permaculture

["Kelly Lockamy" <garden_muse@bellsouth.net>]

thank you for that voice of reason - yours has been the most compelling
addition to this heated and belaboured thread.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Michael Kramer" <MKramer@hawaii.rr.com>
To: <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Thursday, September 16, 2004 3:03 AM
Subject: [permaculture] the legitimacy of certification


As a decentralized movement, permaculture is a movement that survives
primarily on trust, because it is not controlled by anyone or any
organization, at least not in the States. People pay for the design course
experience and, upon graduation, they earn the right to call themselves
permaculturists and use this term in their work or life.  The money people
pay is for this right, and that's it. The courses may vary in teachers,
content, style and depth, but they are introductory so they are not meant to
be an identical catch-all; nor are they designed to give everyone all the
tools and strategies they need to apply permaculture in all its facets.
Rather, the courses give people a lens through which they can look at how
they will design their lives and gives some sample strategies. But it is the
design process, not the stories or web of facts impacted, that makes a
permaculture course unique. And this has value as a body of knowledge, which
is why people feel like paying for it.

No one asks for a course grad's certificate because this is unimportant.
What matters is that people are on the path to mastery, doing the work in
whatever way they wish, and anyone who applies what they experience in a
Basic Design Course is practicing permaculture.  Certainly there are people
out there who come to a design course with a lot of knowledge, and others
with very little. We don't judge people based on this diversity, we
appreciate it, and when people leave a course, we appreciate that they will
at least know what permaculture means; how they appply it is up to them, and
the more approaches the better as long as the integrity of the design
process is upheld.  There is little need to police this process, centralize
it, or assess certain people as walking their talk more than others.  We're
a guild, after all, each of us fixing different nutrients in the
sociocultural system called humanity. Not everyone wants to grow their own
food or live on $2000 annual income. Some teach, some write, some organize,
some work the land, some build, some run for office, some deal with
finances, some start businesses, etc. If we judge each other, we do not
focus on the true potential of the system, and we likely alienate ourselves
from all those who do not think as we do. We need to be bridge-builders,
folks, and reach out to where people they are at, not judge them harshly.
People out there are willing to pay for this awakening, and we're the people
to wake 'em up.

-----
Michael Kramer
Natural Investment Services
P.O. Box 390595
Keauhou, HI 96739

www.NaturalInvesting.com
808-331-0910
Toll-free: 888-779-1500

"Be the change you wish to see in the world."
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