Gale, I have the same anger and fear about the reactions of others, and how they will get in the way. It’s something I try to think through all of the time. Like so many things, it’s a bigger topic than I can wrap my brain around alone!

Suzanne, I’ve never paid any attention to Bruce Cockburn. Any suggestions regarding where to start with him?

Thanks for sharing a taste of circle. Well done! You guys are a good team: Todd reminding Tim of what readers have said really seemed to lift Tim’s mood – like sitting in circle. And it’s great to hear you’re both into Talking Heads, one of my favorite bands of yesteryear. David Byrne is one of the few people in the music business who saw and sang about collapse back in the 80’s. (Bruce Cockburn is another, and he’s still at it.)

Anyway, it was a great conversation. Freeacre’s comment really resonated with me too : “its not about our survival anymore we know there is no getting out of this one alive at this point Im just hoping to make it through 2012 just to see if the asteroid is gonna take us out or what but now even that is seeming really far off dont know if I can make it that long now . . . . acceptance . . . . love to us all.”

Actually, though, I just heard that in the opinion of a very old, very experienced astrologer in Germany, 2012 has moved up because time is accelerating. She thinks it’s going to happen in mid-September 2007! Now, I don’t know how she arrived at that, but with all the bad press Cheney’s been getting about all the secrets he’s hiding, maybe the Bush administration will concoct an excuse for bombing Iran to deflect attention. If America attacks Iran, then kablooey! All bets are off.

Anyway, we’re not crazy and we’re not alone – those of us writing, reading, and commenting on your and Sally’s blogs. And you, Tim and Todd, are both teachers and healers, too.

Thanks, Tim, for checking with Todd about whether things were straightened out with me. I checked out Zombo.com, Todd. That would have been a surprise, to find that instead of Naropa.edu on my home page, though I probably would have laughed. Thanks for restoring it and upgrading my system. I appreciate that. I understand why you were inspired by a little bit of spitefulness if you felt dissed, but I appreciate that you chose to remove Zombo.com and be generous instead. I bow to you.

Thanks for the circle, guys. Hope you get a little time for some fun one of these days – you’re working too hard. But I don’t know what qualifies as fun anymore, other than sharing our perspective and feelings with others who see/experience the surrealism of our time. So I hope you have a lot of that on the road, or rather rails.

All the best,

Suzanne

Another example I saw this week was the young man who is on a book tour I can’t recall his name but he was a child soldier, went through unspeakable horrors and has written a book and is teaching people how they can overcome adversity and deep loss and grief.

I hope all is going well with the movie and your journey to awaken the TV watchers who will never know unless someone peels them away from the propaganda.

Last night I read freeacre’s letter to her son, which made me cry, and right after, read your piece, and cried some more. I went to bed crying, in fact. Grief is normal, however painful it may feel at the time. Mostly I grieve that I won’t be here for what my kids will go through once I am gone. They only have an uncle left and he is in Vermont. While they have the skills, they are not entirely prepared emotionally. I think you have to have some idea what to expect. I think my son fights knowing because his expectations for his future would be instantly destroyed. Yet at odd moments, I catch him watching survival shows. He knows I have an emergency stash and has stopped hassling me about being a conspiracy theorist. One step at a time.

What makes me mad is that the MSM could have and should have begun telling the truth. I hear that Peak Oil is now out of the box, and in the mainstream. But all too often, they are just talking about Politics or other irrelevant things that have no meaning in the context of what is coming. I wonder how the mob will handle it when it all comes down. Imagine NYC going after the pundits in fury when they know they have been taken from behind by the people they thought could be trusted. No matter whether the crash is quick and wrenching or slow and painful, there will come a time when people panic. This endangers those of us trying to survive and find a community of people who want to live cooperatively.

I feel connected on this blog with others, however different from me, but here for the same reasons. I don’t believe in accidents or coincidence. I do believe that there is an order to the universe and a path that we take which is part of that order. I have seen and experienced the miracles that can and do happen. I don’t think of us as mutants, but rather a family meant to find one another, now matter how far the distance from where we all live. What we have in common is that we all have pursued the truth about the perils before us, and we have looked them in the our mind’s eye with the purpose of not just survival, but of finding a better way to live if it is possible, and if not, knowing we will all meet up in the same place after. I know that these websites are places where people come to feel the pain, but also to think about solutions, possibilities, ways to help each other…that is what it will take to make it through.

A long day, tired. Vivienne: Thank you for your wonderful, caring words. You really touched my heart. My email address is open to you (Sally its fine with me), and to anyone else who wants to converse in a meaningful way. I do try to answer all emails.

Night everyone!

Yes, I’m familiar with the Teenage Liberation Handbook. Another great tool for liberating our youth from the factories they call schools. I was at a conference for Educators with the Centre for Eco-Literacy this Spring. We were doing a workshop on the Four Societies process with Jeanette Armstrong, an Okanagan native woman from B.C. The question we were wresting with was “Education at the Crossroads of Ecological Uncertainty.” I was delighted when we broke into groups and I heard so many teachers speaking of closing down the schools. We even came up with a plan that could perhaps be used in New Orleans.

I wish for all of us the courage to open our Circles with grief and end them laughing, as your friend Deena Metzger invites us to.

love & blessings in community & truth
Vivienne

thanks so much for the visit!!! does anyone have an inkling as to what’s being planned for the hawaiian islands?? those of us that are actually discussing what matters would like to know as we’re sitting out here in the middle of the pacific and the volcano is acting up and we’re not a part of the continental usa and it’s just a little freaky (understatement). yes, todd, this place is sooooo beautiful! did you see how very beautiful this land is that i’m on? is there any chance that i’ll be able to keep it and work it? you seem to have an inside scoop, todd, and i so appreciate that!!! come visit, anytime!!

tim, wonderful post as always!!! my love and thoughts are with you, more than you know!!!!

take care, all.

love,
becky

Your circle experience reminds me of something Deena Metzger said in a circle we shared with her a couple months back, how some people think we should always begin a circle with laughter, and how she thinks we should always begin a circle with grief.

Another home schooling book I like is Grace Llewellyn’s The Teenage Liberation Handbook. You may already know this book, but for those who don’t, it’s a wonderful and radical take on education, written to and for a teenager considering extracting himself or herself from public school.