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Where Keep the Beet Lives
Where Keep the beet lives. A history of how I got here,
and more about where we can all go from here.
The Enchanted Garden Welcomes You!
Date: 2/9/2009 11:35:10 AM ( 15 y ) ... viewed 1243 times
8:53 AM
February 8, 09
For weeks we had sunny days,
maybe too sunny for winter.
KEEP the BEET Media Star,
the World's First Talking Beet Plant
lives in an area under drought conditions.
On top of these drought conditions,
we have imposed water restrictions
on our local organic farmers.
Numbers of local organic farmers that I know wear a smile.
They get up at 4 AM on a Sunday morning
and then do two Farmers' Markets back to back
showing their lovely lettuces.
Then they go home and drop
until they wake up the next day
before six to guide the workers in the field.
That's the
story of JOE THE FARMER who I would say
in these times in the equivalent of the G.I. JOES
of previous ages. JOE THE FARMER, be his name
JOE RODRIGUES, JR, STEVEN L WHITE, BARRY LOGAN, or
PHIL NOBLE are national heroes, but not enough of us
know that yet.
Local organic farmers, KEEP the BEET Media Star,
and I live on the outshirts of civilization,
culture for that matter.
It is not easy for people to attempt to live
together. Community is an ideal.
We live in a world that takes up arms
and spends its money giving people bad air overseas.
Often we pass laws in places like Iraq, that
restrict the locals from
growing their own seeds.
Over here, WHOLE FOODS MARKET and
a few other Coop, Farmers' Markets, buying clubs,
and CSA's, still offer
the last of our real food supply to people, but they
again, not too many of us really know
that what passes as food today, is more
fax and make believe than The Real Real Thing.
Right here where I live, things are not too much better.
KEEP the BEET Media Star and I live within walking distance
of a 35,000 population, many of them teens,
who are getting a good University Education for
how to continue living on the outskirts of civiliation,
the last outposts of Culture in harmony with
Green.
OF course things are shifting.
They had to. How long can people keep
building an economy on things that are all made up,
virtual, more than virtual, unreal
from KEEP the BEET's point of view.
The kids down the street shop at 7-11
so they can stay up all night playing and then
sit through classes. There, and on campus,
right on the front counter of stores on campus
the students can buy Buzz Supplements
to go along with their pizza's.
By the time, many of these kids hit there
25th birthday or maybe 30, they will start
getting a good education about things
called Immune System Disorders.
It goes with the territory.
I came from an earlier generation,
but did a lot of the same burnout habits.
From one point of view, I choose parents
who would not be around very much for me.
My mother died when I was 12 of cancer. My father,
was seldom home, and then when he was,
he had a tendency to scream and push hard.
He would stuff religion down my throat.
Too much stuffing causing arthritis.
I began to break down about ten years before
the the Medical Minded could identify what was
wrong with me.
I did well in some things in college.
I majored mostly in extra-cirricular activities
like running for student body president.
I lived through historic times that I see
as I go through lots of archives under
the Olive Tree in our backyard.
I live within walking distance of SDSU
on a 1/3 acre at the end of a dead end street
that turns into canyons where fox still live
and coyotes. All this is just a couple blocks
from El Cajon Blvd. or College Avenue where
a person needs to pray before attempting
to pull out and cross the intersection.
For the last two summers we have been
clearing the basement. It was a major clutter
spot with really bad air and mold.
Everything got moved outside.
I spent a few months going through these
archives. Then covered them with tarps.
I have kept a lot of things that have turned out
to be historic.
I find clippings of Kent State, those days when the
students were shot on campus. On our campus,
I was a moderate, but very involved at the time
antiwar activities. The newspaper writeups
always quote me saying solve your problems through
the System.
I learned about the Green System--Sustainable Living--
through breaking all the rules, just like most of us.
I met KEEP the BEET on my first job right
out of college. My health was already at risk.
I was plucked out of the city to a place called
HIDDEN VALLEY HEALTH RANCH, a last resort
for many of us in Escondido, California.
There are a few things I want to write about
before that my years in the country, the years
I learned to keep the beat with nature.
Back up...
I thought I would make a name for myself in Journalism.
My archives show early signs of that, also early signs
of being guided by other forces.
I had a job on the San Fernando Sun Newspaper
for about nine months while a journalism and English
major at San Fernando Valley State College. The school
became Cal State Northridge.
For two weeks on the newspaper,
the editor THELMA BARRIOS needed an
Achilles heel surgery. I was promoted to editor.
The first week I wrote a story about a Native Daughter
of the Golden West who was very upset that the city
of San Fernando had not kept the beet with its
natural history or nature. She and the other Native Daughters
were very upset that the City of San Fernando
was about to tear down the Lopez Adobe, a historic
spot. She read the city
the Riot Act for many crimes,
willful disrespect of enduring values
that honored brotherhood, history, and natural living.
In other words, a failure to keep the "beet."
On the morning of my second week as editor,
the San Fernando Valley Sun went to press.
Front page showed the picture of ETHELWYNNE FRASHIER,
native Daughter of the Golden West with her story.
Below was the headline.
Earthquake hits as Sun goes to Press.
The entire second week, I was writing and taking photos.
Community was born. People came together.
In the story I wrote, Ethelwynne talked about
a little original schoolhouse that was covered over
when they built the Van Normal Dam.
During the Earthquake the Van Norman Dam cracked, revealing
some of the very historic remnants
where indian, white, and and hispanic kids would learn
together.
Those are the memories I carry and can see
under the Olive Tree as I clean up.
Since the early 60's I have been Recording a History
of Peace on Earth. That is my perspective on life
and to guides my step.
What I have seen, has become history.
In college, I wrote a story about my visit to Alcatraz island
when the students from Berkeley orchestrated that
takeover.
The summer I graduated Fairfax High School, not far
from the Silent Movie where I would have a standing
date each Shabbat Friday eve with CHARLIE CHAPLIN,
I could smell Watts burning. Four years later,
I worked in Watts. I was the token white person
riding a fire engine in the Watts parade.
I would have to say, one of my greatest friends
through the years has been KEEP the BEET in her
many manifestations.
Dr. BERNARD JENSEN, the noted natural healer and author
of HEALTH MAGIC THROGH CHLOROPHYLL
THROUGH LIVING PLANT LIFE, wrote
that "Green inside was Clean Inside."
He wrote about 60 other books as well.
He was once thrown in jail for telling people
that they could get well naturally--he served
people green juices and carrot juice in the days
when you were not allowed to let people know
that being Green inside would heal most ailments.
As the story went, after great mental hardship
and a few days in jail, DR. BERNARD JENSEN
was vindicated. The case was thrown out of court.
The judge ended up buying one of Dr Jensen's juicers.
[ got to go...it is 10:11 AM...
I wanted to write about CHEF JEM
The Triumph of CHEF JEM...
his corner of the world...as well....
in another morning blog...
I also took photos this morning,
during the rain...
photos of the Arosa Street River
pouring out thousands of gallons of
water to the sea, while we fail to collect
water during drought conditions.
I was walking around the land
talking photos of where KEEP the BEET lives,
a lovely journey tooking at leaks and listening
to water droping through the basement wall
into a trough. CHEF JEM has been the main
person holding the space for the basement
cleanup.
I see the work here...
we are holding the space for the Return
of KEEP the BEET.
Our economy needs to return to a solid foundation
here and everywhere. The tending and mending
of the Foundation here is Archetypal of the Work
we all face.
The Enchanted Garden is a name for our renewed
Earth we can each grow as we connect our deepest
Seed Dreams and living seeds.
That's the issue....we are living in an economy
that has no sense left of how to KEEP the BEET.
We have lost our relationship to the beat, to nature,
and the return of the Beet is happening
as we learn the meaning of Go Green.
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