CORNUCOPIA INSTITUTE AND FREY VINEYARDS

Dear Readers - this is to introduce you to the Cornucopia Institute - and also a belated report from my friends at Frey Vineyards who were affected by the fire a few months ago. This is a report from Katrina Frey from Cornicopia's Opinion/ Editorial section.

 I came across Cornucopia Institute at the recent MOSES conference which I attended in LaCrosse, WI. While it may not be obvious, I am very involved with organic / biodynamic farming and gardening.  -- Jean

The Cornucopia Institute

The Cornucopia Institute, through research and investigations on agricultural and food issues, provides needed information to family farmers, consumers and other stakeholders in the good food movement and to the media. We support economic justice for the family-scale farming community – partnered with consumers – backing ecologically produced local, organic and authentic food.
https://www.cornucopia.org/

An Update on Frey Vineyards

October 17th, 2017 
Cornucopia’s Take: The Frey family has been a longtime leader in the organic and Biodynamic communities. They were an important voice in responding to powerful elements in the wine industry who wanted to change the federal regulations banning artificial preservatives in organic wine (sulfites).
The family has lost their homes but certainly not their spirit to continue, and we are so happy that none of them were killed or injured in the terrible fires that have burned north of San Francisco.

https://www.cornucopia.org/2017/10/update-frey-vineyards/#more-29328

GO DOWN ARCHETYPAL MOSES

 
WHO AM I?

Recently I flew from San Francisco to Washington D.C. leaving SFO at 5 p.m. and arriving IDA at 1 a.m. I had to catch another flight at 8 a.m. I was too cheap to spend the money for a few hours in a hotel room. “Not enough time.” I thought. So, I spent the night in the airport sleeping on the vinyl benches.

The whole surreal experience reminded me of Dante’s description of one of the rings in the Purgatorio. With the dim fluorescent lighting, I couldn’t even cast a shadow like a "shade". It put me in touch with homelessness. I realized that a great deal of our lives are lived in these in between places where we have to spend time - the waiting rooms of life where we are stuck between things.

That's why I admire my wife - she's a knitter and a resourceful, practical person. She keeps herself occupied. Apparently knitters do not suffer the agony of waiting. She just kept click-clicking away. Knitters were not mentioned by Dante. (But knitters should not get the "big head" they weren't mentioned in Paradisio either.) Eventually the clicking of her needles only added to my misery.

If I feel I do not have enough time available to accomplish any one of my very self-important tasks, I'll sit in dull resentment. Rather than computer solitaire, I’ll apparently take sub-loathing in Purgatory. Not in the dark. Not in the light. Not quite living. Not quite dead. To paraphrase Chis Kristofferson, “...not quite truth, not quite fiction a walking contradiction taking every wrong direction on his lonely way back home.”

Read the complete chapter here:
https://www.bublish.com/bubble/add/2918#

And, then buy the book! Bubblish has the links to the online retailers.

COLD HARD TRUTH - MONET AND THE DEBACLE OF THE HEART

I have sorted the posts by every six months so you can more easily find so new starters for your deeper research.


Cold Hard Truth – Monet And The Debacle Of The Heart

A grudge is like a rock in the belly. It's like a weight that holds your spirit down. It's like a wall that keeps you from enjoying life with the other person.

The truth is that when you treat others with a cold hard heart, you wind up being the one who is treated hard and cold… and it eventually blows up your life. Things break apart. People drift away.

Republishing a post from July 2015. https://threesimplequestions.blogspot.com/2015/05/cold-hard-truth-monet-and-debacle-of.html

ACTION RESEARCH INTO "VIRTUE TRANSITIONS" - YOU'RE INVITED

FEB 21 – MAR 20: 

Magnanimity Becomes Love
OPPOSITE: Criticism, Comment

https://calendarofvirtues.blogspot.com/2015/03/calendar-of-virtues-feb-21-mar-20.html

You are invited to follow along with the calendar and post your insights each month.

1) HOW DOES THIS WORK? During the specific period from the 21st of one month to the 20th of the next, consider the virtue transition set - and the opposite. Observe nature and yourself.

It is never clear to me during the period how the transformation can or will be achieved in nature - or within myself. But, this is a meditative exercise and we are asking you to share your experience of the transformation of one virtue to the other. Just re-read the transition as stated. Then observe nature - or a part of nature - and consider the transition statement again. Then, how is it for you? And, consider the opposite. See if an insight, feeling or phrase arises for you. Write that down and post it. How you get that insight - may or may not be similar to anyone else's experience. That's why this is research. There is no one answer.

2) Then, when you are approaching the 20th of the month - the end of the period - you are welcome to come back to the bLog and post brief (150 - 200 words or so) insights in the COMMENTS section on the appropriate post. You can post at any time.

3) The next period begins the 21st.

https://goo.gl/ZuVPjf

MEETING IN OUR BROKENNESS

Originally published in July 2014 under a different title. There is a lot of brokenness these days. It is all about Love and Armor. I have posted past posts in separate pages so you can read the summaries and read them again if you wish. Enjoy!
 

 THE THINGS WE DON’T TALK ABOUT WHEN WE DON’T TALK

 WHO AM I?

How quiet it is after the shouting. Why is there no way to take back those words? How bitterness seems to hang in the air like a color or light or a tone of dread from a wind chime that won’t stop. The look in the baby’s eyes. How the cord of wood outside feels like neatly stacked body parts. The small mole which I do not have the time nor the inclination to have looked at. Where the water in the cove goes when the tide goes out – where your love goes when our tide goes out. Why I always have this feeling that this always is my fault. The way you lift your lip in that little snarl which looks like you are smelling something foul. I am probably to blame for the bitter coffee, too? Why the hell the neighbors slam their window? If we only have one car how can I go away? We don’t talk about Tenderness yet.

WHY AM I HERE?

     This is all about Love and Armor and Tenderness. Vulnerability and Brokenness. Maybe we can meet in our Brokenness. Brokenness is a small playground around the corner where we can sit on the low kiddie swings and talk about imperfections and failures and Angels. There are needles strewn about and empty whisky bottles.  It is ugly. The children don’t want to play there. Occasionally there are gun shots when the drug dealers shoot off cheap pistols they are taking in trade for heroin. This is were we must go with our Hearts in re-usable shopping bags. Such is love in our tattooed era. We have skin in this game.

WHAT DO I WANT?

     Guts.

     The guts to do it.

     The 12 nerves of the solar plexus to fire off all together when I whisper “Love Will” and cause a total reversal and spontaneous healing. Virgo of the inner constellation.

     The creation of a new Heart comprised of both. Two beats - systole and diastole. Giving and receiving.

     But I hesitate. It’s a risk. I am unsure.

     Healing is a risk.

     Neither one of us is good at giving or receiving. We need practice. Meet in our brokenness and practice.

     Tenderness.

It’s one of those things we don’t talk about when we don’t talk.

© Copyright 2014, Jean W. Yeager

All Rights Reserved

THE KNITTING GROUP REPORT

WHO AM I?

     I am a husband. The women in my wife’s weekly knitting circle, cover the relationship spectrum: women who are married, a divorcee, a widow, one LGBT and one “old maid”. 

     In this group, the word “husband” is more normally associated with the words: “gutters”, “sofa”, "recycling" or “track lighting” than with the term “French Tickler”. 

     Why am I not surprised? My beloved wife and I have been married 40+ years and in all those years my weekly “honey do” list, generated by my winsome wife, has not once included “do honey”. And worse, almost weekly these gals shake their heads and lament that the men in their lives have all sagged to late middle-age entropy and are no longer exciting! But, what they count as “exciting” is never sexual. 

     I’ve asked my wife. She says sex never comes up.  I’ll bet. 

     What is a "hot topic" in the knitting group is lamenting that the men won’t  re-face the kitchen cabinets, re-paint the kitchen, or deck the attic floor! And, they can’t drag them to Sheep&WoolCon. 

     For myself, this is frightening. I am not competent with carpentry. I am a guy who posted on Facebook a photo of the hole in the bedroom ceiling I punched when I stepped off of a rafter in the attic.

    Thankfully, my “get up and go” hasn’t “got up and went”. I speak a little French. (Wink, wink.) And, I like to dance. Never underestimate the magnetic power of good Swing Dance or Texas 2-Step.

WHY AM I HERE?

     You men out there, consider this a warning flag. Apparently it gets worse. When couples divorce or the husband dies, sex and home repair apparently are the MOST sought after!  

     The divorcee of the group affirmed that middle-aged men on internet dating sites she frequents, the ones who can talk about re-facing cabinets are THE most sought after.

WHAT DO I WANT?

     I wanted to be a vigilant husband. Observant. Defiant. I do not to step into personal adaptation. Adaptation to the ordinary, the day-to-day, the common, the boring for me! 

     I do not want to join the species of middle-aged husbands who are known by their most favorite flannel shirts. They are the routine of the day. These men in plaid flannel are the "albatrosses", hanging around the neck of the women in the knitting circle.

     Our former Italian teacher stopped by the knitting group last Sunday afternoon just to visit. So, I came downstairs from ironing my flannel shirts. 

     The topic slipped quickly to the teacher’s husband who would not let her go to Italy alone for three months! Then, all the women piled on! 

     And, the piling on was unsportsmanlike. Words and accusations were thrown about: Was it fear that an Italian lover would sweep her away? Or fear of eating his own cooking?  Or was he simply a middle-aged slug?

     I didn't interrupt but slimed my way back upstairs.

(C) Copyright 2018, Jean W. Yeager

All Rights Reserved

“HIGH NOON” vs. “THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MINNESOTA”

WHO ARE WE?

            Like “High Noon”, a gang of desperadoes led by a vicious outlaw, Frank Miller, has ridden into town. In our case, the Boris Putin gang has ridden into our virtual town (Facebook, Twitter and social media). The Miller gang threatens revenge against the Federal Marshall, Will Kane for sending Miller to prison. The Putin Gang wants U.S. Sanctions lifted.

The Miller Gang takes over the town and their presence dares the Marshall to “do something about it.” Like the presence of foreign hackers in social media is a dare to our community. The Miller gang will arrive on the noon train. The Putin Gang violated laws against meddling in U.S. elections, and violated the integrity of that key U.S. right (a kind of a “rape”). That they have the capacity to do this at will, is a threat which makes everybody involved with future U.S. free elections (we townspeople) very nervous because they won’t be free and our votes may not even be counted.

I thought like “High Noon”, we were headed down the story-line where a Federal Marshall, (or FBI), like Will Kane, would get “all riled up” and want to confront the Putin Gang and say that quintessential phrase, “I’ve never run from anybody!” Then go for a showdown.

That story-line is about what “Made America Great!” Law and order confronting those who break the law. Seek justice, protect the townspeople. I thought the new administration with the “America First” business would be all over the “High Noon” story-line, a cultural iconic film, perfect for the new media Prez.

But now I see we’re more like “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri”. In this movie, everybody wants Mildred Hayes, the mother of the rape/murder victim, to take down the three billboards she has just had put up which read in sequence” "RAPED WHILE DYING", "AND STILL NO ARRESTS?", then "HOW COME, CHIEF WILLOUGHBY?"

            Our officials are not nervous because the Putin Gang raped our elections. The story line we hear is “FAKE NEWS” or denial of any crime. And like Chief Willoughby’s department, they’re not looking for any perpetrator. Our “Chief of Police” and his police force are only worried about three billboards (their public image) and its effect on public opinion and sales of the Chief’s brand.

WHY AM I HERE?

We learn that Chief Willoughby in “Three Billboards” is a very sick man. His sickness apparently keeps him weakened and distracted from doing his job. He does not discipline a racist cop (Jason Dixon). He does not even attempt to find the brutal rapist / murderer of, Mildred’s daughter.

The townspeople are okay with cutting Willoughby a break because he’s sick and use this excuse for him not to do his job.  Seems like we’ve got someone in power who is also weakened and only concentrating on himself. He doesn’t want to hear about the crime that was committed, the rape of our elections. Don’t mention the Putin Gang or sanctions!

And the public? We seem to be just as cowardly as “High Noon” townspeople. They don’t want Kane to take on the Miller Gang because “somebody will get hurt”. The “Three Billboards” townspeople have a great deal of sympathy for their weakened police chief.

But, when Kane tried to raise a posse, the citizenry were afraid and wouldn’t support him. Willoughby, and Chief Trump, don’t even attempt to form a posse. So, Mildred puts up the “Three Billboards.” Then the townspeople get angry.

WHAT DO I WANT

            “High Noon” ends with the gunfight. Kane’s pacifist wife does not leave, but comes back and helps save the Kane and the town by shooting one of the desperados.

            “Three Billboards” ends with a suicide of Captain Willoughby, and Mildred and the racist cop driving (Dixon) away to kill somebody Dixon heard bragging about something that sounded kinda similar to the rape, but the DNA didn’t match.

            What do I want? 

            We need to clear the desperadoes out of our town (virtual town, social media, voting system).  If it isn’t Chief Trump, somebody, please. Federal and State systems are violated already. If the Feds are stuck, then a total State or Local movement, please..

            I fear the vigilantism of “Three Billboards”.  Kookie, angry ladies and a racist cops riding around with a shotguns is not how I want my story-line to end.

            I want we citizens to realize we are not separate from those in authority and those in authority are not separate from us. We out number and out smart the gang (Willoughby department, Trump Administration, which ever you think of in this metaphor) but if we continue to be silent, and they continue to be passive, and the foreign hacker gang continues to cause fear in our communities, then our story-line may end very violently.

© 2018 Jean W. Yeager

All; Rights Reserved
 https://goo.gl/h7iEF7