Serenity in the Garden

photo - Jan Johnsen    "All of life is interrelated.  We are all caught  in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied to a single garment of destiny.  Whatever affec t s o ne directly affects all indirectly."  - Martin Luther King Jr.

  Denis Dutton   is a philosopher... He is the head of the Department of Philosophy at the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand. Dutton is from Los Angeles, California and was educated at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He taught at several US universities before emigrating to New Zealand ( like my dear friend, Louisa, did...)  In his book The Art Instinct, Dutton suggests that humans are hard-wired to seek beauty.  He gave a talk at TED on THE DARWINIAN THEORY OF BEAUTY  and referred to the Atavistic Archetypes of Beauty ....Here is an excerpt from his talk where Dutton describes the archetypal landscape that we all seem to prefer over any other: “Consider briefly... the magnetic pull of beautiful landscapes. People in very different cultures all over the world tend to like a particular kind of landscape, a landscape that just happens to be similar to the Pleistocene savannas ...

"... Years ago I heard somebody say that  all our political and diplomatic conferences ought to be moved out of smoke-filled rooms and held underneath trees...  I wonder if under those circumstances the conclusions reached might not be quite different from what they are at present..." ( page 159 of “The Lost Myth,” by Clyde S. Kilby. Arts in Society, Vol. 6, 1969.)  For a brief biography of Clyde S. Kilby, click  here .  This information is from a wonderful blog, the Saunterer. from  justfocus  in New Zealand Imagine if the United Nations met under trees?  Trees are a wonderful mediating influence in our lives and are there to help. I believe the UN discussions might be a little more fruitful if held under the canopy of a stately sugar maple. This goes for children too:  If a child misbehaves, instead of sending them into a corner, have them go outside and sit at the base of a tree...or better yet - up in its limbs! ...

In the mid 1970's I moved to Washington, D.C. and worked for a group called 'Institute for Local Self-Reliance'. I was the horticultural staff and tended to roof top greenhouses, worm composting and assisted in writing policy papers related to urban agriculture. I felt like a voice in the wilderness, especially in the Washington, DC of the 70's... But my time there revealed to me the answer to our society's ills: Worm composting!   ..Known also as vermiculture, it is the proverbial win-win solution for our environment. You can conveniently dispose of kitchen waste, build up your soil and  best of all, you don't need a large area for compost - worms work within a bin and, because they eat the bacteria, there is no odor! If you want to see the magic of worms - look at this short video .... Worm Castings contain a highly active biological mixture of bacteria, enzymes, remnants of plant matter and animal manure. The castings are...

Resolved to see beyond the appearance in 2016.....