Envisioning how it can be

[Grahame]

I am a great believer in the power of forward vision, of envisioning the future we would like to see. I think that this is the great precursor to being the change that you wish to see in the world effectively.

We are conditioned to think fearfully, because fear sells products. And so we are pre-disposed to envisioning a future that is less than desirable. I have noticed recently on the forums a growing trend towards the negative, doomer style threads. Threads based on fear.

So I am throwing out the challenge for everyone to start to build this forum into the great and positive influence on the future it can be.

Lets envisage a future were communities are strong, where people care for each other, encourage each other to greater things. Lets hold in our minds as we type these pages the great things that are not only possible through permaculture and it's related sciences and philosophies, but likely! I imagine a world were the sounds are of water trickling, of birds singing, of people sing in the fields, of great and majestic trees that people gather around and under. Trees that we planted and our children's children are gathering beneath, to picnic, to share stories, to teach the principles of permaculture.

I imagine communities where people walk and ride bikes along dedicated paths, where there is nothing but foot traffic among established communal food forests. I imagine children learning and playing in small outdoor settings. Where people use homes mainly to sleep, where the outdoors is our daily setting.

I imagine thriving local markets, full of wholesome and fresh produce, of homemade wares.

I imagine fresh, cleansing rains and crystal clear creeks and rivers, teeming with fish and wildlife. Farms where not a tractor is to be seen. People working side-by-side to build local homes, to 'raise barns'. I see the old as widened but not frail, sitting outside on a chair as the youths dance about them. The generations intermingle and care for each other, respect each other.

I see the thriving village of Mandala town. I see the people gathering in the beer tent, tapping the brew and roasting a pig. I see community! abundance!

This can all be ours and the very first step is to make sure we hold that vision in our minds and in our hearts. When we hold such visions our actions follow. To me such visions are what makes life glow with colour and vibrancy. To hold the other type of vision, to discuss it with out implying our cleaner vision upon it is to drive our actions towards the other future.

I encourage you all to foster that inner vision of how it can be, of how great we can make it, and to share it's energy in the forums.

Peace my friends, I will see you all in Mandala Town.

[Ludi]

I just read a very doomer post from you: http://forums.permaculture.org.au/sh...s-a-great-life.

So I'm glad you're feeling better now.

[Grahame]

Whoops. Did I write that?

I was younger and less experienced back then Best not to dwell on the past. Look at how much better things are already since then!

[Pakanohida]

The work I have been researching with Purecajn has me thinking this way Grahame, and in it, I picture a lot more clean air power.

[purplepear]

It is a timely vision Grahame as the first steps to the real mandala town may have been taken. To hold your vision in my mind is worthwhile as we start to plan.
http://purplepearorganics.blogspot.com/

[Pakanohida]

Lately I have been wishing for fiction of what the US should of been like. Finding out in Edible Forest Gardens Volume 1 that the North (and south by extension) was already a food forest prior to 1492. To learn that air systems carried more mail then the post office in NYC, to learn Chicago, and Paris used to run on clean air technology... well, I look around and I get annoyed at the irl world for screwing up the last 500 or so years.

I wish there was some fiction that could show people what they missed out on, and what we are going to need for the future based on Permaculture.

[Ludi]

I think that would be neat too, Pakanohida. But I think doom fiction probably sells better to the wide audience than optimist fiction (except "to the stars and beyond!" science fiction). There are lots of dystopian visions of the future or alternate realities. Maybe there's an untapped market for permacultury optimistic fiction. (Hinting at any authors here. Hint. Hint. )