3 days in Berkely

This place is full of people. They seem confused about what they are wanting out of life.

Shop till you drop just isn't cutting it.

There is a lot of consciousness here... it grows between the cracks in the sidewalks like dandelions. somehow people can make a living selling tapestries rocks and henna and metaphysical books, but they still must exist within the paradigm of capitalism....

my question is how can consciousness truly blossom in an urban setting, the concrete jungle where over 50% of humanity lives, where it is almost impossible to have an experience that is not mediated by other human beings (you can see a rock or flower in a store.. you can see a tree from another continent that gets manicured by powertools)?

I have been lucky (in my own mind) to have escaped urban life, but as i tune in to the pulse of the planet it seems that urban life is something that cannot be ignored by those who care about the world and life and people, for there is simply too much of it.




The city has to be reinvented, capitalism has to be rethought.

So even if i do end up going into the peace corps, i think i will eventually be led back to the city, to help with urban permaculture, or some kind of sustainability. there are just too many people for everyone to go 'back to nature'. There simply isn't enough 'nature' left. Plus people would destroy it and probably be unhappy there.

So... how do we make our human hive a nice place to be?

Social equality,
no fossil fuels,
pedestrian/bicycle centered infrastructure,
interfaith worship,
parks,
green buildings,
passive heating/cooling,
green roofs,
urban gardens,
bikelane highways

sounds better than what we have today... oh, and more domes, hexagons, sacred geometry and building design that takes the trip of the sun into account (and maybe the moon, why not?) We could ask the other social animals how they do it. How do the bees get along so well without homelessness and pollution?


i feel that i would go crazy if i cant at least know that the redwood forest or a beautiful cliffy norcal beach is a short trip away. if i cant see the inherent beauty that lives in a rock or a creek or smell the sweet forest and see funny beetles and find some berries to munch,.. the simple experience of being outside is what makes life worth living to me. the other stuff is cool, music, djing, cooking, making love, eating cactus, etc but it pales by comparison of being in a riverbed surrounded by a mountain forest for example... the outdoors is what ties it all together, what puts it all into context. it gives me a reason to be a human being.

maybe if i write about it eloquently enough, i wont actually be the person who has to go to the city and make these changes. lol

(www.worldchanging.org is a big pioneer on re-thinking the city and greening our infrastructure)

any thoughts?