Monday, November 17, 2008
Location: Between Aztec and Chaco Canyon, Angels Peak

I’m heading towards Taos for an interview on the 25th with the founder of Earthship Biotecture. On the way I’m passing through all these ancient sites. Places where people have been building and living for thousands of years. It’s incredible how the theme of my film is carrying me along while also writing itself. I’m twisting down the continent through the ancients while exploring the modern... I love it when I have epiphanies while writing… It’s not a question of where we are (although being in the now is what life is all about) it’s about where we have been as humans, and where we’re going.

Ahhsoo.. anyways meant to write about van life... It’s good out here in the desert in the middle of nowhere. I stopped by the BLM office today in Farmington and got a map of this place out in the middle of desert. It’s funny because I’m surrounded by oil and gas infrastructure. It’s mind desert fairly endless in all directions, dotted by oil and gas. People don’t mind, it’s jobs out on the land, jobs that allows the cities to exist. Allow economic growth. Allow everything from mom and pop shops to big box giants.

Oh, I was listening to the radio while driving and they were saying the retail market was way down, everyone was reporting a loss, everyone except Wallmart. Isn’t that amazing? Everyone is losing money and because everyone is losing money, everyone is pinching pennies, and because everyone is pinching pennies, everyone is going to the cheapest store around, and the cheapest store around is one of the worlds largest corporations. Hmmmm!

Oh, it gets even better. All of the stuff is made in China! So the money is continuing to go off shore. Meanwhile the United states is appealing to foreign nations for money, and potentially giving them more power in the International Monetary Fund.

Globalization baby…

The worlds international corporations no longer have national interests so their working to globalize the world, and I would argue, working towards global governance.

“The 51 largest economies in the world today are corporations” –Annie Leonard (The Story of Stuff)

Ask and ye shall receive.

Vote with your dollars!

Get what you pay for!

I can’t help but think it’s a beautiful system. So sophisticated.

Looking back at the ruins north of here in Aztec and back in Mesa Verde I can’t help think about markets and trade. The market system came naturally, he who had the goods, controlled the people and therefore the system. Ah, but I don’t think back then it was about control, I don’t think the people had that in their mindset. Back then it was most likely about sharing, to ensure survival.

Now we survive pretty well. The beautiful irony of it all. Now we’re so beautifully comfortable… and our comfort has led to complacence.

But now, what’s this, up in the sky? A god, no it’s just the market changing like the clouds, creating a sense of necessity… creating a sense of economic doom, creating a workforce and labor pool. I say nice work, now just create a green technological economic boom in which everyone can work, and do it here not offshore (that’s the challenge) People are desperate for it. That’s my hope for the future. Of course we need to keep the current number of oil and gas jobs, but put expansion, growth and education behind new technologies. Solar technology is simple to learn as a trade, as is wind.

Oh and building… see I’m ranting… we need to start changing the way we build. We need to employ traditional knowledge like south facing windows as heat sources, and simple natural air flow venting as cooling systems. We have to stop building things that work against nature… the model in case you’re wondering is a poorly insulated box.

Did you know that the pueblo of Mesa Verde used to shove prayer sticks into the cracks in the rock overhangs above? Now what’s amazing, is if one of the prayer sticks was to fall out, the people would know that the rock overhang above their home had become unstable.

See… tangents, I was talking about living in a van. It’s nice living in a van sometimes. Today I stocked up on candles and food. I haven’t had candles in here for a long time. A single candle lights my entire space and makes my van feel like a temple, like a sacred space. It is a sacred space for me, a place of contemplation, learning, silence, movement, energy, inertia, time, steadiness, and sometimes, when I’ve found my way without trying, it becomes a place of synchronistic balance.

peace,
d