Playing for Change

it's 1 pm thursday. i showed students a video called "playing for change" in my anth tourism class, about street musicians and music, culture, a philosophy of life that reflects the need to engage with beauty and passion--can we live our lives in such a way that the driving force is to create and practice what is beautiful in the world and at the same time make enough money to live? the question of the day!

the director did a great job of tying in various perspectives, both in the video and in the piece of music created by different musicians in overlays throughout the show. the outcome of the music piece was wonderful. the outcome of the video was that it held our interest.

but back to the question: can we live our lives such that our main reason for being is that we create and practice what is beautiful in the world (food-sharing, art, music, poetry, "random acts of kindness", group singing, dramatic renderings, street plays, group art, gardening, massage, healing methodologies, long-drawn-out-and-thoughtful discussions, writing, etc.)? and can we then add something to that mix that allows us to somehow meet our daily physical needs: food, water, shelter? all the other stuff is covered under "beauty". what's the model we use now? does it work?

i traveled to ukiah in january to visit my friend, gabrielle. their living situation is interesting. they call it a 'ranch'. several houses are spread out here and there, with a community kitchen and bathroom/shower. everybody has their own private quarters in little (and not-so-little) separate units. on sundays they come together to share food. although i'm not sure how many people actually live on the ranch, i did meet several of them at the sunday evening potluck. they were a like-minded bunch (i think), mostly anti-war, well-educated, older folks, with as many men as women. some, like gabe and king, were partners, but had separate units. gabe lives in a little yurt with a window at the top of her round house and all around the sides, and a little metal fireplace that kept me warm while i was there. not much space, but enough for a little makeshift office, with desk and shelves. i liked it immensely. the community kitchen was jammed full of shelves and jars and cans of unidentifiable stuff. maybe edible. maybe not.

the whole time i was there it rained. i wisely wore layers of everything, but it didn't really help, since they were thin layers. what would i know, coming from a place where 60 degrees meant we were 'freezing'? neighbors brought food they had cooked--cabbage, squash. someone made soup. the local market made our contribution: roast chicken, same as in the markets here. and wine! we brought wine! but the food and the talk around the big old table with every kind of chair was fine. everyone was interested in hawaii and i was interested in what everyone else did in ukiah. we traded info. i noticed squash and pumpkins sitting on a shelf. they looked like perfect plastic, but (surprise!) they weren't. one of the farmers at the ranch grows them in the field down the road. i noticed all kinds of fruits and vegetables in bowls here and there, and out on the porch. it occurred to me that these were so common, no one really ate them. they just sat around for decoration, kinda like how we lay out mangoes and tangerines from the tree, hoping someone would stop by and eat them, or take them.

outside gabe's yurt is a little garden with a sign: wendell berry peace garden. i found it inspiring and vowed to plant a garden when i got home (and i did). across from the garden was a large old wooden house, where the owner lived (sometimes). it was full of holes made by woodpeckers. and each hole had an acorn in it. something new for me. and like a good researcher/anthropologist type, i went around taking photos of everything. now i know what woodpecker holes look like. i suppose i could develop a thesis around it :-)

i took a shower every night. and sometimes in the morning. i mention that because i noticed that i may have been the only one. they probably thought i was crazy, but if they had grown up on an island, they might have done the same thing. old habits are hard to break. if gabe lived in the desert, this probably wouldn't have gone over so well.

gabe's friend, tisha, lived way up the mountain. we drove to her house one day, up and down winding roads in beautiful country. oak trees everywhere. turkeys ran across the dirt road. there was mist rising up out of the ground in several places. tisha has no neighbors to speak of. she no bathroom (not exactly). she has a toilet outside with a partial enclosure, but basically it's a place to sit and contemplate nature while you're doing your natural thing. since i didn't have to 'go', i found it beautiful. otherwise there was a bucket sitting in the middle of the driveway under a tree. why worry about privacy when you have no neighbors? tisha had two large dogs whom she had rescued as puppies from a garbage dump somewhere. they really owned the house and kept it safe from intruders. tisha is a healer. when she found out i had a swollen knee, she immediately set to work healing it. i found out my knee was protesting the cold so did as i was told and covered it up with a sock with a hold where the toes would have been. it helped.

okay, i'm off to class.