Seeds for Thought: an Ecopsychology Blog

Ecopsychology in the Dust Bowl

I was talking with a friend who works on local fair trade—helping establish structures for greater availability of locally produced food and raising awareness of the importance of eating locally. He had been in Mexico, where the focus of most activism around food was on trying to preserve subsistence and small market farming in an economy that was driving people off the land at the rate of hundreds every week.

We agreed that the concerns are different in countries like Mexico, where this process is under way today, and the US, where the majority of people have already left farming and so many of us are that much further removed from direct connection with the land. Although family farms are still being foreclosed every day in this country, the last big eviction of people from the land was 70 years ago during the Dust Bowl, when several hundred thousand small landowners and tenant farmers were forced to leave their homes by banks and owners who decided to mechanize and by a long drought that made the land unproductive. At the time my friend and I had this conversation, I was reading Steinbeck’s masterpiece, The Grapes of Wrath, a quasi-journalistic chronicle of that event.

Ethiquette

That's the name of a new website I discovered on Boxing Day:  ethiquette.ca

In French, the "h" is not pronounced, so the word is even more interesting, as it sounds like etiquette (old fashioned manners, not terribly cool in these times).  It's a website devoted to responsible consumption with quite a focus on ethical investing.  However, there's something there for those of us who don't have a lot of money to invest:  the site promotes goods and services at all price levels for those who are interested in pursuing more responsible consumption.  It has a section for Christmas shopping and I must admit that if I had seen that a few weeks ago, I would have done better in some of my purchasing.

Aslan vs King Kong

Two movies this holiday season dealt with ecopsychological themes. Narnia was based on a CS Lewis story and King Kong was a remake of an early animatronic masterpiece. They both dealt with the human relationship with nature (HNR). Narnia is a thinly veiled Christian allegory where the Ice Queen reigns over perpetual winter until Aslan the Lion is sacrificed to redeem a self-centered child and Spring returns to the fabled land. Nature suffers until things are “set right” by courage and good deeds. In King Kong an untouched “forgotten” world is exposed to mercenaries who rescue a fair maiden and capture the KING for a freak show in New York. The fair maiden, however, appreciates the wild “king” who is sacrificed to the small minds of the modern (1930s) metropolis.

Christmas Lights

At the risk of losing all eco-credibility, I have to say that I am enchanted by the lights on show this season. I know they use energy, and the Christmas tree industry that supports these strings of colored light is hard to defend too, but I am unrepentant. Maybe it's because light is the essence of what we are celebrating in ALL the holiday traditions of this time of year, whether Hannukah, Christmas, Solstice, or Kwanzaa.

The lights I see decorating the houses and gardens of people in my neighborhoods or in the town squares of nearby towns are so cheery and upbeat; they are little pin points that connect with the light that dwells in my heart and mind, & sparks the fire of spirit there.

To be honest, I think the lights in my window and wound around my little tree at home have kept me from being depressed this year, alone with a partner who has been quite ill throughout much of the season. More than once I've woken up late at night worried, curled up with a blanket on the couch to watching the lights and emerged a little later feeling comforted.

The twinkling of my Christmas lights recall the promise of the sun's light, which waxes and wanes in each season's perfect symmetry; they are an iconic representation of the primieval element of fire, the energetic 'kickstart' to life. Light is all there is, on one level: Love and Light. So Love and Light to you, dear readers, and may your every moment's new year be full of both.

The end of Sol

My favourite comedian hobo-clown has died.  Sol (Marc Favreau), as he was known by generations of Québeckers, began his career in a children's tv program in the 1950s.  I loved his shenanigans, the outright silliness and absurdity of what he did -- veritable fuel for the imagination.

In the 1970s Favreau revived his Sol character as a serious-humourous adult hobo-clown who delivered timeless monologues on all kinds of issues using a language all his own (his well of word games seemed to have no bottom). 

Solstice II

The Vancouver cathedral has a solstice service each year for those who are bummed out by the Christmas season. There are many people who find its relentless joviality and consumerism depressing and there is a heightened sense of loneliness for some. I was asked to give the intercession (prayers of the people) for this service and thought it might serve a dual purpose by being this week’s offering to Seeds for Thought.

happy solstice

may all northerners rejoice at the return of the sun, and I hope the swing the other way is not too sad for southerners

I read Linda's post with some envy, currently racked with insomnia. left to my own devices I would sleep (sometime) but clocks and work give little choice. stagger through the day, at my desk the urge to sleep overcomes me, why not in bed at night?

what is it? fear? some sort of readiness, for what? why?

Bits 'n Bobs

There was a wonderful comedy special on TV a few weeks ago, “Earth to America”. Modeled on the celebrity comedy specials that we’ve all seen for AIDS or disaster relief aid programs, this was the first one I’d seen focusing on environmental issues. About time, too, I reckon...

Winter Solstice

Here in the Northern Hemisphere the light is getting weaker every day, the hours of darkness lengthening as we approach December 21, the shortest day of the year – the Winter Solstice.

In recent years I have begun to pay much more attention to this nature “holiday,” and the metaphor it embodies and expresses. The waning of the last year of light is a wonderful time to take stock, to be grateful for blessings and to appreciate accomplishments. It’s also helpful, I find, to entrain with nature by sleeping longer, going with nature into more dreamtime, more rest, living in the unconscious realms and waiting, waiting… for the return of the light. Yin and yang, darkness and light, conscious and unconconscious are the lovely rhythms of our planet and of our brains and bodies.

Virtual case study scenario--slow food

I'm taking a class in the "Innovation Studies" Department, on Individualism and Collectivism. The paper for this class involves developing a "virtual case study" that explores some aspect of this topic in a way that might be applicable in real life, to a real problem. I chose a scenario involving the "meme" of slow food, which is a movement that started in Italy to counter the homogenization of cuisine and the obliteration of local food traditions. Slow food also embodies a more general slowing down, building community, bringing people together and increasing focus on the beauty of nature in urban areas.

I wondered whether reviving a practice of cooking and eating real food, food from the local area, grown sustainably and enjoyed with other people at least occasionally could be a meme that would spread virally. Ultimately, I am interested in whether the kinds of cultural changes that are part of this "meme" or "meme cluster" could be expected to bring about a regeneration of democratic processes and more open and productive ways of dealing with conflict than are typical in highly individualistic US society. I am very interested in responses to what follows. Please let me know what you think.