This morning I received an email from a serious young man with a military background that pointed me to an infographic which, now that I’ve skimmed it, I’d say looks important.
Notes on Military Suicide
Pay attention especially to what’s near the end, a theory about why so disproportionately many veterans take their own life. Here’s a screen shot of that section.
To me, this dovetails with what I said about my own Mom just yesterday, that living with her daughter Paula she feels useful, that human beings of whatever age need to feel useful. And, it dovetails with and what permaculture can offer us, a labor-intensive way of working with Nature that not only restores her abundance and thus offers hope for the future, but will need at least one out of ten people presently alive upon this still good Earth to reengage our now stuporous, corpulent, substance-and/or entertainment- addicted bodies with our minds and hearts in loving, joyful interaction with her soil, water, air, plants, insects, birds, animals, etc.
Imagine how permaculture would change everything, not just our relationship with Earth, but with each other, with our own bodies, with our souls.
First imagine, then act! Start with your own household, expand from there.
Thanks for reminding me that there’s a purpose to the labor intensive aspect of permaculture. I’ve been getting a bit down on myself for how much front end work this is. I do feel like it’s the right thing to be doing and it brings me great joy. I’ve just had this little background chatter saying if I knew what I was doing it wouldn’t be so much work. Ultimately, we aim to create cohesive, mutually beneficial systems that require less control and work … but in the meantime, there’s something healing in the work itself. Many thanks!
Reblogged this on FedUpYours' Blog.
I don’t think Permaculture wants to be labeled as ‘labor intensive’, the whole point is to design a sustainable system that once installed continues to be less and less labor intensive. Instead of 1 hour thinking and 11 hours working will become 11 hours thinking and 1 hour of highly productive work.
This is a verbal faux-paux that I’m sure was an accident on your part. Everything about Permaculture is to get to low labor input & maintenance thus the importance of perennial vegetables, chop & drop mulching, stacking in time & space, creating guilds, etc.
Cheers
Yes, that’s the aim, but it begins in a labor-intensive way. Thanks for the correction!