A growing awareness of Y2K, the Millenium computer bug/bomb, also influenced the development of this issue. We attended gatherings in Eugene in which local government, utility, health-care, and emergency agency officials made it clear that they consider Y2K a substantial threat to "business as usual." Knowledge of this impending event (whatever its magnitude) may stimulate us to take advantage of some of the exciting opportunities described herein for creating more sustainable, cooperative ways of living. Future issues of Talking Leaves will incorporate more Y2K preparedness information and thoughts.
Contemplating the theme "Visions of an Ecological Future," I noticed some inherent paradoxes and contradictions. First, as you'll read in the introduction to the music reviews, I wondered if what an ecological future "looks like" is really the most important question. Maybe what it "sounds like" and what it "feels like" are more fruitful avenues to explore--and we've tried to make room for those in these pages.
I also saw that considering an abstract "future" is a useful but limited tool. Over the last few months, I had several reasons to conclude that only by living fully in the present can we resume our place in the ecological/spiritual/cosmological order of things. My most powerful--one might say riveting--recent experiences, including both the painful (a kidney stone) and the exhilarating (post-surgery euphoria and post-post-surgery euphoria), brought me fully into the now. I sense that if we don't live now in the spirit of the future we imagine, the future we desire will never arrive. Ultimately, the ecological future we are working towards may be right in front of our noses.
And hopefully right under our noses, too. We're happy to be able to feature in this issue contributions from a wide variety of people, respected "visionaries" who (using all of their senses, not just vision) have learned important experiential lessons about how the future could be. In our first section, The Big Picture, Helena Norberg-Hodge examines the traditional culture of Ladakh, finding models of social harmony and environmental sustainability that can inspire our own cultural evolution. Roxanne Swentzell, Christopher Peters, Jack Forbes, and Carlos Cordero reflect on contemporary Native American experience, asserting that, despite the loss of some traditions, "we can have new visions." In a Talking Leaves "scoop," Ernest Callenbach revisits Ecotopia twenty-three years after his groundbreaking visionary novel (and seventeen years after its prequel, Ecotopia Emerging). By taking part in a Vision Quest, Charlie Tilt discovers "a vision that encompasses a lifetime of work." Dianne Brause reflects on that failure of vision that may soon cause some major disruptions in our familiar routines: the Year 2000 computer glitch--and finds reason for hope. And in another Talking Leaves first, Bob Dylan did not write an article for this section, but nevertheless exerts an unmistakable influence on the story/essay, "An Ecological Future: How Does It Feel?"
In Section Two, Close-Ups, Jan VanderTuin describes the educational work of the Center for Appropriate Transport, urging us to "include youth or we have no eco future." Lynne Hindle and Reinhold Huber portray the evolution of Otamatea Eco-village in New Zealand--"a permaculture community in the making." At Network for a New Culture's Summer Camp, Teryani Riggs finds that "the heart holds the power." Finally, Ted Butchart offers his reflections on "building as if the future mattered."
Section Three, Previews, includes two original pieces of Ecofiction. Jan Spencer's "A Trip to the Mall" imagines a very-changed Eugene, Oregon in the year 2023; converting a parking lot to agriculture is the order of the day. Jesse Wolf Hardin's "Abel's Vision" posits a wilder, more Luddite future in which people live and meet and pray in circles, "loving each other and the sacred Earth."
Section Four, Reviews, listens for "the sounds of an ecological future" in a diverse selection of music albums, and searches some of the best books around for other clues. This section is especially jam-packed this issue, in hopes that it will remind us all of the value of keeping our ears and eyes open, whatever the future may hold.
Rounding out these pages are poetry, artwork, letters, announcements, and advertisements from a select group of people and companies who forgot to become multinational corporations, labor-exploiters, and/or eco-destroyers. (By patronizing them, you can reinforce their memory loss.)
Thanks for joining us in this issue of Talking Leaves! We appreciate the enthusiasm of our growing readership, and invite you to share Talking Leaves with your friends, family, coworkers, neighbors, etc. If you're not a subscriber, please consider subscribing, and/or giving gift subscriptions--we depend on you for the material support to keep Talking Leaves publishing. Next year marks our tenth anniversary, and we look forward to many more years in print. You can "vote with your dollars" for that to happen.
©1998 Talking Leaves Winter 1999
Volume 8, Number 3
Visions of an Ecological Future