Evolution

My head is full of climate change at the moment. I was at a talk this morning put on by the Brotherhood of St Lawerence and the VLGA, Coming Together for Climate Change Equity. One of the speakers, from DSE, said that one of the difficulties of adapting to climate change was that human beings had evolved in a stable climate and so were not used to adapting, to coping with change.

I couldn't disagree more. It's factually and conceptually incorrect, even if the conclusion is near to the truth.

Human beings evolved in a highly variable climate, we came through an ice age or two (i really should research this) and adapted successfully to an incredible wide range of ecologies. In fact, the reason we have become such a dominant species is exactly because we are incredibly adaptable. It's why we have a large brain - we are able to assess and adapt to changes in our environment in a way that few other species can.

The problem is that we've adapted to a freak patch of stable weather that's been going on for a few thousand years now. Adapted incredibly well. And combined with our increasingly sophisticated ability to control and alter our local climate (ie buildings and air-con), hey presto we've become incredibly resistant to change. Our own brilliance is, in fact, threatening to trip us up.

We must learn to adapt to change again, rather than adapt to familiarity. The best preparation for the unknown is an openness and a courage to acknowledge and learn from what ever happens, and whatever it brings up for us.

Garnaut Report

I don't usually look forward to government reports. If what was needed was a nice hot cup of tea, they are usually more like having a tepid cuppa that you left lying around a bit too long and that you find a moth floating in when you clean out the pot. You just know it's not really going to do the job... and can make you feel a little bit ill afterwards as the moth lay crumpled up in the plug hole.

OK, that might have been a bit melodramatic, but you get the point. The Garnaut report is not, it would seem, the tepid mothy type. Ross Garnuat has just come out and said that we will probably lose the fight against climate change. Hooray for him, and from a mainstream report, commissioned by the federal government, not some radical who can be dismissed as crazy. It's frankly about time we started calling it like it is.

What exactly he means is a bit open to question, and is a fairly one dimensional way of looking at ecological catastrophe. After all, without a few ecological catastrophes in the earth's history, we wouldn't be in the position we're in... err the position of being able to create our very own ecological catastrophe.

I agree entirely with his findings and his premise so far. Check out the Garnaut Review, it's well worth it. And what i particularly like is how public Ross Garnaut is being, he is really going out of his way, it would seem, to make sure the report doesn't get watered down as it filters into the bureaucracy by being very public about his progress and findings.

However, what would be more interesting than saying 'we're probably going to lose the fight..' would be to say that we're most likely beyond the point of being able to stay the way we are: culturally, economically, spiritually, and even, perhaps, biologically. It turns a sense of impending doom into a sense of opportunity and possibility. Dangerous, possibly deadly opportunity, but opportunity nonetheless.

Ironic, really, that our desperate clinging to our identities, our feverish desire to control our environment, our deep desire to replicate the familiar, has in fact hastened our own evolutionary challenge.

New Moon

New moons are a powerful time to set an intention. And yes, it's the full moon. One of the wonderful ways in which technology has made me more aware of the natural world (rather than less) is through having a 'current moon phase' gadget on my igoogle page. I always know where the moon is at and i find myself looking for her and admiring her more than i used to. Of course, what i really need is a 'go and enjoy the sunshine' gadget that helps me to not while away some time in front of a screen and go and while away some time in the sun instead.

Anyway, that said, i've been conducting an interesting experiment with myself that i spoke a little about in my first post that i'm hoping to find a little more committment to through using the newness of the moon-ness.

I've been asking myself, whenever i've felt stuck, or down, or held back, 'what would i do in this situation if i really beleived in myself?'

And something has really shifted for me, i can't entirely say what it is, but there's a renewed strength to my sense of self, to my confidence. It all makes sense really, i guess i'm just a little surprised it's been so easy to find results with such a simple practice. So my intention, now that my little experiment seems to be meeting with some success, is to set my new moon intention: to drop my self doubts, to continue my deepening awareness, and to believe in myself - and act as if i believe in myself.

Man-ness

So an experiment has it's next chapter. A small group of men quest for power: what does it mean to be powerful, compassionate, sexy, empowering men? And how do you avoid it turning into a crochet circle?

In fact, one of the primary motivations behind this gathering has been that our primary experience of so called 'mens groups' has been the crochet circle phenomena, which appears to come from a desire to emulate what women's groups do, and turns into self indulgent emotional wallowing that doesn't challenge, doesn't push our edge or have a will to change.

And we ask ourselves: what does it mean to be a man in this day and age? The answer we seem to be arriving at is that to be a man means to take full responsibility for our lives, our loves, our demons, our angels, our pain, our bliss, our nurturing... to hunt those things we most fear because they are exactly the food on which our souls thrive, and to bring the spoils back to enrich, feed and empower our community.

Why settle for a life of dull acceptance? We are men, we are hunters of dreams, loves, food, prosperity, security, fear, power, magic, mountains, ocean depths and consciousness. The kind of manhood being sold to us through mass media is either a pale shadow of a man or a hero who serves, ultimately, to highlight our perceived inadequacy by being superman rather than man.

The mind too easily goes to the obsessive culture we so idolise, of the man working himself to death in some corporate high-rise mausoleum, sacrificing family and health to be a success. It is not this i wish to find. We with to find a path, and tools to help others on the path, to be empowered to follow our deepest inspiration and yearnings, to work in a way the nurtures and empowers all those around us - that is true power, the power of we, not I.

I think, therefore i am; i feel, therefore we are; i intuit, therefore everything simply is.

Body image and bulge

I'm having an interesting struggle with my self image. I've got a wee bit of fat on my belly, and my sides bulge ever so slightly. Yes, ridicule my miniscule plumpening if you will, but this is new. I've never softly bulged about the belly before. Well, not since i can remember. My self image as an adolescent was poor, to say the least, and a big part of my growing has been an increasing happiness with my physical self, increasingly stronger, more agile, more able, more confident, feeling sexier and more self assured. And now this. Yes, my city edge lifestyle has left me more car bound, yes my tantra practice is less physically rigorous than my martial arts, yes i've been eating too much sugar. It's easy to be fine with body issues when you don't have to worry about them. I mean, i'm even fairly comfortable these days with the 'hole' in my chest. My reaction is perhaps more about the state of my fitness than about the actual body stuff, but i sit here feeling plump, bulgy, unfit. It's quite weird. Anyway, a fine motivation for getting back into more physical activity, and good to know that i'm quite attached to my body image - an interesting avenue to explore.

Fog

Fog settles on the city, a blanket damp and magical. An underwater wonderland (of very thin water mind you, or perhaps that's water with lots of really big air bubbles) where sounds and lights whisper of a realm of dream, a world only half seen. Sounds echo in a way that draws your attention to the silence between, lights hang suspended from droplets above the city.

A service station glows like an outpost floating in the mists, headlights slowly resolve from a faint blur to two burning eyes as the tail lights fade back into another world.

The rattle of trams far off coming and going along roads that weave between worlds, boom gates clang lonely in the mists, calling as their love speeds past, devoted, looking on as the train skirts between stations, between worlds disconnected by dreams.

Dreams floating in the mist, echoing the silence deep within our souls.

A day, a night

What is a day? A day is when i get up and when i go to bed.

I've been at a party, a party i nearly didn't go to as i was feeling tired, a bit shattered. But i'm so glad i went, lots of good people, good vibe, a backyard fires and funky tunes. It's amazing how getting out and talking to a bunch of great people can really shift your mind-state, can loosen you up and help you remember that life isn't all toil and work.. it's fun, and the exact reason i do the things i do is because there are all these wonderful people that i care about, that inspire me, and that matter.

Great friends make everything in life worthwhile.