Pharming

I gave a talk about an engineer's perspective on herbal healing in which I pointed to the huge number called Avogadro's which is the number of molecules of a particular compound in what is called a gram-molecular weight. That is the molecular weight of an element or compound as a number of grams, (those pesky little one-thousandth of a kilogram: 2.2 pounds). So a GMW of carbon would be 12 grams, and would contain roughly 6 times 10 to the 23rd power or 6 with 23 zeros to the right. Lots of molecules in twelve grams and even such effective and psychoactive substances like cocaine only take 303 grams (or roughly 12 ounces) to get that count. So a kilo of cocaine would contain 18 with 23 zeros to the right, enough for everyone on the planet to receive 10 with 13 zeros, 10 trillion molecules. And I wonder how many molecules are involved in one thought? 10, 1000, even a billion would be saturated in 10,000 molecules. And so it is with homeopathic herbal biodynamic healing: a few molecules will heal you, more will kill you. This seems so "alternative" until we realize that it is exactly what we do with well researched "chemotherapy". Dosage must be adjusted to kill the parasite without doing in the host. Pretty much the same thing.

Farming

Last night we participated in a local farm/arts program and heard stories about our and others farms. After listening to the work and meager returns available it would seem that anyone would have to be crazy to farm. Being crazy isn't necessary, but it helps. For me, the life gives me an opportunity to participate in life.

Share your knowledge. It's a way to achieve immortality. - Dalai Lama

I believe that the more I learn the less I know. Two things I know: there is a plan and it is not mine. That is a great relief to all, mostly me.

Arcopolis

Thinking about the growth of humankind on the planet and the cycles of small tribes, serfs and lords, cities, countries, empires, and back to fragments. Look at Yugoslavia! The Soviet Union. If the United States, would we remember that the North Dakotans never did like the South Dakotans? Or that the Texans don't like anyone and no one likes them? Just as baffling as the Montenegrans and the Kurds, (where did the Whey go?). Assemblages dissolve into components, much like a chemical molecule. Life arrived, (yes, arrived as in "Water Bears from Space" from some other planet), and thrived-- up to a point. Is this the point? I envision life assembling into the kind of Arcopolis that Paolo Soleri sketched--miles high, miles wide, able to generate all the energy they need from thunderstorms, direct solar and wind. 90% of the worlds population can live in 1000 of them with only 9 million in each and the rest of us can live on farms. Then it is up to our husbanding of the soil whether they are small farms producing delicious food or whether agribusiness will pump "Soylent Green" to them? I would prefer the former, cause I sure as Hell don't want to eat that factory farmed shit.

Self destruction

Ironically, most self destruction is generated through attempts at "self" preservation. The immortal idea that or egos are just that: immortal and unique. Life was simpler for us before the "creation" of us, that temporary phenomenon that illumines consciousness, uniqueness, and self. We are healthier if the boundary is drawn with a fuzzy line that encompasses more geography. Wego is more satisfying than ego. Self-less is more satisfying than selfish.

Industrialization

If you travel over the ground in a machine, you will see the world as mechanical; if you lead living creatures over it and work it, you will see the world as a living creature. When a boy plows with a team over forty acres, he knows where to stop and rest in the shade and water the horses; when he drives a tractor over it, he goes as fast as possible to get back to the barn for a soda. Somethings have been missed in the industrialization of agriculture; as they have in finance, health care, and education.  

Me as We

I am in the mix, or rather "we" are. I am not sure we refers to my Gemini twins or our marriage dyad. We have sought to find a transition from ego to wego, from me to we, to remember we are all in the same boat. One of the goals of nourishing flourishing has been to seek the grammar of spirituality that transcends language and dogma. Let us continue!

Today reading Wendell Berry's essay on farming he drew the line between plowing with horses and with a tractor. If we work with a machine, we see the earth as a machine; if we work with living creatures we see the earth as a living creature. If someone from a pulpit tells me how my spirit is made manifest, I see my spirit as external to my self; if I seek my spirit in the group, if I reconnect with the group, I will see my spirit in the group.  

A very inventive individual

He was the sort of man who could start a revolution with the proper word and an arched eyebrow. He will be remembered for single-handedly architecting the ideas that ruined, nay, completely destroyed two planets and a solar system. The planetary ideas were simple: harness a black hole to take care of garbage disposal, and a giant siphon to let gravity produce a tidal flow up and down from an extraterrestrial reservoir in geosynchronous orbit; the solar system was taken out an energy scheme that paired a black hole with the local star.

Nulla Dies Sine Linea! Hard to write a blog that insists a line a day when you have been flat on your back for 48 hours. Sunday and Monday are lost, oh well....the nice thing about minor sickness is that it makes you aware of how well you feel most of the time....kind of the idea of Thict Naht Hahns of the "non toothache". We fail to realize that we are mostly in the state of non-toothachiness and today more in the non-flu mentality.

Trying to save a saltwater farm is my challenge. A friend said the best way to start a parade is to find a parade, follow it, and turn it around and you will be at the head of the parade. So agriculture and navigation are skills that are slipping and are essential to survival, if not directly, indirectly. Encouraging and nourishing flourishing requires intention, effort, and feedback. Some would say mankind is thriving on the planet. Aren't we prolific? Procreative? I can hardly appreciate 6 billion or 9 billion on the planet when a hundred times that lives and die in my gut by the minute.

the jellyfish in the collander

I was educated as an engineer and early on got into systems analysis, which is one powerful analytical technique. There are two problems, drawing the system boundary, and figuring out the systems equation(s). The systems boundary is the outer limit in space and time that the system impacts, and the systems equation is the system output or behavior given system inputs. A simple system would be a pendulum on a clock and can be represented by a simple harmonic equation that yields movement back and forth, with the boundary at the case of the grandfather clock. Such factors as the gravitational constant, frictionless bearings, wind, weather, decay over time are disregarded as negligible in the textbook problem. 

Last night I attended the meeting of the local conservation trust and a question arose as to how the trust invests its money. The answer was that big oil was providing a very nice return so that the trust money could be used to "protect more land". 

I would have to say that the system boundary is being incorrectly drawn, and I am not talking about negligible effects. How can we use money to protect coastal land from industries that will inundate those lands? Granted the use of formally sequestered hydrocarbons is driven by consumers, but really, the line has to be drawn. 

Reading a book about writing on the left and right side of the brain so into the left I go for rapidwriting:
It seems to me that we need more institutions and fewer industries. Attach the word "industry" and suddenly the vision and caring of institutions dissolves. Think I am off base? Remember when banks were institutions and not the "financial industry"; hospitals have become the "healthcare industry" and let's not forget the colleges and universities that have become the "higher education industry" Think on that.