To reverse "Ecocide", we need to recreate our myth and story, deepening a reverential relationship with nature and constructing society in harmony with this.
Sue Supriano's Steppin' Out of Babylon is a radio interview series covering a broad range of important issues in today's world: peace and war, human and civil rights, communication, the media, the environment, food security, racism, globalization, immigration and matters of the spirit.
http://www.suesupriano.com
Timothy LaSalle is the Executive Director of the Northwest Earth Institute based in Portland, Oregon. There are Earth Institutes in Vermont and Texas Earth well. This interview was conducted at the Bioneers in Eugene, Oregon in October, 2006, where LaSalle led a workshop, "Awakening to Ecocide-- An Important Conversation". LaSalle recently completed a PhD in Depth Psychology. He says that he and his wife have seen a lot of suffering and ecological devastation in their travels throughout the planet. He thinks that people who talk about these things (are "awake") are sometimes marginalized, but it's worth it because they face their despair and get into a place of action. The myth we're dealing from from our culture is one of death, insecurity and emptiness. We need a myth that comes from reverence. This destructive culture is really a short blip on the continuum of history of unconscious behavior. Value has to be rooted in earth or is incorrect. We need to realize how we're being manipulated too. I have to become the kind of ancestor I would like to be to coming generations. What can so often fill the emptiness is something like nature which has always been there. He thinks that people who talk about these things (are "awake") are sometimes marginalized, but it's worth it because they face their despair and get into a place of action. Recreating our myth and story is so important - the deepening of a reverential relationship with nature and constructing society in harmony with this. The journey of investigating own psyches as to why we do what we do is important in order to change. Right now our technological human centric approach is doing us in.
Northwest Earth Institute is a national organization that provides a discussion course for small groups of 6 to 12 members with the intention of stimulating them to be more connected to taking responsibility for the earth, themselves and all beings. The course is designed to provide readings that have been chosen to inspire and educate with regard to changing their lives in these ways. "Healthy Children" and "Sustainability" are among the six courses offered. The courses can lead to appreciation of the deep relationships we actually have with all of creation and the connections group members develop stimulate conversation while people make up own minds about where they will go from there, The main point is to stimulate thinking. Soon there will be an additional and somewhat more scientific course specifically about climate change. NEI asks $15 per book and 6-12 folks to provide a good discussion.
LaSalle says that we need grassroots understanding on these issues of survival and these courses help with group process as well as information by their encouraging of members to follow a model laid out in the teaching material of non-hierarchical rotating facilitation-- a group process skill in itself important for working in community and building healthy community.
![<?php echo $config['site_title']; ?>](/static/images/rp-navimg.gif)
![Support the <?php echo $config['site_title']; ?>](/static/images/support.png)
