permaculture

["Guy Clark" <guyclark@socket.net>]

Greetings earthlings-
        Jewel-Weed (Impatiens capensis) or Pale Jewel Weed (Impatiens 
pallida) do
often grow with or around poison ivy here in Missouri.  I have often heard
that it can be rubbed on as either a prophylactic or after exposure to
eliminate or reduce the chance of getting it or reducing its severity.  I
am sure that there are other species in other parts of the country and
world.  Obviously, since it is related to the Impatiens over-used in
American gardens.  The two species mentioned above often grow along creeks,
road cuts and other edge habitats.  It seems to like cool feet and a warm
head.  Dappled shade etc.  It is a pale green, glabrous plant with orange
spotted or yellow flowers respectively.  Should flower in early summer (May
to early July), but may flower sporadically after that in favored sites.
        I have used it with some success, though I am only moderately 
allergic to
poison ivy.  I do not think that I would be willing to try Gibbons
solution, the cure may be worse than the disease.  But it does have a
certain simple elegance; and seems to work on the same principle as
homeopathy.  It is also used by the government--"If we expose them to
radiation through their food, then eventually maybe they will become immune
to radioactivity."
        I was about to unsubscribe from this list because I thought it was
supposed to be about Permaculture and not pissing wars between different
schools of true believers who imagined that anyone could possess, be
possessed by, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.  I was ANGERED by
this crap.  Then along came the question that set off a flurry of posts
about anger.  
        I like others in here tire of the New Age whitewashing of all that is 
not
sweetness and light.  I also have little respect for the doomsayers.  These
perspectives are useful, in that they frame the area where reasonable
discourse ought to take place.  We are all mixed bags, though some more
like mixed nuts and some more mixed than others, we possess/are possessed
by conflicting emotions, desires, motivations and abilities.  I work 100+
hours a week running an organic market garden and CSA, coordination 14
community gardens and working to build a local food system through several
groups in Mid-Missouri.  So, I have a lot of energy, ideas, passion,
abilities and drive.  But I also can be arrogant, opinionated and
egotistical. I have  spent  a lot of time exploring the dark corners of my
psyche trying to understand the things that have happened to me, or which I
have done to myself and others.  There is an immense sadness and ton of
rage and anger inside of me, with good reason.  If I would have continued
to ignore it or bottled it up, I would have continued my trajectory of the
talented, but unmotivated rebel that I was throughout my teens and
twenties.  Instead, I spent two hellish years understanding and feeling the
pain of my childhood.  Now I am very motivated to engage the world and be
engaged by it.  I  found my calling, I found my totem.  Now I work very
hard to make up for lost time.  I still have a great deal of anger, but
like all energies its positive and negative possibilities are determined by
the focus.  A laser can make a beautiful, trippy light display, or cut
through solid steel depending on how you focus it.
        To not be angered or saddened by the state of the world today is to 
risk
death.  The trick seems to be to learn to be angered and accepting at the
same time.  However that old saw goes it is true to some extent, "Lord give
me the strength to change the things I can change, accept the things I
cannot change, and the wisdom to be able to tell them apart."  I,
ultimately, think we have the power as individuals and groups to change
almost anything, except the past.  The question is do we have the will and
the community to do it quickly enough?
Namaste',
Guy Clark