We Can All Be Builders

For those of you who watched the video I posted a week ago, there is an additional 20 minutes of material here that wasn’t part of the visual recording, as the camera battery died and I couldn’t swap it out at the time, but the audio feed continued rolling along.
If you didn’t watch the video, no problem, just settle in and relax as you can hear all that and more in this episode.

During his address Eric shares with us the concept of Vernacular Architecture, what it means to truly build with local sustainable materials and the decisions involved in that process, and invites us all to be active in our role as builders. He also shares information about the non-profit, ThePOOSH.org, he and other members run, and how we can get involved.

The Q&A that rounds out his speech touches on the new community he and members building codes and personal decisions, creating relationships in order to keep disputes from arising, and how to explore and find solutions to problems of living sustainably, such as lighting your home. I’d like to thank Photographer John for allowing me to borrow the equipment I used to make this recording, and the video possible. I’d also like to thank every listener who contributes to the show. You allow me to keep the show transmitting out into the ether, and to document events like Radicle Gathering.

I was fortunate enough to not only attend Radicle to hear Eric’s speech, but also to spend time living in community with him and others for several days in Clear Creek ahead of the time spent at Radicle.

In that experience I got to see and begin to understand what it means to be in community with others, and the importance of an invitation into something. I was invited to stay with them, but then invited to help build with them. During Radicle I joined Eric, Loren, Satu, Adam, and my friend, The Other Eric (who joined me for the journey to Kentucky), to build the the foundation for the cob oven. Coming from a background where the attitude was “do it right or don’t do it at all,” I was initially hesitant to join in collecting materials or the construction, instead watching from the side and asking questions. Then I was told that the only way I’ll learn is to do and that anything that is done can be undone so hop in. It was a rewarding experience and as a result I collected and stacked stones, dug for sandy soil, and had some deep discussions about creating outside the bounds of a schedule driven, just in time, forever faster system. That made Eric’s keynote resonate even more strongly with me, and is why I titled this episode We Can All Be Builders. Each of the members of ThePOOSH, and others unrelated to that work but who live in Clear Creek, Kentucky, opened the door and joined in at every step of the way to support and grow not only the projects, but also the people involved, including myself. Those people in that place allowed a space for me to let go of my rational mind and begin to feel, in a way uncoupled from the facts and figures of daily life, and was a reminder of the value of emotions and, as Dave Jacke said, what they can tell us about what is going on in our lives, in the moment. There is information in those emotions. We need to be free of that rational reductionist side from time to time in order that we have the perspective that can pair the irrational with the reductionist knowledge we gain through education and formal experiences. Taking those disparate parts and build a new story that is not one or the other, not the weight of the past or the activities of the present or the dreams of the future, but a synthesis of all the moving parts into something unique. Something novel. Something new the world has never seen before. In that space, that mindset, we can find the thoughts that are different. Those ideas can get us out of the situations we find ourselves in. We can be creative in our use of permaculture as a decisions making process and apply it to whatever situation we find ourselves in. Like talking to a building inspector about the structure we built, how it was built, and why it is safe in an earthquake zone, even though we are not engineers. To be good with our neighbors and learn that sharing strawberries or garlic or a beer or wine, can create a better relationship, but that we still have the option to build a fence if what we do is onerous to others and there is no way to resolve it otherwise. As permaculture practitioners we have all the tools to create an abundant world, now all we need are the skills and the space within our particular niche to make it happen.

If I can help you with that, get in touch with me by leaving a comment below.

Until the next time we meet, take care of Earth, your self, and each other.