In Jay, a Person

Posted: May 8, 2026 | Author: | Filed under: Child Centered Activities, consciousness | 1 Comment

Chapter 1 verse 1 of the Gospel of John states, “In the beginning was the word.”

1 U.S. Code § 1 begins “Words denoting number, gender, and so forth…” 

Words, at the core of our homeschool curriculum, define the sacred and profane.  As my son learns the sacred Ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ λόγος, καὶ ὁ λόγος ἦν πρὸς τὸν θεόν, καὶ θεὸς ἦν ὁ λόγος so I study the profane.  

1 U.S. Code § 1 continues “…the words “person” and “whoever” include corporations, companies, associations, firms, partnerships, societies, and joint stock companies, as well as individuals”.  Corporate personhood is a fictional person, “corpus fictum” is the Latin term, and so, this being May, it becomes clear our year end project shall ask: ”What is a person?” and, “what are the rights and responsibilities, thereof ?”

We begin with a chicken plucked of all its feathers.  In his dialogue “The Statesman,” Plato defined human beings – persons – as “featherless bipeds.”  A clever definition, in response to which Diogenes the Cynic threw over the walls of Plato’s Academy a plucked chicken to emphasize the difference between abstract theory and practical reality.  Duly noted, our homeschool needs to be practical.    

Aristotle, more pragmatically, defined humans both as a “political animal” (ζῶον πολιτικόν) inclined to form societies and as the “thought bearer animal” (ζῶον λόγον ἔχον).  Of note, the word λόγον is the same as John’s λόγος, a word fundamental and rich with multiple meanings.  “Word” is the common definition, but also “reason,” “logic” or “principle;” λόγος represents a divine ordering intelligence, a structural coherence.  The German philosopher Heidegger would later argue “rational” is far too narrow as the defining human trait; “having” speech, discourse, and the capacity to articulate the meaning of our world is our defining trait.  In the beginning, indeed, is the word.

All of this talk about persons and words brought to mind the landmark case Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (2010) in which the Supreme Court granted to the fictional person unlimited freedom of speech.  For better or worse unrestricted corporate spending is free speech, supporting or opposing political candidates; persons real and fictive do articulate the meaning of our world.  

All of this was becoming too abstract, so I hopped into my truck and drove north to Jay, Maine to see first hand what happens when the fictional person and the political animal come into conflict.  We all know the rights, but what are the responsibilities?

Jay is a town of 4,620 people nestled in the foothills of Western Maine, on the banks of the mighty Androscoggin River.  178 miles long, the river flows from Errol, New Hampshire down across western Maine to Merrymeeting Bay before it empties into the Gulf of Maine.  The river drains 3,530 square miles as it drops an average eight feet per mile, making it a prime location for hydro-powered mills and factories.  The history of the fictional person making paper by the toil of many “thought bearer animals” largely began in Jay, on that river.  

Hugh Chisholm, a baron industrialist of Portland, Maine, made his first fortune selling picture postcards.  A shrewd capitalist, he decided to vertically integrate and control pulp and paper making.  He opened the Otis Falls Pulp Company in Jay in 1888.  It was among the most modern facilities of its time and, by 1898, Chisholm had merged 20 paper and pulp mills to create the International Paper Company, controlling over 60% of the newsprint industry.  

History is rich with irony, bitterly so for Jay.  Chisholm formed his paper trust, just before the “Rough Rider” President began busting the trusts.  International Paper survived, thrived, and expanded but when the B-movie actor, who had served eight terms as President of the Screen Actors Guild, a 45,000 member Union, became the union-busting USA President, then International Paper Company turned its sights on Jay and decided to bust Local 14. 

In 1987 International Paper Company was thriving.  For more than twenty years it had been a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Index, and its profits that year increased 33% while net sales rose 42% to $7.8 Billion.  Despite near-record profitability, the company demanded concessions in the form of wage cuts and givebacks (increases previously won), high monthly payments for health insurance, an end to double-time pay on Sundays, and the elimination of all holidays (including Christmas).  Jay Local 14 went on strike.  

The fictional person locked out the living breathing persons.  The fictional person is responsible legally to its shareholders while the living breathing persons who toil in the mill are but a fungible means to that end.  For the living breathing person responsible to family, friends and community the day is long, those are ties that bind, many of those families having lived in Western Maine for generations.  The people of Jay stood tall.  Those “political animals” inclined to form societies became a beacon to the world.

Solidarity is a noun, meaning “unity that produces or is based on community of interests, objectives, and standards.”  Since 1915, the word has been the anthem and rallying cry amongst union workers.  August 1980, workers at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdansk, Poland used that noun in naming their Independent Self-Governing Trade Union “Solidarity.”  That union’s membership peaked at 10 million and played a central role in the end of communist rule in Poland.  1987, in Jay, Maine, solidarity was key as the strikers, community and people from away all came together in support of real persons fighting the fictional person.  

The United Paperworkers International Union local 14 organized a focused community-based pro-Labor campaign: 24/7 picketing plus food and clothing banks, letter writing and a media campaign to broadcast the news.  Massive rallies were held, including a 10,000 person march, and caravans sent across New England – one demonstration at the Bank of Boston – and even to Alabama to build support.  Presidential candidate Jesse Jackson, in October 1987, visited Jay and spoke to 3,500 people.  Support was widespread.  The Chinese Progressive Association Workers’ Center in Boston mailed checks weekly to Local 14 to stay the course.  A young woman, age 28 who happened to be studying art in Maine, created a mural showing the solidarity.  

In the end, International Paper broke Local 14.  The strikers were permanently replaced.  In 2006 the mill was sold.  Like a bad neighbor, the fictional person moved on.  Its waste remains.  

The Androscoggin River is known as “Cancer Valley.”  From Rumford downstream incidences of cancer and illness are high, well above average, both from the chemicals discharged into the river and the mountains trapping pollutants in the air.  The Androscoggin was named in the 1970s as one of the most polluted rivers in America, so polluted that it would lose all of the oxygen in its waters.  Edmund Muskie, who authored the Clean Water Act, grew up on the Androscoggin River, and that legislation made a difference.  The river has significantly recovered, but toxic chemicals remain in the fish while untreated sewage overflows during heavy rains.  The river is still the most polluted in Maine. No one drinks its water.  Except for animals. 

The fictional person has the right to move off shore to find cheaper labor, while living-breathing persons, with homes and families, remain settled in the river valley.  We the people – or, our elected representatives – have granted to the fictional persons extensive rights, with minimal responsibilities, it would seem.  

“The company has gone, but the union lives on” is the motto of Local 14.  On International Workers Day, I drove north to attend a rededication ceremony for the Local 14 Strike Mural in Jay.  Standing room only, the event was robust with speakers and memories, including the artist who painted the mural, 40-years ago.  The Local 14 chorus sang and we all joined in.  A toast of sparkling cider was made, a meal was served.  Solidarity and civility were shared in Jay, on 1 May. 

Words and relationships are central to our homeschool.  “Person” and “solidarity” are words to be discussed, with the crux of the matter: ”What is a person?” and “What are the rights and responsibilities, thereof?”  And so begins our end of year summative, which will include an art-making mural project.  Mark-making is meaning making, and the difference between fictive and real is an essential truth. 

Karma

Posted: May 1, 2026 | Author: | Filed under: Chronicles of a First Time Parent, consciousness | 2 Comments

Spring Break 2026 was, for me, no vacation but a grueling gauntlet, repairing wrongs, like a cat on a hot tin roof.  The Quaker school where I work has its ongoing lawsuit, and the roofer – whom I shall call the Industrialist – had offered to provide an in-kind repair, at no cost.  The quid pro quo was a release from all future claims.  The lawyers worked hard on that language of release, and once done the work was allowed to proceed.  

We agreed to make the repair when the school was on break, no children around.  I hired carpenters to handle the non-roof repairs, plus a structural engineer to opine on the condition of the framing lumber, and a Forensics Expert to advise overall.  My role is to oversee everything, and give final approval; redundancy was built into the plan.  

The school was built to passivhaus standards – the highest voluntary standard of energy efficiency – and was the first passivhaus commercial building in the State of Maine, and the third passivhaus school in the nation.  Built in 2015, the school was a model of hope for the future, but now the roof leaks; “The Audacity of Hope” once was a bestseller but today the “Art of the Deal” reigns, and when it rains water pours into the building. 

The roof is covered in metal, beneath which is 6” of foam insulation.  The roof should be dry, but 80% moisture content has saturated the foam insulation.  Passivhaus construction is air tight, so once water gets in, it has no means to dry out; in other words, the building slowly rots from within, which will lead to black mold. 

For the spring break, the Goddess and our daughter had gone to New Orleans, leaving my son and me at home, alone.  On Monday morning, while my son slept, I was at work early when the Industrialist and his crew showed up. 

Our agreement was to open four panels of the metal roofing – about 6 feet wide – and replace all wet insulation.  But that section was so thoroughly saturated that when the foam was removed the wood sheathing was slick with water.  It glistened in the sunlight.  In stunned silence, we stood. 

The Industrialist curtly told his crew to remove the entire roof.  On the ground below, the carpenters waited at their trucks, nothing to do until their turn to remove the wet sheathing and see what lay beneath.  And there was I, leading the charge, alone on behalf of the school.  Neither a Quaker nor an employee, I am a part-time independent contractor and could have quit long ago.  This task so far exceeds the basic maintenance I was hired to do, but when work and life are viewed not as transactional but relational, I chose to stay the course.  Such is my karma.  

I speak of karma not in the yoga-centric sense where present actions cause future results but from the Sanskrit root “kr” which means a movement (r) within space (k).  “Kr” ‘does’ ‘works’ and is ‘action’ itself.  Thus, karma ‘makes.’  Karma ‘creates.’  I came into the job as a carpenter, which is one who moves, while making, creating the built space.  

This root definition of karma was entirely new to me, shared by my soul brother, after he saw photos from the work.  His “Kr” lead me back to the Bhagavad Gita, which, over 5,000 years old, is an epic work of moral science, ethical duty and balance.  Ghandi said, “Gita is not only my Bible or my Koran, it is mother…my ETERNAL MOTHER.”

Gita verse 3.19 states, तस्मादसक्तः सततं कार्यं कर्म समाचर।असक्तो ह्याचरन्कर्म परमाप्नोति पूरुषः।। १९ ।। which translates as, “Therefore, without being attached to fruits of activities, one should act as a matter of duty, for working without attachment, one attains the Supreme.”

That private school has been a source of tremendous experience, powerful relationships.  Early in my tenure I arranged a donation of Peter the Polar Bear to the Pre-K class.  I had helped build Peter, one of seven sea monsters from a Public Art exhibit.  When the exhibit ended, the maker sought new homes for the sea monsters.  The Quaker school welcomed Peter, gathered in circle for an assembly, after which the Pre-K cherubs lead Peter out of the Meeting Room, down the hall to his new forever home.  I lead that march.

Another time I sat in circle among the 7-8 grade students with an elder, who, in 1965 for the Committee for Non-Violent Action, helped coordinate the Selma to Montgomery Marches.  The elder gave voice, in the first person, to Martin Luther King’s presence and the enduring role of civility and non-violent civil disobedience.  

And later, when those 7-8 grade students studied the Holocaust, I sat in circle again to share the story of my son’s Great-Grandfather and Great-Great-Grandmother, Jewish in Austria 1939; he, the Great-Grandfather, was persecuted but escaped on the last flight out, while she, the Great-Great-Grandmother, was exterminated.  The official letter from the Ministry of Social Welfare, Repatriation Department – Tracing Section states she was deported “to Terezin (Theresienstadt) on June 20th, 1942, and from there to: Auschwitz (Poland) on December 15th, 1943.”  The number of her transport was Dr – 1490, the official correspondence signed “For the Minister” with a counter signature vouching “For the Correctness.”  Age 74 at the time of her transport, below the signatures, the certificate states, “Notice: Persons more than 50 years of age did not return.”  

Dark is the cauldron of hate; our duty is to bear the light, without attachment. Having borne witness, my relation with the school grew profoundly deep, and so I stayed to fight on their behalf, to do battle over a roof and its design, even on Spring Break, when everyone else was on vacation.  

The work last week was grueling.  By Friday it was clear to a man, that all of us wanted to be anywhere else but there.  One of the carpenters looked me in the eye and said, “The next time you need to remove plywood, don’t call me.”  Forearmed, I replied swiftly, “You know I was thinking I never want to see you again!”  Laughter broke the tension. We got back to work.  

Ours is a testosterone-driven age of dominance, where the transactional drives pursuit of rational self-interest. The relational is different, a compassionate path which is the core both of the Homeschool Academy and my karma, which is how I teach my son.  

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Meanwhile, Gaia pushes up and starts go down, into the ground. We weed the beds. The growing season begins.

The Path Not Taken

Posted: April 24, 2026 | Author: | Filed under: Chronicles of a First Time Parent, consciousness | Tags: | 2 Comments

The local school that my son does not attend is $8.4 Million in debt, needs to cut 70 positions (including 30 teachers), plans to close and possibly to sell one of the Elementary schools, all just to hold the property tax increase to 6%.  Two years ago, the School Department opened a new state-of-the-art $70 Million Middle School.  

Going from state-of-the-art to layoffs in two years is a frightening whiplash, and you might wonder if the local public school is a nurturing work or learning environment these days.  No longer in that school system, my son’s path not taken, it is edifying to compare our curriculum to the public school system; what are the “pros” and what are the “cons?”

One hallmark of the public school system is the “No Child Left Behind” Act, signed into law in 2001 by the Second Patrician of Kennebunkport, Maine.  “We’re gonna spend more money, more resources, but they’ll be directed at methods that work,” he growled, “Not feel-good methods. Not sound-good methods. But methods that actually work.”  Throwing money at the problem proved a futile waste.  

The No Child Act was reviled and despised by teachers and parents for its emphasis upon standardized tests.  “Teaching to the test” brought draconian penalties for schools that fell behind.  The focus on math and reading left less time for science, history, music and the arts.  Recess was cut back.  To avoid sanctions, some states lowered their definition of “proficiency.”  The Act drove the expansion of charter schools, further draining money from public schools, especially those carrying a debt load for buildings and infrastructure.  

“The skinny kid with a funny name” President changed the law in 2015 – the Every Student Succeeds Act – that reduced testing time and gave the States more control over accountability.  But regardless of the metric, math and reading levels continue to drop; as of 2024 “The Nation’s Report Card” shows only 22% of high school seniors demonstrate “proficiency” in math and 35% in reading.  The system seems flailing.  

Homeschooling once seemed out of the question, but when COVID struck during my son’s 1st grade, we were forced to homeschool.  He returned to the public school for years 3 and 4, but then abruptly began Middle School in the 5th grade.  Nationwide, COVID brought increased rates of inattention, anxiety, depression, and behavioral changes such as opposition and aggression. For my son, the classroom situation became unbearable by the 6th grade and so – at his request – we launched this holy experiment.  

Our great unknown is “compared to what?”  Am I preparing my son to succeed in life?  And “What is success?  What is our standard of proficiency?”  Here at an art farm we value emotional intelligence more than sheer mental horsepower.  Too many are the stories of brilliant minds – MENSA even – who struggle with mental health issues, left unaddressed.  The IV league is not for us.  I value honesty more than politeness; I prefer to live close to the ground.  I believe, in fact, the purpose of life is healing, not the acquisition of assets, honors, or accolades.  I may be in the minority, but not silent.

We are required to submit an annual assessment, which is handled by Our Aristotle, a State of Maine Certified Teacher, who works in the public school system, while pursuing a double Masters in Education and Social Work.  A remarkably perceptive young man, he was the student teacher for my son’s 5th grade class.  They have worked together in a classroom, as well as via the internet.  His insights are invaluable.  He speaks clearly with my son.  One of his gifts is that he is ADHD.  

His students are of the “Anxious Generation” and the data are chilling: 20% of US adults ages 18 – 25 report high levels of anxiety; for the period 2010 through 2022 Emergency Room visits for nonfatal self-harm among teens ages 10 – 14 spiked 311% for girls and 171% for boys, while suicide rates for the same age group increased 117.4% for girls and 66.5% for boys.  The system is failing, horrifically.  

Our Aristotle, who works on the front lines of the Public School System, explained to me, “Relationships are key.  The system gets in the way of relationships because it is focused on output, on tests, on metrics.  That does not mean you cannot get a good education in the System, but anxiety makes it harder to learn in the System; to thrive there you need to ignore the influence of the negative teachers.  Individual teachers do care about education but the system values output.”

The relational approach is based upon the attachment theory of how infants and children form relationships.  Developed in the 1960s, the idea is that infants need a strong and secure relationship with at least one caregiver to provide the security and protection for normal emotional development.  Absent a secure nurturing environment, children develop as Anxious-Preoccupied, Dismissive-Avoidant or Fearful-Avoidant.  Our Aristotle explains, “Attachment is the blueprint for how you relate to others.  It can change over time but change is hard fought.  Public school becomes a matter of survival if there is a strong attachment to the parents.”  The antithesis of the Tiger Mom; attachment bolsters the sense of self to provide deep rooted courage and self-reliance to push back against social norms, opening to the vulnerability of a different path.  

STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics), our Aristotle argues, is about output, training for high income jobs producing more output in pursuit of the ever expanding Gross Domestic Product.  The Second Patriarch of Kennebunkport admitted as much, shortly after the trauma of September 11, telling the country, “Fly and enjoy America’s great destination spots.  Get down to Disney World in Florida.  Take your families and enjoy life, the way we want it to be enjoyed.”

“The goal of education,” Our Aristotle continues, “is for kids to transcend us, not to focus on output.  They need to learn what good and bad is; the purpose of education is to create a society in which ‘we the people’ can think critically to fight back against oppression.  Public education is for all, not for the royals.”

The key to this goal is reading and writing.  STEM topics are helpful, but, to Our Aristotle, are meaningless without a solid grounding in words, an understanding of language and how the mind frames thoughts, in order to comprehend what is virtue.  The ability to think critically is, he says, the key to the fulfilling life.  

John Dewey, a foundational American philosopher known as the “father of progressive education,” advocated against the rigid rote memorization of the Gilded Age in favor of child-centered experiential learning.  He viewed schools as vital democratic communities preparing children to live well and gain skills to contribute to the greater good.  

In My Pedagogic Creed, written in 1897, Dewey notes that “to prepare [students] for the future life means to give him (sic) command of himself; it means so to train him that he will have the full and ready use of all his capacities….education is a regulation of the process of coming to share in the social consciousness; and that the adjustment of individual activity on the basis of this social consciousness is the only sure method of social reconstruction.”  Our Aristotle explains, “School should be about helping people to become critical thinkers who can create their own knowledge of the world. Because we are all inherently good, if we are able to direct our own learning, we’ll naturally come to see the world through a pro-social way. I think that kids go down the “wrong” path because they feel totally disengaged with their learning, and they feel disengaged from their learning because school is mainly about compliance.”

In The Child and the Curriculum, published in 1902, Dewey advocated for the child’s relationship to the subject matter because the relational allows the student to link the information to prior experiences, deepening the connection with new knowledge.  Dewey opposed a curriculum focused on data and facts with the student as passive recipient, where “the child is simply the immature being who is to be matured; he is the superficial being who is to be deepened.”  

Our Aristotle challenges the authoritative model where educators are the experts, “An educator should be a coach for the students’ own journey in teaching themselves… connecting current learning to previous learning makes it relevant rather than [some] nebulous piece of information that they need to learn because we said so…. many times in school I was forced to learn something in order to perform well on an exam, but I didn’t retain any of it because it seemed like “school” stuff…[the goal is] to meaningfully engage in my world which, in adulthood, becomes bridged with the broader social world.”

Ever deeper we go, our meditation on the purpose and process of education.  

https://www.anxiousgeneration.com/research/the-evidence

Copernican Moment

Posted: April 3, 2026 | Author: | Filed under: consciousness, Farming off the Farm, What is an Art Farm | Tags: , , , , | 1 Comment

“The earth is flat” held firm for tens of thousands of years, until Aristotle, during a lunar eclipse, noticed circular shadows and thought differently: the Earth must be round.  But still, all thought, the Earth must be at the center of the universe: “geocentrism” was a given.  

And then, in 1543, a Renaissance polymath spoke truth to power, publishing De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres), the defining and pioneering moment in the Scientific Revolution.  Nicolaus Copernicus changed the world.

Johannes Kepler, the German mathematician and musical theorist, followed suit, between 1608 and 1621, with the three laws of planetary motion, a much needed defense of Copernicanism.  Rene Descartes, in 1641, sealed the deal with his Meditations on First Philosophy;  “Cogito, ergo sum” and Cartesian coordinates became the law of the rational mind.  

From Copernicus to Descartes, in 98 years, the modern world was conceived, a conceptual shift so profound that life on planet Earth irrevocably changed.  Rational science is so central to our age that it is hard to fathom how bold and pioneering were these men who challenged the Pope, Emperors and Kings, the entrenched orthodoxy, and the learned guardians of Medieval culture.  

Martin Luther, no wallflower, reportedly said, “This fool wishes to reverse the entire science of astronomy; but sacred Scripture tells us that Joshua commanded the Sun to stand still, and not the Earth.”  Calvin wrote, “Who will venture to place the authority of Copernicus above that of the Holy Spirit?” 

Descartes, in fact, replaced the God-centered with the human-centered universe, and then separated the mind from the physical body and world, a duality that reigns still.  But now, we are at a “Copernican moment of redefinition” of what it means to be human, argues Michael Pollan, the widely read author, journalist and professor, in his new book “A World Appears.”

The science of consciousness emerged in the 1960s as a niche fringe among eccentrics, then became mainstream by the 1990s, as Nobel-laureates Francis Crick (the DNA double-helix) and Gerald Edelman (unlocking antibody structures) published papers on neuroscience and consciousness.  With the advent of AI, consciousness has become a high priority scientific field.  Science empirically proves the physical world has stunning and myriad examples of intelligence, consciousness even, so the question pertains: what if the world is not the cartesian 2 or 3-dimensions, but multi-dimensional, not either-or but both-and?

Darwin, Pollan writes, “suggested that we think of the plant as a kind of upside down animal, with its main sensory organs and ‘brain’ on the bottom, underground, and its sexual organs on top, aboveground.”  Man was the measure of all things, but in 2012, at Cambridge University, esteemed scientists gathered to issue the Cambridge Declaration on Consciousness, “the weight of evidence indicates that humans are not unique in possessing the neurological substrates that generate consciousness.”  

Pollan describes Mimosa pudica, a tropical plant that can be taught to ignore a stressor, and remember what it has learned for more than twenty-eight days.  “Plants can send and receive signals from other plants and alter their behavior in response to those signals.  They can distinguish kin from competitors and both from their own selves.”

Intelligence is basically “the ability to solve problems,” so Stefano Mancuso, a plant scientist at the University of Florence, developed an experiment in which the root of a corn plant navigates its way through a maze, to locate and feast upon a quantity of ammonium nitrate – a cheese equivalent – which is to say, a great reward to a plant.  The experiment has been repeated many times, with the exact same results.  

Pollan continues, “In addition to sensing gravity, moisture, light, pressure, and hardness, root tips can also sense volume, nitrogen, phosphorus, salt, microbes, various toxins, and chemical signals from neighboring plants and fungi.  Roots about to encounter an impenetrable obstacle or a toxic substance change course before they make contact with it.”

The intelligence of plants leads to the work of Suzanne Simard, the forest ecologist, whose work on the Mother Trees is empirically proven: fungi and roots facilitate communication and interaction between trees and plants, by exchanging carbon, water, nutrients and defense signals.  Rather than competition, nature is cooperative.  Which changes forever the Darwinian model of rational self interest. 

In the “year of our lord 2026” artificial intelligence is being used to decode the communication among whales, crows, dolphins, elephants, primates and rodents.  And so it might be that not “we the people” but all life “is created equal,” which means this “Copernican moment” brings the realization that intelligence – perhaps consciousness – is empirically found to be widespread, neither narrow nor limited to humankind.  

So let’s revisit Descartes’ duality, the mind body split, in a world where men, since the advent of agriculture, have held the dominant role.  Antonio Damasio, a Professor of Psychology, Philosophy, and Neurology, at the University of Southern California, and, additionally, an adjunct professor at the Salk Institute, believes that male scientists long considered feeling too “feminine” to seriously study.  “It is one of the paradoxes of computer science,” he writes, “that the ‘higher’ capabilities we once thought of as uniquely human—reason, language, intelligence—have proved easier for machines to master than the more elemental capabilities we share with animals, including feelings and emotions.”

Pundits would have us believe the scepter of AI hangs overhead, but prudence urges that we remember AI has been modeled by and upon the narrow confines of logic, algorithms and statistical probability, not the elemental array of emotions that make up the extraordinary depth and breadth of life, among all species.  I am not downplaying the serious risks of AI but pointing to emotional vitality as a largely under explored and resilient domain.  AI is a tool, and every tradesperson knows we need be smarter than our tools.  Once we accept that intelligence is pervasive far beyond mere humans, even gender fluidity seems but one small step for humankind.  It is a wild time in which my children come of age.  

Rumors of social decay are not exaggerated, but they may be an early indicator of a more fundamental flowering that begs to emerge.  Multi-dimensional consciousness may be to the mono-rational what monotheism is to panentheism; an expanded consciousness neither makes science moot, nor does it push God aside, but expands dynamically the potential for understanding and embracing all of life, which could bring new solutions to today’s ever increasing problems.  

Annaka Harris, author of “Conscious: A Brief Guide to the Fundamental Mystery of the Mind,” explains why consciousness is foundational and ubiquitous:

We’ve done all our science with the assumption that consciousness emerges at a certain level of information processing. But what if we started from the opposite assumption — that consciousness is fundamental and everywhere? Instead of treating conscious experience as a byproduct, we’d treat it as the foundation. That might help us understand phenomena we’ve struggled with.

There’s something exciting about realizing that something you felt 99% sure about wasn’t quite right — or was entirely wrong. It paves the way for new questions and better understanding. If we’re willing to admit we have made incorrect assumptions and apply our tools more creatively, we might finally get somewhere. We might start seeing the Universe for what it is — maybe even as conscious.

Love Languages

Posted: February 20, 2026 | Author: | Filed under: Art & Healing, Child Centered Activities, consciousness | Tags: | 1 Comment

Greek has 8 distinct words for love.  Sanskrit has 96.  English, 1.  

In South Portland Public Schools over 35 different languages are spoken, with the primary languages being Arabic, French, Kinyarwanda/Kirundi, Lingala, Portuguese, Somali, Spanish and English. Love here is most frequently spoken as Amour, حب, Urukundo, Bolingo, Amor, Jacayl, Amor and αγάπη.  Adding in Sanskrit and Hindi we have प्रेम, प्यार, Mohabbat, and स्नेह.  All saying the same, merely different vowels and consonants.  

Valentines Day presented an opportunity to underscore the many languages of love through a “Postcards from the Heart” art-making experiential held at the South Portland Public Library.  The curly haired Goddess with whom I live developed the idea with colleagues and then served as the leader for this life-affirming response to the masked jackals rampaging our communities locally and nationally.  Love is an antidote to fear, or as the Governor of Illinois said this week, “love is the light that gets you through a long night.”

The small minded Christian Nationalists argue that English is the one and only “pure” language of these United States.  But we “the tired, the poor, the huddled masses, yearning to breathe free” know the truth is far more varied, nuanced and beautifully complex.  The Postcards quietly acknowledged this, and gave people a chance to express themselves in a non-violent and compassionate way.  

When authoritarian anger rips our communities asunder, when protests rightfully organize, and food drives bring meals to those unable to go to work or school, art-making might seem a trivial pursuit, but its healing power is unquestioned and clinically proven.  The process of non-verbal expression creates a safe space to explore feelings, especially for trauma survivors.  The act of creation triggers the release of “feel good” chemical messengers – dopamine and serotonin – which are uplifting and promote resilience.  Externalizing our emotions offers perspective and empowers the maker.  

Open to the public, 27 people participated with ages ranging from elementary school age children to elderly.  One group of 15 from a women’s shelter wanted to attend but that would have overwhelmed the space.  

I participated in one 45-minute session, gluing images of the Moon cycle, cutouts from old picture books, and “love” from 10 different languages.  7 other women participated, one of whom was older and wore delightfully eccentric glasses, while the other 6 were young women from a “sober house.”  Everyone was engaged, focused silently on their work.  At the end we walked about looking at each others’ creations, all of which were as varied and diverse as the forms and expressions of love.  There was a deep sense of connection in a non-verbal form.   

A friend, who works with immigrant women, strongly wanted to invite those women but feared they would not want to risk coming out in public.  The idea has been raised about creating art-making kits that can be delivered to homebound people so that they also might give voice to their love, in any language.  A local group, Maine Needs, appears to be doing something along these lines.  

The City of South Portland has a wellness program for its staff, and a librarian pondered whether art-therapy could be engaged for them.  The idea is scalable and replicable, and the need for healing only grows in these times of Mammon and the cult of personality.  

Manifesto #1

Posted: January 16, 2026 | Author: | Filed under: Art & Healing, consciousness | Tags: , | 1 Comment

The history of the 20th century was declared largely by manifesto:  The Manifesto of Futurism 1909; Dada Manifesto 1918; Manifesto of Surrealism 1924; John Cage’s Manifesto 1952; The Russell-Einstein Manifesto 1955; Second Declaration of Havana by Fidel Castro 1962; The Ten-Point Program of Huey Newton (Black Panthers) 1966; The Gay Manifesto 1970.   

Derived from the Latin manifestus which means “plainly apprehensible, clear, evident” by the 1640s in the Italian it had come to mean “public declaration explaining reasons or motives.” At its root it is derived from manus which means “hand” and a manifesto arguably is a physical object – words on paper – easily grasped or held, say, nailed upon the doors of a 16th century church or plastered on store fronts or tenement homes of 20th century inner cities. 

McSweeney is a nonprofit publishing house founded in 1998 by Dave Eggers.  To honor its 25th anniversary, the house published Manifesto, a hard bound compendium of the 20th century as declared by bold forward-thinking authors.  The book was given to me over the holidays, a cherished gift, which I am devouring slowly.  

The Introduction states, “[Manifestos] are often strange, ill-considered, and regrettable.  They are just as often brilliant and pivotal in changing government, art, and the direction of the human animal.  But always manifestos are passionate, always they command attention and use language for perhaps its most urgent purpose – the rattling of complacent minds.”

The books presents twenty-five manifestos.  “I want a president,” written in 1992 by Zoe Leonard, is strikingly powerful and refreshing, especially in these times where power is exercised as domination, in a culture increasingly split between the Have Much and the Have Nots.  

“I want a dyke for president.  I want a person with aids for president and I want a fag for vice president and I want someone with no health insurance and I want someone who grew up in a place where the earth is so saturated with toxic waste that they didn’t have a choice about getting leukemia.  I want a president that had an abortion at sixteen and I want a candidate who isn’t the lesser of two evils and I want a president who lost their last lover to aids, who still sees that in their eyes every time they lay down to rest, who held their lover in their arms and knew they were dying.  I want a president with no air conditioning, a president who has stood on line at the clinic, at the dmv, at the welfare office and has been unemployed and laid off and sexually harrassed and gaybashed and deported.  I want someone who spent the night in the tombs and had a cross burned on their lawn and survived rape.  I want someone who has been in love and been hurt, who respects sex, who has made mistakes and learned from them.  I want a Black woman for president.  I want someone with bad teeth and an attitude, someone who has eaten that nasty hospital food, someone who crossdresses and has done drugs and been in therapy.  I want someone who has committed civil disobedience.  And I want to know why this isn’t possible.  I want to know why we started learning somewhere down the line that a president is always a clown: always a John and never a hooker.  Always a boss and never a worker, always a liar, always a thief and never caught.”

In Memoriam

Posted: January 9, 2026 | Author: | Filed under: Art & Healing, consciousness | 3 Comments

Remembering and honoring Douglas Lee Woodhouse

July 9, 1964 born, died January 6, 2025

rest in peace, Brother.

Oneness

Posted: January 1, 2026 | Author: | Filed under: Art & Healing, Chronicles of a First Time Parent, consciousness, What is an Art Farm | Tags: , , , , , | 2 Comments

Having built a whale, we decided to make a movie on the topic “all life is one.”  

Having finished the short film, I sought funds from the Maine Arts Commission.  

Having to substantiate my body of work as an artist, I referenced “An Art Farm.” 

Whereupon, I realized our art farm had been mostly inactive since 2015 and so on 31 March 2024 I wrote “Crossing the Rubicon” about delivering the Whale north to the Wabanaki nation.  I did not win the grant, but I did continue to write, and for 94 continuous weeks now I have posted short essays. 

In a sense these are weekly postcards to my Mother, a chance to share thoughts that otherwise would not come up in our occasional phone conversations.  More importantly, they allow me to mine thoughts that arise at 2am, to chase down loose threads and weave them, as if into tapestries, at best like those of the Renaissance rich in detail and color, telling stories of this strange and troubling moment in time.  

An overarching theme seems to be Spiritual Ecology, a field of inquiry of which I only recently became aware.  Rudolf Steiner is considered a visionary, having described a “co-evolution of spirituality and nature.”  I learned of Steiner back in my Chicago days from a Gaia-centric friend at the vanguard.  Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, also considered a founder, almost one century ago, wrote of a ”consciousness of the divinity within every particle of life, even the most dense material.”  In “The Phenomenon of Man” he foresaw that “Science, philosophy and religion are bound to converge as they draw nearer to the whole.”  

My Mother actively discussed de Chardin in her college days, and within the social circle of her childhood in Clifton of the Queen City, Cincinnati, Ohio, as well as at our dinner table.  Father Sullivan, elder of Holy Cross Parish, once described my Mother as a “pantheist;” I suspect he meant that as a criticism but which she rightly took as a compliment!  Perhaps, what the Father actually meant was panentheist (God in all things) not pantheist (God is all things), but regardless, since my childhood the tenets of Spiritual Ecology have been laid down as plain common sense.  

On a family road trip west to the Grand Tetons, my Mother handed me a copy of John Muir’s biography.  I was enthralled, in the backseat, while crossing the endless great plains.  Decades ago I read Thomas Berry, also considered at the vanguard, who emphasized “returning to a sense of wonder and reverence for the natural world.”  More than my share of Thoreau and Wendell Berry have I read, as well as David Abrams’ “The Spell of the Sensuous.”  Joanna Macy has been celebrated among the Wise Women here at the art farm, while Emergence magazine is on my subscription list, the product of Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee, a Sufi trained multi-media maven on topics of a collective evolutionary expansion toward oneness.  

But what would be this consciousness of oneness?  The Renaissance is an historic example of a shift in consciousness, the “awakening” or “rebirth” of Europe, away from the Church-dominated Medieval era to embrace humanism, scientific inquiry, individualism, a flourishing of arts and culture.  Rene Descartes, living at the end of the Renaissance, is considered foundational to modernity, his “cogito, ergo sum” defining the thinking rational self.  But “cogito” is only one part of the whole self, and it can easily fall into the binary, mono-dimensional thinking of either-or, rather than both-and.  

Newton’s Laws of Physics state an object is either at rest or in motion, but quantum mechanics allows an object to inhabit two states at once.  Our logic has lead to AI which is a massive accomplishment, but it might either destroy us or bring far-reaching benefits.  The “us versus them” is endlessly argued by politicians, the strongman’s lever using fear to divide and conquer.  A spiritual ecology pursued only through the rational seems destined to failure.  An expansive and inclusive approach is needed to embrace the breadth, depth and interconnectedness of both the natural world and ourselves.  

“Creative Meditation and Multi-Dimensional Consciousness,” by Lama Anagarika Govinda, is insightful toward this life-affirming goal.  He describes the “one-dimensional logic which…cuts the world apart with the knife of its ‘Either-Or,’” and then introduces “…a new way of thinking, an extended multi-dimensional logic which is as different from the classical Aristotelian logic as Euclidian geometry is from Einstein’s theory of relativity.”  He presents this using the coordinates of an x-y axis.  “If we regard the horizontal as the direction of our time-space development (unfolding), then the vertical is the direction of our going within, toward the universal center of our being and thus the realization of the timeless presence of all potentialities of existence in the organic structure of the whole of the living universe.  This is what the poets call the ‘eternity of the moment’ which can be experienced in the state of complete inwardness…such as happens during meditation and creative inspiration.”

It is no small undertaking, a 21st century renaissance awakening to multi-dimensional consciousness not among the few, but ultimately we, the people, of the planet. Small-minded politicians and capitalists will pursue their goals of domination, and so this seems a necessary path out of the madness, deeper within.  It is beyond the scope of one short essay to speak to such fullness, but this seems a direction for our art farm to pursue in the new year.

…and here is a link to the short film on the topic that we are part of the ecosystem, that all life is one, which set this ship – which is an art farm – to sail on this oceanic odyssey:

https://www.picdrop.com/claytonsimoncic/C39UK57ncx

The short film was produced with Anna Dibble. Clayton Simoncic was the photographer and editor.

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Since it is written “the last shall be first,” I shall end this post and honor the Benham Family tradition, that good things come to those who begin a new month, on the first day with the first words: “Rabbit, Rabbit.”

May good things come to all people in the new year.

As Above, So Below

Posted: December 26, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: consciousness, Little Green Thumbs, Portfolio - Elena's work | Tags: , | 1 Comment

Two wise women demonstrate the ancient wisdom, passed down millennia, of the Emerald Tablet: “That which is above is from that which is below, and that which is below is from that which is above,”  

The “Sibyl of the Rhine” is our first wise woman, the polymath writer, composer, philosopher, mystic and visionary of the High Middle Ages.  The Abbess of several Benedictine monasteries, the breadth of her intellect included being a founder of scientific natural history in Germany.  A truly remarkable and wise woman was Hildegard van Bingen. 

Hildegard’s central theme was Vriditas, a Latin term meaning “greenness” but with added nuance of vitality, growth and lushness; the creative life-giving force of nature and spirit.  Simply stated, physical well-being is the “greening power” of Gaia, that relates both to the physical and to the spiritual.  As above, so below; all life is one, all is connected.  

Her scientific master work is the Book of the Subtleties of the Diverse Nature of Creatures.  Divided into two sections, the Physica is a comprehensive treatise and medicinal catalog of plants, fish, birds, insects and minerals, while the Causae et Curae emphasized the causes of disease and their corresponding natural treatments.  

Hildegard closely observed the plants in her monastery’s garden and how – as Babs Mahany wrote – “stem and bud absorbed the sunlight [which] brought the fronds’ unfurling.”  Her closely observed empirical observations combined with mystical visions detailed that which is above ground.  

The “wood wide web” scientist, the forest ecologist and professor of the underground, is our second wise woman.  Dr. Suzanne Simard is a titan among modern scientists, who challenged the conventional view that ecosystems are competitive and forests are simply the source of timber or pulp.  Over decades she researched and discovered the cooperative nature of forests through roots and fungal networks, the mycorrhizal, that facilitate nutrient, water, sugar and carbon exchange; a chemical signaling between trees communicating stress and providing a network for communal support.  

Dr. Simard identified century old “Mother Trees” that nurture younger seedlings, sending nutrients outward to feed and sustain the weaker, baby trees.  Her Mother Tree Project is rooted in the idea that forests are deeply interconnected ecosystems, social creatures demonstrating traits of cooperative civil society.   

Soil is not “dirt,” but a vital and complex life source of sharing and exchange, the basis upon which life unfurls.  The soil maven Nance Klehm in her book, “The Soil Keepers,” described it: “When we stand on land, we stand on the ones who have come before us.  We stand on our ancestors.  We realize we have inherited their legacy, the way they perceived land, the way they lived with the ground, the way their hands worked the soil, or didn’t.”

As above there is light, so below there is darkness; 

As above vriditas unfurling, so below nutrients and sugars flow; 

As above oxygen creation, so below communication and exchange; 

As above the lotus flower, so below the mud.  

All is interconnected, the cosmic dance of Gaia.  

The Emerald Tablet is a foundational text, attributed to the Hellenistic figure Hermes Trismegistus, who integrated Greek and Egyptian wisdom into a body of knowledge on the interrelationship between the material and the divine.  The teachings influenced both Pythagorus and Plato, formed the basis of Gnosticism and Neoplatonism, were key to Renaissance humanists. 

The Emerald Tablet was most likely written in the Syriac language of the Fertile Crescent, but the first extant text appeared in the Arabic, during the Islamic Golden Age, written by Jābir ibn Ḥayyān, the “Father of Chemistry.”  From the 12th century onward multiple Latin translations followed, introducing the text to Europe and then in 1680, seven years before publishing his magnum opus The Principia, Isaac Newton made an English translation.  More recently, it significantly influenced the work of Madame Blavatsky, William Butler Yeats, and Carl Jung.  

And two wise women, 900 years apart, exemplify the enduring truth of “as above, so below,” the essence of the Emerald Tablet.  Here is the full text in English from the Arabic of Jābir ibn Ḥayyān:

Truth! Certainty! That in which there is no doubt!

That which is above is from that which is below, and that which is below is from that which is above,

working the miracles of one [thing]. As all things were from One.

Its father is the Sun and its mother the Moon.

The Earth carried it in her belly, and the Wind nourished it in her belly,

as Earth which shall become Fire.

Feed the Earth from that which is subtle,

with the greatest power. It ascends from the earth to the heaven

and becomes ruler over that which is above and that which is below.

حقا يقينا لا شك فيه
إن الأعلى من الأسفل والأسفل من الأعلى
عمل العجائب من واحد كما كانت الأشياء كلها من واحد
وأبوه الشمس وأمه القمر
حملته الأرض في بطنها وغذته الريح في بطنها
نار صارت أرضا
اغذوا الأرض من اللطيف
بقوة القوى يصعد من الأرض إلى السماء
فيكون مسلطا على الأعلى والأسفل

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Snow here, photos by Elena where marked.

Internal Alchemy

Posted: December 19, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: consciousness | Tags: , , | 1 Comment

Article 36 of the Ecuadorian Constitution states, “Those persons who have reached sixty-five years of age shall be considered to be elderly.”  And the elderly shall receive free health care, paid work, universal retirement, tax exemptions and access to housing that ensures a decent life.

The United States has no such declaration.  The Centers for Disease Control defines an “older adult” as 60 years of age, but age 65 marks eligibility for Medicare.  The Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1978 ended mandatory retirement and currently it is illegal to force anyone to retire. 

In Europe, the average retirement age is 65 to 67, although the Nordic countries tend upwards to age 70.  It seems entirely possible that Western civilization has radically understated human potential.  

Ching-Yuen was a Chinese herbalist, born maybe circa 1677, who died in 1933.  He retired from his military career at age 78, and received from the imperial government birthday cards on his 100th, 150th and 200th birthdays.  Time Magazine reported on this in May 2012.  Ching-Yuen’s advice on longevity was simply: “Keep a quiet heart, sit like a tortoise, walk sprightly like a pigeon and sleep like a dog.”  

Baird T. Spaulding’s “Life and Teaching of the Masters of the Far East” tells of his trek to Persia and the Orient in 1894 where he made contact with “the Great Masters of the Himalayas,” people living 600 or more years.  Spaulding explains the central teaching as, “The Masters accept that Buddha represents the Way to Enlightenment, but they clearly set forth that the Christ Consciousness is Enlightenment, or a state of consciousness for which we are all seeking – the Christ light of every individual; therefore, the light of every child born into the world.”  He describes acts of higher consciousness, such as walking on water or manifesting food to feed the masses.

Cuie Wenze is a legendary Chinese physician from the Qin Dynasty who reportedly lived to be 300 years old through holistic life nourishment, balancing the physical, mental and spiritual.  Gee Yule, another Taoist alchemist, lived a reported 280 years by cultivating the Three Treasures: Jing (essence) Qi (vital energy) and Shen (spirit) through practices like meditation, breathing and alchemy.  There are many records of such lives, if one seeks out these stories.  

Years ago, while I was learning Qi Gong I was introduced to a practitioner of Chinese medicine whom, I was told, had not eaten food in years, instead existing on the inner Qi he had cultivated.  Whether fact or fiction, it was hubris of me to make any rational decision about this.  Wisdom, it seemed, was in suspending disbelief and simply observing this man.  

From Epicurus through the enlightenment up to our present day, Western rationalism has been materialist.  “Food, clothing and shelter” define the basic needs, and given an “us versus them” mindset in competition for limited resources, is it any surprise the 20th century was history’s bloodiest with massive atrocities of human-caused slaughter.  Rational self interest is, ultimately, self limiting.  

“An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind,” Gandhi said.  “The unmentionable odor of death” the poet Auden wrote, on the night when World War II broke out.  And now, late in 2025 authoritarian strongmen become dominant, consciousness seems curated by algorithms and increasingly by artificial intelligence.  This is our choice, not a fait accompli, and so could “beauty and truth” be added to humans’ basic needs?  Can we expand our sense of self? 

To the materialist rational mind this seems wildly unrealistic, while to the Taoist this is internal alchemy.  Sir Isaac Newton, paragon of the rational scientific mind, was also – coincidentally – a leading alchemist of his day.  The laws of physics do pertain, while the metaphysics of consciousness – much like quantum mechanics – can broaden our scope, open our minds to new possibilities, an awareness of the subtle energies.  

The average U.S. life expectancy has increased to 78.4 years.  The trend is positive and allows much room for an expansion of consciousness.  What if 65 were viewed not as aged, but as an opening, an opportunity to move inward away from the external pressures of daily life?  10,000 Boomers per day are now turning 65, with nearly 1 billion people over 65 world wide by 2030, and more than 1.5 billion by 2050.  An unparalleled force for good could be unleashed if we transform consciousness. 

The solstice brings a return of light.  May this year’s return be both literal and figurative. 

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