"Get down to some serious gaming!"
Declan opens the Permaculture Convergence in Prinzhöfte, August 1994
".... anything a human being or animal does, whether it is just to make a sound or take a step, leaves permanent, never-dying impressions on the processes and physical substrate of the Earth. Because humans exert so much more power than animals, the lasting impressions we make on the planet are much greater than theirs. Consequently, whenever we make some permanent change in the Earth, disturb some harmony, it is our responsibility to make some other change that will restore the harmony." (David Ehrenfield, Life in the Next Millennium)
The great majority of people are concerned that they cannot be automatically provided for when they come into this world.
They do not see that they have an automatic right to food, but they percieve instead that they have to be lucky if their provision of food is there - in an easy way - from birth to death. Fukuoka has said: "Man is the only animal that believes he has to work for his food".
I would like to carry this statement further. Most of us feel we have to fight to be allowed to exist - to make sure we have our nuitrition. Fighting normally means working and working is often seen as a fighting activity. The words are often interchangeable. The dominant conviction is that "we get a present of nothing".
It has become so much part of us that we get fed up of working, of fighting and are ready to be satisfied with the minimum. We even get to the stage that we think it is noble to be without anything - to be "poor". And, of course, the Christian and many other churches and religions support this idea - all the way along - it makes people dependent.
Others (and there are quite a lot of them) think that the world has little to offer - that the treasures of the world are not enough for everyone.
Still others wish they had more of the riches of the world, but do not think they are worthy of them. And so on.... Many convictions that can cut us off from our natural foodbasket - or can bring us down to the minimum.
We are, however, the children of nature - we are part of nature - even if we forget this in our offices and our houses - we are all part of nature.
The essence of nature is abundance. Nature is generous. Not because she feels good to be generous, but because she is in her being. Nature does not worry if the children or the animals (she provides for) are morally okay or not. Nature allows everyone a share in her wealth. That is unless this person cuts himself off from his share by expecting too little or taking too much. This "cutting-off" can also be done by groups or by nations, if all the members of the group are equally convinced.
If lots of people manage to take things into their own hands and improve their relationships to Nature - through permaculture or any other similar awareness sytem - if they begin designing with Nature, with abundance in mind - which is there all the time - then the provision of food and shelter for all people on this planet could be improved immensely.
I see permaculture as one possible way to harness abundance.
One thing we have to make clear - that is the great power of the intermediaries that have cut us off from Nature, from our original abundance. One of the greatest of these intermediaries is money - it, in its present system, can build a wall between us and Mother Nature. There are many other intermediaries, or media, that can have this blocking effect, for instance bureaucracy or big multi-national organisations, some administrative bodies and often membership associations (especially if they get caught up in in-fights and ity-bity behavioural patterns). Even certain building methods and building materials can have this blocking effect of intermediarism. Paper too -- books too. Even the books like Permaculture One, Permaculture Two or the Designer's Manual - so good as they are, if misinterpreted, can be a blocking media. When we have read them, we should bury them in our bookshelves, or give them away - before they become a "bible". Let us not get stuck to them. The most important thing is to always hold our connection to Nature, to be ourselves and to hold our connection to the biological basis of our existence.
Media can be useful - as long as they remain media. They are dangerous, if they become rulers or if we make them into that.
Permaculture is a big game - and gaming is also a way to get a new understanding of permaculture. By gaming I mean to go at things in a playful way. To play can mean to improvise and/or just let things happen - or to set up rules - nor to subordinate ourselves to certain regulations, but knowing well that they are not absolute or binding forever, but have a certain value within the game we are playing at that time.
Permaculture can also mean doing things in quite a different way that we are used to, for example:
- looking at a problem from another angle;
- transforming problems into solutions;
- putting them on another level of understanding or
- bringing them together in a new realm of action.
Gaming means then, here, to pull down the level of seriousness - especially with what we are doing at the moment, or that which lies directly ahead of us,
i.e. for the tasks that have to be mastered, here and now,
and for the things we expect to happen in the immediate future.
Even if we are sportively ambitious in the way we carry out these deeds and even if we intend to do the job as well as possible, it can still happen in a playful manner
- as you would play Monopoly
- but football is already too serious.
Although permaculture has to do with "doing" and with "uses", this type of playful approach could be defined as doing something that makes connection between action and uses - and
does not necessarily have an immediate use.
In childhood you had certain times and certain situations where you did things without a particular aim or immediate use. It often contributed later to your ability to understand or learn something.
I appeal to you to include this type of gaming - of playing - in your practice of permaculture and in our discussion here at Prinzhöfte.
I could give all sorts of reasons for it, but will begin to wind up here - otherwise we can get into a too serious discussion about playing -
"I need now to play in order to remain healthy" or "because I will then learn how to solve my problems, I must get down to some serious gaming".
Playing is the highest form of activity - it is one of the original activities of the universe. It is the way it came into being.
In the permaculture movement, we have been given a playing field and we can do what we like with it. There are no rules of the game.
We can, however, make rules - and we do so - in order to design the game and make the playing fun.
We can do something new - in a complete way - on this playing field. There is really nothing that binds us down.
Everything that seems to bind us, we have created ourselves
- partly, to create stopping points;
- partly, to make the game more interesting but
- partly, to create our own barriers so that we can show our prowess.
But the great part because we do not recognize the extent of our freedom.
Nature is our Mother.
If we hold the thought that the Earth is our Mother, if we analyse it and understand it, it will be easier to focus and to behave and to be children of our Mother
-- fearless children who can go on playing without qualms of conscious,
-- children who are provided for, right, left and centre,
-- children who can be happy, living with themselves and everything around them in peace, tolerance and creativity.
Those are thoughts that could heal multitudes - and thoughts are universally owned. Do not think that you can imprision such thoughts. If you understand such thoughts, you can make them your own and they will influence your life and well-being. At the same time, you can release them and they can do other people good.
The EARTH IS OUR MOTHER .................DANCE !
