What do we think about when we turn the shower on? Do we think about the water flowing out of the showerhead, or where it comes from, or where it is going? Or do we think of what it means to be able to take a hot shower at any given time, with clean water? Do we think, “water is part of a cycle,” as we step into the tub and the small part of the hydrologic cycle with which we have daily contact as urban dwellers streams over us and washes us?

Increasingly, people are thinking about this question, in creative and unorthodox ways. For the past seven years, the Greywater Guerrillas have been building greywater systems and constructed wetlands in urban backyards, as well as conducting workshops. One of the co-founders, Cleo Woelfle-Erskine, has worked on wetlands restoration at Heron’s Head Park in Bayview Hunter’s Point. They are self taught and amorphous in size, with folks scattered all over the West Coast calling themselves Greywater Guerrillas. It’s an enterprise working on the edges of modern urban infrastructure to help design an alternative for wasteful water practice. Co-founder Laura Allen says, “Using greywater encourages people to take responsibility for the water cycle. Greywater is a small piece of the [hydrologic] cycle, but when you start to look at it, it helps you to understand more about water.” Getting in touch with greywater and constructed wetlands, especially in urban settings, where people are far removed from the sources of their water, is one part of becoming more in line with natural hydrologic processes. So what is greywater, and how does it connect us with the hydrologic cycle?

“Greywater is water that flows down sink, shower, and washing machine drains, but not the toilet,” according to the Guerrillas’ soon-to-be-released book Dam Nation: Dispatches from the Water Underground. Laura is hopeful that the book will be available within the next year. This book is the extension of the popular zine that the Guerrillas published for roughly two years, featuring a history of Bay Area water politics which led to the damming of the Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite that provides San Francisco with its urban water supply. The loss of the Hetch Hetchy Valley is considered by many to be an ecological disaster, reducing a once mighty water system to a concrete conduit which stretches hundred of miles from source to city. A side effect of this type of water transportation mentality is the utterly wasteful sewer systems that many cities have constructed. Greywater is thoughtlessly mixed with black water (water from toilets) and sewage, rendering a potential resource useless. The Guerrillas address this in their zine as well: included are detailed drawings of DIY plumbing alterations and self-build composting toilets, all designed to run greywater independently of the sewer system, and back into the soil.

“Greywater contains nitrates and phosphates from household cleaning products. If released untreated, these compounds pollute rivers and groundwater, but to garden plants, they are valuable nutrients. The easiest way to use greywater is to pipe it right outside and use it to water ornamental plants or fruit trees,” write the Guerrillas in their book. The group has two greywater systems in their own urban backyard in the East Bay. One, connected to the kitchen sink, is indeed a simple system: a long hole was cut in the house’s siding and a large drainpipe and bark-chip filtration box were installed which diverts tap water to a bathtub full of reeds, cattails, and bulrushes. The roots of these plants feed on organic compounds, removing them from the water itself, so that by the time the water flows out of the bathtub, it is clean enough to be reused. “The bathtub is attached to a perforated hose that is buried in this bed over here,” Laura says, indicating a large flower bed where the water from the kitchen sink flows. Grease from the sink is caught in the bark-chip biofilter before it gets to the tub. Grease becomes stuck to the chips as it pours over, while water is allowed to filter through. It is literally as simple as placing bark chips in an open topped box and letting the grease get trapped in the porous material. Every so often, the greasiest chips may be removed and composted, while fresh ones are put in the filter.

Recently, the Guerrillas hosted a workshop around the installation of their newest constructed wetland, in their backyard, which harvests water from their showers and diverts it to another bathtub, and which then flows to their bountiful vegetable crop and herb spiral. “We usually do a workshop at someone’s house whenever they want a greywater system installed,” Laura says, emphasizing the nature of performing several tasks at once for maximum benefit. The Guerrillas have installed around 15 systems around California, Seattle, and Detroit. While greywater may seem to many a natural and preferred method of dealing with waste water, installing wetlands made from salvaged bathtubs and reused pipes isn’t exactly standardized in building codes. The California Greywater building code, according to Laura, is much more expensive to follow, and more regulations apply: “Hence the word ‘guerrilla’ to describe what we are doing.”

Greywater “connects you personally to your own water use and the water cycle. When you use greywater in your house, then your house becomes more of a system too, and it becomes a really water aware place,” says Laura. This means not only being more aware financially about the benefits of reusing your water, but of the processes of cleaning greywater with nature’s own filters (roots and bark chips), and watching it flow from one system (the kitchen sink) to another system (a constructed wetland in a bathtub) to yet another system (a vegetable patch). A greywater system can be as simple as disconnecting your sink drains and placing a bucket under the open pipe. Once the bucket is full, use it to flush your toilets, or perhaps use it on your houseplants. Simple solutions such as this are excellent for apartment dwellers who do not have the space for wetlands. Of course, greywater systems can be as large and biologically complex as the wetlands at Heron’s Head Park. Either way, greywater use is an important and necessary way of preserving and respecting one of Earth’s resources.

For more information about the Greywater Guerrillas and upcoming events, visit their website at www.greywaterguerrillas.com.

The story of permaculture and its founder, Bill Mollison, is profoundly human and profanely inspiring. After spending 28 years studying natural ecosystems in Australia and becoming full fledged in the institution of academia, Mollison had a revelation. What he was observing in nature and studying in books had little practical application in real, human life. In fact, the systemic interactions that he saw occurring in nature were being destroyed, defied, and ignored by human civilization. Massive amounts of energy were (and are) being used to grow and transport food, to transport humans, and to live in modern cities. At the same time global decision makers were proclaiming that the Green Revolution would feed the world, he saw that this industrial agriculture "solution" was actually destroying the soil and perpetuating hunger. From this perspective, Mollison modeled the practice of permaculture -permanent agriculture- an integral design theory for human activity and prolonged existence, that very simply puts nature to work by combining maximum productivity with minimum expenditures of energy and resources.

Based on the intricate relationships in forest eco-systems, Mollison began creating food forests, of nuts and fruits and other perennial plants. His vision was of food production and human settlements that do not expend energy each season, but rather produce surpluses of it. In a forest system, layer upon layer from the canopy to the understory, to shrubs, flowers, and roots are utilized to create a "guild" or symbiosis of plants, each connected to the other and comprising a complex whole. There is no rotating of crops, fallow land, nor plowing of fields. The relationships in a forest regulate and thrive off of each other. This is nature at work. By intensifying land use, rather than trying to conquer nature, permaculture attempts to understand and design natural relationships that maximize energy and resources in order to minimize work and waste. Permaculture design builds a permanent framework that reaps continued harvests.

With the publication of his first book, Permaculture One ( 1978, co-authored by his student David Holmgren), Mollison unleashed an idea, of logic in design and respect for nature, that has become an unstoppable worldwide movement. Permaculture has expanded from its agricultural roots to express "permanent culture", designing and building culture and community that feeds and fuels itself. In Mollison's words, "permaculture is urging complete cooperation between each other and every other thing, animate and inanimate." From agriculture, aquaculture, and horticulture; to water, energy, and waste; to building, transportation, and community, permaculture is a design philosophy that can be applied to each and every human activity, in any setting.

While it deals with complex systems of interaction, permaculture is governed by a set of simple ethics: Care for the Earth, Care for People, Distribute Surplus, and Reduce Consumption (or reinvestment in the first two ethics). In the words of Scott Horton, editor of Permaculture Activist magazine, "Care for the Earth and Care for People have an implicit balance between them". By reducing consumption and distributing surplus we are caring for ourselves and other people, all of us components of the earth system. This set of ethics is what makes permaculture universal to any human activity, land use, or place and why we see it being taught and perpetuated in parts of the world as diverse as remote villages in Africa and South America, where permanent settlements have replaced foraging and hunting cultures, and dense urban centers, that are typically enveloped in energy consumption and dominance of nature.

In addition to ethics, permaculture is guided by a dozen or so design principles that emphasize the importance of the relative location of each element, in a garden, home, or community, and that strive to maximize their functional connections. If every element in a design has multiple functions, and each is related to every other element, then efficiency and productivity are increased, and resource and energy consumption are decreased. Taking the time to think about each component of a design and its cycle of life, and then utilizing every possible connection in that life flow, is what permaculture is about. Claude Genet, of Green Mountain Permaculture, uses the example of a kitchen to describe the logic of permaculture design. In a kitchen your sink, stove, and refrigerator are all located relatively close together, along with countertops, knives, bowls and other tools for preparing food. It would be inefficient and illogical to have these items in different rooms, but in a garden this is often precisely the case.

To apply permaculture to a garden is to recognize the value of every element, whether plants, ponds, greenhouses, or compost piles, and then place them in relation to each other. A keyhole or spiral formation is often used in planting. These are intensive design patterns that both benefit the gardener's expenditure of energy and foster symbiotic relationships among the plants. For example, the Native American combination of corn, beans, and squash provide a natural synergy; the corn forming a pole for the beans to climb, the beans fixing nitrogen in the soil, and the squash forming a ground mulch layer. There are endless similar beneficial relationships between plants, that thousands of years of human survival have uncovered and science has explained. This is permaculture design: ethically applied science that benefits from the logic of nature. The same concept of recognizing the intrinsic value in every thing can be applied to community or city design. Where homes are oriented in relation to the energy of the sun; where people are located in relation to food, transportation, and work; and how water and waste are cycled, are all questions that can be addressed in urban permaculture. Intentional communities that apply this design logic are operating in the Bay Area and all over the world, in urban and rural settings, and in climates from the Arctic to the Sahara.

Our fair city of San Francisco is currently hosting its first ever permaculture design course at Strybing Arboretum in Golden Gate Park. A guild of seasoned veterans from around the world is teaching the three month series of classes, sowing permaculture concepts and sprouting design ideas in fertile minds. Inevitably, those learning now will in turn propagate what they have learned and teach more teachers. Uncannily, people that learn permaculture are inspired to action and activism. It is in this infectious way the permaculture movement has spread and spanned the globe.

A final important thought on permaculture is that it is a revolution without a center, a paradigm shift from consumption and capitalism to an ethical philosophy void of politics, government, and hierarchy. It is not anarchy either, but rather complete and utter cooperation, between humans and the environment. As Bill Mollison says, "You can't cooperate by knocking something about or bossing it or forcing it to do things. You won't get cooperation out of a hierarchical system." Permaculture is building intentional communities, of plants and people, that sustain themselves over time. It is a dismissal of conventions and a reworking of values. As the idea of permaculture spreads among individuals, to their friends and their friend's friends, a collective conscious is being formed and a subtle revolution is underway, right before our eyes.

Most of the systems by which this modern, industrialized society has been organized are hierarchical and linear. They are designed to keep resources separated, and to keep people constantly working harder and harder, and often battling with their neighbors, for fewer returns. This is the case for political systems, as American democracy often takes direct action out of the political process. It is true of social and economic systems as well: families are increasingly living separated from each other in cookie cutter houses, with inequitable distribution of infrastructure development and taxes. A person’s income is intimately tied to their access to resources in every facet of life, although it is often distributed inequitably and is unequally taxed. Models for social and economic growth usually promote monocultures and rarely take into account anything beyond dollar value, especially the environment. Doing this ignores the fact that monoculture and poor environmental health will ultimately make scarce resources even harder to maintain. Meanwhile, hierarchical systems also mean a few people concentrate bigger shares of resources in order to maintain control and power.

Cooperatives are an answer to hierarchical political, social, and economic systems. They are much more democratic in daily activity than prevailing systems of politics and business management. They allow for much more equity in resource distribution, and live up to the adage of getting out of it what you put in. In all of their forms, co-ops are inclusive, empowering, and flexible. Co-ops offer the possibility of ownership to people who are likely shut out of that opportunity in prevailing society. Creativity and collaboration is possible in an environment of open communication and development, and co-ops are often places of incredible diversity, answering the problems of a monoculture. They are as close to a utopian ideal in a non-utopian universe as anything else. Belonging to and supporting collective governance is an amazing opportunity to cooperate for maximum resource benefit, and potentially influence policy development, as is the case with the Landless Worker’s Movement in Brazil. This group has instigated and gained great change in Brazilian agrarian reform.

What are cooperatives?

Cooperatives range from business models to living situations, therefore encompassing most of society’s major structures of political, social, and economic systems. In the case of business models, cooperatives include employee owned worker cooperatives such as Rainbow Grocery and Other Avenues Grocery, credit unions such as the Permaculture Credit Union, and purchasing cooperatives, in which groups of merchants employ economies of scale as large purchasing blocs in order to get discounts and pool marketing. Housing co-ops are one type of intentional community, which encourage cooperation amongst neighbors who have created small-scale living situations. Each member of a housing co-op owns a piece of a legal entity, which in turn owns real estate held in common. As such, each housing member belongs to an association, which usually elects a board of directors to develop and regulate occupancy agreements. This is distinct from condominium situations in which owners purchase real estate directly and therefore have little intimate engagement in communality.

The modern cooperative, the “organization owned by and operated for the benefit of those using its services,” according to the Encyclopedia Britannica, got its start in the mid 1800’s in Britain. The Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers created a set of rules and guidelines that are in wide use today, including open membership, democratic control, a lack of religious or political discrimination, sales at market prices, and earmarking earnings for education programs. Development of cooperatives in the United States was mainly a rural enterprise into the early twentieth century, in the forms of agricultural marketing and supply co-ops. Marketing co-ops provide a stage for marketing common commodities, promoting cooperation between farmers and buyers. Supply co-ops provide common access to farming inputs, such as fertilizers and seeds, which once again promotes cooperation for maximum resource distribution. Modern agricultural cooperatives are thriving, including Tillamook Creamery from Tillamook, Oregon. This cooperative of dairy farmers provides cheese, milk, and other dairy products to consumers at very decent prices, and allows each farmer to reap the benefits of collective governance in the dairy farming industry. The second half of the twentieth century in the United States has seen the emergence of cooperatives such as credit unions and housing co-ops in more urban contexts, with increasing influence over reigning political and economic models. That being said, it is a rural cooperative movement from Latin America that is demonstrating this increasing influence most successfully.

A Model for Cooperative-Initiated Reform: The Landless Worker’s Movement

The Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra (MST), known in English as the Landless Worker’s Movement, is the largest social movement in Latin America. It is a highly organized answer to agrarian land reform in the country of Brazil, which has constitutional mandates for land use and yet has deep discrepancies in land ownership. Three percent of the population owns two thirds of Brazil’s arable land, which often goes unused despite a constitutional provision that states abandoned land will be seized by the government and given to those willing to farm it. According to the MST website, “Since 1985, the MST has peacefully occupied unused land where they have established cooperative farms, constructed houses, schools for children and adults and clinics, promoted indigenous cultures and a healthy and sustainable environment and gender equality. The MST has won land titles for more than 350,000 families in 2,000 settlements as a result of MST actions, and 180,000 encamped families currently await government recognition. Land occupations are rooted in the Brazilian Constitution, which says land that remains unproductive should be used for a ‘larger social function.’” The MST’s Commitments to the Earth and to Life encourages its collective members to “fight against latifundia for all that possess land, bread, studies and freedom.”

Much of the MST’s success in gaining title to unused land is due to its organizational abilities. Elements of the struggle that land reformers face are identified, and collectives are assigned to work on each element. These include production, cooperation, education, environment, gender, political education, health, culture, communications, human rights, and youth. Each sector works with international groups, the political left in Brazil, and the public sector to ensure maximum safety and success for the MST. While the MST has achieved massive success over its two decade struggle, members also face huge obstacles. Fierce battles in courts and private militias hired by land owners to harass and often brutalize squatters are but two of these, but the group continues. The MST counts many supporters around the world, mostly due to their exceptional organizational abilities, their dedication to equality, and their collaborative process of democracy. This particular movement is centered on agrarian reform; for both rural and urban contexts, there are any number of valuable lessons to be learned from the MST about collective governance influencing the highest levels of a hierarchy in order to ensure a shared living and dignity. If San Francisco’s small-scale cafés and restaurants belonged to buying co-ops and created business partnerships with farmers’ selling co-ops, a movement would be born and eventually influence how food is grown and distributed.

Indeed, there are already organizations working to encourage and promote cooperative business models. The Network of Bay Area Worker Cooperatives (NoBAWC) is one such group. According to their website, “NoBAWC (pronounced “no boss”) is dedicated to helping build the worker cooperative movement in the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond.” To realize this, NoBAWC provides support for members, including “maintaining and sharing information relevant to worker cooperatives, providing technical and organizational assistance, offering joint marketing and promotional services, developing group benefits, improving access to financial resources, strengthening ties between worker cooperatives and developing relationships with other segments of the cooperative/labor community. NoBAWC also helps develop new worker cooperatives by offering some technical assistance and referrals to those developing worker cooperatives and promotes worker cooperatives in our community.” Their member organizations include Arizmendi Bakery, Other Avenues Grocery, Rainbow Grocery, Box Dog Bikes, Woodshanti, New Leaf Paper, and the Lusty Lady, the world’s only worker-owned cooperative peep show. As this list shows, any field of business can be cooperative and governed collectively; as this model demonstrates, it is possible to create umbrella organizations that promote cooperatives in all forms, from agriculture to housing.

A Call to Cooperation

A cooperative can be as simple as a group of friends who pool money for shared rentals at the surf shop. It can be as complex as a credit union, with thousands of members and large sums of money floating around. It can be as evolutionary as the MST in Brazil. The idea is the same in all cases: people sharing resources in an equitable fashion for the greatest mutual benefit. Co-ops operate very well in capitalist and consumerist societies, because they are inclusive and flexible, and they offer the opportunity to create equitable systems that operate within these larger hierarchical systems. The multicultural nature of co-ops is a stand against the tenets of globalization and industrialization. Small scale collective governance, in the form of social, political, and economic cooperatives, is one very effective tool for controlling democratic processes directly and to influence overall social, political, and economic movements. This is true for any country in the world, and increasingly, for global interdependence.

For me the first dilemma of the holiday season is the Thanksgiving turkey. 'No mass produced turkey' is a no brainer, of course. But this year, the striving to be sustainable omnivore in me was quite attracted to the local, free range, organic pastured, heritage turkeys at the farmer's market. Unlike the commercially produced turkey, this lady is not bred for her large white breast. Instead the heritage girl is long and lean, less meaty, and derived from one of a dozen species of native North American birds. Unlike her cousin, whose top heavy physique means she must be artificially inseminated, the heritage turkey can run and reproduce. Certainly she is a happier bird, and she lives a longer life because hormones have not accelerated her development. Unlike her unfortunate sisters, the heritage turkey can be raised sustainably. Or can she? This was the dilemma that was eating me. Was eating a bird sustainable if I had not rode my bike to catch the turkey with my bare hands and slaughtered her myself? Was my demand for turkey on Thanksgiving unsustainable in itself?

Pondering this question, I was reminded by a friend of the dynamic, bio-dynamic farmer Joel Salatin (www.polyfacefarms.com ), a guru of sustainable farming. Joel explains that in order for a poultry farm to be sustainable its, "pastured carrying capacity must not exceed its agronomic and forage metabolic capacity." That means it is unethical to raise more birds than the land can support, a practice that often occurs in organic poultry farming and all the more reason to know your farmer. He further explicates that the same balance that is vital to farming is necessary in every aspect of life and at every scale of organization.

Sounding just like a permaculturist, Joel calls his practice eco-farming, growing ecosystems. And in ecosystems every element contributes to a systemic balance. Balance in our diet is part of our life ecology. Can animal farming be sustainable? "Our world needs us to provide examples of balance, to show that production need not compromise the local ecology, to show that a profitable business need not adulterate the demographics of the community." Joel doesn't ship his meat anywhere, for any price, because it would upset his eco-farm's balance, burdening it with additional demand. And even though Joel didn't grow my heritage turkey, with the assurance of his words and some prodding questions at the farmer's market, I felt that my choice would be sustainable for me, and the bird farmer, and maybe even the bird.

My decision to cook a turkey for Thanksgiving was just the first act in the theater of balance that we experience during the winter season. Everyday as conscious citizens we balance culture with ethics and even more so during the holidays we are called upon to imbue consumer-based traditions with moral integrity. Statistically the odds are against us in a country where $9 billion was spent on extraneous material goods (made in foreign countries) during the holiday season last year and where our economic health and happiness is measured by our ability to buy more than we bought the year before. The National Safety Council provides a colorful description of what this time of year is supposed to mean for Americans* (*Canada, Mexico, Central and South America not included, of course),

'"The holiday season is one of the most stressful times of the year. You can't avoid stress completely, but you can give yourself some relief. Allow enough time to shop rather than hurry through stores and parking lots. Only plan to do a reasonable number of errands. When shopping, make several trips out to the car to drop off packages rather than trying to carry too many items. Take time out for yourself. Relax, read, or enjoy your favorite hobby at your own pace."

Sound advice for the average American? Clearly, the season of celebration is a season of consumption for many, bringing along its unsavory companions stress, desire, and mania. Even if we choose to opt out of this tradition and celebrate with meaning rather than material, we are often challenged to temper our beliefs with the customs of our family and neighbors. Often we find our selves surrounded by the crowds, the bright lights, and the smell of 80 million fresh cut pine trees.

So what is the sustainable urbanite, who loves his consumer oriented mother supposed to do? In writing this article I searched outside sources for ideas and answers, but realized that the real answer to this question comes from within. The love and compassion embodied in the holiday season are derived from soulful giving. BEING with your family and loved ones is a gift in itself, being present and attentive. Gifts of song, food, and service are soulful ways to honor your life and your loved ones. Making gifts of craft, or art, or expression are more ways to give from within. My heritage turkey was a nourishing gift to my family cooked with the intention of celebrating our fortune for eating so well with such good company.

Still the question remains, what to do when the person you just want to love expects a tangible, brand new, or store bought gift? Fortunately, in this time of green evolution and a growing green economy, there are many tangible, non-material, or benign gift alternatives. Donate to charity in someone else's name, a non-material gift that rewards both the donor, the recipient, and a third party. Give a material item meaning by purchasing it for your loved one at a charity auction at your favorite non-profit holiday fundraiser. Buy green city guides, like the Green Zebra in San Francisco, or the Blue Sky Guide in the Twin Cities, another non-material gift, that both exposes the receiver to the sustainable community and supports their local green economy. These green city guides also support the organizations that sell them, just like Girl Scout Cookies, they are fundraiser material. Gift certificates for massage or spa services, hotels, bike rental, groceries, restaurants, and movies are other low impact holiday gift options. Most important is to make sure the gift you give means something to you, and your energy and intention will translate to the recipient.

Jessica Prentice (www.stirringthecauldron.org), describes the winter woes from an anthropological perspective in her book Full Moon Feast: Food and the Hunger for Connection, "Our biology says, 'curl up in the back of a cave and gnaw on a buffalo bone, then sleep for fourteen hours', while our society says, 'run around shopping in brightly lit stores, then stay out late at a party drinking champagne, eating truffles, and being sociable with your coworkers." Jessica reminds us that many of the winter holiday celebrations that we recognize today, have originated from celebrations of the winter solstice, around December 21st, when the sun is at its furthest distance from the earth. From the solstice forward the days grow longer and the nights shorter until the summer solstice in June.

When we begin shopping at midnight the day after Thanksgiving, as many Americans do, we are in direct conflict with the darkness of the winter season, the reason for the season. The light and longer days that ensue, have been replaced with plastic trees and blinking lights. Tonight when the sun sets at 5:15, I will be reminded of Jessica's discussion of Advent, or the "coming". The four week long Christian tradition of penitence and restraint in anticipation of the birth of Christ is also a time that coincides with the winter solstice, "the rebirth of the sun" and the coming of light. I will remember the Roman holiday of Saturnalia, another ancient homage to longer days. And the Hopi Indian's winter solstice celebration of Soyalangwul, the time of turning back the Sun. Slowing down in the darkness of the season, I realize that soulful giving is a way of producing, energy, intention, and balance in the season of consumption.

Each phenomenon on earth is an allegory, and each allegory is an open gate through which the soul, if it is ready, can pass into the interior of the world where you and I and day and night are all one.
-- Hermann Hesse

From the beginning, there has been a place of chaos. It is a constantly changing edge, a split, an egg, and the world has always existed with it, ebbing and flowing. The flow of things is in revolutions erupting from the depths, calling out, and then fading back. Every revolution signals evolution. This is the Way of Things in chaos, and it will continue to be so, rises and drops, happiness and sadness in compliment, cycles and seasons and orbits.

While existing in the chaos, sometimes a Single Person, unsatisfied with the constant throb and with a desire to reign over it with rule and regulation, will crawl out and manifest itself into a False God. These seek power over their fellows, echoed in their dominion of their world. They set up systems of power, with themselves at the top, and then they feel they are separate from chaos. The False Gods are a tribunal of such Single People, who attempt to impose laws and who believe themselves capable of doing so. They call themselves experts and men of letters. The False Gods will speak without either acting or feeling; they will also act without speaking in attempting to corrupt the universe behind the backs of the Original People.

The Original People live in the ebb and flow, that edge of chaos, coming and going in the spirit of nature and in the rhythm of the seasons. With every good moment comes one of sorrow, with every death there comes a rebirth. This is the way of the Original People. They understand that chaos is meant to arrive and then depart and arrive again in the manner of things. They are deeply connected to such things. They are also susceptible to the systems of power that the False Gods employ, so mighty and impressive.

The False Gods have managed to impose upon many of the Original People the idea that there is time, and that it is linear, and that this is the way of things. In linear time there is birth, and there is death, but there is no rebirth. In linear time, chaos has no place and it is meant to be suppressed- the False Gods believe that making order from chaos is a matter of process, to be solved once and then micro-managed. There is no way for the Original People to create in the False Gods’ systems of power; creation is for the False Gods.

Some of the Original People have begun to slowly crawl out from the constant throb as well, not to reign over it as the False Gods do, but to be reigned over by the False Gods themselves. The False Gods keep the People separated in coops whose sides, tops, and bottoms are woven from lies, false pretenses, and dictations of inadequacy. Sometimes the coops seem quite comfortable, while nearby, another coop is a miserable hovel. Those living in the coops do not feel the constant throb and do not recognize the spirit of nature and the rhythm of the seasons, as they are kept far from it; the systems of power that the False Gods use keep them in constant battle with each other over ever diminishing resources. The systems of power keep some of the People in oppression and allow some of the People to succeed, and this is arbitrary. Dictations about linear time and space keep the People from knowing their connections to each other and the world in which they live. In this way they no longer live with deep understanding of the cycles and seasons and orbits of the universe but are terrorized by them: chaos is a scary world.

While some of the People have been living with the False Gods, those who remain in chaos’ rhymes have gathered. They have seen the People in their coops, they have seen laws and time and rigidity, they have witnessed what dictations of inadequacy can do to keep the People caged, and that keeping the People separated will wither their ability to understand and work with the constant throb and with each other.

And from this, a group- the council- gathers and begins to speak. Their words form the shapes of things. They know this is one part.

A group- the actors- gathers and begins to act. Their actions take the shapes of things and give them animation. They know this, too, is one part.

And a group- the souls- gathers and begins to feel. Their feelings give spirit to the shapes and animation of the things of the world. And this is one part.

This creation by the three groups is a revolution begetting an evolution for the People, a reconnection with the constant throb of the cyclical, seasonal world. For the People begin to understand- slowly and cautiously, for they are worn by living in their coops- that the council, the actor, and the soul, are themselves and every one around them.

All of the thinkers, doers, and feelers look at each other and realize the power of their creations. All of it has been done together… Once born, the thinking, acting, feeling things of the universe will begin to take life of their own accord. The People who live with these reclaimed Ways see the dangers of the False Gods and their systems of power. They can regain their freedom and remember their oppression, and use both as tools- to dismantle the False Gods’ systems of power and build new systems of connectivity. And from the place where these False Gods were born, the cycles of the universe can accommodate their passing.

From the place of gathering, the location of birth from chaos, comes the culture of these New People. This culture is full of creativity, connectivity, and seasonality. The culture of this New People is rooted in the knowledge that creation is constant, that every day presents a new challenge, opportunity, thought, visualization. Our story is being created again and again constantly. There is no single act of creation- it’s always happening. No longer is creation only in the hands of the False Gods. Along with this creativity comes the ritual of building: putting pieces together, making buildings, making friendships, making collaborations.

Because the New People see their connections to each other and to their world so strongly, because they are constantly thinking about them, acting upon them, and feeling soulful toward them, the culture they develop is connective.

They share, because they see that resources are absolutely abundant this way.

They gather often, because they see that ideas and laughter are spread quickly and easily this way.

They show concern for each other, because they can remain closely knit this way.

They are reverent for the universe and the world around them, because they remain closely tied with the cycles and seasons and orbits, and it is through these things that the People receive their nourishment, their food, their moments of great and deep joy along with great and deep sorrow.

[ Author’s note: The idea for this came from thinking about the idea of culture, how it is created, and how it is perpetuated- every culture “comes” from somewhere. Basically, this story is about the amazing, talented, and dedicated people that I know, both in the Bay Area and in New Orleans, where I currently live- I believe that somehow or another we all come to this knowing and way of being because we recognize something in our realities that is different from the mass culture around us- a culture which is exploitative, separating, and lacking in soulfulness. Especially under the most strenuous of circumstances (from struggle comes evolution), the “non-mass” culture is being born anew constantly, and it promises to be full of spirit and genuine humanism. Love to you all. ]

The resources that we, the birds, the bees, the humans, the fish, the planet share are the commons. Every living thing on earth needs atmospheric gases to survive, so our planet’s atmosphere is a common. Humans live in cities, use banks, eat food, and provide labor- all of these are commons, theoretically open to use by anybody at will. We can look at the example of how we build our housing as one use of the commons: we cut down trees, plow land, build streets, connect to electricity and water pipes, and watch endless hours of “public” information on the television. We have been doing this in such a reckless way for a long while now, as we stretch impermeable roads to ever longer lengths, cut down more and more and more trees, watch more and more television, and talk to our neighbors less and less. And we may not realize how connected this system is to exploitation of the commons.

In the theory of the commons, there is a need to keep the carrying capacity of the common below maximum- and this can be done only through regulation of access. While this often sounds restrictive and undemocratic, the opposite is quite true: unfettered access leads to exploitation. Garrett Hardin wrote in The Tragedy of the Commons: “We are locked into a system of ‘fouling our own nest,’ so long as we behave only as independent, rational, free enterprisers.” Without concern for the benefit of others in relation to one’s self, the commons are spoiled for everyone. Cities are being built to reflect this; our government operates in this manner, as does our economic system. Individual gain is valued and subsidized, reinforcing a hierarchical system; in this scenario, resource access is controlled by the “most successful” individuals at the top of the hierarchy. Once mutual benefit is discarded as an ideal, the commons are put to use satisfying the needs of individuals who can control access- and the relentless need for more and more individual gain will eventually bring the commons to maximum carrying capacity.

What is the most effective solution, then, for checking resource over-use? In other words, what is the most beneficial regulator of access? Simply put, it is sharing.

Consider this anthropological explanation of the necessity of sharing for survival. Sharing implies that I give you some portion of what resources I have, and that this giving is mutual. At some point, you will give some portion of your resources to me as well. Our mutual benefit stems from understanding that if I exploit resources to their maximum capacity, even if the intent in doing so is to share with you, then there are no resources left for you to cull and share with me. We shall both lose. On top of that, there are simply no resources left at all, and every system dependant on the lost common shall lose as well. In order to keep sharing, I must be able to have you share with me.

While there is this logical explanation of the benefits of sharing- ensuring sustainability of the commons- it happens to feel good too. Reciprocity is not only a hard-wired survival instinct, it is spiritually rewarding to be generous in giving and gracious in receiving. The collective peace and mutual prosperity that comes from sharing is a common as well. Imagine a situation in which lifestyle commons- schooling, childcare, community and social patterns, food production, and economic survival- are sustained through sharing and recognition of mutual benefit. When these mutual benefits are understood to include the natural environment and all of the living things and whole systems that exist around us humans, then our shared living situation becomes ecologically sound. It is also spiritually and soulfully rewarding. When did we start to forget this?

As Ken Norwood and Kathleen Smith write in their book Rebuilding Community in America, “In the search for a harmonious and ecologically sound way of life, the asset we most need to cultivate is the lost art of cooperation or operating together for a common goal.”

And what more important element of a harmonious and ecologically sound way of life can there be than the way we design and inhabit our living spaces? When our living spaces become arenas of mutual benefit ensuring the sustainability of resources, as a Shared Community is, they are powerful political, economic, and social statements. And they are healthy, safe, cooperative, organic places to live. Shared Communities are “the traditional patterns of human settlement in which people voluntarily and cooperatively share land, housing, energy, and resources,” write Norwood and Smith. There are so many examples of creative ways to share resources, in rural settings such as Village Clusters and CoHousing, peri-urban settings such as Eco-villages, and urban settings such as housing cooperatives and the Urban Cooperative Block, in which whole city blocks can be transformed into cooperative, mixed use, semi-communal living spaces, which could be a touchstone for future development in ecologically sustainable cities.

All of these types of Shared Communities have been growing in popularity and scope over the years, and especially so in recent years- why is this? It parallels a growing dissatisfaction with current governmental and economic policy, as well as a renewed interest in facing challenges of the present and future in more cohesive and complete social units. The information about the issues facing the world today tells us that access to the commons has been unfairly distributed and is therefore inequitable and unsustainable- and that our current systems of governance, society, and economics perpetuates this. In order to solve this, systematic changes in major arenas will need to arise: the way we spend money, get involved in politics, choose to cooperate and reciprocate, and perhaps most obviously, in how we choose to live in our habitats. Shared communities are a positive, strong, and healthy contribution to the evolution of sustainability.

For more information on Shared Communities, read Ken Norwood and Kathleen Smith’s book Rebuilding Community in America: Housing for Ecological Living, Personal Empowerment, and the New Extended Family.

Web resources include:
CoHousing: www.cohousing.org
Eco-villages: www.ecovillages.org
Intentional Communities: www.ic.org
Directory of Intentional Communities: www.directory.ic.org

Carbon is the basis of life, of all living things. It is the basis of fossil fuels, those on which our economy is based. Since the Industrial Revolution we have been mining the world’s carbon to run machinery, to manufacture, to produce. The irony is that this production has made consumers of us all, well most of us, that is. In this juxtaposition of the human role on earth, we have sent carbon levels soaring into our atmosphere, depleted it from our soils, and are now dealing with the repercussions of its excess and its scarcity.

The multiplicity of problems associated with our use of carbon is akin to the special element itself. Its unique hexagonal form allows it to partner with other elements, ubiquitously occurring in over 10 million different compounds. Carbon alone possesses this gift, the reason it is found in all living things, in liquid and gas forms, in the hardest earthly compounds and the softest, on the ocean’s floor, in the lithosphere, and in the atmosphere.

In the natural carbon cycle, plants receive energy from the sun, which they photosynthesize to grow and live. They embody energy, in the form of carbohydrates, which we consume for our own sustenance and return to the atmosphere through our breath. When a plant dies and decays it is returned to the earth and its fossilized form becomes embedded in rock, that over millions of years is compressed, again an embodiment of carbon energy. From the compressed rock in our Earth’s lithosphere we extract that energy, as fossil fuels: oil, coal, and natural gas.

The combustion of fossil fuels is the power that runs the world as we know it. It is the key to mechanized production, to electricity, to running water, to transport, to agriculture, to textiles, to plastics, to the computers on which we read and which I write. As we well know, we are now facing the depletion of fossil fuels and climate change as a result of this overuse. We have disrupted the equilibrium of the Earth’s carbon cycle and in doing so we are changing the world as we know it.

This year an island, once inhabited by over 10,000 people, was submerged underwater, the result of rising sea levels. Polar bears, now an endangered species, are drowning from the long distances they must swim due to melting ice caps. Migratory birds are remaining home instead of traveling to fair climes. The insects they eat are hatching earlier in the spring, disrupting the diets of the birds. Brown bears have decided to stay up through the winter rather than hibernate, risking a shortage of food for warmer weather. Animals and scientists are telling us what is happening to the Earth. The early warning signs are clear, we must change our habits.

Al Gore, unlike our collective political forces, has spread the word about climate change through his documentary film An Inconvenient Truth, sparking interest in the mainstream American public. Most of us are aware of the problem, but not everyone is conscious of their contribution to it. Thinking of the carbon cycle helps us realize our role. When we know that everything that we touch can be traced to the cycle of carbon, we can begin to think about ways to reduce our footprint, our impact on the planet.

We can think about the energy stored in every piece of plastic and metal and paper that we use each day. We can think about the life cycle of the products we use, for example a plastic water bottle. There is fossil fuel energy used in every stage of the bottle's life from its manufacture, to filling it, to distributing it, to the consumer getting to the store to buy it, to the recycling company hauling, sorting, and processing it (if it makes it that far). And this account is merely an oversimplified version of the true cost of a water bottle. If the energy cycle were budgeted in its price, we might not see so many $1 gallons of water in the world.

With this knowledge in mind, the next time we choose what to eat, what to wear, where to go and how to get there we can consider the carbon cycle in our decision. We can begin planting fruit bearing trees and leaving our cars in the garage. We can install photovoltaic panels, and passive heating and cooling systems in our homes. We can harvest rain water and recycle grey water. We can urge our municipal supervisors to promote greenroofs, permeable parking lots, and bike lanes. We can connect to farmers, and opt out of packaged and processed foods. We can inspire, create, reuse, and renew. We are stewards the of the environment, we are empowered.

On a global scale, we're fighting an uphill battle, with increasing urbanization and developing nations striving for the same material comforts we enjoy. Individually, though, we have a choice and collectively those decisions have a significant impact. The technology exists that will allow us to live like we do now, but in balance with the Earth's systems, in equilibrium with the carbon cycle. We can be the change we want to see in the world. The choice is ours.

Would the world be a better place if we all just learned how to share? SpaceShare founder Stephen Cataldo thinks so. Imagine a society where we all have access to more while owning less, where local communities rally around their strengths and weaknesses and truly know each other, where idea is replaced by action originating from the true joy of being green. SpaceShare has been employing a mix of education and web technology to "help people rely more on and strengthen their communities, while relying less on oil and resources."

Stephen embodies the idea of action and activation. Personally, his vegan diet, lack of a car and commitment to local, progressive economies -- in his words, "putting money back into hands of others doing it right" -- exemplify a sustainable lifestyle. But his passion for a very simple idea -- sharing -- blurs the line between his personal and professional life. "I like finding little ways to inculcate activism into the community", he says. This philosophy imbues SpaceShare with incredible potential for radically transforming community through deceptively simple actions.

The SpaceShare model is simple -- custom websites are created for short-term communities like conferences and festivals to coordinate resource sharing for participants from near and far. Carpools and taxi rides, hotel rooms, couches and meet-ups can all be organized using SpaceShare's forums and reservation system. The results have been tremendous. Stephen cites the recent example of the 2007 Media Reform Conference held this January in Memphis, Tennessee (www.freepress.net/conference/). Out of the 3000 plus media reformers who attended the conference, over 350 signed up for SpaceShare's services, an astounding 10% participation rate. Stephen tells how SpaceShare enabled some to attend the conference that would not have been able to otherwise. Beyond the obvious reduction of carbon emissions, he also excitedly estimates that many thousands of dollars were kept in progressive coffers instead of going out to corporations by savings on hotel rooms alone.

Resource conservation and local economies aside, the biggest impact of SpaceSpare could well be the act of sharing itself. Participants are left with the experience of action and community that will reverberate when they return home and back to their normal routines. "SpaceShare fits a unique niche," Stephen observes," It's about teaching through practice, not through talk." Unlike lectures or other forms of education, he feels that SpaceShare users will "understand the vision when they do it, not when they are told."

In a few short years of operation, Stephen has a long list of success stories and inspiring anecdotes. When asked about why he started SpaceShare, he answers with a smile: "I wanted people to give me rides." People make friends through sharing, the matching engines can be used to connect activists as well as carpoolers, and at least one local chapter of a progressive organization arose from a SpaceShare carpool. Hearing feedback from people about how much they enjoyed giving is the most satisfying aspect of SpaceShare for Stephen. "People saved resources and made a friend and, after doing it," he adds, "they realize they liked being green."

The future vision for SpaceShare is bright and broad, though facing the usual growing pains of an under-capitalized social enterprise. Stephen says that "SpaceShare is all about bringing sharing to communities that wouldn't have done it otherwise," and he's not just talking about oil-addicted Californians. In 2007 SpaceShare will set its sights on synagogues and churchs, from Berkeley to the Midwest. "Imagine a mega-church carpooling!"

SpaceShare has faced different hurdles than expected: "It's been easier than expected to get a conference in Middle-America to explore carpooling." The number one frustration for Stephen: "Event planners that don't return phone calls." Stephen feels that this model of resource sharing is poised for success- "people across the country are ready to make this change" if only environmental activists build the infrastructure to support it. "The only challenge is doing it," he says. "If we do it, people are ready for it -- I see no other bottlenecks in getting communities to participate."

If you see the radical potential in the simple act of sharing, visit www.SpaceShare.com to take advantage of their services for conferences, festivals and connecting with like-minded folks. If you are attending a conference that isn’t using SpaceShare, let the organizers know about it! Finally, SpaceShare is looking for dependable, energetic volunteers and paid-staff to help grow this vision. Contact Stephen at info@SpaceShare.com.

The value of the US dollar is slowly decreasing internationally and domestically. In addition, American citizens are beginning to realize that their hard earned dollars are being taxed daily to fund terrorism, perpetuate poverty, and destroy the planet. Most dollars find their ways to our communities, pass through a few hands and then return to where they came from…to finance unknown and oftentimes undesirable government functions.

US government leaders constantly boast that the economy is expanding and that such expansion benefits all American citizens, while in fact a majority of people face financial hardship. The Federal Reserve’s debt-based financial system is forcing many Americans to feel less and less secure economically and in turn seek alternative forms of exchange to supplement the shortcomings of the US dollar.
Money’s value is based on a belief system, or as David Korten says in The Post-Corporate World, “a social contract – an agreement among a group of people that they will accept a particular tender in the payment of debts.” The US dollar is known as “fiat money,” in other words, paper money decreed legal tender, not backed by gold or silver. It used to be said that he who holds the gold makes the rules. Nowadays it seems that he who prints the money makes the rules.

Local currency is one alternative exchange system currently being developed and practiced in a number of communities throughout the United States. While dollars increase the dependence on transnational bankers and corporations (the global economy), local currencies strengthen community trade and develop commerce (the local economy). Use of local currency replaces dependence on imports and serves as an exchange bank for goods or services that people want to trade.

When embraced, local currency can have many benefits. Local currency increases the local money supply, promoting and expanding local shopping. It potentially could raise the minimum wage, benefiting both the workers and the businesses that find new customers. Local currency can also help start new business and jobs and make grants to nonprofit community organizations.

Most importantly, local currencies strengthen local economies, an important component of a sustainable society. A local currency system creates a means for communities to expand their economies and reinvest wealth back into the area. Local currencies help communities gain control of the social and environmental effects of commerce in the region, build community and increase civic participation. Each local currency system differs and changes according to the specific needs of each community.

One of the oldest, most advanced example of local currency in the US comes from Ithaca, New York where in 1991 they began to print their own legal paper money – Ithaca HOURS. One HOUR is worth an hour of labor or $10.00 worth of goods, and there are five denominations of the HOUR (eighth, quarter, half, three-quarters and one hour). HOURS only work within a twenty-mile radius and can be used to pay for just about anything: rent, food, childcare, plumbing, healthcare and thousands of other goods and services.
Ithaca has created a list of over 900 participants that accept HOURS for goods and services and some employers and employees pay or are paid partially in HOURS. There is even an HOUR bank and small businesses are able to take out HOUR loans with a 0% interest rate. Since 1991, according to Paul Glover, the founder of the Ithaca HOURS, over two million dollars worth of HOUR transactions have taken place.

Another alternative exchange system is the barter system. The barter system has been around for centuries. Bartering involves the exchange of goods or services for other goods or services without the use of money. This is a common practice in countries where the value of money is declining or where no monetary system exists. As communities in the United States begin to believe and trust less in the US monetary system, the barter system is becoming more prevelant.

In the Bay Area, The Berkeley Barter Network has been created by a group of people in the Berkeley region who trade skills and services by the hour based on a unit of exchange called “scrip.” The Skills and Services Directory, which is periodically updated, provides a list of the services and skills offered by members of the Network. Normally one hour of work is equal to one scrip, however, under certain circumstances, a person with highly developed skills could value their hour spent helping another on a complex task at three scrip.

When two members of the Network to decide to work together, they must fill out a Project Form, which is basically like a contract that describes in great detail the work which will be done by one member for the other, the value of the work, and the amount of time needed to complete the work. Throughout the course of the project, Network members record the exact number of hours spent completing the work and at the end, the completed Project Form is sent to the Berkeley Barter Network coordinator, who then tallies the number of scrip earned in a log. Every member has complete access to the Scrip Log to keep track of existing scrip.

The Ithaca HOURS system and the Berkeley Barter Network have many good resources available to help communities in San Francisco, the Bay Area and beyond jumpstart their own local exchange systems. Ideally it would be great if San Francisco as a whole could come together and create a citywide local currency. However, considering the size of the city, it might make more sense to have neighborhood currencies so that neighbors can have the opportunity to meet each other and work with one another. Any local, alternative exchange system stimulates community pride. Only by caring about and feeling a part of our community can we as individuals truly work together over the long term to develop a healthy, sustainable economy and community.

Yoga, be my lady. You are always there for me, and always here. When I am away, you welcome me back, with open eyes and flowing arms, without a word and nary a sound. During the noisy spans of your absence, I may not think of you, but secretly, subconsciously I long to be again aligned with your peace, your poise, your gentle grace. When I am with you, I am complete. I've never met anyone who knows me to my core and continues to give more and more, as only you can, as much as I am willing to accept, even when I've been away. Yoga, be my lady. Tonight, tomorrow, and every day hereafter.

Yes, you know me more than I know myself, yet I can grasp but a few of your eight-fold limbs. I call you Asana, the seat, or Pranayama, the vital life force. And I've flirted with you as Dhyana, contemplating truth and accepting nothing. Some know you as Yama, Yoga of abstentions, and still others as concentrated Dharana. Above all and permeating everything, you are Samadhi, the pure light of liberation, enlightened union of opposites.

Whether Asana or Pranayama or Dhyana, you bring new meaning to the mundane and light to the dark corners of habituation and sloth. Your Asana postures are no mere stretches or overly curious callisthenics -- they bestow exertion sprinkled with exhilaration. Blood beating in my chest swells with air in my breast, lending a levity unparalleled by cardiovascular activity, leaving a smile radiating from the depths rather than on the lips. And when I arise in your presence, Dhyana, a simple sitting expands beyond plaster walls. Stone silence rings clear through dissolving mental chambers, healing the deep fissures of identity inherited from Mother Nature and Father Culture. My smile of depths basks in the understanding that there is so much more yet to accept from you, my mistress of inchoate Union.

Aware of your high ancient heritage, I am always honored by your presence, humbled by your attention. How many have you touched so intimately across the great divide of time and culture? How vast your wisdom accumulated? In spite of your munificence, you are always there for me, so long as I am ready to listen. You have navigated the waters of mind, body and emotion, transcended the chasm of desire and suffering, and delivered your pearly secrets to my front lobe, so long as I am willing to observe. Knowing your sacrifice, I, your devoted servant and ecstatic lover, pledge to listen and observe whenever I can cultivate the courage to join you. Being held in your bountiful gaze keeps me coming back, despite the distraction of calendars and commitments.

Lest my doting make you blush, fret not. I speak of myself when I utter your name, and through this, our union, I am me and not me. How am I not me? By absorbing you, by letting you in and breathing you out, I become more than I, more than LSG, more than son, brother, activist, friend, Earthling, lover, yet less, all the same. When we embrace, that dichotomous dualism fades into a blessed union of opposites. I am not me and you cease to be and molecules dance upon vibrations of breath, full and flowing into the same moment of meaning free from story and strife, tinged with joy and peace until you slip away and....

I come back to the mat, a stark contrast on the cushion, wondering when we shall meet again, though content with your deep radiant smile on my lips for the time being. Tonight maybe, tomorrow perhaps...the future definitely. Now, most hopefully.

Now. I need you, so stick with me, baby. Yoga, be my lady.