Just to add a tip on the 100 acre food forest. I made one in Humboldt County CA on the world's best tree growing land adjacent to ancient redwoods ON the world famous Avenue of the Giants. It's temperate here but I'm also making a tropical one north of Hilo Hawaii. It's hard to make the time to get over there to work on it, but it's a tree planters paradise. THOUSANDS of species of useful trees will grow there, from ebony sandalwoods koa, teak, pink zebrawood and rudraksha to mamey, rollinia, mangosteen, garcinias and durian ETC ETC ETC. it rains every day and you can just fence each tree with 3 ft tall chicken wire and 3 5 ft sticks of 3/8 rebar. I planted the 14" diameter bamboo when it was pencil size and 6 months later it was like a skyscraper. But my 100 acre temperate food forest of standard size non semi dwarf trees actually pumps out immense quantities of peaches pears plums apples persimmons pomegranates mulberries loquats pineapple guava (feijoa) walnuts chestnuts almonds pecans hazelnuts and quite few other diverse and some obscure things like buartnut, pawpaw, medlar ume gingko and a few other Chinese things i forgot what they're called. But i would advise planting a commercial sized amount of at least 4 or 5 things so you can make some money, and keep them together because bees like it that way, and maybe keep them in some kind of row order so you can mow or so ehow easily deal with weeds or cultivation mechanically rather than some hippie fantasy of hand weeding... Getting the land is the hardest part, generally. It's not a bad idea to plan on sleeping out in the middle with 3 dogs and you won't need a fence at all. My friend crushes it with peaches and he planted them ON OTHER PEOPLES LAND. he just asked a whole bunch of people, many were glad to let him do it and split the crop, and eventually he made enough money to buy his own land, and plant more and more. Personally I've found that you can grow the nicest fruits and vegetables on earth and they're barely worth harvesting if you have to pay $20+ for laborers, thanks to big ag and slave labor/ globalization. But peaches, people will line up for... I also grow some football fields of watermelons other melons cucumbers squash corn and other row crops all dry farmed. No irrigation except winter rains. Plant every seed you'll get what you need.
Remake the garden of Eden, again, all over the place, aka Nice Up the Land; ban Jews from government, and media, and education administration jobs; give Palestine back to the Palestinians, Jews get nothing and like it that they don't get treated the way the german people got treated after Jewish banker caused world wars 1&2.
I pretty much retired when i was 23, more than a few decades ago, planted a million trees, luckily well over a thousand are now big fruit and nut trees. We used to chant "Babylon falling, mother earth calling..." If i were to just focus on the positive stuff that folks like and can easily relate to, i spose people might be interested, but i firmly believe that there's nothing trendy on a dead planet, so i try to focus on what i think people need to understand, like the Mega Group Jews behind "Epstein", and the banking dynasty families who have been running the Earth into the ground for the past coupla centuries or so.
Believe me i know all about how cognitive dissonance works, and how retarted my fellows are in general, so the futility of bringing this stuff up is ok with me. Jews did 911 and had the hutzpah to blame it on "the" Muslims, and none of you were very inspired to say much about it, so the same top Jews did 10/7, and every conversation lately has been predicated upon the gargantuan lie of "the Hamas attack," so why wouldn't they bomb Iran. None of y'all really give a shit. You're more worried about taboo stigma and being shunned than you are about flagrant truth, righteousness, and extinction of all life. It's ok, carry on. Good luck.
P.S. All the lies of Holocaustianity, jisrael, and self chosenism need to be fully exposed asap. If moneys no object, it should be real easy- nobody has to worry about losing their fucking jobs.
I actually just wrote an article that touches on this question as someone who quit "work" and has really leaned into what I call sovereign creation. As an "other" voter, my answer is basically whatever inspires me in the moment. My best days are the ones that I allow to flow wherever the energy leads. It can look different from day to day but it is self-directed and driven by curiosity, joy and love. Yes, I can definitely go through periods of feeling unfocused but that also leaves me open to inspiration. I've been thinking about getting into orgonite lately as an EMF, geoengineering remedy (though need to look more into it first).
I chose "other", because if money were no object, one may do many of the things in the options listed.
For instance, I'm an introvert, so living in a mansion with robot servants sounds appealing to me - not the mansion part, but the "shelter away from other humans available to me at all times" part. The shelter itself could be a mansion or a shack, and the robots may not be necessary at all except to provide assistance with the shelter like keeping the power on, the water running and the roof intact.
But in a mansion I could have artisans come and teach me many trades. I could plant a food forest on what presumably would be my large estate. I suppose I could travel to many countries, but given the political situations in most of them, would I want to visit them? Maybe I would randomly invite a family or two from every country to visit my property and live with me for a few months at a time and then return to their homelands with a pile of money as a gift for imparting their knowledge to me.
Well, I would have said, on the first one, to visit every country, but then I thought about some of those countries, like Israel, and decided that learning four trades would be really fun and cool. I like DOING stuff, and knowing HOW to do stuff. Plus, I could then teach what I know.
For the second one, it was a difficult choice, and I almost would have said the food forest, but I think teaching the young folks how to do things is critical... In the US, the kids are so utterly without any education, except how to use a cell phone, that I fear for their future.
When I was a kid, I didn't realize this, but as an elder now, it's clear to me that the future, if it is to be a continuation of progress and living well, depends on the CHILDREN of today... Kids in the US are in for a hard life, perhaps. But it's not too late... yet.
I chose "other". I'm an older guy (almost 62) and I have an insane amount of experience with more things than I can count. From canning, to growing food, to appliance repair, to cooking, to home repair and remodeling, to animal husbandry, to fishing, to... well, I haven't found anything yet I either can already do, or can learn if I put my mind to it. I would spend all of my time volunteering to teach my skills to any willing students who want to be free. People who realize that true liberty is a mindset and a *choice* regardless of what is happening around us. I have come to believe that "prepping" is important, but what I've found to be WAY more important than anything else are *skills*. We can have rooms full of food, water, etc and think we are "prepared" for the worst, but once those supplies run out what do we do? If we have not learned the skills it takes to live in a dystopian world, we're screwed. If we haven't learned how to secure liberty for ourselves and are waiting for someone to come and save us... we're screwed. Teaching whatever skills I have and my philosophy of personal liberty would be incredibly rewarding.
"one’s vision for a potential life that has no financial limitations"
I can't answer your survey, too many limitations.
I don't believe in Alan Watts, or any other such 'leaders', I find them ALL far too lacking and wish folks would stop quoting them ALL, including myself, I have FAR too many quotes in my head.
My vision is very simple, I'd try to restore this land I'm living on. I'm trying to do that, with the encroaching and relentless metropolises expanding all around me, engulfing everything into a hellscape that only exacerbates every year. Once upon a time here we did not pay a State monopoly for the priviledge of accessing water, electricity, travel, air, property, or anything else for that matter. We are slaves, for that Alan Watts, et all, are correct. For everything else they've done NOTHING to help the situation.
Who are these 'philosophers' around for decades whom we still quote ad nauseum who have had ZERO effect? Oh yes, ALL of them! SOO Sick of it!
I appreciate the candid comment my friend and thank you for sharing your vision. I feel your pain regarding the never ending earth eating machines working towards never ending "progress" and "sustainable development" expanding all around you. The same is happening where we live. We are so very extremely "civilized" here in southern Ontario. The traffic, stripmalls, giant power cables (powering chemical soaked industrial hydroponic greenhouses) and GMO corn fields extend from horizon to horizon.
I would like to clarify that by posting a picture of an Alan Watts quote and linking an audio clip of him talking I was in no way implying that people should "believe in" him nor follow him/his words (and others like him) as "leaders". I personally do not vibe with a lot of what I have heard from that Alan Watts guy, but in this case, some of what he said was aligned with truth, and so I shared it above. People can share 25% truth and 75% bs, and the 25% may still be worth learning from (in some cases). I try not to throw the baby out with the bathwater.
I have felt similar frustrations to what you express with philosopher quoting (12 hours a day social media dwelling) types (and the philosophers themselves in some instances) in that many words are typed, much lip service is given, and yet in many cases, the rubber never meets the road and the words (though seemingly full of meaning and truth) become hollow and meaningless, when they are not backed by actions.
I have also met some people that do express powerful truths, beautiful poetry and insightful abstract perspectives that are backed by real life everyday actions (which brings even more meaning and beauty into their words, because you can see them living by them, and not just speaking them). Those second type are few and far between, but I have encountered a handful. Sometimes I have also witnessed people that are of little words but very courageous in their actions that tell me they were moved to choose to make a bold choice to resist tyranny or embark on a risky endeavor (which could benefit many in their community) because they were inspired by one philosopher or another.
So, I feel like it is also worth taking into account the fact that even some of those purely talking philosophers (that do not do much physically themselves to change the world) can send out ripple effects that become actions manifested in other people's lives. In this time of digital hyper-stimulation and AI algorithms pumping the most horrifying, upsetting and depressing material onto our feeds to instigate outrage (and elicit clicks) sometimes those more subtle ripple effects of small courageous, compassionate and/or rebellious actions locally (where people take action via the inspiration of another's words) can be drowned out in the flashing, vibrating, pulsating mass of fear and death being projected at us through smart phones and computers, but those ripples do matter, they change things and improve lives (IMO).
That said, even though I do think that words of wisdom from humble knowledge keepers, elders and visionaries can provide meaningful ripples into the world (through motivating others to take action and send out slow motion regenerative, healing and courage based actions ripple effects) I would say that the person that not only speaks words of truth, but also engages in actions that speak for those same truths in and of themselves is 10 - 100 times as potent in the ripple effects they send out into the world.
I also think that objects and artforms that are both practical and exemplify a distilled essence of a lens of perception (such as the art of Kintsugi or the art form of co-creating a forest that feeds humans and non-humans alike) are forms of expressing philosophy that are more powerful than any amount of words. An old growth food forest that is the result of a lifetime of work on the part of one individual (which is gifted onward to multiple future generations) is the living essence of a philosophy that is capable of seeding into hearts and minds and spreading outwardly (without any words being required).
There is no elected official, institution, politician, guru, priest, revolutionary, savior or any other external force or individual who can do this for you. Engaging in life on Earth is a voluntary journey that each of us chose willingly. The Creator of all things respects our choice to be here and our free will. We did not come here to see a dramatic dualistic showdown happen and applaud the ‘good guy' for vanquishing the bad guy (from a distance as a spectator). No, each and every one of us (whether we are currently consciously aware of this fact or not) came here to co-author the story. That means no-one else is going to do the hard work for us (not a savior, guru, rebel leader nor a politician) we came here to do that work of transforming this world ourselves.
So, I personally would not consider myself as a "believer" in or "follower" of any particular 'guru', or other human 'leader', but rather, a man that has faith in the sovereignty, unique gifts and inherent truths that are instilled into each being on Earth. I see my fellow beings as teachers, no better or lesser than me, each offering truth and some offering friction of different perspectives which I can use to hone and sharpen the blade of my mind.
Always a pleasure when you drop by!
(PS - those Melon seedlings that I grew from the seeds you sent me are doing great! I am seeing melon smoothies and melon mead on the summer horizon ;) )
I 'believe in' you, Gavin. I wouldn't ever bother to push back or respond at all otherwise. I was a teacher for two decades, many ages, levels, countries, and a mind/spirit/voice/passion like yours is so rare I could count such experiences on one hand.
I'd like to see your quotes on memes. I'm just sick of these old guys, that's all! Bring on the young men with great courage, that's what brings hope to the aging women, not old dead ones repeating the same old mantras we've been reading for 30+ years.
I know 'women of a certain age' are maybe not your preferred audience. And certainly, we all find inspiration in different views and lives. But I get the sense the same names are rehashed and the same figures propped up for other reasons, recycled, to make sure the cycles never switch gears.
"I see my fellow beings as teachers, no better or lesser than me, each offering truth and some offering friction of different perspectives which I can use to hone and sharpen the blade of my mind." It's a beautiful position! In my optimal self I'd say I lead my life likewise. In my average self I'd say, perhaps better/lesser is not the right comparison choice, because there really are heroes, and the average woman needs them. In my sub-optimal self I'd say, we are being led around by the short hairs by these lessers among us, and that must change!
P.S. We are just about to harvest the first of the melons! I so hope they are as tasty as last year, for y'all too! And I'm still planning posts from your book, a copy of which is now with an herbalist friend in UK, who just wrote how much she is enjoying it.
Thank you for the kind words my friend. I am honored you would like to see my words used in the meme wars :) I have a feeling many people would see my name after the quote and say "who the F*%$ is this Gavin guy? And why should his words be quoted?" haha.
I appreciate genuine connections with people and people engaging with my content (and putting it into action as you do) of any and all ages. And if I am being honest, I typically resonate with conversing with females "of a certain age" more than the younger (often tiktoc addicted and superficiality focused) female crowd, as I find with more years on Earth often comes more depth, insight, intuition and honesty. I mean there are exceptions to the rule of course but in general that is what I have found in my time on Earth.
I am excited to taste the melons and look forward to checking out those posts from my book! Thanks again for buying and gifting an extra copy, that really made my day and I look forward to connecting with your herbalist friend too. I am so glad she is enjoying the book.
Thousands of years of philosophy, countless philosophers, but the wars continue. The loot, plunder, pillage of the natural world continues. The world gets uglier and more false, yet I thought philosophy was a study of truth and beauty and meaning? I guess that's just it, it studies them, as it kills them, like our modern sciences.
We live in very turbulent times. That is not a given, or inevitable, or “just the way it is.” We CHOOSE. And for a long, long, LONG time, we have chosen to believe in people who were lying to us, beating on us, enslaving us… Things DO change, and when enough of us are ready, we will change them for the better, maybe for good. Don’t lose hope. That is how the Nasties win.
A recurring dream I've had my entire life - since I was a wee young girl, has been, what would our world be like today if instead of 'conquering' the first peoples of these lands on turtle island, we adopted their ways, their knowledge, their spiritual connection to all this living and non living but still of matter that has wisdom and essential life force of it's own expression.
I would only wish to travel the world in every place possible if their cultures were still intact and I could learn from that diversity.
I love being surrounded by a natural environment, and although I feel too tired and sore from more than a couple hours work, I feel my knowledge in the regenerative/biodynamic principles in growing a reciprocal 100 acre food farm and biodiverse regenerative farm and community has always been a life dream of mine as well.
Nothing would bring more peace to my heart than to see people working together in harmonious ways that inspires each others creative spark and like a rising tide, lifts all boats.
Regenerate a water source locally. Clean water sources need to be sustainable and available for all. Sadly there are still several indigenous reservations that do not have this resource to date and there is one local to my area that is still trucking water in for clean drinking, etc.
Cloning Freddie Mercury, Stevie Wonder, Elton John, Tito Puente, Ray Charles, others even though talent wouldn't necessarily pass from the original to a clone like it does in science fiction movies.
Just to add a tip on the 100 acre food forest. I made one in Humboldt County CA on the world's best tree growing land adjacent to ancient redwoods ON the world famous Avenue of the Giants. It's temperate here but I'm also making a tropical one north of Hilo Hawaii. It's hard to make the time to get over there to work on it, but it's a tree planters paradise. THOUSANDS of species of useful trees will grow there, from ebony sandalwoods koa, teak, pink zebrawood and rudraksha to mamey, rollinia, mangosteen, garcinias and durian ETC ETC ETC. it rains every day and you can just fence each tree with 3 ft tall chicken wire and 3 5 ft sticks of 3/8 rebar. I planted the 14" diameter bamboo when it was pencil size and 6 months later it was like a skyscraper. But my 100 acre temperate food forest of standard size non semi dwarf trees actually pumps out immense quantities of peaches pears plums apples persimmons pomegranates mulberries loquats pineapple guava (feijoa) walnuts chestnuts almonds pecans hazelnuts and quite few other diverse and some obscure things like buartnut, pawpaw, medlar ume gingko and a few other Chinese things i forgot what they're called. But i would advise planting a commercial sized amount of at least 4 or 5 things so you can make some money, and keep them together because bees like it that way, and maybe keep them in some kind of row order so you can mow or so ehow easily deal with weeds or cultivation mechanically rather than some hippie fantasy of hand weeding... Getting the land is the hardest part, generally. It's not a bad idea to plan on sleeping out in the middle with 3 dogs and you won't need a fence at all. My friend crushes it with peaches and he planted them ON OTHER PEOPLES LAND. he just asked a whole bunch of people, many were glad to let him do it and split the crop, and eventually he made enough money to buy his own land, and plant more and more. Personally I've found that you can grow the nicest fruits and vegetables on earth and they're barely worth harvesting if you have to pay $20+ for laborers, thanks to big ag and slave labor/ globalization. But peaches, people will line up for... I also grow some football fields of watermelons other melons cucumbers squash corn and other row crops all dry farmed. No irrigation except winter rains. Plant every seed you'll get what you need.
Remake the garden of Eden, again, all over the place, aka Nice Up the Land; ban Jews from government, and media, and education administration jobs; give Palestine back to the Palestinians, Jews get nothing and like it that they don't get treated the way the german people got treated after Jewish banker caused world wars 1&2.
I pretty much retired when i was 23, more than a few decades ago, planted a million trees, luckily well over a thousand are now big fruit and nut trees. We used to chant "Babylon falling, mother earth calling..." If i were to just focus on the positive stuff that folks like and can easily relate to, i spose people might be interested, but i firmly believe that there's nothing trendy on a dead planet, so i try to focus on what i think people need to understand, like the Mega Group Jews behind "Epstein", and the banking dynasty families who have been running the Earth into the ground for the past coupla centuries or so.
Believe me i know all about how cognitive dissonance works, and how retarted my fellows are in general, so the futility of bringing this stuff up is ok with me. Jews did 911 and had the hutzpah to blame it on "the" Muslims, and none of you were very inspired to say much about it, so the same top Jews did 10/7, and every conversation lately has been predicated upon the gargantuan lie of "the Hamas attack," so why wouldn't they bomb Iran. None of y'all really give a shit. You're more worried about taboo stigma and being shunned than you are about flagrant truth, righteousness, and extinction of all life. It's ok, carry on. Good luck.
How obvious does it have to get? It's Mihop, rather than Lihop- that's MAKE it happen on purpose, rather than LET it happen on purpose. https://www.globalresearch.ca/speculation-mark-hamas-attack-allowed-close-book-palestine/5836029
P.S. All the lies of Holocaustianity, jisrael, and self chosenism need to be fully exposed asap. If moneys no object, it should be real easy- nobody has to worry about losing their fucking jobs.
PPS haha Henry Ford said "isolate the 50 richest Jews and all wars will cease" https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Study_Group_(Jewish_group)
I actually just wrote an article that touches on this question as someone who quit "work" and has really leaned into what I call sovereign creation. As an "other" voter, my answer is basically whatever inspires me in the moment. My best days are the ones that I allow to flow wherever the energy leads. It can look different from day to day but it is self-directed and driven by curiosity, joy and love. Yes, I can definitely go through periods of feeling unfocused but that also leaves me open to inspiration. I've been thinking about getting into orgonite lately as an EMF, geoengineering remedy (though need to look more into it first).
https://thegalacticage.substack.com/p/beyond-manifestation
I chose "other", because if money were no object, one may do many of the things in the options listed.
For instance, I'm an introvert, so living in a mansion with robot servants sounds appealing to me - not the mansion part, but the "shelter away from other humans available to me at all times" part. The shelter itself could be a mansion or a shack, and the robots may not be necessary at all except to provide assistance with the shelter like keeping the power on, the water running and the roof intact.
But in a mansion I could have artisans come and teach me many trades. I could plant a food forest on what presumably would be my large estate. I suppose I could travel to many countries, but given the political situations in most of them, would I want to visit them? Maybe I would randomly invite a family or two from every country to visit my property and live with me for a few months at a time and then return to their homelands with a pile of money as a gift for imparting their knowledge to me.
Sorry for being a box-breaker. But that's me lol.
Well, I would have said, on the first one, to visit every country, but then I thought about some of those countries, like Israel, and decided that learning four trades would be really fun and cool. I like DOING stuff, and knowing HOW to do stuff. Plus, I could then teach what I know.
For the second one, it was a difficult choice, and I almost would have said the food forest, but I think teaching the young folks how to do things is critical... In the US, the kids are so utterly without any education, except how to use a cell phone, that I fear for their future.
When I was a kid, I didn't realize this, but as an elder now, it's clear to me that the future, if it is to be a continuation of progress and living well, depends on the CHILDREN of today... Kids in the US are in for a hard life, perhaps. But it's not too late... yet.
I chose "other". I'm an older guy (almost 62) and I have an insane amount of experience with more things than I can count. From canning, to growing food, to appliance repair, to cooking, to home repair and remodeling, to animal husbandry, to fishing, to... well, I haven't found anything yet I either can already do, or can learn if I put my mind to it. I would spend all of my time volunteering to teach my skills to any willing students who want to be free. People who realize that true liberty is a mindset and a *choice* regardless of what is happening around us. I have come to believe that "prepping" is important, but what I've found to be WAY more important than anything else are *skills*. We can have rooms full of food, water, etc and think we are "prepared" for the worst, but once those supplies run out what do we do? If we have not learned the skills it takes to live in a dystopian world, we're screwed. If we haven't learned how to secure liberty for ourselves and are waiting for someone to come and save us... we're screwed. Teaching whatever skills I have and my philosophy of personal liberty would be incredibly rewarding.
Right on, Rob D. xo
I would learn to relax and just be...present...in life and my heart. I wonder what it would be like for that to be enough.
There's no option that covers doing nothing.
I would just stay at home and enjoy not having to deal with anyone.
I would be working to help homeless and addicts
"one’s vision for a potential life that has no financial limitations"
I can't answer your survey, too many limitations.
I don't believe in Alan Watts, or any other such 'leaders', I find them ALL far too lacking and wish folks would stop quoting them ALL, including myself, I have FAR too many quotes in my head.
My vision is very simple, I'd try to restore this land I'm living on. I'm trying to do that, with the encroaching and relentless metropolises expanding all around me, engulfing everything into a hellscape that only exacerbates every year. Once upon a time here we did not pay a State monopoly for the priviledge of accessing water, electricity, travel, air, property, or anything else for that matter. We are slaves, for that Alan Watts, et all, are correct. For everything else they've done NOTHING to help the situation.
Who are these 'philosophers' around for decades whom we still quote ad nauseum who have had ZERO effect? Oh yes, ALL of them! SOO Sick of it!
https://kenshohomestead.org/2025/06/15/shitty-of-san-antonio/
But thankful still for the next generations of believers. I think! Or hopeful the next generation, like you G, will somehow breakthrough.
I appreciate the candid comment my friend and thank you for sharing your vision. I feel your pain regarding the never ending earth eating machines working towards never ending "progress" and "sustainable development" expanding all around you. The same is happening where we live. We are so very extremely "civilized" here in southern Ontario. The traffic, stripmalls, giant power cables (powering chemical soaked industrial hydroponic greenhouses) and GMO corn fields extend from horizon to horizon.
I would like to clarify that by posting a picture of an Alan Watts quote and linking an audio clip of him talking I was in no way implying that people should "believe in" him nor follow him/his words (and others like him) as "leaders". I personally do not vibe with a lot of what I have heard from that Alan Watts guy, but in this case, some of what he said was aligned with truth, and so I shared it above. People can share 25% truth and 75% bs, and the 25% may still be worth learning from (in some cases). I try not to throw the baby out with the bathwater.
I have felt similar frustrations to what you express with philosopher quoting (12 hours a day social media dwelling) types (and the philosophers themselves in some instances) in that many words are typed, much lip service is given, and yet in many cases, the rubber never meets the road and the words (though seemingly full of meaning and truth) become hollow and meaningless, when they are not backed by actions.
I have also met some people that do express powerful truths, beautiful poetry and insightful abstract perspectives that are backed by real life everyday actions (which brings even more meaning and beauty into their words, because you can see them living by them, and not just speaking them). Those second type are few and far between, but I have encountered a handful. Sometimes I have also witnessed people that are of little words but very courageous in their actions that tell me they were moved to choose to make a bold choice to resist tyranny or embark on a risky endeavor (which could benefit many in their community) because they were inspired by one philosopher or another.
So, I feel like it is also worth taking into account the fact that even some of those purely talking philosophers (that do not do much physically themselves to change the world) can send out ripple effects that become actions manifested in other people's lives. In this time of digital hyper-stimulation and AI algorithms pumping the most horrifying, upsetting and depressing material onto our feeds to instigate outrage (and elicit clicks) sometimes those more subtle ripple effects of small courageous, compassionate and/or rebellious actions locally (where people take action via the inspiration of another's words) can be drowned out in the flashing, vibrating, pulsating mass of fear and death being projected at us through smart phones and computers, but those ripples do matter, they change things and improve lives (IMO).
That said, even though I do think that words of wisdom from humble knowledge keepers, elders and visionaries can provide meaningful ripples into the world (through motivating others to take action and send out slow motion regenerative, healing and courage based actions ripple effects) I would say that the person that not only speaks words of truth, but also engages in actions that speak for those same truths in and of themselves is 10 - 100 times as potent in the ripple effects they send out into the world.
I also think that objects and artforms that are both practical and exemplify a distilled essence of a lens of perception (such as the art of Kintsugi or the art form of co-creating a forest that feeds humans and non-humans alike) are forms of expressing philosophy that are more powerful than any amount of words. An old growth food forest that is the result of a lifetime of work on the part of one individual (which is gifted onward to multiple future generations) is the living essence of a philosophy that is capable of seeding into hearts and minds and spreading outwardly (without any words being required).
In my book (and in other posts such as my post on Spiritual Autodidacticism https://gavinmounsey.substack.com/p/spiritual-autodidacticism , my post on Why Involuntary Governance Structures are Not Compatible with The Permaculture Ethical Compass https://gavinmounsey.substack.com/p/why-involuntary-governance-structures and my post on Scars of the Heart as Maps for the Soul https://gavinmounsey.substack.com/p/scars-of-the-heart-as-maps-for-the ) I stated variations of the following:
There is no elected official, institution, politician, guru, priest, revolutionary, savior or any other external force or individual who can do this for you. Engaging in life on Earth is a voluntary journey that each of us chose willingly. The Creator of all things respects our choice to be here and our free will. We did not come here to see a dramatic dualistic showdown happen and applaud the ‘good guy' for vanquishing the bad guy (from a distance as a spectator). No, each and every one of us (whether we are currently consciously aware of this fact or not) came here to co-author the story. That means no-one else is going to do the hard work for us (not a savior, guru, rebel leader nor a politician) we came here to do that work of transforming this world ourselves.
So, I personally would not consider myself as a "believer" in or "follower" of any particular 'guru', or other human 'leader', but rather, a man that has faith in the sovereignty, unique gifts and inherent truths that are instilled into each being on Earth. I see my fellow beings as teachers, no better or lesser than me, each offering truth and some offering friction of different perspectives which I can use to hone and sharpen the blade of my mind.
Always a pleasure when you drop by!
(PS - those Melon seedlings that I grew from the seeds you sent me are doing great! I am seeing melon smoothies and melon mead on the summer horizon ;) )
I 'believe in' you, Gavin. I wouldn't ever bother to push back or respond at all otherwise. I was a teacher for two decades, many ages, levels, countries, and a mind/spirit/voice/passion like yours is so rare I could count such experiences on one hand.
I'd like to see your quotes on memes. I'm just sick of these old guys, that's all! Bring on the young men with great courage, that's what brings hope to the aging women, not old dead ones repeating the same old mantras we've been reading for 30+ years.
I know 'women of a certain age' are maybe not your preferred audience. And certainly, we all find inspiration in different views and lives. But I get the sense the same names are rehashed and the same figures propped up for other reasons, recycled, to make sure the cycles never switch gears.
"I see my fellow beings as teachers, no better or lesser than me, each offering truth and some offering friction of different perspectives which I can use to hone and sharpen the blade of my mind." It's a beautiful position! In my optimal self I'd say I lead my life likewise. In my average self I'd say, perhaps better/lesser is not the right comparison choice, because there really are heroes, and the average woman needs them. In my sub-optimal self I'd say, we are being led around by the short hairs by these lessers among us, and that must change!
P.S. We are just about to harvest the first of the melons! I so hope they are as tasty as last year, for y'all too! And I'm still planning posts from your book, a copy of which is now with an herbalist friend in UK, who just wrote how much she is enjoying it.
Thank you for the kind words my friend. I am honored you would like to see my words used in the meme wars :) I have a feeling many people would see my name after the quote and say "who the F*%$ is this Gavin guy? And why should his words be quoted?" haha.
I appreciate genuine connections with people and people engaging with my content (and putting it into action as you do) of any and all ages. And if I am being honest, I typically resonate with conversing with females "of a certain age" more than the younger (often tiktoc addicted and superficiality focused) female crowd, as I find with more years on Earth often comes more depth, insight, intuition and honesty. I mean there are exceptions to the rule of course but in general that is what I have found in my time on Earth.
I am excited to taste the melons and look forward to checking out those posts from my book! Thanks again for buying and gifting an extra copy, that really made my day and I look forward to connecting with your herbalist friend too. I am so glad she is enjoying the book.
Cheers
Zero effect? Wow. I guess you're just having a hard time seeing the bigger picture.
When was the last time you saw a lot of philosophers doing a genocide?
And when was the last time you saw a lot of psychopaths writing about peace?
Thousands of years of philosophy, countless philosophers, but the wars continue. The loot, plunder, pillage of the natural world continues. The world gets uglier and more false, yet I thought philosophy was a study of truth and beauty and meaning? I guess that's just it, it studies them, as it kills them, like our modern sciences.
We live in very turbulent times. That is not a given, or inevitable, or “just the way it is.” We CHOOSE. And for a long, long, LONG time, we have chosen to believe in people who were lying to us, beating on us, enslaving us… Things DO change, and when enough of us are ready, we will change them for the better, maybe for good. Don’t lose hope. That is how the Nasties win.
As Jiddu Krishnamurti said - be a light unto yourself
😁
I'm sure he meant well. 😉
But was frustrated
A recurring dream I've had my entire life - since I was a wee young girl, has been, what would our world be like today if instead of 'conquering' the first peoples of these lands on turtle island, we adopted their ways, their knowledge, their spiritual connection to all this living and non living but still of matter that has wisdom and essential life force of it's own expression.
I would only wish to travel the world in every place possible if their cultures were still intact and I could learn from that diversity.
I love being surrounded by a natural environment, and although I feel too tired and sore from more than a couple hours work, I feel my knowledge in the regenerative/biodynamic principles in growing a reciprocal 100 acre food farm and biodiverse regenerative farm and community has always been a life dream of mine as well.
Nothing would bring more peace to my heart than to see people working together in harmonious ways that inspires each others creative spark and like a rising tide, lifts all boats.
Apprentice, I love learning new things. I already have a 100 acre forest and you are going to mentor moi.
Oh yes you are.
Up here working now.
I'd move to Russia and farm!
Regenerate a water source locally. Clean water sources need to be sustainable and available for all. Sadly there are still several indigenous reservations that do not have this resource to date and there is one local to my area that is still trucking water in for clean drinking, etc.
Cloning Freddie Mercury, Stevie Wonder, Elton John, Tito Puente, Ray Charles, others even though talent wouldn't necessarily pass from the original to a clone like it does in science fiction movies.
Not sure "cloning" was ever a real thing...
But why have two of one person, when you can have diversity? ;)
I hear ya, tho... Those fellers are great.
I voted 100 acre food forest. I have been working towards that since 2007. I would continue and expand.