Page 20 RAIN July 1980 Dear RAIN: Thank you for the invitation to tip-date your readers on "what's happening" in the Findhorn community. As always, a lot is happening, governed now as much as eyer by our best efforts to be sensitive to the divine leading. In particular, three very immediate considerations are shaping our growth: • the need to remember our rootedness in the land, with renewed-emphasis on the growing of food, organically and with appropriate technology, in the context of that , attunement to the nature kingdoms on which this community is built; • • • the need to develop according to the principles of "cellular evolution"-i.e. through small and highly energized cellular units within the larger Findhorn "village"; • the need to broaden our econpmic base, to become more self-reliant and less dependent on guest programs which are vulnerable in a volatile world economy. Out of such considerations we have generated a new and most exciting projectseeded during the past two years and emerging now with recognizable shape-a Garden School (see Rush, June '80) centered at Cullerne (a ten-acre property adjacent to the Caravan Park and overlooking Findhorn Bay), it is "a school within a garden" -a learning environment where staff and students will grow food, flowers, and themselves. The garden is the classroom and the teacher, yielding food for soul and body, where we learn the skills and disciplines required for its care. , The courses themselves will be intensely practical and include many disciplines beyond horticulture-how to care for and repair small gasoline engines, how to fix broken digging forks, how to wire up a chicken unit or fix an electric fence, etc. If the property has it, the students will learn to use it and maintain it. In a larger sense, the Garden School at Cullerne is pioneering a new venture for the community as we move towards a "cell structure" in which individual units take on responsibility for their own lives in a coreliant system. So still_anot~er aspect of the School will be involvemenfln its managem~nt and exposure to the financial realities of life. Enough! If you've never experienced the smell of a Scottish morning or felt the tingle of an unpolluted arctic airstream, we'd love to share that with you. And for any who are seriously interested in the school, I will be glad to send a detailed prospectus if you will write to me at The Findhorn F-oun- _ dation, The Park, Forres, Scotland. Blessings Dick Barton Dear Rainpeople: As long as I have been aware of the necessity of "living lightly," many years, the basic requirement has always been to ·live ~n harmony with everything around, animal, mineral and vegetable. Perhaps it's an isolated _example,.but this April issue is nothing but controversy, from cover to cover. Somewhere, I think you have lost the thread. I have no wish to criticize, so I would like to suggest that you devote your considerable talents to a more instructive end. It •s imperative that we all realize that no amount of shouting, breast-beating or blame-placing is going to change a thing. People will always be people, motivated the way their environment and their genes direct them. Instead of recounting the horrors of today, why not emphasize the practical, economical, easy ways and reasons to do all the good things that you list in your masthead? Tell them, all you can reach, how to "build a society that is.durable, just and ecologically sound," not by telling them what-is wrong-they can see that themselves-but by teaching them how to in- , fluence their immediate group into learning , the "simple and satisfying lifestyle" that is the way we would all like to go, but maybe don't know how; or are afraid. Finally, your article on the draft does not _ take into account the absolute necessity that we must have another war, and soon. · Our type of society, good or bad, has gotten us to the point where the only way the public will accept the control necessary to deal with everything from racial problems. to inflation and oil imports is to get a war started, repopularize (?) patriotism and. national unity. I'm sure your crystal ball is just as cloudy, or clear, as mine, but that's what I see. It won't be a big war~and it will probably be in a relatively unpopulated part of the world (1984?) but it will be enough· to justify rationing, wage an4 price control, and all the rest of what we had in WWII. No? Wait and see. • Meanwhile, and I don't mean to preach, try the positive approach, not the negative. It's so rare today. • Whatever, good.luck, Stan Knapp Sedro Woolley, WA Dear Rain, Sirice writing "Open Publishing" (May RAIN) I've learned of three endeavors· somewhat similar to what I proposed., The Revolv.ing Library accepts and reviews ·all pamphlets or small manuscripts submitted by Network: Quodlibeta members. The materials can be borrowed for the cost of postage a1'(i photocopying. Founded in 1977 the Revolving Library presently contains about 100 items on a wide range of subjects concerned with alternatives. "Network: Quodlibeta is a means of sharing your ideas, projects, needs, etc." For information send a self-addressed stamped env~- lope to Bob Welke, 11100 SW 80 Ave., Miami, Florida,33156. The Light Living Library accepts articles • and plans concerned with camp living, portable homes and wildcrafting. It sells photocopies, giving authors 20% royalties. Although selective, it is "more open than a magazine or pamphlet publisher because we don't have the up front printing expense." For a catalog send a self-addressed stamped envelope to Hank Schultz, P.O. Box 190, Philomath, OR 97370. The Unpubli~hed Library was."to our knowledge .. . the only-publishers who will print all writing without judgement, qualiHcation, editorialism or censorship." A recent letter to their address, 170 Duane St., New York 10013, was returned undelivered. • Bob Welke h~s remarked in Network: Quodlibeta that not very many people are borrowing from the Revolving Library yet. This, plus the apparent demise of the Unpublished Library, indicates the wisdom of thinking small and not expecting fast growth when starting something that's new or different. Pat Underhill Philomath, OR Ms. Collette: I've been disturbed at the increasing frequency of articles on feminism, especially the April '80 article on "Feminist Roots." Why review books inferring that all witches are benevolent and equating feminism with healing? First of all, you're supposed to be a journal of appropriate technology. Secondly, as far as I can see, feminism has very little to do with healing. l:fealers gain
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