David Eggleton's Page

Thanks, David. I am new to the site, but I recognize many names from various energy spheres and have enjoyed your comment threads. My journey with permaculture is just beginning, but I have my sleeves rolled up in an ongoing "laboratory" at my parents' urban oasis, spearheaded by my younger brother, Matti, who is really my best resource. This spring, the 3/4 acre soccer field I grew up playing on became a gigantic spiral raised bed, orchard (pecan, persimmon, pawpaw, plum, apple), pond, and wetlands. We're building a greenhouse this fall with slavaged barn beams and old storm windows. With the drought we've had in Ohio, it's amazing to see our yard become a haven for wildlife we've never seen in our yard before. Matti, a recent sculptor graduate, is totally cool with living back at my parents', riding is bike (and scooter) around town, making connections for free materials, and rallying the family together around a common project. We've all started to re-skill ourselves, too, flashing the dormers, tuck pointing the chimneys, insulating kneewalls, preparing green smoothies. It's so cute, it's disgusting.

Our big question that we are looking to answer is whether anyone is "permaculturing" for a living? Is everyone just getting certified to become certifiers? Or are they getting certified on the side of their "real" job? Or are they retirees dabbling in permaculture but living off their professor's pension? Not that there is anything wrong with these lifestyle choices, but we so often see permaculture spoken of as a panacea for many social ills while the examples of "permaculturists" are incongruous with the hype. I certainly look foreward to learning from others' examples. It's been a humbing process so far.

I've also found a lot of inspiration also from the work of friend Pat Murphy in Yellow Springs, Ohio. He's the author of "Plan C" as well as the producer of the documentary "The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil". They've been incredible and essential resrouces, like permaculture, for challenging me to think in new ways-- in terms of systems and resilliency and values.

Thanks David!

David,

I am so happy to find someone else on this sight that believes right relationships with the Earth are most important and that modern technologies are not going to save us, but maybe, a re-envisioning of ancient technologies with modern engineering could put us on the path.

David, if you are still interested in the science/religion debate, do you mind "listening" to some ideas that have been rattling around in my brain lately? Here goes, ready or not:

I think being religious is part of being human. Ever since the beginning of written language ("In the beginning was the Word"), human beings have aspired to something greater in the future that we can achieve if we work toward it in the present. We've called it heaven, nirvana, a million dollars, a billion dollars, fame, a Pulitzer Prize, Buddha consciousness, a world without disease, a world without nuclear weapons, a world without religion, and many other things. We all, atheists alike, aspire for a better world; a world that doesn't yet exist; an "other" world. Marin Buber, a philosopher, wrote that we begin life looking at the world around us as an object to control, and that if we grow we come to recognize the world as the mysterious other that we can't control, but we can try to understand. He summarizes the movement as moving from an "I, It" relationship (the world as object) to an "I, Though" relationship (the world as other, and loveable).

I think religion is the way we communicate that most basic desire. In this case it is hard to separate religion from so called "secular" culture. Culture, like religion, embodies our desires (for justice, for belonging, for nurture, for everlasting life...) and our values.

The problem I think is when we think our religion is superior to other religions, or that our religion is the "right" one and the others are all wrong. Atheists, fundamentalist Christians, Jews, and Muslims, free market fundamentalists, communists, and others in I think are most prone to this kind of thinking.The solution to the problem is or us to discover that basically we all want the same thing.

I wish we didn't need religion, but we do ("I came not to abolish the law, but to fulfill it.")

Hi David,

I have done some writing about science and religion on the KQED Quest blog site:

www.kqed.org/quest/blog/author/jimg.

Write to me at JPGunshinan@homeenergy.org if you want to discuss.