Transition Howard County

Comment by ted schmeckpeper on February 7, 2012 at 2:14am

a%20way%20forward.doc

Hi group!  If I've done this right, the link above will allow you to read (or download?  I don't know) a Word doc entitled A Way Forward.  In the doc I discuss the importance of recruiting new members, and present a table of several Transition Areas, and example Issues within those Areas, that will need to be addresses over the coming years.  Hopefully as our Movement grows, we can all get involved in beginning to take action in areas of interest to each of us, ASAP.

Ted S

Comment by Laura Mueller on February 27, 2012 at 5:51pm

For those who can't make it to the Robinson Nature Center on Sun Mar 4 at 1 pm for this movie, followed by a walk at 2:45 pm, we'd like to recommend Green Fire for our next THC movie night:

Green Fire is the award-winning first documentary film ever made about legendary conservationist Aldo Leopold. Green Fire features readings from Leopold’s masterpiece, A Sand County Almanac, and stunning historical photos dramatizing his pioneering career in the early Twentieth Century.

Perhaps even more important, the film introduces viewers to Leopold’s children, grandchildren, researchers, and advocates, who are extending his legacy on behalf of the land and everyone who depends upon it. Leopold's vision of an ethic that respects people and wild nature informs and inspires a growing international community, innovators who are applying Leopold’s vision to environmental challenges we face today.

Comment by ted schmeckpeper on February 27, 2012 at 6:39pm

I'm all in favor of Aldo Leopold's views of things, and I would like to see the movie.  However, I'm not sure how the Leopold legacy is connected to the Transition movement.  I don't think of the latter as an "environmental" or "conservation" movement, but more a movement of "adaptability" and "sustainability".  This is not to say that Leopold's ideas have no place in Transition.  But I think they are more likely to serve as spiritual inspiration at some point in the future, after we have accomplished some real adaptation to what is coming down the pike; rather than as a guide to the hard work of adaptation that will be needed.

Comment by Laura Mueller on February 27, 2012 at 6:44pm

What impacts are our food choices having on our health, our community, and our planet? Help enrich all our options at HUNGRY FOR CHANGE: Food, Ethics and Sustainability, on Thursdays, April 5 through May 24, from 7:00 to 8:30 pm, at Historic Oakland in Downtown Columbia's Town Center.

     Laura Mueller and Florence Miller, from the Climate Change Initiative of Howard County: www.hococlimatechange.org/home will lead the opening discussion and distribute booklets of the circle’s timely and topical readings, web-links, and video sources. The cost for the booklets is $21.
    To sign up for HUNGRY FOR CHANGE, please provide your email and phone number to Pat Loeber or Dawn Linthicum at tcvillage@columbiavillages.org, or 410-730-4744.

      More than 130,000 people worldwide have participated in NWEI discussion courses, www.nwei.org. The real world results they create have unexpected benefits, including better health, more free time, financial savings, more connection with others, and a higher quality of life.

Comment by Laura Mueller on February 27, 2012 at 7:31pm

Thanks, Ted, for your input about "Green Fire" and Transition. I am clear about this connection. I am still inspired by his insights and practical observations.

     I first read Aldo Leopold's A Sand County Almanac in 1975 as an HCC student in "The Wilderness In American Literature" course sponsored by SUNY at Potsdam, where I spent three August weeks in The Moose River Wilderness area backpacking with twenty students and three faculty. His book inspired me to fly directly from Moose River to the center of WV, where for 15 years I did "the hard work of adaptation" to a wild and wonderful forested mountain culture in rugged hills and rich valleys chock full of edible landscape, lush streambeds, and crafty critters.

     My great-grandmother Laura McKee Murphy was born in 1886, a year before Aldo Leopold's birth. Her son, my grandfather Wallace C. Murphy, had spent his early adult years at the start of the Great Depression in the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in Wisconsin forests. During my tenth summer two of my sisters and I lived for five months with him and Aunt Emmy on their few acres of independence in the foothills of the Berkshires while our mother recovered from spinal fusion surgery in Baltimore. They taught us to care for the land where we lived: to enjoy its sun-warmed gifts both fresh and cooked, to preserve them through the winter, and to enrich the soil, plants and trees for future seasons' growth. This experience still enhances my life in connection with all beings, including those of the human sort.

Quoting from the trailer for the movie at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQED4YEMx9A and the brochure at https://www.aldoleopold.org/visit/LegacyCenterbrochure.pdf

"Drawing on his life-long study of ecology, land use, history, and ethics, Aldo Leopold concluded that the highest task of civilization was to figure out how ‘to live on a piece of land without spoiling it.’ He recognized that no matter how sophisticated we become, people will depend on the land—the land being shorthand for a large community that not only includes and values people but also plants, animals, soils, and waters. When the land is degraded, the community suffers—people included. By promoting the health of the land, we are striving to practice the Land Ethic and promote healthy land and prosperity in our lifetime and for future generations.

Comment by Lore Rosenthal on February 28, 2012 at 1:24am

To chime in here . . I was at the Balto Green Forum on Sunday.  We were talking about Population and Economic Growth.  Then we talked about what it would take for there to be a major "paradigm shift" in this country, to envision a new way forward (call it a Transition Town vision).  We went around the room (6 people?) and each person stated one or two pivotal moments in their life that had led them to a paradigm shift.  For me, it was David Suzuki with the test-tubes, demonstrating "exponential growth" among yeast buds . . .and also the spiritual experience of attending the Awakening the Dreamer Symposium.   One or two people mentioned Aldo Leopold and the concept of "stewardship of the earth" as their guiding principle towards the work they now do in economics or population.   

So. . .I can see both Ted and Laura's perspectives.  For some people, Aldo Leopold would not be "rigorous" enough for the tough times we face ahead . . whereas for other people, he would provide the inspiration and vision necessary to forge ahead.

Will be interesting to see how the various members of THC "vote" the next time they meet, to see if they want to add this as a future monthly offering.  If not, someone can always have a "House Party" or "Salon Night" to show it, just for fun.

Comment by Ellen Jacobs on February 28, 2012 at 7:57pm

Hello, all

I received this petition today and want to pass it on to you.  Hopefully we can make a difference here.

Ellen

 

http://www.change.org/petitions/save-symphony-woods-trees

 

Dear friends and family,

I have started a grassroots movement here in Columbia, Md. to preserve the mature healthy trees in  Symphony Woods which is the last natural wooded piece of land that exits in Town Center (our downtown area).

 

This is our Central Park, Boston Common, Hyde Park that we want to keep in its current tranquil state while adding a few people friendly amenities and making it more desirable for people to visit.

 

Our ruling power, the Columbia Association has accepted a plan that will remove up to 53 trees of this woods.  Eighty per cent of these huge trees were rated in "good" or "excellent" condition by an arborist a few years ago. 

 

Please sign our petition to pressure our Columbia Association Board of Directors to preserve all healthy trees and to design a plan for the park that will honor the natural topography of the land while preserving these amazing trees. Meandering paths, small fountains, creative play areas for children with a natural bandstand and other amenities, that is our plan for the woods.

 

People have to wake up and realize that we cannot haphazardly go about destroying the land.  We want to preserve this wooded area of Town Center so that future generations will remember how the land looked before our "new town" was built. 

 

Sincerely,

Joyce K. Potemkin,

Founder :"Preserve the People's Trees"

Comment by Lore Rosenthal on February 29, 2012 at 11:33pm

Has anyone see this newly launched project of Peaceful Uprising (Tim DeChristopher)?  http://corr.peacefuluprising.org/

It is called Communities of Resilient Resistance.  Click on the Resilience link on the left.  They are pulling together various resilience movements, including Transition Towns.   I think it is brilliant!

Comment by Lore Rosenthal on March 1, 2012 at 12:24pm

You will love this 12 min film about Charles Eisenstein.  Michael and I have heard him speak.  He would probably be willing to come out to THC!

http://sacred-economics.com/film/

Comment by Laura Mueller on March 1, 2012 at 1:29pm

Wow! What an amazingly beautiful and moving distillation of Charles Eisenstein's work!

Margo, Ruth Alice and I did the Transition Activist Training with him in Baltimore on Jan 28. Since then I have read Sacred Economics and sent it out to all my family members, and now I'll be sending them the link to this film. Charles is teaching at the Tai Sophia Institute's Nutrition program in April.

Tom and I are going to Berkeley Springs WV this weekend to share his talk with my brother Ed Mueller at the Ice House from 2 to 4 pm, sponsored by their local Morgan County http://localeconomynetwork.org/

Here's what the Morgan County WV Local Economy Network sent out about this event. I've bolded parts that may inspire more elements in our creation of our display for GreenFest and our other activities:

Charles Eisenstein is a faculty member at Goddard College, a regular contributor to the progressive website, Reality Sandwich, and the author of Sacred Economics and The Ascent of Humanity. Although educated at Yale in mathematics and philosophy, and a former instructor at Penn State, Charles, perhaps as well as anyone else, creatively thinks about where modern humanity has come from, where we might be going, and how a new world might practically work - particularly if it was based upon love and other such fundamental principles. His book, Sacred Economics, for example, is probably the best example of a coherent, new approach to thinking about a new economic system that is popularly available.

For a brief introduction to his thought, watch The Revolution is Love*, a video that analyzes the Occupy Wall Street movement and the system's response to it. See: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRtc-k6dhgs

Charles speaks internationally on issues of transition, money, health, crisis, and consciousness and truly represents one of the emerging, young voices.
This promises to be a special afternoon that will help prepare you for the unprecedented change that is on the horizon.

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