A Great Evening at New College, Santa Rosa

Hallo, faithful reader! I seem destined to update this blog once a month,
but then in more than one posting. Here goes with a backlog of good items:

On March 24th at New College North (Santa Rosa) Arty Kopecky, New Buffalo's archivist, produced a fundraiser for the Green Valley Village community.

Delia Moon was great, as always, and got the audience to sing the chorus
of 'The Wheels Of Change,'composed by Josh at Wheeler's in 1969 or so.
She also talked about how she came to start another community -- a real,
open-hearted sister!

Kei and Michael from Green Valley Village, and Deirdre from Avalon
Springs both spoke about their new communities. James from Oxy's Art &
Ecology Center described their educational program.

Arty Kopecky did a great job of mc-ing the whole business and keeping
things rolling. Later Nick and Tanya Alva sang songs from the woork-in-
progress Morningstar Musical, including my own "Oh Friends, Tell Me Why..."
that I wrote in 1966 after a group LSD trip (after a 10-day brown rice
diet). They're forging ahead with plans for producing the show...

FLASH! May, 2007, at the Spreckles Performing Arts Center in Rohnert Park. Save one of these dates: Opening night Sat. May 3rd, additional performances May 4th, 9th, 11th, 16th and 18th

All I can remember talking about was my 1968 epiphany when I realized
humans were invented by trees as portable fertilizer factories (along
with other creatures). What a great moment! I no longer had to search
for meaning in my life, for what my task was in the Kosmos!

"At least once in your lifetime, fulfill your true destiny! Go
fertilize a tree," I told everyone. And I quoted a dear friend who said
'Shitting in your house is so barbaric.' Actually gorillas do shit in
their nest, but have the good sense to build a new one every night.

Hm, found some scribbled notes...

Morningstar Ranch was in a sense 'burdened' by belonging to the Divine
Mother, and thus having to function as a 'mothering' healing center open
to anyone -- which is why we were basically overrun. The previous owner,
poet and activist John Beecher, via the Catholic Church, had dedicated
the land to The Virgin Mary, something we didn't find out until the mid-
Seventies. But it did explain why people kept having visions of the Goddess
at Morningstar, both on and off psychedelics.

'Village' is in our DNA. Humans are try-out applicants for the Garden of
Gaia. If they're loving and caring - or at least harmless - they can
reincarnate as a butterfly, a dolphin, a redwood for as long and as
often as they wish. Otherwise, it's just back to yet another half-second
delayed, self-reflective human time around to 'get it right.

If you want to start a community, buy a cow -- or a goat. Then the
four-footed being calls the meetings. If I called a meeting at the
ranches, someone always would say, "And just exactly WHO elected
You God?" or something like that. But if you wanted milk for your
morning coffee at Wheeler's, you showed up for morning milking.
And during the general chat around the cow's rear end, various
topics of general interest would be discussed.

IN 1968 I said we were 20 years ahead of our time but now, 40
years later, I read in the March 22 Home and Garden section of
the N Y Times that a couple living in lower Manhattan are trying
to live by eating only food grown within a 200-mile radius, not
using toilet paper or paper products, not using elevators, making
their own whatever they can make, etc. So the 'low imprint'
lifestyle (that I named 'Voluntary Primitivism') has finally made
it to the Big Apple, but it took twice as long as estimated.

'Paths' are just worn-out spots in the meadows made by animals
afraid of what might be lurking behind the next tree or rock. Paths
wear down the landscape. Better to forget your paranoia and just
strike out cross-country. Leave no tracks!

Finally, I quoted Suzuki Roshi: 'Everything is perfect as it is, but
there's always room for improvement."