4 Nov To the Airport and back again

I had a great conversation with Cristobell in the afternoon. He gave me some great papers on sustainability. I told him I am not into academic literature so much these days, perhaps 10 years ago when I was trained as an Economist, but these days I am doing my own work and I believe values are central to behaviour change and environmental issues. We can structure and produce papers that sound great, but if we don´t know how to love a tree, or feel a connection with nature and our survival, to feel gratitude for all we have been given by nature, then we don´t know anything about sustainability. That is my deepest feeling. I see a lot of angry people getting around in the peace movement and the environmental movements demanding change. I feel they have to look within. Cristobell lives in a house with power attached to the grid and consumes resources, so we are all part of the problem, we are not living the solutions I feel. I am about to catch a plane so I am also sending a demand signal. I have done that consciously as I felt seeing the world was important, but nonetheless I am part of it.

I gave him some links and spiritual ones as well as I encouraged him to canvas a breadth of different ideas. David Suzuki would be one of the best environmentalists in the world. I loved his thinking and his connection to indigenous wisdom. People can see just primitive people, but they are masters of the environment, they have more knowledge than a 100 Phd´s, as it took them generations to develop a deep understanding of how to suvive, to read the stars, the sun and the moon, to know when to plant and felt a relationship akin to a mother with the land. That is an emotional state that feels the earth. When you step into the feeling state you see it as part of yourself, this is commitment to pre-serving this magnificent treasure. The sad part is we only will miss it when we lose it. When species die out that is it, they are extinct. I remember an environmentalist conveying her heart break at the thought of extinctions, never to return. She told me she felt grief as she was at a point where she now does not believe we can save the natural world. She spent her whole life working for it. So it was very sad to see her broken and defeated. I am not, I feel we will turn it around but we must get onto it now. The tipping point may have been passed but I do think there are other options outside the known square.

So our discussion was great. I showed Cristobell my film on clowning around the world, I could see his sparkle. We had a nice time together. Then he took me to the train.

I went up to Los Heroes and this girl chatted to me in staggered english on the train. She asked me what I thought of Chile. I see it as a Western Country but with less social spending. I saw families as much stronger than western families and I felt this love and warmth was a strength of Latin American societiies. Yet I feel more and more people under a capitalist system are becoming isolated, over working and feeling empty as materialism is used to fullfill them. So I am sure the same problems will eventually emerge, as I believe it is the system. In Australia in the 1930´s to 1970´s the society was much warmer, trusting and families stayed together, now they are breaking down. I think that is material values, pressure from over work, rising prices, little skills in resolving conflict in the home or at work and self gratification. We have become more selfish, thinking of ourselves not others so much. I do see mothers with more selflessness, although they will feel more dispair as their children leave and seldom come back or move away. So it is not easy. The girl´s name was Clarie I think, and she was so lovely. She went onto tell me the Teleton fundraising for disabled people was plastic, used for advertising companies and only one day of the year. She said we should be giving every day. Interestingly, Peter the day before told me he volunteered for them and he said it changed his life to work with so many wonderful people. Yet Claire´s comment was about the corporate side, which she saw as exploiting the issue to enhance corporate image. I thought that was clever of her to pick up that. She demonstrated quite a lot of compassion.

So she got me to the airport bus, I jumped on and took pictures on the way to the airport. I get there queue up and chat to another Australian about her trip. She says I have a feeling they have overbooked the flight. We will be taken off and given compensation. I said that is not such a bad thing, I could do with the money and I am not in a hurry. So sure enough I get to the counter and I am offered a free hotel and compensation. So I say yes. I am put up in a wonderful hotel in down town, it looks like I will have time to do some clowning, how the universe works. I am in a good spot for clowning.

So will report back to you when I am next at a computer what happened. I feel excited though.

Anyway, must away, go and hug a tree and do something spontaneous folks, like starts at the end of your comfort zone.

night night