have unlimited capacity. Once you've made space, then new experience can bear the fruit of understanding. But this can't come from just wishing it, you must will it.
If you think ditching old cycles of the self is difficult, then perhaps the next stage is a little advanced. However, if you're lighter and more free than when you began, here's the next step...GO!!!
It doesn't matter where, it doesn't matter how(yes, it kind of does, but we've got time for that), just go. I could say that it has to look like this or that, but that's unimportant to start. The key is to go, let yourself be free and vulnerable to experience. Maybe then, you will see what has been in front of you this whole time. Bon chance.
Sunday, July 2, 2017
Thursday, May 4, 2017
Patience
Patience is something that I have truly had to practice in my life. I have heard it is a virtue and understood that it is something of serious value to a developing individual, but to truly understand it has taken me on a journey of deep insight and discomfort. At my age, about to turn 30, I still find myself so much in a hurry and wanting to shape everything in a manor that slows it all down. Even this has a certain hectic vibration to it, "wanting to shape everything in a manor that slows it all down."
Wanting is without a doubt one of the strangest and most dualistic experiences I have encountered throughout my life. To want something is not only a mental experience, that intention of wanting makes a physical pull as well. Whether it is conscious or unconscious, once I have decided that I want something I begin to shape every experience into how I can get that thing.
For example, I want sex. When I have that want, I begin looking for someone. So to begin looking for someone I begin going to places where someone might be. This might lead to bars, parties, somewhere to eat, etc. The elements that schedule my time are pushed and pulled towards where that potential connection might occur. Then once it is found, what next? I have just spent my energy and time seeking this person, convinced them to fuck me, and then what? The want has been satiated.
What's next is typically the emergence of yet another want. Our days begin to become filled with the quest to satisfy this little being inside of us that must be fed, lest it becomes irritated and starts to tug at our internal strings. So for most of us, the day is a long series of want/satiate with a little sprinkle of want/disappointment. I wake, i'm hungry. I eat, i'm thirsty. I'm full, I shit. My hair is a mess, I work it. My clothes are old, I buy more. I'm hungry, I eat. I'm tired, I drink coffee.I'm wired, I get stoned. I digest, I shit. I'm bored, I I I i iiiiiiiiiiii.............
It really becomes a story of self-indulgence, all of this wanting. But you might say that you have to eat and sleep and and and, well sure of course. But what happens if we really stop taking out the wants? Pick one. Any one want and see what happens when that want comes up. Do you need it for your survival or mental health? Are you justifying that you need it just so you can have it? Does the craving go away when you don't satisfy it?
For me, refined sugar has been a kryptonite for the majority of my life. My mother has a serious sweet tooth and I adopted that trait for sure. I think most children growing up in the world today have some relationship with sugar. When that desire comes up, though, I drink water and wait 30 minutes. If the craving for sugar comes up again, I will usually drink some more water and wait again. 98% of the time that craving goes away, but the 2% that remains I usually satisfy it in someway. Not by running to 7-11 and getting the mormon family sized candy bar, but I will eat something sweet.
My point being, this life is here for us to experiment with. If we let ourselves fall into the rut that is urge satisfaction, we may just fall into a funky pit that becomes harder and harder to climb out of the further we go. Remember, though, change on this planet happens very slowly and deliberately. Have you ever sat and watched a Ponderosa grow, or stayed to see the tides change? We are no different in our quest to grow.
Wanting is without a doubt one of the strangest and most dualistic experiences I have encountered throughout my life. To want something is not only a mental experience, that intention of wanting makes a physical pull as well. Whether it is conscious or unconscious, once I have decided that I want something I begin to shape every experience into how I can get that thing.
For example, I want sex. When I have that want, I begin looking for someone. So to begin looking for someone I begin going to places where someone might be. This might lead to bars, parties, somewhere to eat, etc. The elements that schedule my time are pushed and pulled towards where that potential connection might occur. Then once it is found, what next? I have just spent my energy and time seeking this person, convinced them to fuck me, and then what? The want has been satiated.
What's next is typically the emergence of yet another want. Our days begin to become filled with the quest to satisfy this little being inside of us that must be fed, lest it becomes irritated and starts to tug at our internal strings. So for most of us, the day is a long series of want/satiate with a little sprinkle of want/disappointment. I wake, i'm hungry. I eat, i'm thirsty. I'm full, I shit. My hair is a mess, I work it. My clothes are old, I buy more. I'm hungry, I eat. I'm tired, I drink coffee.I'm wired, I get stoned. I digest, I shit. I'm bored, I I I i iiiiiiiiiiii.............
It really becomes a story of self-indulgence, all of this wanting. But you might say that you have to eat and sleep and and and, well sure of course. But what happens if we really stop taking out the wants? Pick one. Any one want and see what happens when that want comes up. Do you need it for your survival or mental health? Are you justifying that you need it just so you can have it? Does the craving go away when you don't satisfy it?
For me, refined sugar has been a kryptonite for the majority of my life. My mother has a serious sweet tooth and I adopted that trait for sure. I think most children growing up in the world today have some relationship with sugar. When that desire comes up, though, I drink water and wait 30 minutes. If the craving for sugar comes up again, I will usually drink some more water and wait again. 98% of the time that craving goes away, but the 2% that remains I usually satisfy it in someway. Not by running to 7-11 and getting the mormon family sized candy bar, but I will eat something sweet.
My point being, this life is here for us to experiment with. If we let ourselves fall into the rut that is urge satisfaction, we may just fall into a funky pit that becomes harder and harder to climb out of the further we go. Remember, though, change on this planet happens very slowly and deliberately. Have you ever sat and watched a Ponderosa grow, or stayed to see the tides change? We are no different in our quest to grow.
Tuesday, May 2, 2017
Cars as Killers
Riding, eating, sleeping. Riding, eating, sleeping. Riding, eating, sleeping. These become the basic tenets of my day, interspersed by the not-so-random occurrences of serendipity. The days sort of meld together into this infinite oneness, names of places fading into the proverbial dust i'm leaving in my wake. The urge to move forward on my journey compels me to keep pushing in moments of hunger, exhaustion, and sometimes even ordinariness.
Yet there is one thing that will stop me in my tracks every time, "roadkill." If the once living creature has been repeatedly run over by vehicles and is well on its way of reconsumption by the cycle, I won't stop, but if it is fresh, I will usually hop off my bike. I find Owls, Hawks, Coyotes, Rabbits, you name it. All having been extinguished for thrusting themselves into the age-old existential query, prompting me to ask why it was they decided to cross the road just then.
In the past few days, I have found some of the most beautiful Owls on the side of the road. Freshly struck by some speeding automobile careening towards their destiny of misunderstanding and misinterpretation. This amazingly sacred animal lost its life purely for another being's want of rapidity and immediacy.
As I stopped to pick up the Owl and place them in the tall grass alongside the road, offering prayers of a swift and effortless return to bliss, I looked around me and saw nothing but remnants of this "need for speed." The obsession is pervasive and touches all of us. I am no different, only that I have ventured to step outside of my previous conditioning to heal a deep wound inflicted upon me by the culture that came before me.
So where does it come from? How did we arrive in this almost helpless state of collectively rushing towards the edge of an ecological cliff? The more I see, the more I hear, the more I feel...it comes to me that the marriage between money and oil has created some sort of dark alchemical reaction, holding humans hostage to the lust of the curse. The thirst is insatiable. Many people look at me on a bicycle and remark how they could never do what I am doing. I always laugh with them and assure them they could, they need only start by stepping out.
But so many of the sleeping masses are unaware that they have yet to become hip. Hip to the reality that they are enslaved to an energy sucking machine, one that uses their labor and spiritual energy to hold the rest of the world hostage in a game of chicken. Wars rage on so their ease of travel to and fro can cost $2.19 a gallon, the lungs of the earth are slashed and burned so the grills can be piled high with cheap beef, mountaintops are cut and mined, radiation is pumped into the ground, rivers are dammed, and fracking becomes king...all for the images of modern day sunday slavery to be pumped mercilessly into their awaiting hypothalamus. (TV will rot your brain, Kids.)
Really, what I truly wish for is for everyone to slow the fuck down. We are not so important, people. Our journey is unfolding and all of the rushing around to do do do is really starting to bum out the rest of the soon-to-be extinct world. What do we think will happen when we reach the cliff? "G.O.D." is going to come down with his benevolent and calloused hands to build us a bridge to Zion? Maybe with our infinite wisdom and inherent awesomeness I see being touted so often, we could really collectively come up with some solutions that bring us back to earth.
Respect to all of you out there doing the work. Keep inspiring everyone you can to be their highest selves. We've all got miles to go before we sleep, miles to go...
Yet there is one thing that will stop me in my tracks every time, "roadkill." If the once living creature has been repeatedly run over by vehicles and is well on its way of reconsumption by the cycle, I won't stop, but if it is fresh, I will usually hop off my bike. I find Owls, Hawks, Coyotes, Rabbits, you name it. All having been extinguished for thrusting themselves into the age-old existential query, prompting me to ask why it was they decided to cross the road just then.
In the past few days, I have found some of the most beautiful Owls on the side of the road. Freshly struck by some speeding automobile careening towards their destiny of misunderstanding and misinterpretation. This amazingly sacred animal lost its life purely for another being's want of rapidity and immediacy.
As I stopped to pick up the Owl and place them in the tall grass alongside the road, offering prayers of a swift and effortless return to bliss, I looked around me and saw nothing but remnants of this "need for speed." The obsession is pervasive and touches all of us. I am no different, only that I have ventured to step outside of my previous conditioning to heal a deep wound inflicted upon me by the culture that came before me.
So where does it come from? How did we arrive in this almost helpless state of collectively rushing towards the edge of an ecological cliff? The more I see, the more I hear, the more I feel...it comes to me that the marriage between money and oil has created some sort of dark alchemical reaction, holding humans hostage to the lust of the curse. The thirst is insatiable. Many people look at me on a bicycle and remark how they could never do what I am doing. I always laugh with them and assure them they could, they need only start by stepping out.
But so many of the sleeping masses are unaware that they have yet to become hip. Hip to the reality that they are enslaved to an energy sucking machine, one that uses their labor and spiritual energy to hold the rest of the world hostage in a game of chicken. Wars rage on so their ease of travel to and fro can cost $2.19 a gallon, the lungs of the earth are slashed and burned so the grills can be piled high with cheap beef, mountaintops are cut and mined, radiation is pumped into the ground, rivers are dammed, and fracking becomes king...all for the images of modern day sunday slavery to be pumped mercilessly into their awaiting hypothalamus. (TV will rot your brain, Kids.)
Really, what I truly wish for is for everyone to slow the fuck down. We are not so important, people. Our journey is unfolding and all of the rushing around to do do do is really starting to bum out the rest of the soon-to-be extinct world. What do we think will happen when we reach the cliff? "G.O.D." is going to come down with his benevolent and calloused hands to build us a bridge to Zion? Maybe with our infinite wisdom and inherent awesomeness I see being touted so often, we could really collectively come up with some solutions that bring us back to earth.
Respect to all of you out there doing the work. Keep inspiring everyone you can to be their highest selves. We've all got miles to go before we sleep, miles to go...
Thursday, April 27, 2017
What will you do?
Everywhere I go, I see scars of industry, economy, culture, and the general lust for what could be. There are listless youth with nothing to do, there are burnt out elders who scowl at the world, and there are middle-somethings milling about, all running headlong toward the same cliffs of oblivion.
I wake, I pedal, I eat, I pedal, I sleep. Whenever there are people hanging out, I stop to chat. Most of the time I get nothing more than some small talk and wonder at the fact I'm riding my bike...but this is not what I seek. I want the reeeall thing. I want to get down to what's in their hearts, what they want to do, how they want to do it, what the fuck their dreams are!
But this is what I have seen thus far. People are in an endless dream of waiting. Waiting for someone to come along and gift them the magic that they may not even be asking for. Last night in Boise City, OK I met a group of High School girls who all worked at the local grocery. After getting them jazzed up on the prospect of something cool and creative happening in their town, I asked them a hypothetical question of "If someone handed you $10,000 dollars tonight, just because you're a good-hearted person, what would you do?" This question stumped all of them. One girl suggested she might travel to the Northwest, and when I told her she would have $9,600 left, she couldn't tell me what she would do with the rest.
I don't think this is because they were on the spot, or it is a broad question to ask, or even that they lack the answer. What I am coming to see is that there is an epidemic of broken spirits in this country. I can't speak for the world, but I imagine the globe is experiencing a similar outbreak of spiritlessness. As Chico, the Lawyer Warrior of Las Vegas, NM said, "There is a spiritual battle going on right now." Well, Chico, fuck yes there is. There is a deliberate attempt, not accidental, to break the spirits of people on Earth to subject them to unrelenting capital slavery.
This will not come as a surprise or even a new idea for most, but if you're not hip to it, then get hip real quick. And if you are hip then hear me now: This is the time to ignite the element of your spirit where your power resides. For me, the Wind brings me power. I create enough Fire for a few, and the Wind just fans those flames. I'm grateful to have Water and Earth around me always to bring me back and keep me steady, but I know where my power lies. It is in creation, inspiration, and change.
Why is it important for you to ignite the spiritual flame within you? Because your future and the future of all beings depends on you getting free. If one of us is chained, all of us are chained. But if you can break the chains of one, then that makes you a little more free in the process.
I don't have the script for how you can do this. I don't really have any methods, because they will all be unique to your journey, but what I can suggest is that if you know any young people, inspire the hell out of them. This doesn't happen by words either. This happens by deeds. Do something to make a young person's life brighter and more hopeful and you make us all more free. Try it and see if i'm bullshitting with you.
For the truth is, if you're reading this, you're probably in or around the age of 30 and the time for you to be passing the torch is coming up. Don't hold it like the generations who came before, pass it off to those who you have given the tools of creativity, love, and spirit to.
I'm writing this from Elkhart, KS right now. A place with hopelessness in its streets. Don't let the world die just because you didn't know how to live.
I wake, I pedal, I eat, I pedal, I sleep. Whenever there are people hanging out, I stop to chat. Most of the time I get nothing more than some small talk and wonder at the fact I'm riding my bike...but this is not what I seek. I want the reeeall thing. I want to get down to what's in their hearts, what they want to do, how they want to do it, what the fuck their dreams are!
But this is what I have seen thus far. People are in an endless dream of waiting. Waiting for someone to come along and gift them the magic that they may not even be asking for. Last night in Boise City, OK I met a group of High School girls who all worked at the local grocery. After getting them jazzed up on the prospect of something cool and creative happening in their town, I asked them a hypothetical question of "If someone handed you $10,000 dollars tonight, just because you're a good-hearted person, what would you do?" This question stumped all of them. One girl suggested she might travel to the Northwest, and when I told her she would have $9,600 left, she couldn't tell me what she would do with the rest.
I don't think this is because they were on the spot, or it is a broad question to ask, or even that they lack the answer. What I am coming to see is that there is an epidemic of broken spirits in this country. I can't speak for the world, but I imagine the globe is experiencing a similar outbreak of spiritlessness. As Chico, the Lawyer Warrior of Las Vegas, NM said, "There is a spiritual battle going on right now." Well, Chico, fuck yes there is. There is a deliberate attempt, not accidental, to break the spirits of people on Earth to subject them to unrelenting capital slavery.
This will not come as a surprise or even a new idea for most, but if you're not hip to it, then get hip real quick. And if you are hip then hear me now: This is the time to ignite the element of your spirit where your power resides. For me, the Wind brings me power. I create enough Fire for a few, and the Wind just fans those flames. I'm grateful to have Water and Earth around me always to bring me back and keep me steady, but I know where my power lies. It is in creation, inspiration, and change.
Why is it important for you to ignite the spiritual flame within you? Because your future and the future of all beings depends on you getting free. If one of us is chained, all of us are chained. But if you can break the chains of one, then that makes you a little more free in the process.
I don't have the script for how you can do this. I don't really have any methods, because they will all be unique to your journey, but what I can suggest is that if you know any young people, inspire the hell out of them. This doesn't happen by words either. This happens by deeds. Do something to make a young person's life brighter and more hopeful and you make us all more free. Try it and see if i'm bullshitting with you.
For the truth is, if you're reading this, you're probably in or around the age of 30 and the time for you to be passing the torch is coming up. Don't hold it like the generations who came before, pass it off to those who you have given the tools of creativity, love, and spirit to.
I'm writing this from Elkhart, KS right now. A place with hopelessness in its streets. Don't let the world die just because you didn't know how to live.
Friday, March 24, 2017
What Dreams Do Bring
In Albuquerque, Dave called me Chad the Dreamer. I thought it was a funny name and one that I fully accept and own. I am a dreamer. I always have been. My entire life I have seen countless examples of what it looks like when people stop dreaming and "come back to reality." Whenever I meet someone who was taught to abandon their dreams for a pragmatic reality, well, it breaks my heart. A life without dreams is like dinner without salt. Tasteless and bland, not to mention detrimental to your health.
Well, I haven't ever abandoned my dreams. I live by them, follow my heart in every step and will never stop until my heart quits beating. Then knowing me, I will keep the vision alive through whatever realm I start flying around.
My dream, since I was around 13 or 14, was of a small village somewhere in the world. It definitely was not where I am from because it didn't have paved roads, no telephone wires, small circular huts, and brown-skinned women and children running, playing, working, and laughing. I would sometimes just be viewing the scene and other times I would see myself as an old man among them. It always felt beautiful and real.
I have in the meantime traveled, met amazing people, and honed my vision of what is possible in this world. I have also met someone who has become a brother of mine in the world, another peaceful warrior amidst a chaotic reality. Lale Labuko is from Ethiopia and has been a champion for peace and compassion for over a decade, having saved almost 50 lives of children who would otherwise have been killed. Today him and his wife, along with a staff of workers, take care of these children in every aspect of their life. Lale has 2 kids, soon to be 3 of his own, but when asked says he has 50 children.
Today I awoke from a dream and knew that I needed to be in Ethiopia as soon as possible. But this is not the point of this post. I am not begging for help through my words, because I KNOW that Great Mystery has a plan and I am walking through the gates opened for me. All will be provided.
Why I am writing this is about THE DREAMS. If you're not following your dream at this point, if you're living for a paycheck that takes more from you than it gives, if you're working to pay for the things that leave you more empty than you were before, and if you wake up with cold chills from dreams that haunt you...then there is literally no time like now to do something about it.
Don't worry about the details. All you need do is step through that door in your spirit, climb up through your heart, and look out your forehead to see which direction to choose. Don't second guess it. Just step into it. Your arrival is your ticket.
I can't tell you how unbelievably important it is to be living within your power right now. The world needs you. Seriously. Everyone around you will be better for it when you decide to live within the dream.
Now, some might say, "Chad, isn't it foolish to live in the dream when so much real stuff is going on around us? Isn't it selfish to be dreaming while everyone is suffering?" Is it fair to the world for you to be suffering while you're sleeping, suffering while you're awake? Imposing your suffering onto everyone else around you because you aren't happy with where you are? Stop making excuses and using the rest of the world as a scapegoat. The world will not be free until you are free.
I can't give you a blueprint, but one thing I have found is that traveling by bike is ONE way to get closer to the dream. There are so many ways and you have to find yours. I can tell you that if you're not feeling it, then you're not doing it. The moment that feeling of weightlessness comes, when you are brought to tears by a cloud, when the kindness of another shows you the deep scar you have over your heart, and when you can't walk past another person suffering without reaching out your hand...then you will have arrived at the station. Just board the train. Don't make an excuse as to what else you've got to do. Just board that train.
Maybe my words fail already because the experience is so personal, or maybe you're reading this and planning your escape. I encourage everyone to follow their heart. Every moment. The next you hear from me, I will be getting cradled by Mama Africa. Connect the global struggle. If Africa no free, no native no free, no river no free, no woman no free, whole world no free.
Well, I haven't ever abandoned my dreams. I live by them, follow my heart in every step and will never stop until my heart quits beating. Then knowing me, I will keep the vision alive through whatever realm I start flying around.
My dream, since I was around 13 or 14, was of a small village somewhere in the world. It definitely was not where I am from because it didn't have paved roads, no telephone wires, small circular huts, and brown-skinned women and children running, playing, working, and laughing. I would sometimes just be viewing the scene and other times I would see myself as an old man among them. It always felt beautiful and real.
I have in the meantime traveled, met amazing people, and honed my vision of what is possible in this world. I have also met someone who has become a brother of mine in the world, another peaceful warrior amidst a chaotic reality. Lale Labuko is from Ethiopia and has been a champion for peace and compassion for over a decade, having saved almost 50 lives of children who would otherwise have been killed. Today him and his wife, along with a staff of workers, take care of these children in every aspect of their life. Lale has 2 kids, soon to be 3 of his own, but when asked says he has 50 children.
Today I awoke from a dream and knew that I needed to be in Ethiopia as soon as possible. But this is not the point of this post. I am not begging for help through my words, because I KNOW that Great Mystery has a plan and I am walking through the gates opened for me. All will be provided.
Why I am writing this is about THE DREAMS. If you're not following your dream at this point, if you're living for a paycheck that takes more from you than it gives, if you're working to pay for the things that leave you more empty than you were before, and if you wake up with cold chills from dreams that haunt you...then there is literally no time like now to do something about it.
Don't worry about the details. All you need do is step through that door in your spirit, climb up through your heart, and look out your forehead to see which direction to choose. Don't second guess it. Just step into it. Your arrival is your ticket.
I can't tell you how unbelievably important it is to be living within your power right now. The world needs you. Seriously. Everyone around you will be better for it when you decide to live within the dream.
Now, some might say, "Chad, isn't it foolish to live in the dream when so much real stuff is going on around us? Isn't it selfish to be dreaming while everyone is suffering?" Is it fair to the world for you to be suffering while you're sleeping, suffering while you're awake? Imposing your suffering onto everyone else around you because you aren't happy with where you are? Stop making excuses and using the rest of the world as a scapegoat. The world will not be free until you are free.
I can't give you a blueprint, but one thing I have found is that traveling by bike is ONE way to get closer to the dream. There are so many ways and you have to find yours. I can tell you that if you're not feeling it, then you're not doing it. The moment that feeling of weightlessness comes, when you are brought to tears by a cloud, when the kindness of another shows you the deep scar you have over your heart, and when you can't walk past another person suffering without reaching out your hand...then you will have arrived at the station. Just board the train. Don't make an excuse as to what else you've got to do. Just board that train.
Maybe my words fail already because the experience is so personal, or maybe you're reading this and planning your escape. I encourage everyone to follow their heart. Every moment. The next you hear from me, I will be getting cradled by Mama Africa. Connect the global struggle. If Africa no free, no native no free, no river no free, no woman no free, whole world no free.
Wednesday, March 8, 2017
/wēd/
weed
wēd/
noun
- 1.a wild plant growing where it is not wanted and in competition with cultivated plants.
verb
- 1.remove unwanted plants from (an area of ground or the plants cultivated in it).
"I was weeding a flower bed"
My time in Mexico was amazing, blissful, and educational. I learned heaps about the differences between our cultures, and especially the generosity that exists North and South of the arbitrary border. I went to Mexico with maybe $300 in my pocket, which is a lot for me, and even more when the exchange is 20 to 1. The exchange, however, allowed me to give my money more freely than I may have thought possible here with giving dollars. I was able to buy a roof for a friend's house, get some bikes for some kids, build a compost system, and then just hook random people up with a bunch of cash.
In this whole process I forgot that I would be returning to the U.S. and had a 2,500 mile bike ride ahead of me. I crossed the border with 400 pesos in my wallet, which when I exchanged it with a fellow here it turned into $20 USD. So here I was in Arizona with enough money for about two days of regular frugal living. I am pretty resourceful, so dumpsters are groovy, folks are generous when asked, and intelligence plus good timing can amount to a lot sometimes. Regardless, I needed to make a repair on the bike and had to ship a box of stuff home, which in the end requires some greenbacks.
I made it to Safford, AZ where I inquired with some folks about part-time work and ended up getting a gig pulling some weeds at a rental property. Since I was a kid, pulling weeds has been one of my least favorite activities. As I have grown and have learned systems of plant stewardship and have developed a system that makes sense to me, pulling weeds has become even more absurd in my eyes. Yet, when you've gotta make moves in the world sometimes we have to do stuff we don't exactly love. The redeeming factor in the pulling of the weeds is that my host Jay is going to come collect the green waste, chip it and turn it into compost. So not all is lost in the immediate act.
But as I was pulling these plants from the place they chose to grow, knowing they would positively effect the ecology of that particular location, a piece of me reached the end of its tolerance. That piece is the world's misunderstanding of the word Weed and the huge effects that has on the planet. I wrote a paper in school about the Dandelion, prompted by the school's practice of weed management against the beloved medicinal plant, which I will post in conjunction with this essay. My feelings around the misconception of weeds has only become more resolved and possibly more urgent now.
What is a weed? The definition above says it is an unwanted plant, but I would argue strongly that it is only unwanted because it is misunderstood. I think currently the metaphor of immigrants could be placed in here and draw the same conclusion. Do we want to eradicate immigrants from this country, Natives, Africans, Latinos as well because they are in competition to the cultivated culture of White America, or is the culture of these people just misunderstood and thus rejected by the cultivated "majority'? I know farmers who couldn't identify more than a dozen plants, a dozen being a high number, yet they know they need to eradicate that unknown plant asap because it is stealing nutrients from their crops?
The truth is that every plant, in my eyes is a blessing and can be utilized to create fertility and balance when diversity may be lacking. The "weed" growing next to your tomatoes, sure, it might be pulling nutrients away from the soil that the tomatoes could be grasping, but how many people in the world then spray round up on the weed, or pull it and take it to the burn pile to eradicate it? This is so common it is mind numbing. Rather than pulling that plant, or nuking it, stop and think about this for a moment. That plant spent all of that time pulling nutrients from the air and soil so create roots, stalk, leaves, flowers, seeds, etc. It worked tirelessly to convert raw materials into green matter. It has captured those nutrients into its being and concentrated them right there next to that tomato. What if you cut the stalk, laid it down next to the tomato and let those nutrients drop right down to where the tomato can eat it? The roots become worm food and a channel for water and air to have access to the microbes.
This all seems so simple, but I have encountered so many people who find this to be as foreign to them as chicharon. A story: I was in Boulder, CO chilling with Pfrangenstein and wanted to help out around the house while I was staying. There was this little garden in the backyard with a Buddha statue, so I thought that would be a great place to start the new vibration. It was full of thistle that had just started to flower so I knew it was a perfect time to chop and drop the plants to achieve a high level of nutrient conversion and at the same time add a big shock to the plants in hopes that a succession of something else could be planted and take over the space.
I cut all of the thistle back and laid them right where they grew, the next step would be to plant some seeds around and maybe lay a little compost down if it was available. Well, the homeowner Greg came home and immediately questioned why I did what I did. I explained the thought process and the science behind it, but I could tell he wasn't really listening. At the end of my explanation he said something to the effect that his house wasn't a farm so my idea wasn't going to work out. He didn't want it looking that way. Certainly, Greg, considering you had 3-foot-tall thistle growing in your garden. But I knew what he was getting at. Another slave to the aesthetic, and that IS the largest issue with why folks even have a perception of something called a "weed."
When your aesthetic is based upon a limited understanding of plants, maybe 4 plants that belong in a landscape, of course everything else would be a threat to that aesthetic. So we spray Agent Orange on our lawns where kids play, let it run into clean waterways, all for the aesthetic. I know the frustration is coming out in my words, good. I think if you're reading this and not completely enraged about the unwillingness to examine our systematic destruction of the ecological bubble we need for survival, then I suggest suicide, because your complacency is creating matricide.
Next time you see the goon in the truck spraying Round-Up at guardrails, say something. Next time you see your neighbor treating his lawn with weed-be-gone, do something. Take a tomato over and have him sprinkle some on it and ask if he'd like a bite. If he says no, then perhaps you could move into a conversation as to why the heck it's utterly idiotic to sprinkle that stuff anywhere on this planet. If we continue to lay down to the destruction of our planet, then we won't have one.
Been feeling sick recently? This will only get worse people. Our planet has a cold, it might catch a flu soon, and what happens if it gets pneumonia? The word Weed is simple, but its effects are catastrophic. Every plant is sacred and every plant gives a gift. Chances are you're pulling up food or medicine, so think about that one when you've made up your mind it is an invasive plant in your landscape. The only invasive organism I've ever met walks on two legs and looks around like it's lost in its own landscape...
Below is the Essay from a few years back on the Dandelion. Enjoy.
Friday, March 3, 2017
No Maps, Just Naps
When traveling in a manner where you are the pilot, it is generally helpful to know where you're going. But what if already knew where you were going, you just needed to practice finding the way?
The conversation around travel by plane and car and how rapid and disconnected they are has come up a lot recently. I meet so many folks who feel completely helpless in their options to move without a petroleum based option.
The squad and I have coined the term "slow travel" in hopes of engendering a radically different culture around traveling. Moving slowly has undeniable virtues over rapid movement. It allows for so much more flexibility and openness,, giving you the freedom to stop and take it just what's in that very moment. But this is well known and hopefully obvious at this point.
What I'm getting towards requires a little more of an open mind to grasp. The map, a tool of so many intrepid explorers before me, a simple piece of paper that holds mountains of information. This is the go to when you're trying to plan a trip of any sort. You map a course and proceed to follow it with diligence.
Yet, is it possible to travel without a map and still get to where you need to go? What happens if you take a wrong turn? What happens if you push your bike hours down an arroyo only to realize you need to turn around? What happens if you get lost? Well, what happens?
The answer for me thus far has been to stop, find shade, hydrate, eat a snack and take a nap. When i wake from my peaceful slumber I will still be lost, but at the very least I will be rested and ready to double back and find another way.
I'll find my way eventually, and perhaps some light will be lost in the quest, if you're worried about counting hours, but if you can shift your perspective and see that being lost is just a perception then those hours won't be lost in the end.
I'm not advising to throw away your maps, or even hint that maps are a bad thing. They're cool and fun as heck to look at, but what I am advocating is to get lost and allow yourself to work through the process of getting lost. It's possible you might come to the conclusion that you're exactly where you should be. Stay wild, get woke, slow down.
The conversation around travel by plane and car and how rapid and disconnected they are has come up a lot recently. I meet so many folks who feel completely helpless in their options to move without a petroleum based option.
The squad and I have coined the term "slow travel" in hopes of engendering a radically different culture around traveling. Moving slowly has undeniable virtues over rapid movement. It allows for so much more flexibility and openness,, giving you the freedom to stop and take it just what's in that very moment. But this is well known and hopefully obvious at this point.
What I'm getting towards requires a little more of an open mind to grasp. The map, a tool of so many intrepid explorers before me, a simple piece of paper that holds mountains of information. This is the go to when you're trying to plan a trip of any sort. You map a course and proceed to follow it with diligence.
Yet, is it possible to travel without a map and still get to where you need to go? What happens if you take a wrong turn? What happens if you push your bike hours down an arroyo only to realize you need to turn around? What happens if you get lost? Well, what happens?
The answer for me thus far has been to stop, find shade, hydrate, eat a snack and take a nap. When i wake from my peaceful slumber I will still be lost, but at the very least I will be rested and ready to double back and find another way.
I'll find my way eventually, and perhaps some light will be lost in the quest, if you're worried about counting hours, but if you can shift your perspective and see that being lost is just a perception then those hours won't be lost in the end.
I'm not advising to throw away your maps, or even hint that maps are a bad thing. They're cool and fun as heck to look at, but what I am advocating is to get lost and allow yourself to work through the process of getting lost. It's possible you might come to the conclusion that you're exactly where you should be. Stay wild, get woke, slow down.
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