Ordeztu Diruaren Ebanjelioa: Elkarrizketa David Kortenekin

"Are we a part of nature? Or apart from nature?"

This good question mirrors larger ones, such as, Are we a part of the divine? Or apart from the divine? Is our planet earth a part of the divine? Or is planet earth apart from the divine? What actually happens to us, to our humanity, and to all of life on our planet home when we believe and act as if the divine presence of God is never really present in our midst, that we cannot ever see, hear, touch, and know God right here, in this moment on this earth? Are we reserving all our seeing, hearing, touching, and knowing God for some next life, for some heaven beyond this present life?
What if God is here? What if God is under our noses, present within our own being, distinctly and separately contained in the loving wisdoms of two unique genders, alive in all the various races, colors, and cultures of people, within sexual orientation and identity, walking by, and also flying past, swimming in rivers and oceans, present in plants and insects - all facets and different aspects of the Universal One?
We seem so convinced that the divine is "out there", distant and foreign, looking down upon us. What if heaven has been waiting for us to bring it to life, right here on earth?
What would heaven be like? Would heaven have a hierarchy of superior and inferior people, or people superior to creatures, birds, fish, insects, plants, forests, oceans, and waters; human beings dominating over life, enslaving, re-engineering, genetically-altering, chemically-poisoning, and monetarily profiting from commodifying, exploiting, abusing, destroying, and killing human life and all of creation, and our own human hearts and souls in the bargain?

When Albert Eisstein was asked, What is the most important question in life, his answer was, "Is the universe a friendly place or not?"
Chasing and competing (even unto death) for fleeting, dissolving, and false monetary wealth blinds and pits all human beings (wittingly or unwittingly) against one another, and against all of life, and also crushes respect, love, genuine and true affection along the way, in regard to others and all of creation but also for one's self. Are we "making a living", but just existing, and not truly living? Can we compete our way into heaven, disrespecting and commodifying human work populations and all of life? Can we save our planet earth home, and the best in our humanity by disregarding and disrespecting both, in favor of non-lasting monetary rewards that are disappearing as quickly as we claim them, while they take away and destroy our true and lasting common wealth in the natural world of earth, lead us to suppress ground-breaking knowledge in natural processes and life-sustaining innovation, and stand in the way and block our ability to form healthy, respectful, cooperative relationships with one another and with all of creation? Is our existence on this earth nothing more than just a place to compete and win while trampling over others, dominating everyone and all of life, destroying the best of our own humanity and all of creation?
Perhaps the first, and truly most important, question is,
"Is the earth a friendly place or not?"
And, what have we formed it to be?

Thank you for this good and necessary interview with David Korten.

A contribution to changing the story -
The goal is self-sufficiency. We need life skills asap.
Our real needs are actually simple - food, clothing, shelter, and local community connections.
We can all contribute to a new earth by literally beginning to be more and more self-sufficient, learning how to grow, harvest, and preserve our own food at the individual and local community level, planting organic gmo-free gardens, encouraging and supporting the creation of small local organic farms, and farmdens ["a farmden is more than a garden and less than a farm", horticulturist, Lee Reich], local fruit and nut trees and orchards etc, and learning best practices for organic growing and preserving of non-gmo vegetables, fruits, and herbs. Schools and universities could be growing and teaching their students necessary life skills, how to grow and harvest organic, vegetables, herbs, and orchards on their own campuses. We are wasting, actually also polluting chemically, enormous swatches of dead zone land in maintaining pristine-looking lawns, but often poisoned with "cides" that are dangerous to esp. children but also adults, animals, bird, bat, insect life, fish, and local water sources (from the runoff into groundwater or local streams and creeks etc), rather than front, back, and side yards, and common community lands that are contributing to organic food self-sufficiency and engaged with the growing-of-life-itself process. We could also be composting all vegetal and organic plant waste and restoring depleted soils, rather than putting it into garbage disposals and sewers. We could be planting native plants and trees to encourage and contribute to the health and well being of all plant, animal, insect, bird, and fish populations at the individual and local level. And rooftop farms and gardens are one dynamic solution [eg. Brooklyn Grange] enabling city dwellers to also begin the process of becoming food self-sufficient local towns and cities.

We could also be de-constructing archaic and wasteful, unsustainable housing construction, reclaiming the materials, but also restoring the soils and lands, and building our own houses esp. with natural earth and cob-building processes [eg. First Earth movie], passive solar, thermal mass, sustainable energies, revolutionary biotecture techniques [Earthship Biotecture] for heating and cooling, trapping and using rainwater, and treating sewage on site w natural earth knowledge and processes, etc. Very little or no furniture and unspoiled home goods should be going into land fills. All of it, the vast majority could be recycled, redesigned, repainted, reupholstered and re-imagined into new life by local peoples with the know-how and vision to reclaim it. Raw materials could also find new and glorious uses [eg. Wallace Detroit Guitars - Upcycled Guitars Made From Abandoned Homes]. Old doors and windows could be made into garden greenhouses and conservatories "to extend the growing season, and as a shelter for chickens and/ or quail" [from Off Grid World].
I am one generation away from grandparents who did know how to grow and preserve their own food, who had cold cellars on their properties, who knew how to design and sew their own clothes, and build their own houses, and they did it all at the local level. By building and supporting local community and local businesses, local banking or public local banks, we are creating real wealth in self-sufficient and self-sustainable lives, enjoying life and real living, sharing in the joy and abundance of growing and harvesting, and engaged with our neighbors, neighborhoods, and local community. We could become local towns and communities of handbikers, bike trails and bike lanes like Amsterdam in the Netherlands. We could ensure our community has, at least, one dynamic and exciting, welcoming and beautiful public square with native plants and trees etc. where people can gather to talk, engage, sit, stroll, enjoy an ice cream cone, watch and support local street performers entertain, maybe have local-truck businesses that visit, come and go, etc. on Friday night and Saturday like they do in Tuscan Italian towns.

A few decades ago while working together at a community bank, I worked with a co-worker and friend whose mother lived in Greece, and her Greek mother would come every summer to visit her daughter. The two of them would roam the stores looking at clothes they admired. Then, the Greek mother (actually a grandmother) would make the dress, skirt etc patterns herself, and sew the clothes that her daughter, my friend, had admired. Watching the two of them every summer, was ... almost miraculous. That elderly and sophisticated Greek grandmother had true life skills; she was self-sufficient, and it was marvelous. The clothes she sewed for herself and her daughter were absolutely fabulous; they both had THE most gorgeous and unique wardrobes, and it was all created with loving hands and overflowing generosity of heart.

Imagine if we were all so engaged in living, having a wealth of life skills at our fingertips,
what kind of loving and life-enhancing new earth we could be living, and bring forth?