Apollo bay, responses to climate change, peak oil, etc

Well its been a while since I posted here because so much has been going on, though I have covered very little physical distance.

I am now in Melbourne staying in the same bed I left to visit Apollo bay to practice partner yoga, massage, and deepen my understanding of permaculture with a very special person who has been successfully integrating these disciplines into a powerful unifying practice.

This blog is not appropriate to describe the powerful inner journey of these precious few weeks, but it will no doubt come over in future posts. For now, with apologies to Fern for my witterings as she calls them, some thoughts:-

This global wander has been an exploration of contrasts at a very interesting time for our world. True to the spirit of Gonzo and improvisation, I have thrown myself into many strange situations with full passion and observed my reactions, getting caught up in the thick – then freeing myself. Well aware that this time is both real life and an excursion from it. The word Holzwegge seems appropriate, meaning a circuitous wander that has value in itself.

It has been observed of Generation X, we, lacking responsibilities, living in extended youth, reach thirty and suddenly find ourselves in a rush to make up for lost time and become hyper-responsible.
On the cusp between heady, youthful freedom, potency and the diametric desire for more stable, life- preserving responsibility is a wild and confronting place to be – a microcosm of a global unfolding.

In the face of world economic slowdown, peak oil, climate change, those cognoscent are taking action in divers ways. Some are digging in with stores of tools, grain and medical supplies, preparing for chaotic scenes such as I witnessed in Argentina following the collapse of their economy.

Some are reacting dynamically by building resilience into their food, education and social networks, many influenced by the Transition Towns movement, swapping seeds, growing are sharing knowlegde via bulletin boards and web seminars.

Some are choosing to see the world while they still feel they can, others choosing to leave that potential alone and find comfort in goods, insurance policies and reinforce their own commitment to home, friends and partners.

Of that generation whose parents grew up in the shadow of Luftwaffe, and matured during the threat of the Oil crisis, nuclear war and miners strikes we were primed for darker times.

Amongst my classmates we have observed differences in those with younger, and older parents like mine who remember the bombed out shops and food rationioning. My Grandmother I percieved even as a child was still traumatised by those bombings (Swansea – my home town was bady hit) and a constant worrier until she died.

Witnessing the enforced resilience of Vientnam and Cambodia, and of the conciously evolving resilience of the permaculturists has renewed my hope for the human prospect.

The child of the 1950s inspired by Dan Dare comics, imagined electiricity too cheap to meter, flying cars and domestic robots. Throught my childhood in the 1980s, we children had a similar idea of the future, but even then the prospect seemed less rosy.

Two American television shows of the time were the only things that would bring me in from playing in the woods: -The A team and MacGuyver who could wind his way out of any tricky situation using his engineering knowledge, duct tape and his swiss army knife.

I had inherited books and chemistry sets from my parents, though trying to purchase the items for my experiements it was obvious times had changed much to my consternation. It was no longer possible to buy ammonia or hydrochloric acid as cleaners from a hardware store, an icecream seller would no longer “give you a piece of dry ice, for your experiments” even if refrigereation technology had moved on.

Most often one was met with products already processed into goods, and the question “What do you want it for ?” - not easy question to answer as a twelve year old, bent on making a model rocket engine or electified umbrella.

Fears of safety means a modern chemistry set that produces no bangs, noxious gasses or corrosive liquids. Surely that was most of the fun.

Inspired by a book – the Hackers Handbook, guaranteed to appeal to the – here was a world where one could really improvise, the ultimate tool of free expression. Now for once was the ultimate swiss army knife or chemistry sets, with nothing but the computer itself and oneself, with understandingand patience one could make it dance.

I took to progaming very quickly, having no interest in playing computer games, but the nineties ecological issues had brocken into mainstream conciousness bands such the levellers, crass, sang and screamed respectively about the issues of the day, and promoted a rural pastoral vision for the future. I too was caught up in the whorlwind, I still believe in the there is only One Way of life ( and thaaaats your own, your own, your own..... ) Now it feels to me at least, that drunken dream is becoming the sober reality in places and in ways I would never expected or ever imagined I would experience.

It was only later I realised the unity of these divergent themes.

When faced with a radical crisis, when the old way of being in the world, of interacting with each other and the realm of nature doesn't work anymore, when survival is threatened by seemingly insurmountable problems, an individual human – or species – will either die or become extinct or rise above their limitations with an evolutionary leap. This is the state of humanity now, and this is its challenge – Eckhart Tolle

The Stones were right “You can't always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you get what you need” and I most certainly am