Knives are a really good Invention!
So going for real, fresh, unprocessed food definitely calls for more use of knives and less use of scissors, can openers, etc. And cutting out the excess of bs that can come flooding in as soon as you open the lid of your laptop calls for another type of knife. Yikes. Funny how as soon as I made the commitment to get down to basics, starting with food, I immediately became aware of just how tired and overloaded I am feeling lately.
So step one was just to step back…focus on the food…and make the observation that things aren’t falling apart. Wow. I’ve stepped back and things aren’t falling apart.
Step two, which will intensify next week when I take on Intimacy, is to get things back to a Human Scale. Given that the projects and tasks in my life seem to multiply faster than open browser windows, this is going to take some fancy knife work.
Human Scale
The ironic element being alive and well, the first thing that happens when I contemplate the human scale is that I come up with another Project. The Human Scale Project! Let’s look at Humanity from the dawn of time to yesterday at noon and then extrapolate outward to 2020 and see just how long it will take to reach…
On second thought. I think I’ll start right here in the center of my heart and discover what is actually necessary for me to be happy and fulfilled. And then start cutting away all the excess. After all, isn’t the perceived need for more more more what got us in the economic,and environmental crises that are filling up the pages that the rapidly sinking newspaper industry continues to decimate forests which are the largest consumers of the CO2 that is threatening …
Maybe I should get off this train before it gets moving too fast.
Yep. That’s the kind of week it’s been.
2 3 Questions
- Is it possible for a human being to really grasp something as large as the internet, the federal government, the banking industry?
- Hell, is it possible for a medium sized city to get it’s buses to run on time?
- Is it possible to step back from this huge and unwieldy system of macro macro macro, into something of a size that we actually can grasp?
3 Strikes?
Okay. So I think I know the answer to number 1 and 2. Which leaves me placing all my chips on number 3. Which means that instead of hitting one big giant Babe Ruth Barack Obama Home Run, it’s all going to come down to billions and billions of little tiny solutions coming from billions and billions of beautifully shining Human Hearts.
Which means no more Business As Usual. No more Master Plans. No more Templates. No more Step by Step Solutions.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Richard Reeve 06.13.09 at 3:22 am
The human scale is all about us all back into life withing our human skin. Charles Olson’s essay the Human Universe gets at this idea. We’ll know we are headed in the right direction when we encounter more eyes each day that are actually looking back at us instead of lost in thought, and we ourselves honor the gods resident behind each set of eyes to cross our path, a notion culled from D.H. Lawrence.
Richard Reeve´s last blog post..Initiation yes, but to what?
Janice Cartier 06.13.09 at 12:54 pm
I like where you are going.
Too much of anything can actually dull the palette. I’ve always said I don’t want lots I just want good, really good……..That’s kind of a human scale I think.
I can’t remember hearing or reading of anyone organizing this idea around intimacy lately…but it is spot on. I kind of smiled… will be curious to see how many guys feel comfortable with this… I mean that in a good way… really… Looking forward to what you are up to as always.
Stephen - Rat Race Trap 06.13.09 at 1:34 pm
Chas, I really loved this post. The humor in your writing style is very engaging.
“Given that the projects and tasks in my life seem to multiply faster than open browser windows, this is going to take some fancy knife work. ”
I know the feeling.
chas 06.15.09 at 12:54 pm
Sorry so late to reply: I’m trying to keep this stupid macbook closed on the weekends…
@Richard Love all the references to Olson and Lawrence, and the Namaste thing, all rolled up concisely as usual!
@Janice Thanks for checking in…this is going to be a fun and enlightening investigation!
@Stephen This is right up your alley, obviously…Rat Trap and Human Scale = not compatible!