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| I am a proud first time urban vegetable grower! But slugs and snails were difficult to keep away... (Photo added summer 2012) |
"Has there ever been a time when we in the West have been so out of touch with the natural world? We live in towns or cities flooded by street lighting, blinded to the stars in the night sky, unable to tell a waxing from a waning moon, let alone recognise the constellations. Who wakes with the dawn chorus of birdsong these days, rather than an alarm clock? Most city dwellers can't even hear the dawn chorus any more. [...]
Most people don't grow their own fruit or vegetables, relying instead on food produced many hundreds or even thousands of miles away. Apples are picked green and 'ripened' in glasshouses, for instance, and often they are irradiated to improve shelf life. The seeds of an irradiated apple can never germinate. It's a zombie apple, part of the living dead. What kind of life force energy does eating an apple like this give us?
Eating food produced in a different part of the country, or even a different part of the world, gradually puts us out of touch with the cycle of the seasons. We've become so accustomed to finding anything we can eat available to us at the supermarket, courtesy of air freighting and refrigeration, that we've lost the concept of 'in season' completely. [...]
When was the last time you ate a strawberry that really tasted like a strawberry should?"
Source: Wright, Hilary (2009) Biodynamic Gardening for Health & Taste, Singapore: Floris Books
I am guilty of having been a city dweller all my life, not knowing what a waxing or waning moon is (though I have researched it since reading the above), not "growing my own" (hopefully only until this weekend!), not knowing what star constellations there are (I know there are big and small ones - a bear, a waggon?), waking up to my alarm clock (way to start a day in the best of moods), and not knowing what irradiation is (sounds dangerous!). I am not even sure if I know what a strawberry should really taste like... However, I do love hearing the dawn and dusk birdsong and I like to think that I appreciate nature quite a lot in my almost daily life of commuting from suburbia to the concrete jungle (except perhaps when it is windy and raining from all directions and I have to cross Waterloo Bridge with a miniature umbrella and no waterproofs). I know there are others who do, too...
Speaking of birdsong, here is a poem I was recently introduced to (it's by Rumi), and which expresses how I feel most of the time:
Birdsong brings relief
To my longing
I am just as ecstatic as
they are but with nothing
to say. Please universal
soul, practice some song
or something through me.
Nevertheless, I do find myself in a mournful mood every now and then: Not only have we lost the concept of "in season" - we don't even know how to properly identify and cook what is native to our part of the world (it would taste wonderful if we did!), let alone knowing whether it is in season or not.We then lose interest, saying that it is such hard work or "it doesn't taste nice anyway, so why bother" - and go back to our old habits. Too many of us just can't be bothered - and I am not only talking about cooking food that is local and in season!
I don't think this attitude is a "city only" disease, but I do think it is more pronounced in city dwelling folk (perhaps more so in the Western world, than elsewhere, though I am not sure) and it is not something that city parks and green spaces can heal. It has something to do with being more fundamentally disconnected from the real world - and with that I mean the world which actually ensures our survival, which nurtures and loves us, and which could do so much more for us if we only let it.
So, my attitude has become:
Learning by doing:
It is never too late to learn
(go and discover something new and amazing!),
but it will one day be too late to act
(to put into practice what you have learnt).
You never know when that day will arrive...
(go and discover something new and amazing!),
but it will one day be too late to act
(to put into practice what you have learnt).
You never know when that day will arrive...
So, BE BOTHERED and ACT NOW
(on what you know to be true to yourself)!
(on what you know to be true to yourself)!
And with that, I am ending part one of this topic... to be continued another day when it is not almost midnight...
Hmm.. interessant. Ich lese ja normalerweise keine Blogs, aber es scheint das du ein Problem identifizierst, es beschreibts aber dann keinen Ausweg schilderst (selbst wenn er noch so einfach und ersichtlich ist). Aber das kommt ja vielleicht in Part 2?
ReplyDeleteWARGEL
Hehe...Schoen, dass du trotzdem vorbeischaust :) Und was meinst du ist dieser einfache und ersichtliche Ausweg? Sehr gut fuer dich, dass du ihn weisst :) Fuer jeden ist dieser Weg einzigartig! Aber keine Sorge, in den naechsten Eintraegen werde ich diese Auswege hoffentlich ein bisschen erkunden...
DeleteFrom my experience many parts of Asia are in fact alot worse than the West. The disconnection is ridiculous. The economy, marketing, brands, brainwashing, THE CONSUMER is alot more prominent here.
ReplyDeleteI actually think that the West has been given a gift with alot of people caring about connection to the "real" world. Societies are moving out of the industrial economical paradigm. It may be slow but it is happening. In the emerging economies in Asia people are diving far deeper and faster into the depths of commercial nonsense. It makes you wonder whether they will ever come out of it.
Its ironic that people in the West take alot of holistic thinking from the Eastern cultures when it seems utterly lost here, because it has been overrun by commercialisation.
Interesting times.
Excellent points. Maybe the West is babysitting Eastern holistic thinking while the East finds its way (back)... But there are also a lot of European holistic thinkers (ancient and not so ancient), not to mention the native American and other tribes.
DeleteHave a look at this story, which I just came across:
"Bhutan leads the world to a new economy of happiness"
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sustainable-business/bhutan-advise-united-nations-happiness?intcmp=122&CMP=
Other related thoughts your comment has prompted:
1) If it is the right type of consumption (conscious, innate, value driven consumption), then the consumer being more prominent is not a bad thing. So the challenge is how to encourage that.
2) Speaking of emerging economies, many people in developing economies argue along the lines of: "You developed countries threw aside your values and polluted and demolished like crazy to get where you are, so why shouldn't we?". But this argument is irrelevant. Developing countries can get even further than the now "developed" countries by taking a completely different approach. Why be copycats and make the same mistakes that the "developed" countries made? Who says they are developed anyway - is a country ever developed I wonder...
3) What is more, it is in effect the wealthiest people and the big companies all over the world who really need to rethink where their actions are taking us all. I am not saying they are the only ones, but they are the ones who have our world in their grip in the current economic and political paradigm.... The above story on Bhutan comes in handy when talking about this point...
And another story from the Guardian in relation to my 3rd point in my comment above:
Delete"Sir Stuart Rose on the changing role of business leaders"
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sustainable-business/sir-stuart-rose-changing-role-business-leaders?intcmp=122&CMP=
Interesting last story from the Guardian. Of course the comments are also very interesting. I am happy most websites have taken to them as they really broaden the discourse and can really pan an article as rubbish when it really is.
DeleteA few remarks:
Ah, but are native americans western? Or did they come through Asia and Alaska into the Americas?
Unfortunately I do not have a link but research was done on differences in thinking between western people and Asian's and how it is culturally ingrained. Looking at a picture the Asians (I know that there are vast differences between parts of Asia) would be able to remember the background colour and then general orientiation of things to each other far better but not so much the individual details. With western people it would be the opposite.
What I refer to I suppose is reflected somewhat in the nontheistic buddhist way of understanding the world that is very holistic. This stands in crass contrast to the dualistic western thinking model and the monotheistic religions.
Referring to consumption not necessarily being bad. I see little hope of this in Asia. As the ultimate consumer they are even more so suckers for brands and marketing than in the west. It may be a lack of distrust in authority. But sales numbers for iPhones in China are a good example and in general any kind of brandnames. Its sad as it also brings with it a lack of artistic/individual interaction in Society. It may be a stage before they reach the "developed" stage of the economy. Japan would be an interesting study in this respect as I personally find them to be alot more artistically minded, or in other words they consciously chose art and individuality over conformism and accepting the brand game.
I liked the Bhutan way of thinking. A few of the smaller countries actually seem to develop quite interesting methods to "survive" alongside all the big neighbours. Singapore stands out that respect too, although it is utterly devoid of culture and is really the prototype of a pure marketing/business world.