Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Quakers

I feel I need to complete this thought. Explaining an entire society of people in one blog post is certainly impossible, but maybe in two I can get a little closer. The post below explains some of the basics of Quakerism, but now I want to explicitly describe how my dad who is probably one of God's toughest mortal enemies, can't disagree with it. Below is a link to my dad's blog.

http://www.rationalresistance.blogspot.com

Jack McCullough, my dad, opposes religion because it is based on belief in a fictitious character or characters that have supernatural powers.

Most quakers do believe in God, but you don't really need to in order to be a quaker, like I said in the post below Quakers don't focus on the naming of God. I find it frustrating that when I read Quaker books I can't go very far without seeing the word God in there. I don't believe in God, so this is a barrier for me. But I do believe that existence, nature, the universe, creation, call it what you will, is so elegant and complex that a three letter place holder to refer to this vastly wonderful gift that we all share is not completely disagreeable. I feel more comfortable with calling it nature though, so when I read the word God I just replace it with Nature.

The limitation there however is that I don't believe that nature as a whole can want anything the way God is supposed to want things, He wants us all to behave and stuff. Nature isn't petty like that, it simply is, as far as I can tell. No matter what lens you use, Nature can never be seen in full. Like a telescope that can't see the far side of the moon, or a microscope under which tiny green blobs appear discrete, but when the lens is gone, we see a leaf indivisible.

As we cannot see nature, so we can't describe it. When Nature is described as a line from point A to point B, the model breaks upon realizing the line is a circle. When Nature is a circle, it describes the seasons, and it describes the tides, the populations of the animals and many things, but over time, this too breaks down because you see that this circle was only a coil of a longer line, marching through time.

For some the very existence of the universe somehow proves God. To me, existence only proves existence. Why separate the creator from the creation? "Create" is a transitive verb, which implies intention, or one party acting on another. Become is a better word.
God created the world?
The world became?
Nature Is.

I think my dad also disagrees with religion because of it's hierarchy and its brainwashing qualities. Well, Quakers are very forward thinking people. They have no hierarchy. There is no written creed. Quakers publish periodical books like Faith and Practice which constantly revise Quaker beliefs.

Quakers make decisions based on consensus. The testimonies of the Quaker belief are fluid, and new ones can be made if all Quakers agree. And how do they reach agreement? Its just like a regular silent meeting except everyone tries to focus on a certain topic. So it takes a long time. This consensus process is something like a Jedi council mixed with an Entmoot, except everyone's invited and you eat soup afterwards in the basement. This is democracy at its finest. Everyone's concerns are met, everyone's points are heard, everyone's feelings and inhibitions are out in the open with each good Quaker searching for truth within, in other words thinking critically. It isn't politics in other words. It's group collaboration and it takes many years to decide important or controversial things.

When consensus is reached in the weekly meeting, they send a message to other meetings in the area to consider the same topic. There is a monthly meeting and a yearly meeting as well, each one bigger than the last.

I heard the story from a local Friend who was at the Yearly meeting where gay marriage and homosexuality were decided by Consensus to be OK after years of "debate". People were crying and who knows what else.

There is no voting required, just talking out differences and listening to each other. I wish everyone was a quaker. We'd all live simply and pursue peace, justice, equity, sustainability and we'd have kickass soup every week. What do you think, Pop?

Monday, February 25, 2008

A religion not even my dad can disagree with

At eleven o'clock on Sunday, the Friends gather in a square room with wooden pews. There is no alter, no podium, and no stained glass. Instead the pews are arranged in a square, such that everyone is facing everyone else. Around the edge of the room there are many large plants and two bookshelves in the corner serve as a library.

When everyone is seated, the Friends proceed to shut up and sit around for an hour in silence. During this hour, anyone who is moved to do so may rise and speak from their heart about whatever they feel. When they have said their piece, they sit down and no one responds. I think I can remember everything I've heard someone say in that room, because the less you say, the more people listen.

A martial artist spoke about perceiving herself as bigger in order to overcome an obstacle in her Aikido practice. She also suggested applying that bigness of self to other obstacles.

A Friend once talked about the trials and dangers of World War II and how Friends dealt with them, while heroically harboring Jews and "speaking truth to power." Which is to say, giving a message of peace to Hitler himself.

The Religious Society of Friends may be better known as Quakers. Confused with Shakers, Amish, the "oat-guy" and who knows what else. But perceptions of Quakers are usually uninformed and foggy.

Quakerism is rooted in Christianity, and could be considered either its own individual branch or a branch of protestantism. There is no explicit creed or written, or spoken affirmation of a specific faith. The Quakers have instead opted to place the responsibility of defining ones faith through all their actions and their own mental elbow grease.

In Faith and Practice, a book explaining the Quakers of the Northern Pacific Yearly Meeting, it says, "we do not place emhasis on the naming of God, instead we encourage eachother in John Woolman's phrase, "to distinguish the language of the pure Spirit which inwardly moves upon the heart."

More explicitly: they believe in Peace, Equality of all people, Sustainability, Living Simply, Doing one's duty and rebellion.

on rebellion:

"Throughout our history friends have testified that our lives are not meant to conform to the ways of the world but that we are meant to contribute to the transformation of the world through the light of truth."

Faith and Practice

Now you know how I feel, ALL THE TIME. This blog is about trying to speak truth to power. The earth needs all of us to sit down, face each other, and shut up.

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

The Guardian of the Serengeti

The haze dissipates to reveal the Serengeti. A massive heard of Wildebeests, millions strong, moves west, leaving behind a criss crossing system of dry hoofprinted ruts, like streams of rain moving across the outside of a car window. The landscape is shaped by these creatures, the water, the billions of dung beetles behind the herd. There are no cities in the Serengeti.

Though humans have an influence on the desert, it is extremely minor, because we can't get past the guardian. It lurks in the sky and breeds in the muck. It is a festering infection that turns your insides to fluid. It sinks its claws into you like a night lion, and doesn't give in without digging out all of your guts and leaving you to the flies.

It's name is Malaria. Fear it like Cerberus, for it holds its own council regarding who may enter
and who is damned.

Thursday, February 14, 2008

A Gorilla?


I'm a gorilla riding a bicycle. A gorilla riding a bike. A gorilla riding a bicycle. a gorilla riding a bike.

I weigh five hundred pounds but I can lift a thousand,
I rip up the guitar just like Peter Townshend.

If you drive a car I will knock you asunder,
you'll drop your bananas
and these fruits I will plunder.

I was born in the mountains of Australia
If you hit me with your car,
handlebars will impale ya.

Give up, chumps! cause I'm a
Gorilla riding a bicycle, a gorilla riding a bike. I'm a gorilla riding a bicycle. A gorilla riding a bike.

I'll tear down the bridges, I'll tear down the roads,
you'll learn to swim and walk or you'll stare at your toes.
I'll break all the walls with my big hairy arm
So animals can travel free, from farm to farm.

I'm slow and cautious and I look side to side,
the cars don't faze me, they just graze me,
But if you hit me too hard then I might go crazy.
You only need your mirrors if you are too lazy,
to turn around and use your eyes, your eyes get all glazy,
I peacefully tear them off and eat them one by one,
and hurl your ill begotten shit-car straight to the sun cause I'M A

Gorilla OOH! Riding a bicycle. A gorilla AH! Riding a bike.

My bike squeaks down the road cause no frame can hold me,
carbon, steel, aluminum they all get real foldy,
but Just cause biking's hard doesn't mean that I stop.
I'll be bringing up the rear with the triceratops.

I'm polite, and sweet, but I'm also a beast.
I'll put my paws to the pedals from the west to the East.
I signal when I turn so you'll know what I'm up to,
But I don't stop for cars, so keep your head up, fool.
If a hair on my hide contacts your door,
I will calmly and collectedly devour all four,

I'm a Gorilla riding a bicycle a Gorilla, RIDING A BIKE.

Then I'll move on to your engine block,
mmmm that's yummy, like dining with Spock,
He might not approve of what I do next,
It's illogical to imbibe a full tank of gas.

The look in your eyes as I metabolize your valuable investment that has terrorized the countryside and all the people who there reside with noise, and filth and terrible pollution, I'm the solution: GORETRIBUTION.

If you want to you can vote for me, I'm extra hungry, got a boat for me? This is an uprising of primatology, a branch of zoology focused primarily on apes, who are angry.


AN OATH to the ancients AN OATH to tomorrow, AN OATH in the Congo full of chimps and full of sorrow.

We'll burn the human cities, and pity the witty man-poet who smokes to look pretty while we, swinging in the trees, eat bananas in our dreams and by the daylight, we're keeping it tight we're outa sight, and don't look now, but we're WINNING the fight.

Cause we're
Gorillas riding bicycles,
Gorillas riding bikes. Gorillas, riding bicycles, Gorillas riding bikes.

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Is my poetry bad just because its easy to understand?

Don't sit there pickin' grass all day long,
that would be treating the landscape wrong,
If you pick a little now, you can pick a little then,
But don't pick it all like a big fat hen.

Don't sit there pickin' the grass all night,
That wouldn't be treating the landscape right,
pick your share, pick your due,
in another life that grass will be pickin' you!

Thursday, February 7, 2008

Sustainable Development

Is it just me or is this an oxymoron?

When development is needed, it should be done sustainably, which is why I advocate for a GREEN BUILDING CODE in Vermont, (if you like the sound of this please leave a comment below) Montana, the United States, and Tout le Monde! But Sustainability doesn't come from development. It takes wisdom, humility, commitment and an opposition to the culture of "progress" to move towards sustainable un-development.

Historically, ecomomic growth has been the backbone of our country. It has made us what we are today from our meager, domestic beginnings before WWII into an aggressive, world dominating empire. This model of growth has provided Americans with a seemingly never ending time of plenty. This too, this too shall pass.

We are in the middle of the tragedy of the commons, Shakespeare style. Everyone's gonna kill everyone else and anyone left standing's holding a goblet of poison. Garrett Hardin's worst nightmare is coming true. It is a problem to which there is no technological solution.

Here we go, I'll provide one problem followed by two solutions. One of them will be the technological one, the other cultural.

CO2 outputs of transportation:
Hybrid cars OR Bikes, urban planning, mass transit, etc.

Food shortage:
GMO's OR supporting farmers who grow real food (NOT CORN) all over the country.

Attention Deficit Disorder:
Ridalin OR taking the kid into the woods every single day.

Communication:
Blogs : ) OR Just talk to each other.

I'm not saying there are no technologies out there that can help us. The acid rain problem was solved technologically for instance, but it wasn't the development of the technology that solved the problem, it was the cultural decision to use it on a large scale. The Ozone problem is over with, because people as a whole decided to do something about it. Peregrine Falcon's have returned to most of their range because DDT was banned and rehabilitation programs were employed.

Why is it that cultural solutions (that work!) to environmental problems seem to involve cessation of some practice, or the cessation of some chemical? We do better for ourselves when we simply stop.

This is why I think that the technology we need to use is actually one of the most commonplace devices of all. All cars have them, all computers, all furnaces, and all machines that use gasoline or electricity. I'm talking about an on/off switch. Let's get together and form a group of Sustainability Bandits that run around turning shit off all the time.

Monday, February 4, 2008

One Point for the Little GUY!


Lately I've felt that every time I get on my bike to travel the winter streets of Missoula, I am taking my life in my hands. I've never had that kind of mortal fear in everyday life before, so needless to say I'm very cautious. I haven't fallen yet, knock on wood, but cars and the people who drive them can be REALLY SCARY!

This is why I have a "Fuck Cars" sticker on my water bottle and my mandolin case. If you saw where the sticker is on the case, you might think it was upside down and in a weird place at the bottom of the case, well this is because when I strap the mando to my back and ride my bike, the sticker will be right side up so the cars can all read it and know just what I'm talking about.

Well, there are some places Cars can't go! And the beautiful bike path by the river is one of them. The path is home to joggers, bikers, dog walkers, and the like. From it you can see ducks, great blue herons, beavers, water, sunshine, all kinds of trees and plants and the faces of people that slowly cross by you without a metal box surrounding them and protecting them from the harmful rays of the sun, or the sound and smell of the water, or the gaze of neighbors.

That's right, the river trail system of Missoula is great, and there are NO CARS ALLOWED! I guess the people of Missoula made their choice. Roads are to be ugly, but bikes get to meander with the rolling river. Thank you Missoula tax payers.