I realize that it is one thing to hear about a dream and another to understand where that motivation comes from. So today I would like to give some background as to what motivated the idea to create the NaturalNatures Farm in the first place. I’ll also be posting a blogpost about the motivation behind the idea of NaturalNatures Tours at a later point.
I start with the Farm because it is the biggest and possibly the least well understood. For most of my life I have thought and processed the world as most individuals do—goals for the future involving good education leading to a well-paying job that would allow me to purchase a home and raise a family. In its basic understanding this dream sounds wonderful! Honestly, I support those people who focus on those goals in most ways, but it also takes a certain amount of blindness. (A blindness, albeit, that allowed for the creation of my own existence, which comes back to why I support these goals.)
It was at the age of fourteen where I first started to disrupt this matrix of thought. One day I was wondering, as any young devotee to a strict Christian faith may do, “why are there all these jobs that have nothing to do with the salvation of man consuming the lives of all these Christian people who profess that the greatest purpose of life is sharing the message of God?” Sure it was somewhat simple with its base assumptions (mainly that a single way of thought and living could be the answer to salvation for peoples who are as different and unique in thought as the 7 plus billion currently living on the Earth are), but the problem was nonetheless worth considering.
As I grew I found myself considering the macro issues that face humanity and the world. Most people think only of the single loop that involves the reaches of their own personal grasp, and I would also revert back to those ruts, but it was the question of the human soul, the functioning of the planet, the necessity of peaceful interaction, and the potential of life that really consumed me.
This involves the changing and shifting of global markets, governmental bodies and their corruption along with their potential, the earth and its state of degradation compared to the possibility of its beauty. Not to mention the consideration of murder (which includes war), conflict between different interpretations of life (racism, classism, religion- I eventually left the ways of devotion), true desires of the human heart, and considering the world as one entire interdependent ecosystem. As I continued to think more and more along these macro levels I began to find more and more issues with how things were currently going, and at the same time saw the goodness in all the people around me, and noticed a desire to be better. But there were major obstacles standing in the way of this desire to improve one's self.
The biggest issues I ended up pinpointing were:
1) The creation/idea of the “other”: this means coming up with some stupid ideas to divide humanity when genetically we are more similar amongst all 7 billion of all of us than the members of a single chimpanzee clan. We create these ideas with all those religions that claim to be the only true way to God, the idea of superior races, and the classism expressed by the upper-class that their money and wealth is deserved from their “hard work.” It also includes ideas of nationalism and just about every other “-ism.”
2) The destruction of the Earth (and perhaps this should be number 1, aside from the fact that it is our inability to overcome issue number 1 that lets us ignore issue number 2). Most of this destruction is attached to the ideas of consumerism and the imagined “need” to always have more. If we stop worrying about wanting more than we need, then the production of things can cease, which will also stop mining, waste, refining of crude materials in a polluting fashion, and honestly the subjugation of developing countries to the will of the European nations and the USA. But whatever you see as being a cause, the reality is that mankind has changed too much of the earth to fit its needs.
3) The third is the easiest for everyone to see: corruption in the financial industry that will ultimately lead to its demise. This is seen currently in the synchronization of world markets, the growing gap between the “social elite” and all other classes, the accumulation of massive amounts of debt (to pay for education, cars, and homes), rising inflation, and a decrease in demand for “skilled labor” jobs. Not to mention several really crazy things that deal with the manipulation of world markets in order to keep the worth of certain currencies greater in comparison to those of other world currencies. Then you can also look at the fact that all that wealth concentrated at the top makes sure that change will not happen, because the reason those people are at the top is because of the way things used to be, and so they are the ones who want things to change the least, and they have all of the power (money) to keep things the way they want it.
Yeah, I know, those are some hard-hitting issues, and when you roll out of bed every morning with the realization of all three of these big issues, you really want to start changing things to make them better, but you also have no power because it just so happened that you were not automatically born into massive amounts of wealth. What then can be done by a single individual that can be a graspable goal?
I was thinking about this for years, and the final conclusion that I reached was the Farm, let me just run through the reasons why. As to the first major problem, the creation of the “other,” on the farm the rule would be total acceptance of each and every individual, also known as Love (that capital “L” means that I am talking about the unconditional type). There would be no worries about being taken advantage of by any of the individuals because there would be nothing to lose and nothing to gain, since the entire property would be shared, and the only things that would be available would be food, water, and electricity. There probably will be some electronics that might be used personally, but in a society that cares about the other more than the self there would be little worry over loss of a replaceable laptop or phone. The Farm would have a rule against any religious conversion taking place on the property, if someone does find some new faith and wants to join it that individual would be invited to do so—off the property—and then return afterwards. This makes sure that the Farm is never associated with one thought or another, but remains a ground where all ideas and theories can be discussed. This desire would be facilitated further by a once a week nightly discussion about different ways of understanding the individual’s place in the universe.
Now, on to major problem 2. The destruction of the earth is mainly caused, as mentioned, by consumerism. When living on a self-sustaining farm there is nothing to be consumed aside from that which is grown. It also allows for all waste to be returned into the sustainable system through composting. The second rule of the Farm would be “if you pack it in, you must pack it out.” This keeps the Farm from being party to any senseless consumerism. Also, all power would be created sustainably, whether by using solar power, wind power, hydroelectric power, or hydrogen fuel cells. The carbon footprint would literally be zero, as long as I could find an engineer or two to help me with constructing hydrogen fuel cells for the couple vehicles that will be used to transport residents to other locales, should they want to go somewhere else for a time. Also, all the work on the farm will be done by hand or electrically run hand tools (such as drills for construction). This not only protects the planet, but increases the health of the members of the community, along with bringing everyone into closer connection with the Earth and each other.
Problem three is the easiest to solve with the Farm—take money away entirely (by that I do not mean taking money from people, I just mean that there will be no commerce on the property of the Farm). Thereby there can be no unreasonable power garnered. If a person at the Farm appears to have power and influence over others, then it will have to come entirely from displaying the kind of good characteristics needed to be a good leader. This frees all the occupants from that most onerous of struggles—the idea that one is powerless to shape one’s own reality to the extent wanted. After the initial structure has been created, the expansion of the property and gardens will be an active collaboration between all individuals, with the initial considerations devoted to the first two problems already found in society. Thereby assuring that any development is sustainable and kind to all individuals present, and in mindfulness of those who may also come to reside at the Farm in the future.
Some will still think that the idea sounds “too hippy” or “too difficult of a project,” but, when I look out at the world in which we currently live, it is the only way I can see of fixing the shit that plagues us all. The ultimate goal would be to expand to a system of farms. Eventually creating safe harbors in whichever states have enough interested individuals and enough initial capital to begin the self-sustaining system.
Initial capital—it makes me cringe to even write the words, but it is a reality of the current system. Not being one to want to continue destroying the world around me while working to create the most sustainable life possible, I have turned to NaturalNatures to help bring in the initial funds. So, it may seem like a simple project based on getting people naked in nature, but it means much more. It is the means whereby a system of Love and sustainability can be realized for a large group of people, and maybe ultimately get the world to take notice and realize that, yes, life is indeed that easy.
If this has peaked your curiosity, then you might want to take a look at our Help Us page, where there is a breakdown of costs to make the Farm a reality.