August 7th, 2011: A Day of Silence
A couple of years back, Amherst architect Tullio Inglese spoke to our ecovillage group about ways to build greenly: these materials, that insulation, this heating source, those solar panels.“But,” he said, “pouring money into a system that gobbles energy doesn’t solve a thing. You have to begin by USING LESS.”
Not a new idea, and wonderful to hear it again and again. One reason we are protagonists in war is our hyper dependence on oil. One reason we are leaning over an economic precipice, and our poor human non-heroic legislators are hog-tied and unable to affect change, is because We the People are arguably (and measurably) the most materialistic and consumptive culture the world has yet produced.
When you are boxed in, it is difficult to see over the box edges. Think of the madness that ensued when Galileo chatted up the Sun as Center, or when the flat world got bent into a round one. So, here we are again, challenged to rethink and redo, before the world itself rethinks and re-does for us.
Yet instead of being powerless, we individually have a great deal of free will, and collectively a huge amount of power: we just need to exercise it. My “Day of Silence”- to which you are all warmly invited, and need travel no distance to attend - is not a stopping of your words, but stopping the gears. It’s lightly embracing an ages-old observance of the Sabbath, the day of rest: for the modern soul, what Tullio Inglese calls an ECODAY: from sunrise to sunset, one day of each month, the power main in your house is switched OFF, no motor is started. Nothing hums, whirs, or burns.
And just as a fast teaches you much about what your body needs and does not need to nourish it, the beautiful, deep, earthen silence reminds you of things you may have forgotten (how to enjoy yourself and one another without devices between you), and teaches you things you may not yet have learned (how to prepare raw foods, manage without driving here or there, or turning on the TV to be entertained).
Our imagination and incredible resourcefulness is put to sleep by what seems to be ease. I invite you to join me on Sunday the 7th of August, wherever you are, to be with whoever you are with… enjoy one another, and a day of silence.
For a slightly longer write-up, an old poem of mine that begged a day of silence so many years ago, and a nod to Tullio’s inspiration, you can check out this earlier blog post.
Thanks for reading – and feeling, and thinking and being a whole, strong human. Together we make a much better America: we make the best of what America is.
Peace.
