Roots . Rhythm . Radicalism

Roots.

Stand for what you stand on. 

Sink you roots into the ground;

be deeply human,

feast on broken, and 

unbroken ground.

Your branches 

to rise and spread, 

gathering light,

bearing fruits

free, like the fruit tree, 

for all to come.

Be native to your place. 

even if an outsider, 

Give yourself

to belonging

where you are,

why you are.

We are better at living 

than dying,  

better at taking 

than giving 

naive 

to how fertility works.

What would we be if we knew how to die well, 

to return what was taken?

Healthcare, affordable 

Exxon, long gone . 

Money, compost 

Soil, fertile.  

Rhythm. 

There is an old intelligence  

that runs through us, 

called love. 

Find that ancient song, 

and sing.  

Find the pace of the earth 

    slow down, when needed. 

    go fast, when needed. 

Find its cadence 

          set your cadence     

Be an observer.  

Learn from nature, which is truth. 

Look to the woods,  

          where life and death are balanced. 

Reimagine economy,

    live in the true economy:

        the carbon cycle. 

Carbon: fabric and currency,

    material and energy, 

lifted into song and beauty by star shine,

       driving the economy of nature. 

Where:    

    Soil is principle. 

    3 percent, the natural rate of return. 

    98 percent of growth dies every year.


    Anything above 10% return is an invasive species. 


    Even the greatest stocks, the old trees, 

                    gives everything upon death, 

                    to be resurrected into everything around it. 


    Everything turns over into the beauty of things.


    Greed is short lived and terminal.

Trust the working  

of the dark, 

as the seed does.  

Life is a compost pile,  

you’ll feel like shit 

some days, 

    sometimes most days,  

Only by dying to your old self

will one resurrect anew,  

Practice resurrection, said the wise man,  

failures are the fertility  

of rebirth and growth.

Hold on and let go.   

Revolve a bit.  

The night marks 

the coming dawn.  

Radicalism. 

Dream, then act. 

Split your heart open 

and follow what pours,

         what grows, what roots. 

Do what you love.  

We need you to!   

Ask, what ought to be done?

    Not, what can be done?

Do this in the halls of academia, 

    office complexes, boards room,  

    dinner tables, in the streets.

Until the financial economy 

    runs by the principles of good human economy

         we will fail to achieve the world we wish to build. 

So, reinvent economy. 

         Business ought to be a public good. 

Affection is the new currency,

         the old currency that works.  

Community the new wealth,

         the old wealth that binds.

Beauty and love  

    are the great mysteries 

    at the heart of everything 

        good and true.  

Don’t get stuck in unknowing, 

    or in categories of belief. 

Leave the tribe.

     It insulates, creates polarity. 

Follow your love

    and learn the love of others. 

Both are true. 

Leave your comfort zone, 

    your belief system, even for a moment.

Step into the shoes of another. 

     Go to the Prairie. The desert. The woods. 

Find people and eat with them.

Food is the common denominator of humanity. 

Prepare to be surprised. 

         By technology, Republicans, Democrats, children, youth, women, first peoples, soil.

The people not like you, are just like you.

The things you judge, are just like you. 

The revolution is rising from around the table, 

    where all are welcome and invited, 

    with every bite of food, 

    every drink of wine, 

    every hug, 

    every conscious act of healing and commitment to belonging, 

    every moment of gratitude for the world we depend on 

           and return to.

The revolution is us. It is delicious. It is irresistible. 

    Unstoppable: our imagination is more 

        beautiful, 

            equitable,

          and joyous 

                    than competing paradigms wrestling for the future. 

The future is a battle of imagination.  

The revolution is here. 

Give yourself to it. 

It depends on you. How much you give, 

    money and otherwise, 

    how much you’re willing to risk for the future. 

        for your children, for my children, for the earth. 

And this is our hope:

It rests in the intangibles,

in the unimaginable. 

in the stuff that fills the void

and slips through the hand

when gripped to hard by words and the mind. 

Beauty can only be expressed

in the practical imagination

that denies categories,

and lives fully between the

heart and head

spirit and soul

mind and body

good and evil

black and white

so that such divides

close upon each other

into the wholeness

of common ground.