Lest We Remain Unused

Before I get into the topic for this blog I want to make it clear that I was dishonest in the details with my posting on the ic.org website. I felt that in order to have interested people read my blog I needed to post it there, and because there is no category for people like me to sprout ideas I had to embellish in order to create my listing on their website. So I apologize to anyone that feels like they were mislead by my listing. I assure you though, that this is not an intellectual exercise. I have been committed to and will remain committed to the building of intentional communities and more specifically ecovillages in Southern Ontario.

So.... today's topic. What I would like to do is to get a little personal about myself and my desire to remain unused, as it were. I remember as a child watching TV, some sort of news program, and seeing Greenpeace activists scaling the side of a smokestack. They of course had some sort of banner that they attached to the structure. For whatever reason I was instantly drawn to this action. I recognized it as a brave act of caring for the earth. I wasn't old enough for any more complexity than that. My point is that I have carried a desire, from that point forward, to actively participate in change. I have been through many different paradigm shifts, philosophical constructs and prescriptions for societal change that I wish could be manifested.

These days I find myself most focused on the western worlds relationship with the rest of life on this planet, including most of the human population. Generally, most of my adult life I have wanted to see changes in society, I wanted to be a part of building a sustainable human culture. These days I feel more drawn to asking what would the rest of the biosphere ask of us. At this point I would like to share one of my favourite poems.

All will come again into its strength:
the fields undivided, the waters undammed,
the trees towering and the walls built low.
And in the valleys, people as strong and varied as the land.

And no churches
where God is imprisoned and lamented
like a trapped and wounded animal.
The houses welcoming all who knock
and a sense of boundless offering in all relations,
and in you and me.

No yearning for an afterlife,
no looking beyond,
no belittling of death,
but only longing for what belongs to us
and serving earth,
lest we remain unused.

~ Ranier Maria Rilke ~ 

Increasingly in recent months, the last three lines have stood out for me, especially "only longing for what belongs to us". It is clear to me that our culture relies heavily on extraction; taking what doesn't belong to us. We take from our fellow human beings, the biosphere in general and to such a degree that we end actually taking from future generations as we pollute, extract resources, destroy habitat and greatly contribute to species extinction. Anyways... I could go on, but if you are still reading this, than most likely you don't need me to say much more.

For me this ties directly to community as an opportunity to participate in culture change at a community level and hopefully a shift in the larger culture. At this point there is no physical community to visit, but it you are willing to do the work, join me and we could be community builders together.