On Mon, 31 May 1999, eric + michiko wrote:
>
> Would you put books in the category of "I do talk about what I am doing and
> what I believe when asked to"?
In what way? I read a lot and am influenced by what I read, but as most of
what I believe is already printed somewhere I wouldn't waste teh paper
trying to write a book of my own. Books can be influential but only
directly on a small scale. The influence of very good books tend to ripple
out from the people who read them to the people who don't.
By "trying to influence people" I do not
> necessarily mean proselytizing; I agree that it has little positive effect.
I see any attempt to directly influence people as at least questionable,
and probably too invasive.
> But I know that I have been influenced by many people, including you and
> others on this list. Books and a few seminars have also been major
> influences in my life. Most, but not all, were things I chose to look into.
The last is key. People rarely accept that which they did not choose to
look at.
>
> I ask mainly because I am trying to work through ideas about what methods
> best create change in society. I guess I am interested in "the grand scale
> of change that will save the world next week", or at least before things
> get really ugly.
Things already are ugly, and all the attempts to make change on a grand
scale have had at best only minimal effect. Change will happen one small
step at a time or not at all in any lasting way. It may happen in time to
save the human species, or it may not.
> I'd be interested to hear from you, and different people,
> about what kinds of things have been an influence for you.
A list of the major influences in the early part of my life is below. It's
long and not complete. "The Fallacy of Wildlife Conservation" has heavily
influenced how I balance thinking and doing in my life.
> It seems that
> most people on this list (in my life?) are more doers; while I guess I'm
> more of a thinker / talker.
Nobody who meets me in person views me or has ever viewed me as anything
but an intellectual. I rarely stop thinking, analyzing, synthesizing
processing all my experience through my intellectual filters. At times a
view it as a curse and certainly in the society I live in, being this way
does not win me any brownie points. I stop thinking when I am gardening
(although I think a lot about gardening when I am not in the garden) I
stop thinking when I am dancing.
> I do a lot more than I let on, but I guess I
> enjoy the thinking part more. If I came to the conclusion that the balance
> should be more toward doing, I think that I would change. I'd like to be a
> part of the solution more than I want to satisfy my personal pleasures. Of
> course, being able to do both is even better.
In my opinion, both are necessary, and both doable.
As promised, my early influences:
These are the primary influences on my choice to lead a sustainable
lifestyle.
Reading Black Beauty when I was 7 or 8 years old.
Immigrating to Canada when I was 8 and discovering that not everyone in
the world thought the British empire had been such a good thing.
Immigrating to Canada when I was 8 and discovering that the Irish I was
taught in school were bad people were Catholics (I was catholic at that
time) Created a conflict between the British national and the
Catholic religious pride I was being raised on. Going to a Catholic school
in Canada, being taught the official English Protestant version of Louis
Riel's story in class, but at the same time reading a French Catholic
version (in English) of Louis Riel's story. Picking up a book about a
horse from the library. Nice picture of an Indian on a horse on the cover.
Title "Crazy Horse" I read it through to almost the end before I realized
that the book was the Sioux version of Custer's last stand. That was
before I started Highschool.
Going to Algonquin Park for the first time (16 years old). Seeing the
vitality of the forest trying to regrow, seeing the remnants of the forest
that had been. Learning about Mercury Pollution at Grassy Narrows in
Northern Ontario, and the politics of coverup and marginalization. Buffy
St. Marie's song "My Country tis of Thy People You're dying". First heard
when I was around 17 years old. Specifically the lines "Ah
what can I do cry a powerless few, with a lump in their throat and a tear
in their eye. Can't you see that their poverty's profiting you. My country
tis of thy people you're dying."
Growing up with a father who survived internment in Siberia in the first
half of WW2 and then fought as a child soldier (17 when he was released
into the British army) for the second half of WW2. My father's compassion
for, and respect and attention to the natural world around him.
Studying philosophy in my first two years of university and figuring out
that Descartes didn't take the reduction far enough. The step before "I
think therefore I am" is becoming. The only certainty I accept in my life
is the process of becoming, although I pragmatically live as though many
more things than that are certainties.
"The Fallacy of Wildlife Conservation" by John A Livingston.
The four ethical principles I live by are to live as I please as long as
I do not knowingly do harm. To learn what ever I need to learn to
minimize the unknowing harm I do. To acknowledge any harm I do either
knowingly or unknowingly and make the changes needed not to do it again.
To live every moment as joyously as possible.
Sandra P. Hoffman [EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.flora.org/sandra/
It's a thankless job, but
I've got a lot of karma to burn off.
