Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Kitchen Gardeners Unite

Roger Doirion of Kitchen Gardeners International, also known as KGI, sends a monthly newsletter that is really well done with articles, recipes, videos, the kind of stuff I like to read and think about ... Topical, insightful, enthusiastic about spreading the concept of kitchen gardening as a kind of socially responsible movement. This month's offering showcases KGI particularly well, go read it and subscribe!

There is a lot there to keep you busy, but one take home message was Roger's pointer towards this site:

On Day One: Your ideas for a better world.

Especially good for us Zen gardeners, who use gardening time as a stretching exercise for both the body and the spirit, this is a fine focal point for your next quiet moment:

Just imagine what you would advise the next president to do on day one of a new administration. Bomb, bomb, bomb Iran? ... Drill the Arctic? ... or plant* the front yard of the White house with beautiful veggies? (*Roger's idea, and a fine one that.)

Nothing is as good as being the change you want to see. That is the meaning of the word manifest. Don't sit around hoping for supernatural beings to give you heaven on earth after you die, or waiting on the whim of the rich and powerful to feed the world and clean up their messes. Just do it, yourself. Take the first step. Dig a patch and plant a seed. Get a friend involved. Let the grass roots grow.

You say, But what can one person, or two, do? We are so busy, and running as fast as we can.

I say, What are you running toward? Do you have time to watch television? Never was there a more crucial time to think of priorities. Even small change is good. Incremental change.
The small change that you work to make visible to your neighbors reinforce the change others with the same ideas are working to make manifest. Change needs to come from within our society, from us, not from the professional thought shapers in the corporate media culture.
So make a small change. Don't sit around waiting for supernatural beings to give you heaven on earth after you die. Or wait on the whim of the rich and powerful to feed the world and clean up their messes. 'Just do it'. Take the first step, after a while you'll see others walking the same path. Dig a patch and plant a seed. Let the grass roots grow.
We the People.

Post note: I got some comments/inquiries over the weekend about my political blog not being updated. I guess some folks enjoy a good rant. I am still commenting on the politics of the day, although not as, ahem, radically, at what I call my cranky green treehugger blog. It's been buried as a link in the sidebar, but here it is (link) again FYI.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Right on, Betsy!!! As Gandhi reminds us, we must "be the change we want to see in the world." And there's no better place to start than in our own back (and front) yards!