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Article Specs
Article ID: 13194
VoxAcct: 240972
Section: earth
Age Group: Adult
Days Up: 40
Times Read: 577
RSS Views: 39,664
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Shangri-La - EcoVillage
Author: Starpalm
Posted: July 25th. 2010
Times Viewed: 577
Nearly seventy-five years ago, James Hilton imagined a magical city based upon Tibet’s version of the Garden of Eden, Shambhala (Berzin) . His book, The Lost Horizon, inspired Theodore Roosevelt to name the presidential retreat in its honor. Today, there are many, who like Hilton, envision a population of enlightened people who create a sustainable, balanced community in which the environment thrives ecologically, spiritually and culturally. If it can be imagined, it can be made manifest.
Dr. Robert and Diane Gilman coined the phrase ‘Eco-Village’ in their 1991 article - The Eco-village Challenge published in the magazine In Context (Gilman, Robert) . According to the Gilman’s an Eco-Village is:
-Human-scale
-Full-featured settlement
-In which human activities are harmlessly integrated into the natural world
-In a way that is supportive of healthy human development and can be successfully continued into the indefinite future.
Although EcoVillages are moving from the realm of dreams through conscious thought - into reality, there are only a few in existence today. In the seventy years since Hilton wrote The Lost Horizon, the world has experienced many challenges and revelations. Science has expanded it’s understanding of the Living World and is finally beginning to accept the consequences for mindless consumption.
Dr. Gilman received his PhD in astrophysics, in the early 1970’s he experienced a paradigm shift – he said “The Star’s can wait, but the planet couldn’t.” (Context) He and had his late wife re-imagined a new Shangri-La one aided by modern science, guided by a balanced spiritual approach.
Echoes’ of the Past: Origins in Hippiedom, Free love, and Communal Living
Growing up in the 60’s and 70’s in Northern California, I was familiar with ‘Hippies’. The culture of longhaired, dope smoking, free-loving dropout’s -living communal, is rooted here in the Bay Area. The old joke of “California the land of fruits and nuts” is reflective of the non-acceptance of mainstream America in the 60’s and 70’s. Only 45 miles north of my home in San Jose, CA is San Francisco to the west and Berkley to east. A short twenty-mile drive southwest is the famed Santa Cruz Mountains and Beach Boardwalk. Although Hippies were not mainstream, they were reasonably tolerated in San Jose.
It wasn’t a mad stretch of imagination to accept some of the Hippish ideas like growing your own food. From a financial standpoint it made sense, and my family did. My childhood home was located on a Ľ acre plot where we maintained a large vegetable garden. It was a way of life for us; we raised seasonal veggies like peas, corn, squash, and tomatoes, fruit trees, and raised chickens and goats. My father, a native of Hawaii provided a large portion of our meat by hunting and fishing. We supplemented our meals with supermarket food, often enjoying fresh vegetables along with whatever my father caught over the weekend. While I was growing up in a working class family, hippies were establishing Co-op’s and Communes.
Communal living was too radical for most Americans to entertain, but there are still working examples of this lifestyle. The Farm located in Summertown Tennessee, is one of these. Rachel Meunier was raised from the age of five months to 12 years in one of these Utopian Communes, The Farm (Meunier) . Rachel explains during the 60’s and 70’s there were more than 2000 communes established in the United States. Further, the founders were often highly educated.
The Farm’s founder, Stephen Gaskin, was an English Professor at San Francisco State University. He began to notice a loss of his most talented students to the streets of Haight and Ashbury, the crossroads, if you will or genesis of the Hippie Movement. In his search, Gaskin found a world of mystery and magic and began to teach alternative classes in Taoism, the I-Ching, Magic, and Mysticism (Meunier) . He was often invited by students, and other groups to speak. Rachel’s parent’s attended one of the speeches and followed him on tour in what became known as The Caravan. Upon their return to San Francisco, the flower children found Haight-Ashbury had turned to using hard destructive drugs.
Disappointed by degradation of Haight-Ashbury, Stephen gathered 350 of his fellow flower children and established The Farm. The Farm can be categorized as a service commune, meaning one that had the intention of developing a society that met the ideals of Gilman’s definition of Eco-Village. Of course Gilman’s definition came nearly twenty years after Dr Gaskin’s vision of a Utopian Society. Still the idea of communes, are to most Americans, too far to the left to accept (Meunier) .
Eco-Villages Today: The Failed American Dream, Narrow-Minded Leadership
Most working and middle class American’s share the dream of home ownership. It is what we work towards as a measure of our success, our worth. The house with a great kitchen, a good neighborhood where the kids can play safely, first-rate schools, and a sense of community, is the ultimate goal. One of the problems with the American dream, is the economy that promised these dreams can be realized, did so at the expense of our environment.
Mass consumption without regard to sustainability, worse than a predators approach, has so weakened our infrastructure and economy that many who purchased homes are loosing them, some that were on their way to buying - cannot. Instead we are faced with the reality of an economic disaster.
Past policies that questioned the validity of science raised Christian mythology to equal status with scientific fact. When faced with facts contrary to Christian doctrine, many politically motivated institutions squashed scientific evidence. The reality of global warming wasn’t accepted, and because of the lack of media coverage, most American’s didn’t realize the significant danger we were in. Thank goodness for Al Gore and his film, “An Inconvenient Truth.”
Economic Recovery
In the face of economic and social depression, American’s are looking into the idea of renewable energy and sustainability with a more open mind. The election of 2008 not only provided American’s with hope it gave us a highly educated and intelligent president, Barack Obama. For the first time in perhaps ten years, the environment has been made one of the top government priorities. Because of Obama’s leadership, Eco-Villages are moving from the dreamer’s world, into mainstream American possibility. Gone are the Hippie stigmas of the past. What remains, are the ideas of smart green solutions, leading us away from fossil fuel dependency. What better way to defend against terrorists than by withdrawing the funds supporting them and the countries that harbor them? Eco-Village models of today, are being built in deference to sustainability of our resources, insuring our future, merging economic sense with socially responsibility.
Destruction Births a New Beginning
On May 4, 2007, Greenburg, Kansas was devastated by a ferocious tornado. The town lay in utter ruin, with 95% of the municipality and it’s infrastructure shattered (Greensburg) . Among the buildings lost (City Hall, County, and City Fire-station Houses, Schools) and what remained (Police and County Court) , many houses were damaged beyond repair. Greensburg lost their electrical grid, waste and water treatment plant, and even their famed water tower. In less than a day, the tornado leveled what it took people decades to build. As tragic as the devastation of a tornado is, it offers the opportunity to build upon new foundations. I am reminded of the Yoruban Wind Goddess, Oya.
Oya’s presence is not often welcome in the midst of the storm, but afterwards - once the dead wood has been cleared, and chaos bound - new beginnings are possible. She is Goddess of change, born out of destruction of imbalanced foundations.
A poem by Philo lyrically describes Oya’s Transformative Nature (Koleman) .
I work in ways deep
Ever present
Always moving
I work in ways dramatic
With thunder and lightning
Sweeping and uprooting
I work in ways subtle
Pushing and prodding
Wearing and tearing
I swirl you and twirl you
I splatter you and scatter you
I shock you and rock you
I clear the way for what is to come
I can be slight or stupendous
Brief or long lasting
Up roaring or uprising
What I can't be
is ignored
Day of Reckoning: A New Day, A Renewed Dream
February 24, 2009, President Barack Obama spoke about responsibility and moving forward in his economic recovery speech. “What is required now is for this country to pull together, confront boldly the challenges we face, and take responsibility for our future once more (Obama) .”
He explains we hadn’t accepted responsibility recently, “We have known for decades that our survival depends on finding new sources of energy. Yet we import more oil today than ever before.” but that as people we have and will rise to the occasion.
He says, “The day of reckoning has arrived, and the time to take charge of our future is here.” He further states “But to truly transform our economy, protect our security, and save our planet from the ravages of climate change, we need to ultimately make clean, renewable energy the profitable kind of energy.”
It is because of his leadership that the dream of EcoVillages will be made manifest.
Greensburg, Kansas is under construction. The principles of EcoVillages are being manifested under the watchful eyes of America and the world. And although Greenburg residents will proudly proclaim, “I’m not a tree hugger” the appeal of renewable energy as common sense fits within the small towns basic western ideals.
Visionaries, Scientists, Pagans, and mainstream Americans agree: Going green is wise.
Footnotes:
Works Cited:
Berzin, Alexander (2003) . The Berzin Archives. Mistaken Foreign Myths about Shambhala.
Climate Crisis Website, http://www.climatecrisis.net/thescience/
Context Institute. Robert Gilman Biography. 15 Mar 2006. Feb 2009. http://www.context.org/PEOPLE/RCGBio.htm
Gilman, Robert. “The Eco-village Challenge.” In Context (Summer 1991, Page 10) . Feb 2009. http://www.context.org/ICLIB/IC29/Gilman1.htm
Greensburg GreenTown. History and Vision. 2007-2009. 1 Mar 2009. http://www.greensburggreentown.org/history/
Koleman, Carol. Catalyst Magazine. Meet Oya Goddess of Transformation. Mar 2009. http://www.catalystmagazine.net/home/index.php?option=com_content and view=article and id=391 and Itemid=10167
Meunier, Rachel. Communal Living. The Farm. 17 Dec 1994. 1 Mar 2009. http://www.thefarm.org/lifestyle/cmnl.html
Obama, Barack. A day of reckoning: Obama's speech in full. Times Online. 25 Feb 2009. 1 Mar 2009. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article5800140.ece
Copyright: Tammy Abreu-Butron (Starpalm) 6 March 2009
ABOUT...
Starpalm
Location: San Jose, California
Website: http://www.tammybutron.com
Author's Profile: To learn more about Starpalm - Click HERE
Bio: After twenty years in the computer industry, I lost my normal vision. During the last four years I've continued to treat my vision loss through surgeries and retinal injections, adapted to life as a partially sighted woman, and have returned to college. This time around, I am working on becoming a psychologist. I've been pagan since the age of 18 and have studied witchcraft for the last 13 years.
I hope to incorporate my pagan values within my coursework. The essays I submit are the result.
Blessings
Starpalm
Tammy Abreu-Butron
www.tammybutron.com
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