Three signs of hopefulness on a day when I am already so fucking happy:
1. This morning I read an article about the National Air Sex Championships in Austin, Texas. In May’s GQ. Don’t ask me why I was reading that, I was in a sexual stupor and it was at hand, but it was surprisingly funny. Then again, I am easy to please in that state…
My point though, it that there are Air Sex Championships!! How did we all not know this?!? (I assume if you’d known, you would have told me, right?) Plus, there is video… And of course a theme song. Guess. Go ahead. I’ll give you a hint. Phil Collins….
”I can feel it coming in the air tonight…” (Credit for that joke to the funnies at GQ.)
2. There is a Root Gathering of permaculturists happening right now in Eastern Washington, devoted to the love, cultivation, propagation and edible-ification of all kinds of different roots. There are old kinds of knowledge re-emerging right now.
3. And, on a more practical and serious note: Bank of America is cutting lending to coal! Looky here.
Now, my good friend has been spending time with some folks who are pretty convinced that the apocalypse is on its way, like, soon. I just talked with her tonight. And, Savage! my own pal A really wanted to sit me down and talk about "near-term human extinction" last time she visited.
This is all understandable. Also makes me want to ask for a leather strap to bite down on.
(Btw: “Savage!” is the exclamation that Forest has chosen in place of “Jesus!” Trying it out. Let me know what you think.)
I like what visionary astrologer Caroline Casey has to say about this. She says “Imagination lays the tracks for the reality train to follow…Do you like that vision of our future? Well then, don’t vote for it with your imagination.”
This is, of course, harder than it sounds.
But, here are some more ideas on how that could play out, from rebellious optimist, astrology Rob Brezny:
How can we influence people to stop their extermination of nature? How can we motivate people to stop committing genocide against animal species? [Choose Method A or Method B or a blend of both.]
Method A.
1. Nag people with scientific data that shocks them into acknowledging how much harm human activity is inflicting.
2. Shame them about the sin of bequeathing their descendants a damaged, impoverished planet.
3. Badger them to dissolve the unethical greed that leads them to consume so many of the earth's resources and produce too much waste.
4. Criticize them for being too stubborn and ignorant to change their destructive habits.
5. Goad them with financial incentives to do the right thing even if they don't want to do the right thing.
+
Method B.
6. Express smart love for the interconnected web of life.
7. Celebrate the fact that there are other forms of consciousness and intelligence besides just the human kind.
8. Embody the hypothesis that spending time in wild places enhances one's mental hygiene and physical health.
9. Value the feminine as much as the masculine.
10. Cultivate the art of empathy, and demonstrate how to make it work in everything you do.
11. Show what it means to think with your heart and feel with your head.
12. Stay in close touch with the Mysterium, the other real world that is the root of the material world.
13. Vow to bring the I-Thou dynamic to bear on all your relationships.
14. Be as curious about intimacy as you are about power.
I am for Method B, if only because I can imagine doing it for a long time and because, as I mentioned before, I am so very happy now.
Selfishly, I want to stay this way. And having tried Method A, I can say with certainty that it is a buzzkill.
Unselfishly, I’m pretty sure a happy (also sexually satisfied, wildly intelligent, curious, unserious, buoyed-by-the-sacred, willing to be a fool) me is a lot more persuasive to those who will be next in line to love this world.