the samsaric seasonal wheel creaks forward a notch earlier than usual

pale pink flowers on the coal-dark trees of montmartre

and dark laughing baby eyes discovering it all

white china sky

unreasonably warm February days

shameless rushes of vivid color, the flowers spread lasciviously over the trottoir of a florist

feet crisp on damp concrete

Baby mercifully asleep again.

Another biggish post, again referencing "Ishmael" and "The Continuum Concept", this time weaving in Rudolf Steiner.

In part nine of Chapter twelve of Daniel Quinn's "Ishmael" ( http://www.ishmael.com/ ), Ishmael (the Socrates-like teacher) tells his student that his task (in order to save the world) is to spread Ishmael's teachings as far and wide and he can. His student is a bit skeptical, but willing. He asks Ishmael a question, however, and effectively receives a (good, beneficial) question for an answer:

"One thing I know people will say to me is 'Are you suggesting we go back to being hunter-gatherers?'"
"That of course is an inane idea," Ishmael said. "The Leaver life-style isn't about hunting and gathering, it's about letting the rest of the community live--and agriculturalists can do that as well as hunter-gatherers." He paused and shook his head. "What I've been at pains to give you is a new paradigm of human history. The Leaver life is not an antiquated thing that is 'back there' somewhere. Your task is not to reach back but to reach forward."
"But to what? We can't just walk away from our civilization the way the Hohokam [Leaver tribe who abandoned their whole way of life and went towards a new one because the old one was not in harmony with the surrounding world] did.
“That’s certainly true. The Hohokam had another way of life waiting for them, but you must be inventive—if it’s worthwhile to you. If you care to survive.” He gave me a dull stare. “You’re [the Takers] an inventive people, aren’t you? You pride yourselves on that, don’t you?”
“Yes.”
“Then invent.”

* * *

When I first read "Ishmael" around 1997, I wanted badly to have a good answer to that flat "invent". I had none. A complete blank.

Now I do. It’s not completely elaborated yet (I’m still on babyhood/childhood), but it is solid, clear (if multifaceted, but an answer must be so if it is to properly respond to such a huge question), and proven.

My answer links with my previous long post in that it agrees that, given that state of the world today, there is little chance of avoiding some kind of very big reckoning very soon. In Linda Hogan’s “Solar Storms” (a very, very beautiful book that intimately, poetically, and magically explores Leaver culture from the point of view of a troubled teen estranged from her Native American relatives who goes back to them and (re)learns her own culture as an outsider), the main character says something to the effect of “If ever there were a disaster, I’d want to be near her—she can make anything out of anything,” of her mostly silent aunt Bush, who lives almost completely self-sustained on an island in a lake.

This little comment illustrates what the Takers (much of what we call “civilization”) must learn from the Leavers before the reckoning happens. The Takers must humble themselves to those that can help save what is good before being forced to become humble, simply being killed off by their own excesses.

How? We can look to Jean Liedloff (“The Continuum Concept”) and Rudolf Steiner (founder of the Waldorf-Steiner school system, the [modern, it did exist before, but not in so many words] concept of biodynamic agriculture, and philosopher) show us two instructive and effective ways out of the Taker culture’s degeneracy. Liedloff shows us how to take care of babies in such a way that they will not be emotionally traumatized at a very young age (a widespread plague in the Taker culture, resulting in adult depression/alienation). Steiner shows a way to build up character and “soul” strength in children—and, as many successful and happy Waldorf-Steiner graduates will testify, it works.

The downside is that Waldorf education, depending on the presence of one single teacher (for all subjects) per class for much of the grammar school years, can go awry if the teacher's way of being (personality, specific teaching method, mood, etc.) does not mesh with one or more of his/her student's ways of being.

However, this seems a small price to pay--it's not so hard to switch teachers, after all--for a truly progressive education that has the power to change--save(?)-- the world. Look at regular grammar school. Among the children, it's all about survival of the fittest (or rather the vainglorification of the most popular), and the most sensitive (I was one--developed a very hard shell to withstand it, but it took me until my teens to really be able to defend myself) get trampled, emotionally and (fortunately not in my case) physically.

Liedloff, too, shows us ways out of the mess our ancestors created. She practices therapy in California to right the psychological deficits amassed in babyhood, and there are many intentional communities that have been formed around ideas from "The Continuum Concept", such as babywearing, non-child centered parenting (the child is not the center of attention and is therefore in his/her rightful place at the sidelines of life, learning the ropes as it were, not internalizing the erroneous and damaging notion that he/she is the center of the universe), and nonviolence. The people that live in these communities currently have testified (on the Continuum Concept forum/listerv, see the Continuum Concept website for more information) http://www.continuum-concept.org/forum/index.html about their good (if sometimes difficult--takes a while to undo unhealthy internalized living patterns) experiences therein, especially for their children.

The discussion I've seen about and from these communities seems to mesh well with what I was talking about in my earlier big post, meaning what peaceful, thoughtful people can do in the face of the imminent degeneration of Taker culture is to create enclaves and protect them. It's more than unlikely--I'd say that it's impossible, but let's keep an open mind-- that everything can be saved/beneficially transformed from current Taker culture, but if enclaves like the Waldorf schools and the Continuum Concept intentional communities can be kept and nourished, then there is indeed bright hope for the future beyond the apocalyse.

Assorted happinesses:

A sleepy purring kitten on my lap

Confessing unsaid rotting sins

Knowing that my Oberlin professor amazing poet friend Kazim thinks I'm good enough to translate his work into French

Getting back (after 20 years) into contact with an old high school friend

Living where Josephine Baker used to dance

It just occurred to me that though I belong to the LiveJournal group abstractthought, I actually am much more into concrete thought these days; that is, bridging the gap between thought and the physical actions it engenders. It's not so much about being down to earth as being all-connected--the water to the earth, the earth to the sky, the sky to the solar system, the solar system to the galaxy, the galaxy to the universe, etc. And all connections in between as well, of course.

Like being an activist, but an activist for the universe: spiritually, mentally, and physically whole. Or at least trying to be...

This post is going to be a kind of wiki stub for an essay that could get quite long.

Baby is asleep. I have an hour. Go.

Reading "The End of America: A Letter to a Young Patriot" by Yale-educated, former Rhodes scholar Naomi Wolf. It's an urgent book, showing hundreds of aspects of the Bush administration, great and small, that closely parallel those in dictatorships like those of Hitler and Mussolini (down to words, actions, and clothing?!) that indicate that the USA is in the process of a fascist (she uses it because it is the right word, and I agree) shift. I am not going to go into detail because I haven't the time at the moment--but it is a book to read in order to prepare for the immediate future-- and the present.

However, I diverge with her line on one fundamental point--the book only really matters if one wants to preserve the good old USA. Or even the western status quo. Having also read Howard Zinn's "A People's History of the United States of America", I have rather little faith in the the basis of the formation of the US. Meaning if you have a so-called republic that is in fact founded on Native American genocide, the backs of African slaves, and rampant greed, how could you possibly expect it to turn out well?

I am very very skeptical. I do not think the answer lies within the history of what one normally calls "civilization", either.

"Ishmael", by Daniel Quinn, argues that there was a shift in human culture at the time of the agricultural revolution, about 8000 BC. Up until then, humans had lived in harmony with nature, taking what they needed and leaving what they did not. There were conflicts, but not huge, bloody wars as people were tribal and nomadic and thus flexible as to where they could live. The peacekeeping law of nature--that is, the law that says that animals may compete to the full extent of their capabilities, but no animal may hunt down its competitors, destroy their food, or deny them access to food--was respected. At the time sedentary agriculture came into being (the beginnings of "civilization" as we know it), humans began to hoard food, hunt down their competitors, and deny them access to food. The human race became violent, even against itself--Cain (agriculturalist) against Abel (pastoralist, herder, gatherer). Quinn labels the Cain people "Takers" and the Abel people "Leavers" The world as it is today, has been taken over by the Takers--kind of like if Germany had won in WW2.

Leaver societies are based on cooperation, Taker societies on no-holds-barred, God-ordained competition. Leavers live in accordance with their evolutionary biology, meaning that they base their societies on socio-cultural (influenced by the physical evolution of the human body, of course) models that have worked well for humans for millenia, while Takers distort those models through greed for power, thus getting the power, but only in the short term. Many diverse sources, from very sober scientists and social analysts to astrologists and even the ancient Mayans (whose calender actually ends somewhere around the year 2020), agree that human life on this planet is on the brink of imploding if we do not do something quickly. The Takers are taking the rest of humankind (and a lot of other species as well) down with them.

Jean Liedloff's "The Continuum Concept: In Search of Happiness Lost" builds a foundation as to how we can act to change the world constructively. Her basic thesis is that we are not treated as we should (must) be treated when we are babies, and thus grow into adults whose emotional-psychological foundations of personality are riddled with painful holes of babyhood needs unfulfilled. Babies in Leaver cultures are constantly carried and attended to--when they need it, never more (witness western mothers chatting away to their babies, an act which I myself am not immune to, which tends to encourage selfishness at a young age). They are never left to cry more than about ten seconds, never placed in strollers or cribs, and are breastfed until at least the age of two (sometimes up to seven). Liedloff says that if babies are not given what they need physically and emotively (being carried constantly, breastfeeding, etc.--in accordance with the way humans evolved, see "Our Babies, Our Selves" by Meredith Small), they grow into emotionally troubled adults, thus causing blanket depression, alienation, and all sorts of violence in our society. The good news is that apparently these lacunae can be filled later on in life. I myself have not researched this claim further, but I felt it to be true intuitively as I have had experiences that bear it out.

The USA is a prime example of Taker, alienated culture. Many people like Wolf make a big deal out of the rule of law and the wonders of democracy, but looking hard at true Leaver culture makes this seem absurd--when one is at peace with oneself and the world, living in the way nature intended, one *does not in any way need* outside laws. The laws come intuitively, from within. As they should.

So my answer to Wolf, in this age of the apocalyptic Indian death/destruction goddess, the Kali Yuga, is maybe, though it won't be pretty by any means, it's better to let the Taker world implode. Those sympathetic to Leaver ways should protect both themselves and enclaves of Leavers. Those same people would lead us out of the burning chaos of the Taker implosion.

To be continued...?

My baby daughter is doing something to me that feels very strange. She, her presence, her interaction with me, is dissolving my carapace, my hard outer shell, my exoskeleton I built up long ago in order to be able to deal with the nastiness and horror of the "outside" world.

So.

I feel my heart shattering... again, as it did when I was little, when I see homeless people on the street, especially women with babies. When I look at pictures of animal testing. When I think of the tragedy of my parents. When I think about the polar bears, the baby Harp seals, the whales...

The horror is engulfing.

I do not know how to deal with this. I know that my inherent sensitivity is a natural thing and should be celebrated, not suppressed, but how to do that in the age of Kali Yuga?

How?

More site bits:

the rush and flooding warmth

burgeoning summer

motherhood

change flowing more naturally now

blackness held at bay

Been ages since I last posted. The lowdown: my daughter, Lilas Anais Djegadissane, was born on August 30, 2006 at 2:45am. She has been my 24-7 boss ever since. She has jet black eyes and looks Chinese Buddhalike before her bath. She wants to read and type very badly and dearly loves breastmilk.

Site bits:

moving into heat and golden splashes of sun

once again the cycle turning on itself

movement in my belly

smiles and gurgles from a growing little girl inside me

movement with a dusky lover

become even closer now

despite tears and conflict

towards white shell spires and secret gardens

aloft over Paris

Bits from my very-in-need-of-updating site:

cold snap

in my face

waking me out of the dread of it

by plunging me into it

and thus propelling me forward

snow falling in Paris

rare and precious

crystalline and fragile

sudden white frozen air
but also
the sudden sweetness of a thousand lights
bursting into bloom

stolen kisses
heat in greenery

opening sleeping eyes to rainbows and the moon creeping over the ceiling

the land of summer's twilight
all over the city

A peep:

Still in bountiful, senusuous Paris.
It's hot.
Quite hot.
Especially after weeks of rain and depression.
I have a little girl doing 360° kung fu kicks in her/my amniotic fluid.
Very happy to soon be unemployed.
Moving to Montmartre in a month. Two steps from the only vineyard left in Paris, seven minutes from the Sacré-Coeur.
Painting myself, belly included, day-glo and doing slow-mo movement for the Faites de la Lumière (Festival of Light) next Saturday. http://faitesdelalumiere.net/
Salsa has just started up again on the banks of the Seine.
Mindset: http://www.nicecupofteaandasitdown.com/
Life is finally blooming again.