2004 Spring

Two-and-a-half days. One bus. Twenty-six hippies. No showers. Heaven? Hell? Or, just the Naka-Ima Baja Adventure?!

After sharing our intentions, visions, and fears, a group of people who participate in Naka-Ima hopped on a Green Tortoise bus to embark on a ten-day trip to Baja, Mexico. Upon pulling out from Lost Valley, I almost immediately questioned my motivations for taking this trip. Being a person who needs a fair amount of space and independence, who has difficulty sleeping on moving vehicles, and who gets motion sickness fairly easily, I wondered, "What the hell was I thinking?!" I hadn't given much thought to this part of the trip, as I'd been thinking more about actually being in Baja. "OK, ok," I reasoned. "It's the middle of the winter, I need some sun and heat, I'm spending time with a group of people I love, and I'm going to a beautiful place. I've never really traveled with a group this large who all share a desire for community, growth, and intimacy, and this is a unique opportunity to do so." I decided to let go of my concerns and see what would happen.

The Raccoon Next Door:
Getting Along with Urban Wildlife

Heyday Books, Berkeley, CA, 2003, 144 pages.

This is a personable, informative book about how to coexist peacefully with urban wildlife rather than declare "war" on them. The back-cover blurb accurately sums up the author's guiding motivation: "As humans continue to overrun their habitat, these creatures have learned to live with us; the least we can do is reciprocate." Over the course of his long career in wildlife rehabilitation and journalism, Gary Bogue has assembled a wide-ranging body of anecdotes, advice, and insights-everything from "How to Be a Good Songbird Neighbor" to how to neutralize the smell of skunk spray on household pets (no, it's not by bathing the pet in tomato sauce--this new method apparently works better). These innovative methods of peaceful coexistence also lead to appreciation of these animals with whom we humans are sharing "home turfs." In truth, I have had time so far only to skim through this book, but based on what I've seen I wouldn't hesitate to refer to it for advice about any urban (or even rural) wildlife "issue." I truly believe that we humans can do better than war-whether it's waged against one another, against plants, or against "problem animals." We need guidebooks to help us learn about practicing peace, and this is one of them.

By Velvety Black Earth Tongue (aka Tammy Davis)

Editor's Note: In the Spring 2002 issue of Talking Leaves (Volume 12, Number 1), we featured an interview with The Blazing Echidna (aka Ethan Hughes) about the Superhero rides he had helped organize (cross-country in 2000, in Maine in 2001, and a then-upcoming trip in North Carolina in 2002) as well as the local Hero Alliance he'd been part of in the Cottage Grove-Eugene area of Oregon. The Superheroes are dedicated to "doing good" wherever people need help, coming together in adventures of service that spread a spirit of joy and celebration. They have developed a "Superhero Start-Up Kit Coloring Book," containing advice on how to start new Superhero trips and projects (portions are reproduced in these pages). Their most recent trip took place in December 2003 in Arizona. Lost Valley community member Tammy Davis joined the heroes this year, along with many others who'd been (or who have since become) interns, program participants, and/or simply friends of Lost Valley. Excerpts from her journal follow.

Dr. Pramod Parajuli is an internationally renowned interdisciplinary scholar, sustainability educator, and anthropologist. A native of Nepal, he has traveled widely and done research and published prolifically on the topics of sustainability education, bio-cultural diversities, knowledge systems and environmentalism of the global South. With a research grant from the McArthur Foundation, he has established a multipurpose family farm in Chitwan, Nepal, which educates people on the possibility of peasant livelihoods.

  Music Reviews by Chris Roth

May

2004. CD available for $16 postpaid from Rain Water Records, PO Box 10032, Eugene, OR 97440, laurak@efn.org, www.laurakemp.com.

I suspect I have already exhausted my supply of superlatives in describing Laura Kemp's music over the past decade, and in the process have violated, many times, my current policy of not using comparative terms when assessing artistic merit. Nevertheless, what I wrote about her first CD, Volcano (1994), in an early Talking Leaves, still seems just as true to me today: