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Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Play in the Light



It's been more than six years since the beginning of Earthfamilyalpha.

And for much of the last year and a half, earthfamilyalpha has been little more than a personal blog with the occassional travel video to Buenos Aires, to the profound ground zero of NYC, the great sink hole in Real de Catorce, the magic desert of Wirikuta, and the majestic red rocks and petroglyphs of Sedona.

During this year, so much has happened on so many levels, it is a bit difficult to get your hands around it.

On the personal side, my mom and her younger brother passed on within 3 weeks of each other just last month. My partner's Mom lost 2 sisters within months. A 61 year old Uncle passed while driving down the interstate making a great circle in a northwestern meadow before coming to a tragic yet nonviolent rest.

In the Community, we passed an ambitious energy plan for renewable energy on Earth Day only to have it linked to the issue of affordability and placed in policy purgatory as the economic forces of bottom lines artfully changed the framing to their home court. Soon, it would morph even further into the issue of transparency. Almost a year after its presentation, the Earth Day generation plan is still in chains. We seem to have forgotten that affordability and transparency aren't such big deals...if you are dead.

Yet, from a larger perspective, the work that we did creating the Plug In Partners campaign, a campaign that was pioneered in our community, came to a full fruition. Last week, I rode and drove what would become the new Volt for a good friend and environmental activist. It was sporty and truly deserving of the accolades it has received. This series plug in hybrid, extended range electric car is precisely what we invisioned four years ago when we began our National Campaign.

It, and its technological cousins will change the energy world in a profound way. These electric transportation appliances will allow our entire energy system to be unified in ways that will ultimately make a significant change in all things energy. The former manager of the Utility will pick his Volt up after the New Year.

On the National political scene, we watched as the spark of power ignited the smoldering fire of racism and the electorate voted in a party that has the approval rating of baked liver balls. And then we watched as both parties spent a trillion dollars to show us how bipartisanship can work, giving much of it to the rich, while taking just as much of it out of social security.

In this year, the beginning of true health care was created, despite the greatest lie of the year award going to those who characterized the former Republican health plan of the 90s as a Government takeover.

Meanwhile on the Global Scene, the Mexican climate change conference managed to convince itself that it came out of their own venue with a draw, despite the scientific concensus that 2010 will probably be the hottest year on record, eclipsing 2005 and 1998.

Few seem to know or care that the same Public Relations firms who postponed the truth about the health affects of personal smoking have now created doubt in climate change and the science behind it. They have made true inroads into the public consciousness regarding the imminent danger of our global fires and they have a network and a political party to spread that doubt.

From a technological perspective, the smart phones have arrived. Texting is beginning to replace e mail. And the tablet, and its ramifications is right behind. My partner rarely, if ever uses her home computer, now that she has her Ipad. And with her I phone, no dinner conversation is ever left with a dangling fact. No longer can you just say something at work or at dinner. Is the murder rate in Houston worse than in Mexico? Look it up.

As the year ends, we find ourselves not in central Mexico in the mountains, but more likely on the Texas coast, perhaps for more reasons than I might know.

Life is such a great play of potential and wonder for each of us.

To judge one year, one week, one moment,

Is like measuring a wave,

or finding fault with a cloud.

For as we work in the world,

We must also play in the light.


Important Notice: Susan Bright, the poet, publisher, and contributor to Earthfamilyalpha is gravely ill. She is in St Davids Hospital. More later.

Susan passed into the light at 8:15 Wed morning December 29th, 2010.

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5 comments:

  1. Well said. I am not sure how to "appreciate" a year. A lot about this one I did not appreciate one bit.

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  2. Anonymous2:36 PM

    I'm poor and I'm getting old and I'm scared, but I can walk and I can see and I know where my next meal is coming from and I'm not a woman in Afghanistan or Darfur. So although I do not appreceiate the way America or a lot of the world is going, I do appreciate how lucky I am (for the time being anyway). And I know it's not enough to just vote anymore.

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  3. Anonymous9:52 AM

    Thanks Buddy, I thought yesterday to check in with you, funny, HNY Dick

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  4. Anonymous12:50 PM

    "PURGATORY" IS A DOCTRINE OF POPERY!!!!!


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  5. Tina Plowman6:39 PM

    As always, good to receive your words. So shocking that Susan has passed; was it a sudden thing or a while coming? I really liked her writing, and would have liked to have met her. My condolences to her close friends and family.
    Hope 2011 is everything you hope for, and may we meet again one of these years.

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