October 4, 2002
Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada
11:30am Email from Princess Melissa:
Hello Sweet Maximo,
I thought of you for hours last night as I walked around town with Molly
exploring the bits of Guelph that I love and I knew it must be about time to
say hello. Has it just been two years now since we met in your City? I guess
that means your birthday is neigh; congrats on one more year lived (really
lived in your case!).
Things are good here. I am teaching an environmental stewardship course and
another in field work in natural resource management, which is a huge time and
energy commitment but it's so worth it. I think I'm finally becoming
comfortable with the fact that I have something to offer to people and that I
can effectively convey a message in words alone. You know as well as any that
so much more of my communication is usually done in different ways, whether
it's a look or a touch or whatever.
I've been spending so much time trying to get my head around whatever shape
this environmental revolution I envision happening is going to take, but it's
so boggling. For some time, I've thought of it in terms of an ethic, like Aldo
Leopold's Land Ethic I guess, whereby we no longer see ourselves as separate
from the land (Earth) and that every person has an inherent love for the
community they are a part of. Although, I attended a lecture by Bill Rees, the
author of the Ecological Footprint stuff last week and he put it in terms of
developing a new "cultural myth". He talked about how religions and other
cultural philosophies that guide our lives were developed (including the
current scary economic cultural myth) and how they influence our behaviours.
In the past other cultural myths have failed civilizations but that it was OK
because there were other civilizations who could take over and perpetuate life
on earth. Now we have a real crisis because we essentially have only ONE
global culture (it's scary to admit, but it's virtually true) and a prevailing
cultural myth that is failing (and killing) us. I guess I was weary of anybody
calling science and environmentalism a cultural myth, when to me it is just the
truth. But I guess that's what capitalists or Catholics believe too, isn't
it? That their myth is the absolute truth. It drives me nuts; are we just
perpetuating a new myth or are we any closer to the truth?
Anyway, I think the pain of my wisdom teeth making their way into my mouth has
me a little frustrated with everything I'm working on lately! Plus they're
giving my nightmares. Just this morning I died in a car crash while trying to
talk to Luke on a cell phone. Made me think I might need to revisit our
communication style!
Oh - another little thought I had about you lately was that you really do have
something special in putting your thoughts and dreams into writing - especially
writing that other people can read. I think there's a HUGE capacity to make
things happen just in doing this one step. I guess this is probably obvious to
you.
Although our visit was too short, it was great to see you at Evolve. I was
obviously a little overwhelmed that weekend with any number of things; I was
getting along with my brother for the first time in our lives, I had ingested
too many drugs, I danced cold and wet in a rain storm all night, then seeing
and saying goodbye to you Sunday was about all I could handle.I had a little
break-down Sunday afternoon but I think it was the kind of spiritual break that
everybody needs now and then, you know? I saw Leanne around Halifax over the
next few days and it kept occurring to my that those girls (Leanne and her
sprightly-sprite friends) really are magic. I never told Leanne this but I
have witnessed a luminous aura around her three times since I met her. I have
rarely had this happen and never more than once with one person that I can
think of. Obviously a special person.
Anyway love, am always thinking of you. And, as always, thank you.
Your Princess
Princess... what a great email! It made me so happy. I can't write much cuz I'm heading off to Maine to white water kayak and climb Mt Katahdin... it will be so fun! I'm meeting a bunch of friends there. I've made lots of friends in Maine; my community is growing and I'm really happy about that.
I told Leanne about her aura.... and she laughed with delight. A guy gave her a foot massage once because he said she had a huge aura and it would attract other people to his business. Yeah... she is for real... very open.
The new myth... yes... I know what you mean. A couple nights ago on the radio I was listening to Ideas on CBC, my favorite show, and they were interviewing Thomas Berry. Look him up on the net. The below is a quote from a site I found on him:
"Berry’s speculations begin with this pervasive spiritual sickness. At a deep level, he says, we no longer feel our kinship with the other life on the planet. We have lost that primordial sense of belonging to a whole web of life. Our challenge is to satisfy our essential human needs without destroying the biodiversity that makes our planet so nourishing and rich."
- from http://www.natcath.com/NCR_Online/archives/081001/081001a.htm
I was sitting on the can a few days ago thinking about how I could work out deals with big businesses to create retreats here and in Mexico, in exchange for sponsorship, and I'd host their executives and employees for a week of art and adventure. When I returned to my computer, I was amazed to I find this email:
I see your page, and I think that you dont know or understand the magic world of our ancestres and the power that the "hikuri" ,peyote like you say is so special and its no a game ,and its unlimited.
you destroy and sell a place in the desert of mexico where the peyote live, and the huichol indians care
the" visitors", whocome there withuot information, only make disturbes and brake the armony of the people, place , and magic.
"if you wantto learn a lot,...this is not the way"
I wrote back:
I am very interested in what you have to say. And I do take it seriously. I have eaten Peyote and know it is powerful.
My objective is not to take tourists to Mexico to trip on Peyote. I am creating a cultural exchange to bring Mexicans here to Canada and the people from here down there. We have much to learn from each other.
The magic of the natural world is not for a select people.... but for all people. Here in North America we have become disconnected from the spirit of the earth, and if this planet is to continue in a sustainable way... everyone must wake up to the fact that the whole earth is alive. People here don't need to go to Mexico to see this; they can do it where they live too, but traveling into the unknown helps a lot!!! Keep secret the magic and the world will crumble around you. I will do my best to respect the land and it's people.
I'm curious to know your story, and how you found me.
Gracias Amigo!
This idea of the earth having a spirit is appearing in our pop culture through movies like Final Fantasy. The Celestine Prophecy and other such books are creating the new myths. I think the key is to show the masses an alternative lifestyle to seeking nice cars, houses, clothes... that all fade, decay and don't really make us happy. We need cheap, compact, but comfortable housing, and easy access to mass transportation, as well as trails for bikes and hiking. We need to help people be more active in their communities, so they will know their neighbors and won't be afraid of them. We need to express ourselves creatively instead of just being consumers of entertainment. We need to feel empowered to take part in government. Our quest needs to be internal, seeking wisdom and mental strength. The church with it's "we are not worthy and need to be saved" is being replaced by the realization that we have unlimited untapped potential. I think death is final and my spirit will be passed through my art and those I touch. It's arrogant wishful thinking to believe I will live forever. As for creating a myth to change the way we live, to make people care about each other, all life on Earth, and beyond, we need them to see it is their best interest-- that serious water and air pollution is not far away. 9/11 happened, I believe, because the west has been selfish and ignorant about the plight of the middle east. You don't here much about that on the American news. The new myth is being told, but we to search for it, and need to edit it ourselves. Everything is not so clear. The bad guys where suits and ties, smile and tell lies. The story is not wrapped up like the Bible. Blah, blah, this is how it is going to happen.... end of story. It is unfolding, and it is up to us how it happens.
Again, we need to feel empowered. And no one can take our power unless we give it to them. Just being in my family has been a great education. My brother Joel is a very popular city councilor in Fredericton, and he doesn't have any university degrees; he just works hard, and loves what he does. Dad is not a lawyer or a big wig of any kind. He is a teacher, an honest straight talker, and now the president of the second most powerful political party in Canada. I was talking to our Mayor on the phone yesterday, asking her to help me organize a community bonfire. She said it would be impossible cuz it could get out of hand. I said we'd have firemen there, and my friends are competent citizens-- we can handle ourselves. "Firemen wouldn't have any obligation to be there," she answered. I told her "I have friends who are firemen, and they’d come for sure." She wouldn’t listen. Some people just think small-- are narrow minded. They are not stupid, they just don't know better. We need to show them what is possible-- to be those action heroes and create those myths. You and I and many others are doing it, Princess. We live in exciting times. I'm gonna jump into my spaceship now and blast off to the Moosehead Lake region in Central Maine. Yahooo!
Your Action hero,
Maximo
