April 12, 2004
Ivins, Utah, USA
10:58pm I'm at the home of Daniel Pettegrew, who was introduced to me this weekend as I was making dragonflies sitting on a rock in a sidewalk planter box amid the St. George Art Festival. Nelson, a yogi I had met earlier that day introduced us. I didn't sell any dragonflies at all that day, but did get rich with friendship-- meeting all the beautiful freaks. St. George is squareville USA, being %70 Mormon, so I really stood out buzzing around that little patch of earth all day, and all the flowers blossoming freely came to me.
Daniel is owner of Xetava Gardens, a cool little coffee shop/book store/jewelry boutique, and the designer of Sacred Earth... his vision of a "healing city". He has a model of it here in the house. It's shape is very organic flowing adobe-- kind of Moroccan Flintstone's style. Tomorrow I'll be helping him begin the project, doing some landscaping in front of the house. I'm honored to be here at this time-- feeling as I'm building the scaffolding for Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel. It took Mike 40 years to finish the job, and it will take Daniel a few years, but every great work got to start... one stone at a time, one stroke at a time. He cannot NOT do it.
I'm tired now and gonna crash. I've had a huge week of cranking with 5.14 climbers, finding friends at every turn, doing a show at a reform school, making and selling dragonflies, partying in Springdale near Zion, hiking in Snow Canyon, and reading Ralph Waldo Emerson's Self-reliance... which has all been so amazingly expanding! I have more friends here now then people who have lived here for years, visions I've had about the process of making, wearing and selling dragonflies has now become reality and the realizations I'm having with loss of fear is very exciting.
Before going to bed, Daniel handed me Conversations With God. I opened it to page 19 and read a section he had circled with a heart:
Fear is the energy which contracts, closes down, draws in, runs, hides, hoards, harms.
Love is the energy which expands, opens up, sends out, stays, reveals, shares, heals.
Fear wraps our bodies in clothing, love allows us to stand naked. Fear clings to and clutches all that we have, love gives all that we have away. Fear holds close, love holds dear. Fear grasps, love lets go. Fear rankles, love soothes. Fear attacks, love amends.
Every human thought, word, or deed is based in one emotion or the other. You have no choice about this, because there is nothing else from which to choose. But you have free choice about which of these to select.
I just got a responce from this email I sent today:
Rusty... I met your parents while they were working on Mt. Lemmon a month ago.
Very nice people. When I told them about my FAR OUT School, they told me proud
stories about your success... and now I'm looking at your site. Good stuff!
I'm all about playing outside.... learning through experience. My site is
solomax.com ... and the guy I'm visiting now has a project you may want to
check out too: http://www.sacredearthliving.com/
Have fun!
-Cory Richardson
solomax.com
Hi Cory,
So glad to get your email! I'm so glad you're out there doing what you're
doing. (and so glad my parents get to meet people like you on their own
journeys!)
Do you know much about Buckminster Fuller? one of my favorite things about
him is that when he was in his early 30's he decided that he was going to
live his life as an experiment. He called himself, "Guinea Pig B". He wanted
to follow his heart and mind and learnings and yearnings and share it with
people and believe in himself and his ideas and trust and truly live it, and
he did. one of my heroes, not only for the ideas, inventions and world view
(we, living on "spaceship earth") but for that sparkling open mind and
belief in himself. And actually, he had the idea that he didn't belong to
himself. he belonged to the universe. and he had a duty to follow what the
universe was showing him and project his talent and ideas to make the world
a better place.
I've always felt like I was trying to live as Guinea Pig R. We have this
beginning and end to this life, this small window of time and energy and
opportunity. why not project light? why not try to make the world a better
place? why would anyone not try to do that??
my parents told me about you. said we shared some common ideas. I saw your
website too. looks like we do overlap on life. It's always so nice to meet
others out there, each working in their own ways. my last "chance meeting"
like this was with a flute player in LaJolla, CA. we're all trying to
project light...
So? what did you think of my parents?! I'm always so curious what they're
like "on the road"!
ever come to Ithaca, NY?
Rusty
ps. that sacred earth site is way cool. what detail and connection! (looks
out of my league!)
Mr Fuller is my hero too, Rusty! Glad to make that connection. Yeah, our lives are a blink in the eye of infinity... too short to waste time focused on the darkside living in fear.
Your folks were very sweet and had all the time in the world to listen to me talk, cuz I love to talk. I had just had a strange encounter with a ranger who insisted that I take my hammock down from the tree, though there was no good reason. Sure it was 20 feet up, but it, nor I was hurting anything. As I was taking it down your folks came along picking up garbage.
I'm not due in New York any time soon, but I would like to stay in touch and have you come down to the FAR OUT School in Mexico... maybe next winter break if you can make it. I'm inviting a bunch of people to gather at that time to begin the process of making the school offical in the larger sense. So far it has just been my vision. Now I need to share the opportunity and get others stoked on it. The area and people are very special and you'll know when you see it all with your own eyes. Check the page: www.solomax.com/farout.html
If you want, I'll send you an invite to the FAR OUT Tribe?
Thanks for the warm responce!
Rusty also turned me on to the amazing creations of Hubbell and Hubbell.
