Luna Park. Tick. Seriously magic might be all we’re left, as is Lourdes, if we don’t do something about our failing ecosystem. Now(ish)!
I wasn’t thinking this as I walked into the big top and experienced the theme parks stunning hospitality. Wine, chilled water and the delightful Yes You Can, non-alcoholic drinks were readily available along with a spectacular vegan spread. My guest and colleague, a sustainable food professional, was as impressed as I: the humous and pita bread, mini calzones, and the roasted pepper and olive-rich Mediterranean salad, delicious highlights.
You might think me shallow to focus on the refreshments, but with the audience mostly coming from work, the quality sustenance contributed to our light, yet focused presence.
The speakers talked heady well-articulated stuff, and hope for magic solutions and/or celestial intervention aside, made it clear our multiplicities of legacies are at risk, if we don’t embody – not just intellectually get – the impact of unrelenting pollution.
Highlights: Pete Ceglinski, the Seabin guy. Is that not the smartest thing you ever saw? And, as we found out it works; his presentation included data on the project’s effectiveness. Claire O’Rourke, Australian Sunrise Project head, began the proceedings by giving us the state of play in a near-perfect interview with TEDxSydney’s charismatic Jess Miller. While ex-banker Chris Andrew, working with innovative First Nations initiatives, like Black Duck Foods, pitched his innovative loan repayment structure; a landowner/farmer’s daughter, I found this a refreshing combination of patience and common sense.
Finally, Gordon Weiss from the University of Sydney – the event partner – spoke of the institution’s Net Zero project. Indeed, well-informed students combed the foyer pre-event, including us with a three-option question on resource waste. I didn’t do too well, but I’m thinking that was the point. Do the course Ann.
Embodying the Change
The event deepened my thinking: why is getting this crisis so hard?
We’ve been trying to chart an exact course from the mind to the body since Descartes and his colleagues identified it missing. This missing in action is commonly known as the Mind/Body split. We tend to see it as laziness – and we can certainly do a lot to bridge the gap – but the absence of a linking science sheds acute light on our disconnection from the land. Jonathon Westphal, in the MIT Press Reader, writes:
“…we make a sharp distinction between physics and physiology on the one hand, and psychology on the other, without a principled way to connect them.”
Think about it! The ‘principled way to connect them’ is like a missing limb.
In which case we need a prosthetic. But that’s not easy when the unseen mind is involved…
What if we simulated it?
Conceptualise this gap as an artificial limb, until the science is there to make it permanent, and our thinking and behaviour integrate as a result.
Try it out. I am and find myself with ‘active, yet passive awareness’ – the sustainable mode necessary for embodied action.
Taking my keep-cup to get coffee has been a challenge. I forget. Visualising a mind/body prosthetic occasionally during the day, allows me to effortlessly pick it up on the way out the door.
Another example: I have not owned a car since 1995. I don’t need one for work. No children or elderly parents. It was something I could do for the environment that others simply can’t. Except I miss the freedom of jumping in the car and getting out of the city.
I’m currently testing the theory to alleviate the want: I visualise the connection between the commitment and the reality as a sci-fi part, using a Star Trek replicator actually. Getting cool with the metaphor works.
They call this stuff integrity. Practice makes perfect.
