It is nearly a week since EAT ended. I am exhausted. I am tired to my bones. I am also peopled out. Anyone who knows me well knows that my tolerance for lots of people has it's limits. I am there. I'll recharge and be up for more people again, but for now I need down time, a few friends at a time, solitude,, NO rushing, NO deadlines, just time and space to get back to my native pace so my intrinsic motivations can resume.

I have visited some news sites in the last 24 hours. I am better off not doing so. All this drama and violence, and so much attention paid to the abrahamic religions. The old synagogue in Berlin has been refurbished, with gold and beauty. The muslims are celebrating Ramadan. The christians are doing their usual repression and preaching hate of gays. It's all business as usual for these sects which have enslaved much of the world.

Judaism, christianity and islam are all based on belief in this one god who proclaims loudly that he is jealous, must come first before all others, and who instructs his followers to kill and maim, to defile the land, to treat women like possessions...the list goes on. This god resembles nothing so much as a sociopath.

I long for the day when earth is peopled by those who revere nature, who treat each other with kindness or at least without bloodthirsty cruelty. I long for the day when the abrahamics do not wield the power of the gun, the sword, the bomb.

It is not only the abrahamics who indulge the murderous aspect of their human nature, to be sure, but here in "the west" it is the abrahamics who authorize the hate and violence of nations, the racism against indigenous people, and the war against the Earth. I wish they would stop.

Today I will do some more around this place with my roommate, maybe go for a swim in Molly's Pond, and relax.

Today is a day off. The Earth Activist Training is at it's mid-point. The first week has come and gone. In the yard outside the earthship there are newly sheetmulched beds, a new fire pit area, an herb spiral, and the base for a cob oven. Last night we held a public Lammas ritual in Montpelier. Over 300 people came! It was really fun and energizing. I knew a small fraction of the folks who showed up, which was particularly wonderful; to have offered something to the community and to have so many people show up really affirms the value of the endeavor. Maybe I'll host more public rituals.

It is sunny and promises to be hot today. I think I will find a place to go for a swim.

Wow. I am really exhausted. I haven't worked this yard in years. It's great! We are getting so much done here in the earthship at Neruda. I don't use names in my blog as a general practice so this could sound confusing, but it isn't really. There is a couple that already live here. They built the earthship. They are both involved in preparing for EAT. One of them is doing a lot of wiring, plumbing, and other construction, on the kitchen in I daresay our side of the earthship. He set up the gas stoves yesterday, and worked on the sink today, and built a platform for the two refrigerators. I built a counter space with shelves for some countertops from Freecycle. Later we cooked dinner in the new kitchen.

EAT work exchange folks are arriving. More are expected tomorrow night. The teachers arrive next week and then on July 25 we kick it off for 2 weeks of permaculture, activism, and magic. It will be a blast. Along with the course, and with valued help, I am also coordinating a sneak preview on July 24 of Starhawk and Donna Read's new film, Permaculture - The Growing Edge, and on July 31 a public Lammas ritual in Montpelier, VT. Lots of people are putting out lots of energy so these events can happen. It's very exciting to be part of so many people working together to make good things available.

Preparing the earthship for EAT is also preparing the earthship for me to live in after EAT. The way it is now, with some winterizing, will be ok for this winter. Next spring we will build the three bedroms; one for me, one for a friend who lives 1/2 time in Jamaica, and one for another friend. Next year we will build those and also get to some mad gardening all over this hillside, as well as raising some animals like sheep, a bullock, chickens (which we already have!) and more. It's what I have always wanted, all my life; to live in the country and grow food and share space and work hard and also relax a lot. It's an interesting time of the world for this to be happening in my life. Feels like just in the nick of time.

Another aspect of doing all this work and focusing on these events is I don't have time to read the news. I barely have time to keep up with my scrabble games on facebook. No news is a relief. It's like I plugged an energy leak. The amount of energy it takes to worry and be pissed off or whatever one feels after ingesting "news" is better spent planting a garden or feeding chickens.

I'm taking a hiatus from Paradigms for the rest of the summer. I did 53 episodes in 56 weeks. I am due for a break so I can recharge that part of my brain with new experiences and ideas. I will start it up again in September.

What's going on with you? Whoever you are reading this, how about leaving a comment about what's going on in your life? I'd love that. Be well.

love,
Baruch

Summer 2010 will be remembered as pivotal in the war on the environment. With the help of British Petroleum, the current administrator of the corporation of the USA, Barack Obama, has killed the Gulf of Mexico to make an oil sea. This will allow for oil extraction from water, simpler than all those expensive wells and pipelines.

The corporation of the USA is now exposed fully. We know they target and murder people around the world. We know the players are owned by corporations; banks, oil companies, big pharma, etc. We know the elections are bought and paid for. And we feel the sizzling heat of global warming while corporate government agencies pretend to take action, all the while maximizing profit for the few while creating policies that destroy the Earth and kill indigenous and "poor" people globally.

Still we allow sociopaths to be in power, to tell us what to do, from the psychopaths in government to the thugs called "police." This is what we have created, and we are the ones who can uncreate it. You can help. Question authority. Use less, much less! Eschew money, instead trade barter gift! Every little thing we do, and we all do, that connects with oil or money, helps keep the monstrous machine in motion. The way to stop it is to refuse to feed it. Become downwardly mobile financially (most of us are already anyhow) grow food, buy local if you must buy, build soil, and demand accountability from local, state, and federal representatives of the corporate government. You won't get accountability, but you will piss them off and use their time, and that's worth a lot.