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The Great Turning and Living Habitats
The built environment has a powerful, but commonly ignored psychological, social and environmental impact on how humans relate to one another and nature. The Great Turning Initiative is developing a partnership with several key players in the increasingly influential Green Building movement to take the movement to the next level through a focus on living buildings and living communities.
We are connected to this work through two leaders in the Green Building movement: Jason McLennan, leader of the Cascadia Region Green Building Council, whose mission is to "promote the design, construction and operation of buildings in Alaska, British Columbia, Washington and Oregon that are environmentally responsible, profitable and healthy places to live, work and learn," and Sandy Wiggins, Past President of the US Green Building Council.
In "Believe! - Green Building as a Model for Rapid Change," a presentation Sandy delivered to the Potomac Watershed Trash Summit in June 2007, he credits a "massive shift" toward green building, in part, to the thousands of people who are promoting it in local governments, schools, businesses and communities across the country. And, at the Living Future Conference in Vancouver in April 2008, Sandy talks about the birth of the idea, "Of Living Buildings."
It Takes a Village 1/21/2008 by John Bailey
You may have seen the book. It tells of how many of each race/ethnicity would live in this village of 100 people representing the world population. It’s not just for kids. It visualizes something important, at a scale that is manageable to the mind. Six billion does not work. The human mind was built, layer by layer, over millions of years and has built–in references to accommodate all fundamental concepts. The recent developments of the last few thousands of years have not had time to be integrated into our physiology. And, our physiology still drives our emotions and learning and intellect.
IT TAKES A VILLAGE. We can’t fully comprehend the dynamics of love and maturity and Eldering and dedication and community and security at even the City level, let alone national or global. It’s too big.
IT TAKES A VILLAGE.
WE need to change the world. We need to change it back to the way it was given to us. We were given a world that supplied our needs, a world that was able to heal itself and recover from damage, up to a limit that we reached a while ago.
We have damaged it beyond its ability to recover in a time short enough to accommodate humans. We need to heal ourselves of the thinking that has done so much damage. We need to remember who we are in relation to the planet that holds us. And, we need to remind others by our example.
We need a new vision and a new experience of the village that we were meant to grow up in and learn the truth in. The truth cannot be taught in words. It is learned through experience. Think about what our children are learning in the unrecognizable “villages” that they are growing up in. What truths are they building their minds around? You should be crying if you sit quietly and think deeply about that. Think about what passes for truth in your own heart and mind. We must bring our children back to the village for healing.
WE MUST BUILD THE VILLAGE that will teach the changes we want for the world through the experience of living in it. In our village we will not use more resources than can be replaced. We will not steal from others so that our lives will be more luxurious. In our village everyone will be known and cared for and held accountable to their commitments. In our village we will measure our worth by how much we can give away rather than by how much we can accumulate. In our village we will grow food, teach and learn together. In our village we will play, work and grow together. We will celebrate and mourn together. We will become the changes that we want for the world and we will support others to build other villages that will support them similarly.
The building of our village will bring the best thinking available today about best use of material, best use of water, best use of the sun, best use of the earth and best use of the energy that we will require to live comfortably without abuse of the world or one another.
Bring your wisdom and consult your Elders that we may become a shining light for all the world to see.
Walter knew who was in trouble financially and that was a lot of people back then. He would approach personally and offer very, very low prices to farmers and others who had back lots and acreage. Cash on the spot. He had the papers with him. Almost immediately a timber cutting crew arrived and took all the trees off to the saw mill. He made a profit within the month and he still owned the land. They used to say that you could walk to Boston without leaving land owned by Jones or Skibiski.
There are a lot of people right now beginning to make a lot of money while most of the rest of us are losing money or afraid that we soon will. Over ten trillion dollars has been withdrawn from the stock market in the last 8 months alone. People are hoarding money in fear. Although everything changes, real estate never disappears. And, its value always recovers unless it gets washed out to sea or becomes a desert. Here at Lupinwood as in the rest of the country and world, the plans that we were making in the fall of 2006 have been seriously rearranged. Most of you have heard some of the saga. There are a lot of possible outcomes some of which are scary but I won’t speak of those here. The exciting scenarios include some of the sort of business that Walter was up to. Let’s see how short I can make this part.
Right now I owe 1.1 million dollars to Countrywide Mortgage (recently bought by Bank of America.) They are in big trouble because they wrote so many of the most egregious sort of loans that are at the heart of the foreclosure debacle. They are selling off big bundles of loans for (last I read) 22 cents on the dollar (because BoA bought them for 4 cents on the dollar. They are the farmers in Walter’s story. At the level of their individual loans, and in particular this one, I have good reason to believe that the entire amount might be bought up for ½ or about $550k via a financial transaction that is called a Short Sale. In this process, Countrywide would authorize the sale to a new buyer for less than is owed to them. This would be an option preferable to foreclosure and the possible long term ownership and maintenance and insurance etc that would be part of that option. It’s also possible that they might rewrite my loans for me even though I have been in default since July. A central piece of the 2006 Plan was to subdivide the 11.8 acres at the top of the hill that includes all of the buildings but not the lower 10 acres fronting on Hope St. The 5 new parcels created could be owned separately or shared and managed as condos. If we do the math there, all involved could realize amazing deals no matter what the property value drop does in the larger market. For example, someone or a small group could own the mansion for $250k or less. At that price it would be much easier to finance the upgrades that it deserves but which could not be afforded while servicing such a large debt with such bad terms.
We/I need some help here. (I’m realizing that I shift from we- to -I, often. It is, in fact, I who signed all of the notes but it has never felt like I was doing all of this just for myself.) Maybe you just want to understand some of this stuff that will surely be an historical epoch, personally and globally. I would love to get more time with folks who understand money just to brainstorm and get feedback. The solar eco-village that we envision here is something that should be happening more on the planet whether or not it happens here. Learn more about the long term visions for this amazing place.
In all community developments, whether it’s traditional or alternative there are two groups of inhabitants who bring it all together. There are the Pioneers and there are the Settlers. The Pioneers are being called now. The Pioneer Valley should be the right place for this sort of thing. Just listen to the call.
Right now, however, stabilizing the finances is the core project and the opportunity to literally disappear over half a million dollars worth of debt is a very exciting possibility. Get in touch now. We need your presence in this effort even as guides and fans. Every chance I get to go through these ideas with a truly interested listener help to clarify the outcome potential. Come sit with me for a couple of hours and test my thinking.
I am John Bailey call me at 413-210-0197 or JGBARK@AOL.COM