The Intersection of Human and Plant Lifecycles

 

I was on chicken duty this morning with Julia, and she found a dead chicken inside the coop. I went inside and placed it into a bin. It looked like maybe it fell from the roost and broke its neck. Jeff was going to help us deal with it. I wanted to put it in the compost pile, but he said that we should cut it open. I wanted to do no such thing, and he looked upset about the endeavor as a whole, so Julia and I went alone to bury it. We dug a nice hole, about a foot and a half deep. We said a prayer as we put the hen in and covered it. I said that I hope it had a good chicken life and that it ate lots of good food. Julia said, “I hope you’re in chicken heaven now, with all the worms you can eat.”

I said, “The worms will be eating you now!… you will be completing the circle.” We covered the grave with a large rock, and left to get ready to go harvest at Bob’s. I picked apples and bay leaves for myself, and then fig leaves and tomatoes for the Chez Panisse order.

 

After harvesting, Bob lessoned us. I was quite unprepared. I had forgotten the voice recorder and my notebook.

Bob looked at some weeds we had brought from an abandoned garden at Melissa’s church (that we plan to rehab), and analyzed them. One weed, a brassica, had several seeking roots and almost no secondary roots. He could tell from this that it was not happy where it was, because it kept sending out new seeking roots. It was a very determined plant, he said, determined to make seeds. It’s a kind of plant that blooms over and over and over, making new seeds all the way. If someone were to need motivation and determination in life, if they had been hurt as a child, and were now listless, he would give them a tea with a few of the blossoms, so that the determination for life of the plant would enter into the person. The characteristics of a plant can be absorbed by other life forms according to this view.

Bob also talked about planting seeds based on the lunar cycle. He plants seeds at the full moon in order to be organized, ordered, patterned, and grounded in nature.. I asked him if that’s all that is planned and he said yes, but if you plant seeds at the full moon, then all the other things you must do, like preparing soil, transplanting, and fertilizing, are scheduled naturally as a result. I develops a systematic cycle of nutritional establishment of garden, so you have food all the time. Organize your garden into twelve plots and plant one per moon– any moon will do.

Recognize character of this full moon: Nov 12, look around at the plants. This is the next to last of this year’s full moons. Look at the weather, soil temperature, the peach leaves (yellow, but lots of green), the hills are grassy. This way, you have three data points: the moon, the human calendar, and the circumstances.

 

Last year, Bob said, there was a very late frost in May, and some tomato plants were frost-bitten, which is akin to childhood abuse.

“If I poked your baby with a cattle prod when still a baby, it tenses the cells, and it loses its relaxation. Just like birthing babies in the hospital with male doctors and they grab it by it’s hind legs and hold it upside down and whack it on its ass to get it to breathe. Oh my god, this poor baby’s already breathing, I mean, let it lay upon its mother’s chest with its umbilical cord still attached for a moment, and let it feel—continue to feel the breath of the mother and let the mother squeeze it and release it, squeeze it and release it and develop that union that it’s gonna have for a few months if it’s lucky while it’s nursing. It doesn’t need to be jerked out and whacked on the ass or anything else, but you know, that’s what they do, somebody dreamed that up. You’re in a world where some puritan said, ‘You’re in a world of suffering, so let’s start ya out right!’”

 

I said, “And they wanna do that ‘cause they got whacked in the ass when they were a baby.”

 

“Of course, and that’s the human mindset and how do we change these paradigms, and the influences upon human culture and upon society, so that generations later we have an announcement of the more capacity of humanity, but we don’t do that, but excuse me I’m getting sidetracked when we’re talking about another issue. We’re looking at lunar planting…”

Trying

Our world is wrought with crazy downward spirals. Our planet is poisoned with massive amounts of manufactured chemicals, so we have many chronic illnesses, which we then treat with massive amounts of manufactured chemicals.

 

The health of our bodies and minds equals the health of our planet. When will we realize this? When will this not be an idea deemed ‘mystical’ or that of a ‘tree-hugger’? I hope the time comes soon, because we will rapidly be consuming plastic food. Already, we eat poison food, with chemical fertilizers and uncomposted manure, with terminator seeds that threaten the fertility of our entire system of food crops.

 

Our bodies are hurting. We have rampant motor vehicle deaths, asthma, heart disease, cancer, autism, bipolar disorder, depression, and obesity. What are we doing to ourselves? It’s sick, really, what we put into our bodies. It’s sick how artificial and far away from our origins it is, and it’s sick that it’s legal to poison our water, air, earth, oceans. Where is the accountability?— I look to the government for that. If a company engages in polluting activities, they need to be shut down forever, and the people responsible imprisoned. No ifs, ands, or buts. We need to stop our neoliberal system of trade that places the poison aftermath on someone else’s home.

 

Rip up NAFTA, revitalize Mexico’s economy, and start work programs to bring unemployed city people back into the agricultural sector—working on biodiverse, organic, sustainable farms that surround our cities. I guarantee that you will see a massive decrease in the instances of all the above ailments. Not that all will be peaches and cream, but overall, people would be happier and healthier.

 

I worry, though, that the very formation of the nation-state was contingent upon the existence of mercantile corporations of transnational trade. If so, and they are really irreversibly interconnected, then we may need a complete overhaul of the entire governmental system. I’m glad that McCain didn’t win, but I am not convinced that there is much that Obama can do within the current system. I can fantasize, but in reality, I am skeptical.

 

One thing that we can do that is immediate and very personally tangible is to know our own bodies, and to be aware of ourselves as consumers. Not only is it healthy for our economy (I’m talking personal economy, here) to produce rather than consume, but it is empowering. Instead of buying cough syrup, buy Horehound from an herbal shop, or even better, grow it—it grows like a weed. All you do is simmer it in sugar and water. It’s a lovely mild expectorant. Not only do you bypass putting chemicals into your body (and artificial colors and flavors), you also prevent the production and waste of plastic, you have an intimate knowledge of what you’re consuming, and you learned a new and practical skill! It’s actually very exciting, the feeling you get doing something yourself. Do you remember being a child and finally doing something yourself, and the sense of pride, ownership, and accomplishment it gave you? Guess what, adults need that, too.

 

As much as you can, use material that has come straight from the ground for your daily needs. Until small and locale mercantilism is made possible again, you’ll have to do it yourself. The Horehound is just one example. There are also easy and effective herbal remedies for headaches, earaches, eye problems, infections, insomnia, depression, and anxiety. All you have to do is try.