As Amaya and my mom put the last touch on their painting — a bright red and orange sun over the whole scene — I’m reminded of the quality of light at Jackie’s on my final visit there: eight months after I’d left Pine Bridge, and right before I came to the Bolivian village.
I spent the night in the Pauls’ 12 × 12 guesthouse. Jackie came over to their place for dinner, and we all caught up by candlelight. The Pauls were doing remarkably well. They had negotiated a don’task, don’t-tell arrangement with the state inspector; they eventually signed a statement saying they did not live in their 12 × 12 year-round so as not to have to install electricity, plumbing, and so on. But — wink-wink, nod-nod — they still live there year-round.
To my dismay, the Thompsons’ freeholder experiment had failed. Their trailer park background hadn’t prepared them to farm. Under financial pressure, they had sold their animals and purchased a Rent-a-Center franchise to try to generate enough income to keep their land. When I went to visit them, they and all the animals were gone. Only a lifeless silence hung over their place.
I also learned some hopeful things. José had just made a sale in Siler City — and he would continue crafting his beautiful furniture. Graciela got her raise at McDonald’s and would continue to work there for a few years before retiring in her native Honduras. And Bradley had just completed a new eco-community; dozens of homesteads for wildcrafters-to-be were about to go on sale. And the 12 × 12s he’d built for the Pauls demonstrated the kind of fruition possible. When I woke up the next morning in their 12 × 12, I felt the peaceful absence of electricity. Paul Sr. wrote poetry longhand on his porch across the way; Paul Jr. smoked a pipe, staring out toward the curving paths that led to the creek.
That afternoon I went to Jackie’s, and I noticed that day’s card on her tiny stand. Hidden in the stack behind it were the ones I’d puzzled over, like ARE YOU SURE? and ABANDON ALL HOPE OF FRUITION. But this one was the simplest yet. It read: MINDFULNESS.
Something clicked. I recalled that this was the very title of the Mary Oliver poem Jackie had sent me in her letter, inviting me to stay in the 12 × 12. I looked over at Jackie, in the late afternoon sunlight, and asked her, “What do you think it means, that line in the poem about ‘this soft world’?”
Jackie didn’t respond. The light streamed in, illuminating her bottles of homemade wine. It illuminated the cedar wall, the translucent rainwater catchment tanks outside, and the Sun Shower bladder hanging from a branch. As the silence stretched out, I knew this nonanswer was her answer. Ultimately, we must figure it out for ourselves, whispering alone into the well, attentive to what comes back up. Through the window, a radiant No Name Creek shimmered, and the sunlight gathered in brilliant intensity around Jackie.
This is the same light that infuses my bedroom in Bolivia. Amaya is the first to notice it, and she nudges me awake. “Hay luz,” she says. I mutter something about “ten more minutes” and hug her close. She’s quiet for a moment but then insists: “Ya no es noche. Es dia.” — “It’s not night anymore. It’s day now.”
We walk outside into a new place — the same one. The home I’ve been searching for, I now know, has always been millimeters away. Home is the luminous everyplace where spirit meets clay. Change is coming, but I hold Amaya’s hand. A dozen butterflies flutter over the garden, inviting us to grab tools and press seeds into this soft world.
MIND FULNESS
APPENDIX: RESOURCES,
CULTURE, COMMUNITY
HERE ARE A FEW SUGGESTIONS on continuing the journey. This brief appendix is a condensation of the much wider network of resources on my website, www.williampowersbooks.com.
PERMACULTURE AND WILDCRAFTING
World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms (www.wwoof.org): Help out on a family organic farm during your next vacation, in exchange for room, board, and sustainability skills.
El Bosque Organic Garlic Farm (www.vrbo.com/118083): Stan and Rose Mary Crawford have turned a circular stone cabin in their garlic fields into a B&B guesthouse; harvest with them in their revolutionary fields.
The Permaculture Research Institute of Australia (http://permaculture.org.au): Study the things our grandparents knew but our parents forgot with Bill Mollison, or check out his book, Permaculture: A Designer’s Manual.
Being Self Sufficient-ish (www.selfsufficientish.com): Twins Andy and Dave Hamilton give practical advice on extracting oneself from the corporate economy — even without taking an all-out permaculture plunge.
SOFT ECONOMY
Find a farmers market near your home by visiting the US Department of Agriculture website: http://apps.ams.usda.gov/FarmersMarkets.
Slow Food USA (http://slowfoodusa.org): Support good, clean, and fair food through a local chapter of the nonprofit Slow Food group.
Socially responsible investing can be done through Social Funds (http://socialfunds.com). For financial advice and help cutting up your credit cards, visit Motley Fool (www.fool.com).
New American Dream (www.newdream.org): Ideas for shifting American culture from overdeveloped to enough.
CouchSurfing (www.couchsurfing.org): Find places to stay for free worldwide through the nonprofit organization Couch-Surfing.
Buy fairly traded goods from the Bolivian coffee cooperatives with whom I worked and from others on the creative edge of the Global South through the Fair Trade Federation (www.fairtradefederation.org).
Calculate your carbon footprint. Input information about your lifestyle, and the Carbon Footprint website (www.carbonfootprint.com) will compare your carbon footprint to other averages around the world.
WARRIOR PRESENCE
Healthy, Happy, Holy Organization (http://3HO.org): This nonprofit kundalini yoga institute holds solstice yoga retreats and a White Tantric Yoga event. Their challenging eight-day retreat in New Mexico was one of the most rewarding weeks I’ve had.
Thich Nhat Hahn Plum Village retreats (http://plumvillage.org): Attend spiritual retreats at Thich Nhat Hahn’s retreat center in Plum Village, France.
Alternative children’s education includes homeschooling and the Steiner Waldorf Schools (steinerwaldorf.org).
Thich Nhat Hahn Plum Village retreats (http://plumvillage.org): Attend spiritual retreats at Thich Nhat Hahn’s retreat center in Plum Village, France.
Alternative children’s education includes homeschooling and the Steiner Waldorf Schools (steinerwaldorf.org).
FURTHER READING AND (NON)DOING
A Garlic Testament: Seasons on a Small New Mexico Farm by Stan Crawford: Stan’s masterpiece, as discussed in chapter 8.
Your Money or Your Life by Vicki Robin and Joe Dominguez: This book provided many of the ideas for chapter I9; it helps to reshape household economy as rebellion.
How to Be Idle by Tom Hodgkinson: This is a witty manifesto on working less.
Anam Cara by John O’Donohue: This exquisite book contributed to the ideas in chapter 23.
The End of Nature by Bill McKibben: McKibben continues to be an intelligent voice for sustainability in American culture. Other recommended books include Enough; Hope, Human and Wild; and Deep Economy.
Yes! (www.yesmagazine.org): Yes! is a positive, nonprofit news magazine with up-to-date happenings on the creative edge.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I AM DEEPLY GRATEFUL to the many people who have helped with the creation of this book over the past three years.
Thank you to the friends who have read and given feedback on earlier drafts of Twelve by Twelve: Carolyn Burns Bass, Juliette Beck, Nick Buxton, Laurel Corona, Stan Crawford, Melissa Draper, Bethany Hensel, Dan Keane, Jessica Keener, Faith Krinsky, Karen Powers Liebhaber, Peter Manseau, Drew McMorrow, Evan Meyer, and Pamela Russ. Your ideas flow through these pages.
I am grateful to the World Policy Institute for its generous support for the book. WPI’s executive director, Michele Wucker, and director of development, Kate Maloff, have assisted the book and its ideas in innumerable ways.
New World Library’s
extraordinary team has been wonderful to work with. A special thank you to Jason Gardner, my skilled and compassionate editor, as well as my dynamo publicist, Monique Muhlenkamp, and the imaginative, supportive Munro Magruder.
Copy editor Jeff Campbell went beyond the call of duty, providing Twelve by Twelve with deft line and structural editing.
I am very thankful to my agent, Michael Bourret, whose friendliness and professionalism make him a pleasure to work with.
Three interns, Tanushree Isaacman, Jonathan Kime, and Morgan Lehman, provided outstanding research assistance, editing, and outreach around the book.
For writing retreats, thanks to Jacques Schillings (Amsterdam), Sat Gurprasad Kaur (Espanola, NM), Walter of the Circle A Ranch (Cuba, NM), and also to Amy and Andrew Powers for inspiration at the Vermont dome.
And thank you to my mother and father, as always, for your love and encouragement.
Finally, a resounding, embracing thank you to everyone who appears in the book. I am incredibly grateful that you are part of my life and of this story.
INDEX
A
abalone shells, 73–74
Abbey, Edward, 85
acequias (irrigation canals), 88
acid rain, 169
action
being vs., 29–30, 48–49, 145–47
self-worth equated with, 145
Adams, Leonard, 219
Adams, Mark, 219
addiction, 152
Africa
author’s humanitarian work in, 143, 220
corporate pillaging of, 70
leisure ethic in, 150–51
wars in, 220
See also Liberia; Sierra Leone; specific country
African Americans, racism against, 100–101, 106
agnosticism, 234–35
agriculture. See industrial agriculture; permaculture
AgroMart, 230
alcohol, 100–101, 163
allowing, 231–35
Amazon rainforest, 11
Amboro National Park (Bolivia), 175
American Dream, 83
American Nazi Party, 118
Amungme people, 176, 179
anam cara (soul friendship), 110
Anderson, Brian, 219
antibiotics, 43
antiglobalization movement, 93
anti-immigration protests, 230
apartheid, 122–23
Araona people, 176
ArcelorMittal, 248–49, 253
Aristotle, 57
atheism, 234–35
ATVs, 224–26, 242–43
Audubon, John James, 85
Auschwitz concentration camp, 233
Aymara people, 8, 57, 108, 150
B
Barolow, Patrick, 219
barter systems, 88
beekeeping, 21, 65, 109
bees, 14–15
being, doing vs., 29–30, 48–49, 157
See also idleness
Bella Vista (Bolivia), 176, 177–80
Ben and Jerry’s, 12
Bend in the River, A (Naipaul), 84
Berghahn, Volker, 169
bewilderment, knowledge traded for, 30–31
bicycling, 57–59, 67, 224–25, 257
Biswas-Diener survey, 151–52
blames, driven into one, 124
Blowback (Johnson), 222
Blue Clay People (Powers), 216, 247, 249–50
Blue Heron Farm (intentional community), 21
Boatman, Darrel, 219
Bobby Lu’s Diner, 100
Bolivia
author’s ecotourism project in, 10, 70, 226
author’s return to, 255–57, 260
car ownership in, 62
cultural extinctions in, 175–80
idleness threatened in, 153–54
national parks in, 174–75
rainforest in, 11
shaman in, 4, 7–9, 57
size/population of, 174
urban slums in, 108
Brown University, 70, 209
Bryant, Gyude, 248
Buchenwald concentration camp, 169–70, 196, 233
Buddhism, 234, 237, 238
Buehring, Charles, 219
Buffet, Warren, 249
Burkina Faso, 150
C
caffeine, 163
Calhoun, Lee, 15
California, 96
Camp Lejeune (NC), 219
candles, 28–29, 56
capitalism, 179, 209
carbon-neutral communities, 95–96
Carrboro (NC), 70
Castaneda, Carlos, 155–56
caterpillars, 96–97
Chapel Hill (NC), 70, 78–79, 207
“cheeze” (drug), 162–63, 170
Chiapas (Mexico), 192–95
chickens
abuse of, at processing plants, 42–43
factory-farmed, 35, 44
free-range, 34–35, 44–45
slaughtering, 38–39, 45
See also Gold Kist Poultry Center
child abuse, 152
children
deciding to have, 171–72
emotionally disturbed, 170
child soldiers, 248
China, 250
China-Liberia Holding, 250
Chiquitano people, 62
Christian Science Monitor, 70
Christmas, no-buy, 207–8
cities, rural movement to, 153–54
Civil Rights Act (1964), 105
clay, and spirit, 237–41
climate change, 84–85
coffee, organic, 10, 205–6
Cold Mountain (Frazier), 13
Colombia, 151–52
colonialism
corporate, 75–77, 203
internal, 145
resistance to, 94
community gardens, 257
Compact (buy-nothing agreement), 205
competition, 216–17
Complex 2030 (US nuclear capability plan), 222–23
compost, 27–28
Congo River Basin Rainforest, 11
consciousness, 256
consumerism, 245
colonization through, 76–77
decision to have children and, 171–72
decolonization and, 205–6
emotions and, 206
environmental/psychological effects of, 152, 170
in Global South, 153–54
inner flatness and, 196
media literacy programs and rejection of, 90–91
reducing, 209–10
country steak, 98–99
coyotes, 35
Crawford, Katya, 88
Crawford, Rose Mary, 87, 88, 91
Crawford, Stan
appearance of, 86
as author, 86, 88
as author’s earth mentor, 85–90, 91–92
garlic farm of, 86, 88–89, 91
noncooperation of, 89
as wildcrafter, 93–94
creative edge, the, 95–96, 139–40, 205
creativity, 157
credit cards, 209–10
cultural diversity, loss of, 175–80, 181
culture shock, xiii, 9
Cytowic, Richard, 139
D
Da Cheng Ltd., 250
Dare Not Walk Alone (documentary; 2006), 105
debt, personal, 209–10
deer, 128–29, 144
Deinos (Greek deity), 144
denial, 106, 169–70
Denver (CO) airport, 81–82
depression, 152
development
inequality and, 152–53
living well and, 150–52
revised definition of, 151, 153
as rich nations’ mission, 149–50
dharma, 127, 130
disillusionment, xiii, 10–12
divorce rates, 152, 184
Dixon (NM), 87–88, 95–96
Dominguez, Joe, 209
dragonflies, 197
dragon metaphor, 163
–64, 170
drugs, 161–63
duality, 125–27, 130–32
ducks, 244
Duke, David, 117
Durham (NC), 110–12, 183, 201–4, 213–14, 243–44
E
earth-centered cultures, 142–43, 145
Earth Day, 82, 232–33
earth mentors, 85–86
ecocide
author as child of, 83, 84–85
collaboration in, 169–70, 198, 233
defined, 83
denial in dealing with, 106
effects of, 83
mind control and, 196–97
wildcrafting as resistance to, 93–97
eco-communities, 77, 78, 95, 228, 259
ecological diversity, loss of, 84–85, 181
ecotourism, 10
education
ecocide perpetuated through, 95
European models of, 160–61
homeschooling, 159–60, 161
traditional village concept of, 160
in US public schools, 161
Ehrlich, Gretl, 213
Einstein, Albert, 49, 50
Eiseley, Loren, 85
El Alto slums (Bolivia), 154
El Bosque Small Farm (Dixon, NM), 86, 88–89, 91
electricity, living without, 28–29, 55, 131
Emory University, 152
emotion, positive, 60–61
empire, maladjustment to, 89–92
enough, strenuous contours of, 57–63, 88
environmental era, honorable life in, 131–32
environmental refugees, 198
Enxet people, 176
Erasmus University (Netherlands), 151
ethnocentricity, 56
Europe
car demand in, 179
eight-hour workday in, 150–51
Everything Is Illuminated (Foer), 185
expenses, tracking, 209–10
F
“facilitation” education model, 160–61
Fallen Dragons (Z. Thompson), 163–64
farmers markets, 88, 201–3, 204–5
fast food, 10, 25, 206
Federal Bureau of Investigation, 122
Ferris, Tim, 208
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