When we discover something that centers us, fulfills our aspirations and sense of self, we have to carve out a time for it and defend it in order to lay continuing claim to our sense of centered self. Without the opportunity to feel our own creative energies and to build inner strength through their exercise, we are diminished and have little reserve for staying centered through difficult times which it seems are always just around the corner.
Here in our local community, a large power company has plans to put in a major new 345KV line. One alternate route would pass within 175 feet of my home, taking a 150 foot wide swath of our carefully protected woodlands as it would traverse from one end of our 11 acres to the other. And just as I care for this small acreage, I have friends who also care for theirs. There is no good route.
I've been immersed in emails circulating at the center of a local storm. Swepco in their Environmental impact statement notes two alternatives... what they claim to be the disastrous do nothing approach, and that of inflicting disaster on us. In the meantime, they ignore conservation, and they ignore alternative localized sources for meeting area wide energy needs. For instance, one good friend has a grid tied solar system that meets all of her needs and feeds excess energy back into the system that the utility company refuses to compensate her for. Swepco wants to run the new 345KV line across her 137 acres, from one end to the other. Sadly, this is all about selling power, not building a more resilient power grid. And where there are corporate profits to be seen, individual rights are there to be trampled on. The following video is from a Montessori School in Ohio. Note the phrase used, "pedagogy of place."
Pedagogy of place reminds us that there is great value to be found in where we are if we open ourselves to the investigation of it.
Tonight there is a public meeting of concerned parties. I've been to these kinds of things before. Some will be angry, but we actually get the most done when we are centered. And getting centered is what happens in wood shop. Making things from wood can actually offer time in contemplation and access to deeper self. Creating is aligning oneself with the creative energies and capacities of the universe.
The photo above is of my apprentice Greg, helping a second grade student assemble a wagon in yesterday's class. We have a responsibility to help children align themselves with their own creative spirits. Neglect that and we will leave them with diminished capacity to deal with those things in life that throw us off center.
Make, fix and create...
It has to be extremely frustrating to see your beautiful corner of the state being treated so shabbily by that power company. I hope things work out for the best.
ReplyDeleteMario