From What Is to What If

Buckminster Fuller - A visionary genius.

“You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.” R. Buckminster Fuller 

Hello friends - The world is changing rapidly these days and I know most folks are already finding the resources they need for addressing the virus' effects at a local level so I won't bother to add anything like that here. Today's installation includes a prayer for hand-washing, an amazing - and short video - about orangutans, in the wild, actually washing their hands and teaching their off-spring to do so as well. And a wonderful excerpt from a book called: From What Is to What If: Unleashing the Power of Imagination to Create the Future We Want by Rob Hopkins.

First, a 2-minute video about some wild orangutans washing their hands with soap they found at an abandoned human outpost. Good technique, I'd say (definitely more than 20 seconds, but I don't recommend holding the soap in your mouth for transportation!).

Wash Your Hands 

by Dori Midnight

We are humans relearning to wash our hands.
Washing our hands is an act of love
Washing our hands is an act of care
Washing our hands is an act that puts the hypervigilant body at ease
Washing our hands helps us return to ourselves by washing away what does not serve.

Wash your hands
like you are washing the only teacup left that your great grandmother carried across the ocean, like you are washing the hair of a beloved who is dying, like you are washing the feet of Grace Lee Boggs, Beyonce, Jesus, your auntie, Audre Lorde, Mary Oliver- you get the picture.
Like this water is poured from a jug your best friend just carried for three miles from the spring they had to climb a mountain to reach.
Like water is a precious resource
made from time and miracle

Wash your hands and cough into your elbow, they say.
Rest more, stay home, drink water, have some soup, they say.
To which I would add: burn some plants your ancestors burned when there was fear in the air,
Boil some aromatic leaves in a pot on your stove until your windows steam up.
Open your windows
Eat a piece of garlic every day. Tie a clove around your neck.
Breathe.

When fear arises,
and it will,
let it wash over your whole body instead of staying curled up tight in your shoulders.
If your heart tightens,
contract
and expand.
science says: compassion strengthens the immune system
We already know that, but capitalism gives us amnesia
and tricks us into thinking it’s the thing that protects us
but it’s the way we hold the thing.
The way we do the thing.

it is time
to care for one another
to pray over water
to wash away fear
every time we wash our hands

(This was just an excerpt. To read the full poem, go to: LINK

I found the following excerpt from Rob Hopkins, on his experiences about transforming a small town into a small community very uplifting. Enjoy!

"Given the state of the world, the message of despair is pretty convincing. Things look grim. But something about that doesn’t sit quite right with me. In fact, there’s evidence that things can change, and that cultures can change, rapidly and unexpectedly. And that’s not just naïve, pie-in-the-sky thinking.

 In How Did We Do That? The Possibility of Rapid Transition, Andrew Simms and Peter Newell tell the story of Iceland’s 2010 Eyjafjallajökull eruption, which sent fine dust into the sky that spread for thousands of miles and grounded most of the world’s planes. Then what happened? People adapted. Quickly..."

To read his full excerpt about how his town in Todmorden England became a "Transition Town", click here: From What IS to What IF...