PARTY -- Earnest Desire to Save the World Party, This Fall, In Michigan
I'm thinking about having a party for those people, near and far, but especially those near, who have an honest desire to save the world. Not just an honest desire, but they're either figuring out how to do it, or doing something to save some part of it, or even are full-on full-time volunteer activists, who're doing what they can.
A party, a weekend party, maybe three nights even, with dancing and music and games and food; lots of chatting and socializing, and networking, and sharing stories of successes and failures, and dreams and desires, and plans, and challenges, and roadblocks and needs.
Inviting people who earnestly feel that saving the world is a cause they can get behind. Saving the world from the ills of civilization: deforestation, habitat loss, ocean acidification, industrial agriculture and factory farming, land fragmentation, greenhouse gas emissions, pollution of any kind, and etc., etc., etc. People who are, or have, or would like to do something that would actually make something better, or slow down something that is bad.
Too often, the "save the world" crew work in isolation. Hundreds of tiny non-profits, hundreds of thousands taking individual action, but without a chance to connect in person, to let go of the stresses of the world, and to grieve and feel loss together, and to take strength from one another, and to celebrate the small successes, and the hopes for the future.
Yes, a party, yes, with live musicians, and party games, and great food that is as close to local, organic, plant-based and whole, both healthy, and real food; nourishing food.
But that's not all... no no no… how about everyone have a chance, maybe 5-minutes, I dunno, but a chance to share something... what? Well, how about a success that they want to share, and how it was achieved... the important element that other world savers need to know. How about a failure, and a lesson learned, that can help others avoid that same pitfall. Or some important understanding; perhaps about how something works: energy, economics and money, culture, or even this great civilization itself. We want to know that, whatever work we find ourselves doing, that our work is actually moving us in the direction of saving the world, and not just a waste of time, that will be swept away and forgotten in a month, or year, or decade.
Oh, so where's the catch? Yeah, well, if you were going away for a weekend somewhere, and were making a budget for room and board and some entertainment, then figure on investing the same amount of moo-lah in this, but with the bonus of actually getting to talk to real people, about real things, that we really care and worry about, and also have real fun, with real music and food and games.
And, perhaps, if we wish, if we all pitch in a bit more cash each for our share, we can invite someone, or some two, of those who inspire us... someone whose contribution has been made, and is acknowledged; or has been identified as having something valuable to contribute. I'm not talking about a savior, or a narcissist who is going to dominate the party with hours of complex philosophy and technobabble, but someone real. We might not have the moo-lah to attract the likes of Paul Watson of Sea Shepherd or James Hansen of NASA or Jane Goodall, but perhaps there is someone else, who has a "hero's journey" in saving some bit of the world, who'd come and share that with us as well, and perhaps allow us a chance to reflect on ways we may have failed, and directions in which we may find successes.
The planet, the living earth, has only one living thing with the ability to represent, to champion, to speak for and to act for the rest of all life; and that is the "world savers", the ones who's greatest dream is to be part of doing something real.
So, I call on all those who have, as Daniel Quinn says through his character Ishmael, "an earnest desire to save the world", to get together at a quaint cooperative summer camp in Michigan, perhaps as early as this fall of 2019, for a few days (perhaps a long weekend?) of networking, skill building, partying, and inspiring one another to work together to make greater strides to saving the world.
-- Aaron "Local Future" Wissner
A party, a weekend party, maybe three nights even, with dancing and music and games and food; lots of chatting and socializing, and networking, and sharing stories of successes and failures, and dreams and desires, and plans, and challenges, and roadblocks and needs.
Inviting people who earnestly feel that saving the world is a cause they can get behind. Saving the world from the ills of civilization: deforestation, habitat loss, ocean acidification, industrial agriculture and factory farming, land fragmentation, greenhouse gas emissions, pollution of any kind, and etc., etc., etc. People who are, or have, or would like to do something that would actually make something better, or slow down something that is bad.
Too often, the "save the world" crew work in isolation. Hundreds of tiny non-profits, hundreds of thousands taking individual action, but without a chance to connect in person, to let go of the stresses of the world, and to grieve and feel loss together, and to take strength from one another, and to celebrate the small successes, and the hopes for the future.
Yes, a party, yes, with live musicians, and party games, and great food that is as close to local, organic, plant-based and whole, both healthy, and real food; nourishing food.
But that's not all... no no no… how about everyone have a chance, maybe 5-minutes, I dunno, but a chance to share something... what? Well, how about a success that they want to share, and how it was achieved... the important element that other world savers need to know. How about a failure, and a lesson learned, that can help others avoid that same pitfall. Or some important understanding; perhaps about how something works: energy, economics and money, culture, or even this great civilization itself. We want to know that, whatever work we find ourselves doing, that our work is actually moving us in the direction of saving the world, and not just a waste of time, that will be swept away and forgotten in a month, or year, or decade.
Oh, so where's the catch? Yeah, well, if you were going away for a weekend somewhere, and were making a budget for room and board and some entertainment, then figure on investing the same amount of moo-lah in this, but with the bonus of actually getting to talk to real people, about real things, that we really care and worry about, and also have real fun, with real music and food and games.
And, perhaps, if we wish, if we all pitch in a bit more cash each for our share, we can invite someone, or some two, of those who inspire us... someone whose contribution has been made, and is acknowledged; or has been identified as having something valuable to contribute. I'm not talking about a savior, or a narcissist who is going to dominate the party with hours of complex philosophy and technobabble, but someone real. We might not have the moo-lah to attract the likes of Paul Watson of Sea Shepherd or James Hansen of NASA or Jane Goodall, but perhaps there is someone else, who has a "hero's journey" in saving some bit of the world, who'd come and share that with us as well, and perhaps allow us a chance to reflect on ways we may have failed, and directions in which we may find successes.
The planet, the living earth, has only one living thing with the ability to represent, to champion, to speak for and to act for the rest of all life; and that is the "world savers", the ones who's greatest dream is to be part of doing something real.
So, I call on all those who have, as Daniel Quinn says through his character Ishmael, "an earnest desire to save the world", to get together at a quaint cooperative summer camp in Michigan, perhaps as early as this fall of 2019, for a few days (perhaps a long weekend?) of networking, skill building, partying, and inspiring one another to work together to make greater strides to saving the world.
-- Aaron "Local Future" Wissner
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