Son Jerry, as always, is constantly teaching about being in the moment and the importance of play as an evolutionary function.  This makes life so meaningful to me!  There is more meaning in my son's smile and giggle than in the world's collection of written wisdoms. 

Always love,
aethEric

Issues of sustainable global relevance are more often than not shoved aside in the media and even more importantly in our educational systems by the artificial, the contrived, the staged, and worst of all, the trivial. There are many reasons our modern cultures have created such an artificial value system through our couple hundred year romance with science, industry, and technology, but the reality remains that we as a culture are continuing to insist upon wearing the emperor's new clothes even though our best sciences are virtually screaming that there are icebergs ahead, we must change course. Yet, to quote my favorite quotable person (guess who?):

"The context of survival is radically altered. Our problems can no more be resolved within our former pattern of the human than the problems that led to quantum physics could be dealt with by any adjustment within the context of the Newtonian universe." (Thomas Berry, The Dream of the Earth, p.43)

Thank you Thomas Berry, once again we are in your visionary debt. For those of you reading that are still envisioning from within the box, I shall translate in as simple terms as it gets. Our technology can not solve the global issues that our technology has created. Please oh please don't sound byte me with that quote out of context, because I am not denying in any way shape or form that our technologies are an essential ingredient in the healing of the earth community process that we must undertake to avert... an even greater mass extinction event than the one that we have already set into motion. But our technologies are just that, an ingredient. Not the ingredient, but one of many. What is particularly alarming to me at present is that there are an alarming amount of supposedly tuned in green activists, such as Frances Beinecke, president of the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC), who are still convinced that through technology lies the answer. She recently stated in the spring 2008 issue of the NRDC's OnEarth magazine that if we only invested our budgets that are slated for domestic energy infrastructures for the next 20 years into global warming solutions that "We can stave off the biggest environmental and humanitarian crisis without disrupting economic growth."

Pardon me madam president, but with all due respect, get your head out of the greenhouse it's baking it in there and get a clue. This isn't about saving our economy. This isn't about how many new donors and corporate sponsors we can wrangle into our corral by playing the game. This isn't about pretending that everything is going to be fine in the morning if I just take the green colored pill. This is about waking up from the devastating dream spell that our entire extractive industrial culture is entranced with that economies must grow in order to be healthy and that progress is based upon ever greater use (exploitation) of available resources. What is needed is to reawaken our genetic sensitivities and awarenesses that technology has lulled to sleep in order "to create a new language, even a new sense of what it is to be human. It is to transcend not only national limitations, but even our species isolation, to (re) enter into the larger community of living species. This brings about a completely new sense of reality and of value." (Berry, The Dream of the Earth, p.42) We absolutely do need to judiciously apply our technologies towards mitigating the imbalances we have created. But underlying how we choose to apply our available funds and technologies are issues of fundamental awareness and context.

We live in a unique time in that the evolution of our species is now a matter of conscious choice. It will only be though a shift to an earth-centric context of reality (as opposed to a human-centric context of reality), and an earth-centric system of values (where what is beneficial for the sustainability of all life forms and life support systems also happens to be good for us), will we find a way though our planetary crises in any recognizable form. The real issue becomes one of value; how do we as a society choose to instill qualities of wonder, and of awe, of enchantment with the land and respect for it's infinite possibilities for life through our popular media and other various forms of cultural communication? The very experiences that make us truly human are the fundamental experiences that reconnect us with the experience of the divine in creation itself.

How do we shift from glorifying gangstas and perpetuating petty personas to glorifying grace and perpetuating praise? What we value, what we cherish, what gives us meaning, and depth, and fortitude, are the qualities reflected back to us by what we choose to believe in. It can only be my sincere heartfelt hope that an ever increasingly number of human beings around the globe choose to orient their lives around the planetary community of life in it's integral form over various forms of diminishment and separation or the illusionary fallacy of the almighty dollar as the ultimate bearer of worth while we still have maneuvering room within which to choose such things at all.

Telling stories that put our species into mythological context, within the universe, within the greater community of life, within the bioregions where we physically dwell and sustain ourselves is one way to enter into the great work of our times. Entering into purposeful relationships based on cooperation and giving is another. Encouraging and expecting radical honesty is another, especially from those who put themselves into positions of influence and leadership. When all is said and done, how we choose to define progress within the next decade or two will end up defining who we are as a species, and whether our community, the only real community, is worth living in or not in any acceptable manner for anyone.

My vote? Summed up in the name of my other blog, The Gaia Community College. I think we should all go back to college, and learn how to progress with dignity, intelligence, grace, and most importantly of all, together.

"Most often we think of the natural world as an economic resource, or as a place of recreation after a wearisome period of work, or as something of passing interest for its beauty on an autumn day when the radiant colors of the oak and maple leaves give us a moment of joy. All these attitudes are quite legitimate, yet in them all there is what might be called a certain trivializing attitude. If we were truly moved by the beauty of the world about us, we would honor the earth in a profound way. We would understand immediately and turn away with a certain horror from all those activities that violate the integrity of the planet." (Thomas Berry, The Dream of the Earth, p. 10)

Sensitivity.  We so need individuals who have not become inured to the worlds pain, and therefore become easily beholden to special interests.  Sensitivity to the world as it is is essential for a caring and compassionate soul to have and maintain an integral vision.  And I think that we are going to be pretty much stuck in an all too familiar rut until we achieve some form of leadership that walks with an integral vision.

Then again, public opinion is rapidly beginning to drive many of the market forces of the world, so maybe we are witnessing the birth of something new...

Ghandi said be the change that you would most like to see in the world.  So maybe we all just need to stand up and be the leadership that ultimately we desire, and the supposed "leaders" will wake up and smell the collective coffee.  If enough of us "Just Say No!" (remember that?!)...

Always Love,
aethEric

In addition to the obvious shower them with unconditional love, support, encouragement, give them the space within which to make their own mistakes, and always be there for them, the single most important thing we can give our children is context.  Our culture has lost our meaningful stories, the ones that let us know who we are, and what we are doing here, and why.  And we're just starting to learn that there is a new story to discover, one that is rooted in observable science, yet told through the heart. 

The Universe Story, The Great Story, The New Story, these are all names for the evolving awareness of telling the creation story of the universe as learned scientifically but told through the heart.  Thomas Berry and Brian Swimme are the best known proponents of the new story, but there are many, and our numbers are rapidly growing.  It is a story that serves to empower whatever your belief system is, and as such, is completely accessible by anyone.

Growing up, continually learning that we are all indeed connected, that we are all members of the same community, and learning how to interact with that community in a mutually enhancing way empowers a child to live and breath a meaningful existence, something that most of us were denied during our formative years.  Personally, I'm kind of jealous (in a playful way!) of our son and the world view that he is growing up with... you can see his love, enthusiasm, integrity and connectedness shine through whatever he is doing, and after all, isn't that what it's all about?

If you'd like to find out more about the new story, I have built a website called "The Gaia Community College" (get it?) dedicated to highlighting instances of such activity and aligned evolutions.  I hope it inspires!
Lots of Love!
aethEric

In a nutshell ~ everyone turns off their lights for an hour at a designated time.  This is an awesome example of how the individual actions of each of us can add up significantly and truly make a difference.  The statistics of the impact from last years Earth Hour can be found on their website.  If you like the idea, you can show your support by signing up, and spreading the word to your local community... maybe they'll sign up too!

Their main website can be found at Earth Hour 2008

Spread the word.  Earth Hour 2008 approaches!!!

Lots of Love,
Eric

Aho friends and family!

I've been watching this transition from Zaadz to Zaadz within the greater Gaia Community, and it has been amazing to watch different people's reactions to the change.  It's been quite illuminating in many ways, and reminds me of Octavia Butler's famous earthseed quote "God is Change" from The Parable of the Sower. 

Siona, one of the community admins that has been so graciously and conscientously guiding us through this process, posted a transitional blog entry the other day with the statement:

 "I'm humbled and grateful and so happy to see what our new site looks like. It's a little like the beginning of Zaadz, except with a team of 150,000 instead of 10.

(Next time it'll be 7 billion, right? The creation of this virtual Gaia Community is just practice for all of us becoming conscious of Gaia in the 'real world.' ;)"

This has been a very provocative statement to me, because we do live in an age where we are beginning to make the transition from little isolated cultural identities to a planetary identity within the even greater cosmogenesis event that we commonly refer to as universe.  As above, so below; our little online microcosm is a hopeful reflection for the greater macrocosm, and I can't help but notice and appreciate the numerous parellels. 

There will always be individuals within every species who "don't get it" for various reasons in the greater evolutionary scheme of things, and fall by the wayside.  In context of conscious humanity, I feel that this is akin to loosing perspective, the proverbial missing the forest for the trees.  Our species has spent the last ten thousand years or so doing our best to convince ourselves that the same rules that apply to everyone else don't apply to us, but as we begin to mature as a community (in all senses), we're beginning to understand the sheer folly of that basic premise. 

I am fascinated with this growing awareness of our transitional process, and this is one of the prime reasons I was drawn to Zaadz / Gaia in the first place.  Along those lines, and to honor the visionaries who are midwifing the memes that will help guide us through this transitional process, I have created The Gaia Community College.com and a Gaia Community College pod here in this community to create forum for further understanding of such awarenesses. 

I would like to coordially extend a warm invitation for interested individuals to our budding communities that are nuturing these growths, and encourage any and all participations and contributions.  Ultimately we are all living in a most stupendous time in the history of creation, and it has come to be that the choices that we make now determine the course our little ship will sail as we collectively explore the heavens.

Namaste.
Eric

Aho friends and family!

I just started a new pod to celebrate the new year here at Zaadz called The Gaia Community College pod.  It is dedicated to celebrating the thoughts of Thomas Berry, Brian Swimme, Drew Dellinger, Neal Rogan, and all other creative ambassadors of The New Story. 

What is The New Story you ask?  It is the emerging cosmology of our times, weaving together the perspectives of creation as described by science and conveyed in the languages of wisdom through our hearts.  The marriage of mind and heart, thought and feeling.  The New Story provides us with a meaningful context within which to lead our lives, and gives us perspective within which to function as a whole entity, and rejoin the community of life that we have alienated ourselves from for so long now.

Ultimately The New Story gives us the power and strength to heal what has been broken, and to walk boldly forward as integral beings with care, and compassion, and love.  

Thomas Berry has said "An integral story has not emerged, and no community can exist without a unifying story. " 

The New Story provides this integral story with the capacity of unifying our species as nothing else can. For after all, "The universe is a communion and a community.  We ourselves are that communion become conscious of itself. "

You are most cordially invited to experience this awakening perspective and join in this timely conversation for yourself.  After all, the only thing we really have to loose we've already lost, so all that's really left is to find it again, and embrace it with all our hearts.

Always Love,
Eric

Aho Relations!

I just watched "The Awakening Universe", a short 15 minute film by Neal Rogin available from The Pachamama Alliance, and I am completely floored by how elegantly this piece was written and presented.  It is the perfect introduction to The New Story as envisioned by Thomas Berry and Brian Swimme.  If you are unfamiliar with the concept, The New Story is the emerging cosmology where all of creation is shown to be an integral system as confirmed by science but told through a poetic lense.  As Thomas Berry says ~ "If you are going to tell the story of anything, you have to tell the story of everything."  Allowing for context in this day and age is of paramount importance, wherein we derive meaning and value, and The New Story provides that in a way undreamt of until very very recently.  It is the ultimate marriage of new world and old, of brain and heart, of thought and wisdom, and I would recommend, nay urge, all thinking, caring, compassionate, and aware souls to support, spread widely, share, and watch this blessed creation.

If I had one magical wish for my entire lifetime, I would want everyone alive to view this film.

Always Love,
Eric

Musical Offering ~ Emergence.  This is another taste from my new show.  VoxGaia is shaping up to be a performance art environment wherein soundscapes are created in real time to complement, augment, and accent a telling of The New Story a la Thomas Berry, Brian Swimme, et al.  I am quite excited about it’s unfolding process, and am continually amazed at the vibrancy it seems to inspire. 

Musical Offering ~ Planetary Celebration.  Planetary Celebration is part of my current unfolding creation of the sonic aspect of VoxGaia. (See my profile and the Thomas Berry quote there for more info, but in a nutshell it is from my new show that is in the process of being birthed). This is a real time (nothing has been pre-recorded) live solo performance. Ahh the wonders of friendly technology.  I can't even begin to express how much fun I have doing this, but then again, maybe the music speaks for itself...