permaculture

[KNat <knat@sprintmail.com>]

George Monacelli wrote:
>    
>   I am re-reading an excellent book on survival that I feel holds a lot of lessons for those in our community, and highly recommend it: Deep Survival  by Lawrence Gonzales. It reinforces what Tom Brown told us in the class I was lucky enough to take when he was still teaching them himself: Its not what’s in your pack that makes the difference, or even what’s in your mind… its what’s in your heart.
>    
>   I would like others thoughts on the topic, and if I am totally off-base please e-mail me privately and tell me to shut the hell up and I will passively read other’s ravings without comment.
If this topic doesn't go here I hope we take it somewhere else. As one 
who was fortunate enough to have a childhood with zone 5 and mentors who 
impressed my good fortune, I note having a much easier time being with 
Zone 1 than others. It's just part of my personal culture. If you've 
done a class that long ago you've had a chance to recognize "another" in 
a crowd. Often at a permaculture study group I will inevitably find 
myself in side conversation about plant or animal minds and reference to 
a tracker school pop out. But not everyone can have true woods time. 
Resources are shrinking. We laugh at the bears in a local camping spot 
that used to be filled with trackers. They sound like old men in a city 
park. Telling the same stories and focusing on food and negative 
judgments. Hardly what one feels traveling with bear company out west in 
my youth. I live in an area built to max (and still building.) How to 
incorporate micro experiences, to allow "tuning" awareness, feels 
pressing. Many of the children I know are Autistic and it is built in. 
But even they need words and understanding to use their awareness.
What have people done to leave openings in their development for "wild" 
to come in?

Kathyann