SOS Asheville

I used to be one of those air travellers who raced through airports just to get to the next place I was required to sit and wait, where I would read, or write emails which I would later send. Not so, since I discovered the electronic oasis of the basement walkway at Detroit airport.
The space is like a football stadium tunnel, only it is about two blocks long. Running on either side are two sets of horizontal escalators, which have a break in the middle. The ceiling is a deep, violet-colored blue, and on the walls are milky-quartz like opaque panels, with swirls which vaguely resemble mountains or clouds. Behind these panels are multiple-colored lights which are synchronized with the instrumental music which runs from techno to harp.
Sometimes the light show is just plain psychedelic; other times it is made to look like a 24 hour day, cycling between reddish-hued sunrises, yellow and green days, and darker green, blue, and blue-purple nights, with shafts of lightening and sounds of rain interspersed.
Now, rather than sit and wait, I “ride the rails” as many times as I can, leaning against the handrail and enjoying the show. I feel much less harried, and I end up not having enough time to buy anything, including the food which will give me heartburn, whch is available in an airport. And I still have a little time to sit and enter this into my computer before the next plane is called to embark.
Addendum: Joke’s on me—on my way back this time, our plane was kept in a holding pattern over Detroit airport and, when we finally landed, I had just barely enough time to race through the basement to my next flight. I laughed as I nearly ran the walkways, aware of the “beauty” around me which I couldn’t partake of in my usual, relaxed manner. But I had gotten to enjoy the beauty of Detroit’s lights from the airplane as we kept circling.

Imagine receiving something like the following in the mail: Wow—You inspire me! (written on a home-made card). There was more to the note, but that was the main thrust of it. This person, and one other in my life, do this with some regularity—send a hand-made card, with a beautiful sentiment, or poem, for some reason which just strikes their fancy in the moment. This kind of beauty is easily sustainable and, while it may take more of our natural resources than an email (although I’m never sure if that’s actually true), it is so much richer. I invite us all to take a few moments to Pay It Forward in some manner which tickles our fancy.

This is one of my favorite lines from Rumi, the Persian/Sufi ecstatic poet who has become so popular of late. He often speaks in riddles, like so many wisdom figures—the riddle is meant to awaken us from our sleepwalking stupor into life. So, while the sentiment of this line seems pretty clear to me, I am really open to hearing other interpretations.
Mine is this: Life is not about what we do, but the beauty we are in the doing. It is so easy to get righteous, judgmental, indignant, or even angry when we give ourselves to a “cause” like sustainability. But, if we succumb to such states, then the beauty we are expressing in the NOW gets lost. So, too, if we are always working toward a “future” sustainability and beauty, rather than acknowelging that which already exists within and around us.
For some reason I feel compelled to add this: In all of the interviews, commentaries, and analyses I’ve heard in the last few weeks on the Lebanese/Islraeli war, this one has struck me the most: A Lebanese man, commenting on Hizballah, said (paraphrased): “What hurts me the most is that their hatred for Israel seems to be stronger than their love of their own children.”
I invite us all to focus on loving their “children,” whatever they might be, rather than on hating those who seem to be destroying those children or their future.

A continuation of “Beauty in My Neighborhood.”
In “Ask and It Is Given,” Abraham says something like this: Imagine the most beautiful, livable town you can. It is filled with beautiful things to look at, great places to hike, wonderful people, a plethora of ethnic restaurants, and lots of interesting things to do. It is easy to get around in it, whether on foot, by bike, public transporatation, or car, and there is never a rush hour. There’s just this one, teensy little problem—there’s an enormous pothole on 6th Street. (Notice, he did not say Main Street.)
Now the question is: What are you now focused on—all the wonders of this charming town, or the gigantic pothole on a street which you never need to travel on anyway? It is very easy to fall into the “pothole” of focusing on the “beep-beeps” in my neighborhood, rather than the birds singing, the flowers my neighbors have planted, the quickness of getting almost anywhere in this town from where I am, and the beautiful mountains I can see in the distance from where I stand to wash my dishes.
There is a philosophy which says that you get more of what you focus on, so I am actively training myself to focus on the beauty, because that is what sustains me.

Beauty Blog 070506

I was hiking in Dupont Forest this weekend, and accidentally found my way into the section which formerly housed AGFA. This is a beautiful section of land, complete with a lake and sandy beach, turtle habitat, and some toxic waste. Eventually this land is meant to join Dupont Forest and be available to the public for hiking purposes, but right now it is posted as private land, apparently for liability reasons. I invite everyone to join me in sending loving thoughts to this parcel of land, and/or any other which calls to you; see them in your mind’s eye as being once again a pristine and safe habitat for all who enter the area. Let’s see what a little unified energy can do.

7/13/06
Of course, one needn’t travel very far to encounter opportunities for beautification. I walked around my neighborhood in Haw Creek this morning, where the peace and quiet I moved into the area for are now often punctuated with the beep-beeps of heavy earth movers backing up—a new set of condominiums is going in just on the other side of the ridge from me. Perhaps in response to this, a number of my neighbors have dug up large sections of lawn and put in shrubs and flowers. It definitely took my mind off what my ears were hearing.

It strikes me that a lot of people are currently focusing on “survival,” and how to do this in their own back yards. I am grateful for the notion of “sustainability”; in my mind it carries a much more positive outlook. And, for me, part of that sustainability is beauty in all forms. This past weekend I was at a Sufi Peace Dance Camp where I got to experience the beauty of the land, both in cultivated and wild forms; but I was more taken with the beauty of all the myriad people who showed up for this experience—even the locals who came out late at night to honk at the “Moonies.” If we are to survive well, with any kind of sustainability, it seems to me that it just might require seeing the beauty in each and every person who crosses our path. “Light comes in all forms,” said a friend, smiling as she explained about the locals.

Part of this feature of sustainability is, for me, knowing that I now know all of these people spread out all over the eastern half of the United States, and that we created some kind of energetic net this weekend, to add to all the other nets being created. I am awed and delighted.
Namaste,
Laurel

Kerry shares with us by email today the wonderful website for the Project for Public Spaces, which connects to the Beauty and Ashevillage Building Convergence ideas.  Note the Great Cities Initiative link on the PPS homepage & the emphasis on Christopher Alexander’s work (Check it out, Elizabeth!).

Thanks Kerry!  ~ Chris

The Beauty Blog for Asheville’s Sustainability Open Space group:
6/28/06
We met for the first time June 26th/27th at Warren Wilson College and, for the life of me, I don’t know why I even offered the topic, as opposed to sustainable health, which would seem to be more connected to what I have been focusing on in my work life. But I think Kerry was right when he observed that many of our championed topics from this gathering have interwoven threads with each other, and beauty certainly needs to be a part of health care. (I recently met an Australian architect who, with his psycho/color therapist wife create sacred healing spaces for living and working. See: http://www.arcoessence.com.au/)

I see BEAUTY (one of Ken Wilber’s big three, Kerry reminded me) as absolutely necessary to human sustainability on this planet. In some respects it doesn’t really need a champion, as it will bubble up in the most unexpected ways/places (like in concentration camps). At the same time, I think the more consciously we intend/expect this to be a factor in both public and private decision-making, the more it will be included. Charlotte Anthony is working on a story for Spirit in the Smokies highlighting an example of this for us, and which will include an invitation to readers to join us in this venture.

For those who are new to the group, I will reiterate two experiences which led me to championing this topic:
1. I was at the Getty Center in L.A., meditating in the gardens, and had this thought: “What if everyone on the planet had access to this level (or higher) of beauty at least once a week; would we see an end to war?” (For those who haven’t seen it, it is one of the most beautiful man-made settings—both buildings and gardens—that I have ever seen; you can check it out at these various websites:
http://www.galinsky.com/buildings/getty/index.htm
http://academic.reed.edu/getty/
http://academic.reed.edu/getty/image_textchoices.html
http://academic.reed.edu/getty/category.html
http://academic.reed.edu/getty/category.html
2. PBS special with Yo-Yo Ma, who had been commissioned to help create a “music garden” (for Totonto); the paths themselves were musical, the plants evoked a feeling of music, and there were to be speakers at various places playing Bach’s music performed by Yo-Yo Ma. (You can see the garden at: http://www.toronto.ca/parks/music_index.htm)

Apparently BEAUTY is a state of mind as much as anything, because as I drove along Swannanoa River Road this morning, absolutely everything looked beautiful to me! Now, two hours later and about to drive back the same way, I’m not sure it will still be true. I’ll let you know.

Report #:16

Name of Topic: The Relationship of Beauty and Sustainability

Name of Leader: Laurel Reinhardt

Names of Participants: Elizabeth Bunch, Raphael Peter, Charlotte Anthony,

Chris Weaver, Kathy?, Gayatri, Irene Wright

Previous story regarding this topic if there is one:

1. Experience at Getty Museum garden led to thought: “If everyone on the planet had access to this kind of beauty on a regular basis, there could be no war; life would be totally sustainable.”

2. PBS special with Yo-Yo Ma, who had been commissioned to create a virtual musical garden (for Boston?); the paths themselves were musical, the plants evoked a feeling of music, and there were to be speakers at various places playing the music Yo-Yo Ma had created in response to the music of the space itself. (The garden never went beyond virtual, I don’t believe, but the music is available on one of his c/ds.)

Highlights of Discussion (present story unfolding):

How to create more ceremonial spaces of beauty in harmony with surroundings; self-organizing rather than created by an infrastructure.

Martine Prechtel’s ideas of gods/goddesses responding to the beauty created by humans (even in their speech patterns), and being drawn to nourish the humans in return. Prayers as courtship.

Damenhur: A community in Italy which embraces arts and beauty, brings people together, what helps make the community sustainable.

City Repair: An organization that goes around a community, helping citizens beautify their communal spaces with art (like murals in intersections).

There seems to be a culture clash between people who have been in the mountains for generations, and those coming in now, and different perceptions of beauty (though sometimes it is the generational people who are “trashy,” and sometimes the newcomers who “trash” the mountain sides with bulldozers and big houses).

The Timeless Way of Building by Christopher Alexander: Noticing the patterns of a place which bring it to life. Can’t define beauty, but know when something strikes me. It’s about developing a language to bring it to life; in this way we can sustain things.

How to encourage community projects designed to bring people together to create beauty.

Such places of beauty are spiritual/transformative.

Charlotte’s gardens: express her own internal experience of beauty, to which people respond in amazingly deep ways. “I just listen to the land, the path which wants to be there, etc.”

Let the beauty you love be what you do.    Rumi

Changing education: open schools to artists every Friday for ongoing mentorship programs, so ALL students, not just those in arts schools, get exposed to art/beauty, and people who are passionate about it.

How do we sustain growth/development without destroying beauty.

Great Circle Builders connect newcomers with green/alternative services for all areas of life which might not be readily identifiable in the marketplace.

Power of intention.

Need to see the beauty in everyone; need everyone’s beauty to sustain humanity.

Discussion of demineralization of soil, change in diversity, effect on health, and how to reminernalize.

Future Action/Next Steps:

1. Charlotte Anthony to write a story for Spirit in the Smokies about an experience she had around intentionality in a community in Colorado.

2. In body of this story, invite people in WNC to create a virtual community which will visualize/intend that people who live here to intend that Beauty be a standard for decision-making, community interaction, and development. Feel what it would be like, be grateful that it is already there, know it together three times a day (8, noon, 4?) for 5 minutes.

3. A collaborative website, starting with language, then photo essay, and any other way of showing the beauty of WNC/Asheville.

BEAUTY & Sustainability

Champion:  Laurel Reinhardt

Interested People:  Kerry, Liz, Charlotte, Elizabeth, Marston

Future Action:

Charlotte – Write article on intentionality for Spirit in the Smokies.  Include invitation to: website, intentionality re: BEAUTY

Connect with CLP/Schools to provide events for kids/families to explore BEAUTY

Elizabeth to begin working on developing a language of patterning/BEAUTY & living space, a la Christopher Alexander, specific to Asheville (with photos)

Next Steps:

• Develop email list

• Start blog/website

• Let participants know about the above.

Resources:

Christopher Alexander’s work