To Be of the Earth -Seasons Greetings

To be of the Earth is to know  the restlessness of being a seed  the darkness of being planted  the struggle toward the light  the pain of growth into the light  the joy of bursting and bearing fruit  the love of being food for someone  the scattering of your seeds  the decay of the seasons  the mystery of death  and the miracle of birth.  --John Soos, in "Earth Prayers from Around the World" 'Livlihood Mela' and setting up of 'Green' sezs.   Friends It is high time we organize a mela may be in central India to explore alternative learning and meaningful/ sustainable livelihood options. children who learn at alternative schools again end up in main stream when they go for higher education. Many are unaware of the new opportunities or situations in response to the ecological crisis and that demands organized effort. The focus could be to invite children/ parents/ teachers from alternative education.  Higher education We could explore setting up of some higher education possibilities that explores issues of sustainability, ecological crisis etc , revival of traditional , indigenous knowledge systems, revival of craft, look for new opportunities in the urban life etc. Some of the practitioners could be roped in to be part of this process. There are many experiments happening even with in the cities in sustainable architecture, water harvesting, city farming etc and several people are experimenting in rural tribal areas on several issues.   First aid knowledge or foundational knowledge' Educated people are ignorant of basic knowledge needed to live which is what most 'illiterate' people in rural areas know. Knowledge about simple farming, making of a house, cooking, healing etc. It is clear that this kind of literacy is being systematically killed as we become literate in reading and writing and become 'slaves' of the corporate world. This situation demands rethinking at several levels.   Livelihood opportunities and setting up of Green socio economic cultural zones. There also several avenues of alternative livelihood  opportunities which are not very visible and people take years of search to 'accidentally' discover what to do with their lives. This kind of mela could offer lots of choices. Many friends who are in to practice of various kinds have shown interest and there is  immense possibilities as well as  urgent need to address various crisis that we are facing today. I think Auroville and parts of Pondichery are probably worth studying and to some extent shanthiniketan which were set up purposely to lead a different kind of life. This experiments are happening at mini scale in various parts and they need to be connected and become places of inspiration. One needs to bring in new values of exchange in these attempts as money as an exchange will soon die out. We need to dialogue and plan the event which could happen may be in 6 to 8 months time. If needed we could start a email group to facilitate this. Do send in you suggestions. It is needless to suggest that we do this with our own initiative and not go for external funding or any kind of sponsorship for such an event. meanwhile i have a blog on this. I will start adding comments from various people on this. Please suggest if any other way is possible apart from the gmail group which can be formed to initiate the dialouge. http://meaningfullivlihoods. blog.co.in/ Jinan,