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from a plane!

i am writing a blog from a plane!

i got nominated for a grant for change. its a bizarre thing, but i don’t get the grant unless a lot of people vote for me. but if i get it that’s a VERY necessary $10K for ruckus. voting is easy – you go and rate me (hopefully favorably). please support me! if all my readers vote, i get it. it’s awkward enough already without losing 🙂

the past couple of days have been full of magic conversations.

i got to talk to gopal about how we are apes. not descended from apes but actually the 5th ape. chimps, orangutans, gorillas, bonobos (the freakiest monkey you ever did see – they make love more than any other activity, to resolve conflict, to communicate) and us. our hips are narrower (generally…not mine) so our children come out of the womb earlier, and thus our young are out of the womb responding to stimulus early, which increases our cognitive abilities. not making us better or worse than any others, just – know thyself to love thyself.

gopal also took away from me the word evolve. sort of. i generally use it to mean anytime humans move in a direction i like. but he was saying that in a scientific way, we haven’t evolved since the first humans. all the stuff i think of as evolving is cultural specifications, apparently.

i have to read up more on all of this stuff. gopal says things with such wonder and conviction that it’s easy to forget to research.

then i got a moment with angel kyodo williams. on september 19th i am emceeing an event for them, the evening portion of the Sit For Change, which ruckus is a partner on. angel and i talked some about the difference between enlightenment and transformation. both happen in the world, and are experiences that completely change the way of seeing the world. i was wondering if transformative change happens as a process of group enlightenment, if these terms even function in a secular way.

{that’s as far as i got on the plane…my Friend was on a live broadcasting radio show so i checked that out until my eyelids won}

i landed in NY and got on a train that cut like a knife through the humidity to get to my sister. the train was AC cold and stinky, which i only experience in NYC. my sister woke up to let me in, and i made some toast and eggs (over easy, with butter and apricot jam – mmm) and we started to catch up. she told me another ape story, about a group of chimpanzees in a zoo. when one of them went into labor, the rest gathered in a circle around her, and one of the eldest start screaming at her, and she screamed back. this call and response continued until the baby came out, with everyone holding their place.

after some sleeping, my little nephew-monkey woke up and i have gotten to spend a magnificent day with him. he is on the precipice of talking – making tons of sounds and taking up lots of space and playing games, mock crying. part of the learning from my movement generation weekend was how we are taught that nature is bad/separate from us. so we spent a lot of time in the backyard picking up things and examining them: leaf. rock…instrument too, yes. stick. well – ok, wand. and the constants – dirt, trees, sky. feels slowed down and specific, the world through his eyes.

in fact, its better than blogging.

ciao.