May/June 1984 RAIN Page 3 RAINDROPS We've been receiving a steady stream of responses from the flyers we sent to every individual subscriber last time. Thanks to everyone who has sent in a list of 10 potential subscribers. Keep them coming! Several people called or wrote to tell us they'd received two copies of the March/April issue—before they'd found the explanation on the flyers inside. The best letter of the bunch was from a reader in Houston, Texas: "For reasons known but to god (and even she may be puzzled), I received two copies of Volume X, Number 3—which must be an expensive error for you. Hope this helps you get your records straight." A couple weeks later, she wrote back to say; "I fired off my note to you before I even opened the magazine, obviously. My reaction time was swift because a year ago a computer stuttered and I got 97 copies of Inquiry— an event which I think would spook anyone! I've sent the extra to a good friend who used to live in the Pacific Northwest. I really .value RAIN—every issue is interesting." (Thanks. We love to get letters and wish we'd get more.) Another of our low-cost promotion strategies is to trade our mailing list for someone else's. Since last July, we've traded lists (or parts thereof) with In Context, East-West Journal, Science for the People, Conserve Neighborhoods, Parabola, the Chinook Learning Community, and the University of California at Davis' Appropriate Technology Program. Please tell us if you'd rather not receive extras via your RAIN subscription, and we'll hide your name when we trade lists. Also, if you belong to a group of RAIN- minded people (a solar energy association, for example), find out if you can share your mailing list with us. We'll use the names for just one mailing—a brochure or a sample copy—and then they're all yours again. We'll take the names in any form, the neater the better, but of course we prefer typed names on sticky labels above all. Our new intern, Cathy Baker, has been a great help in getting out these mailings (and hundreds of other things, too). Cathy comes to us from Reed College in Portland, where she's majoring in anthropology. Summers in the Cascades have taught her the lore and lay of the land in the Northwest. The theme for the September/October 1984 issue of RAIN will be Art in Everyday Life. We'll be exploring at least two aspects of this theme: (1) what is it like to live in a society where art is not something separate, and there are no "artists" because everyone is an artist; and (2) what role do art and design play in our lives today as we strive to create a better world, and how can we integrate art into our daily lives. Send ideas and information to Tanya Kucak at RAIN. We're also looking for some up-to-date information on composting toilets. We haven't heard much about them in the past few years. Have you? Write to Cathy Baker at RAIN as soon as possible if you have information, leads, ideas, or personal experiences to share on composting toilets. Many of the items in this issue—as in past issues—strike the common chord of connectedness, of the patterns that bring unlike things together. I came upon these sentences by Roger H. Garrison in the February 10 issue of Maine Times: "The pernicious practice to be avoided is the piling up of general knowledge which has no connection to individual personal experience;. . . The only useful knowledge is connected knowledge." —TK LETTERS I am a Portlandite traveling in India studying health care programs here with a self-help/preventive care emphasis. It is frustrating, tiring, and difficult. So many problems—a rigid hierarchy by caste, severe oppression of women, limited resources.... A friend of mine who had been traveling with me, but returned to Portland in January, just sent me a copy of RAIN (January/February 1984). I read with tears in my eyes. There are positive things happening back home!! (The article on nuclear-free zones was especially good to hear about.) I feel hope, and I am anxious to go back to my community where I understand things and can work for change in a way that is meaningful. Until then, I continue here, learning and gaining some global perspective. Thank you for the piece of home. (By the way, I left the copy of RAIN in Goa, so maybe it will be picked up and spread around!) Monica Irons As long-time fans of RAIN (and former editors of Acorn—now gone under here in the good old Midwest), we were excited to see the "Exploring the Globe" article in the January/February 1984 issue of RAIN. In fact, I could hardly believe how similar our intents are. I think what got us going on our own project was the realization that the "earth from space" is probably the most popular commercial media image around today—and yet 70% of our population doesn't know where Miami is. Our study of the planetary grid system is an old one. We worked with a group of networkers we plugged into about a year and a half ago. They have an esprit de corps that reminds me of the best days of A.T. networking (for me) when there was much excitement and much open sharing of philosophy and technical discovery— before the days of U.S. DOE Washington meetings, CE)C, Western Sun, and the Appropriate Technology Small Grants Program. I can't believe how many of the people we correspond with are active solar/A.T. practitioners who are thinking about global communication and the future of what might be thought of as "Third World Science"—science that will combine ancient and modern science and religion/spiritualism/parapsychology. We are excited about our own possible ways to contribute to the research. In March we made our first big "leap" with the concept of the grid at our Third World Conference. We think that the grid can (if we believe the Russian researchers, who are trying so hard to communicate with American people) make an enormous contribution to the health, welfare, and future planning endeavors in Third World countries. As I said, I am happy to see RAIN make this step into global thinking. It is so important, and it seems to add a whole new future to the magazine. (Send any questions to me at 105 Wolpers Road, Park Forest, IL 60466.) Bethe Hagens Intercultural Studies in Global Mapping and Communication Governors State University Park Forest South, Illinois
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