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permaculture - Re: [permaculture] the gardener's shadow falls both ways

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  • From: Lee Flier <leeflier@comcast.net>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] the gardener's shadow falls both ways
  • Date: Sun, 13 Dec 2009 15:25:04 -0500

fdnokes@hotmail.com wrote:
Fukuoka's oft quoted line: "The ultimate goal of farming is not the growing of crops, but the cultivation and perfection of human beings."
What's a life for?
I feel I'm drifting far off your 'practicality' meter.
Not at all!

I think a lot of you guys' pushback on this topic is due as much to a misunderstanding of what "practical" means as anything else.
Personally, I don't want to be near people who are working drudgefully...
Me either!

But let's not forget the permaculture ethics. Looking after our own well being and that of the other creatures with whom we share the planet is of primary importance! And that means being happy, restful, mindful, free of drudgery. That's all very permacultural! And very practical because you can't really work or even think effectively when you're tired, run down, and approach life without a sense of fun and wonderment.

If anyone believes that being practical and observant of the "real world" leads to drudgery and mundaneness, then I say they simply aren't being practical and observant *enough.* :) Being practical and mindful of the real world does not inherently lead one to some sort of mechanistic, purely utilitarian viewpoint. That in itself is IMO where the danger is, and it's reflective of a very limited worldview. Science is a means to an end, and if you don't have the end in mind - "cultivation and perfection of human beings" or "care of the earth/care of people," then you will practice very poor science.

On either side of this dualistic coin lies danger, because each side for a different reason fails to see the multitude of intersections between beauty and function, between work and play, between matter and spirit.





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