Perspective from the Creatures of the Soil

A Fugue. I’m reading the newly arrived Life in the Soil. Actually, I’m devouring it. And it’s not even that particularly well or passionately written. I started wondering about this as I marveled over acellular slime molds and trichomycetes and realized that I often take refuge in books about soil and geology when I am down …

The Dreadful Public Speaking

I was never a confident public speaker. I used to be a TA at the university where I did a lot of teaching, mostly to groups of 20 student, occasionally to an auditorium of 250. I would rehearse those hours meticulously, often to the point of learning the whole thing by heart. It was exhausting, …

Empower *Everyone*: Leaderless Movements

Today I read this article about leaderless movements like Occupy Wall Street. The article itself doesn’t quite deliver on its promise (“The history of leaderless movements”), but it got me thinking. When’s the last time you were part of a leaderless movement? Can you remember? No guru, no one spokesperson, no one hero or “example”? …

Volunteer Activist by Day and by Night

On Monday evening there was an interesting meeting in my town, about a small wooded piece near a local pond that is under threat of the bulldozer and development. I wanted to go and hear what it was all about, meet the people organizing against it happening. Hear the arguments on the other side… But …

How Many Came? Waiting for Numbers

That question is easier to answer: 8 became 20 became 45 became 1500. On the Walk to Walden, 7 humans and 1 horse. As we walked in the humid, mosquito-filled 80F weather, through Wayland, Lincoln and Concord, more joined. By the time we reached there were about 20 of us, and at Walden Pond we met up …

Help Us Move the Planet on September 24

Dear friends, I hope this email finds you well and that your Summer/Winter was as fruitful as mine. I even have a perfect ending for it: a rally for a better future! On Saturday 24 September people all over the world will come together in a global event called Moving Planet. Our presence will send …