Bike Trip

If we don’t change where we’re going, we may get there.  If we want to go somewhere else, we need stars to steer by.  Perhaps the first step is to describe the sort of destination we want to reach.   Paul Hawken, Amory Lovins, L. Hunter Lovins.  NATURAL CAPITALISM


It’s April 19, 2014, I’m aware of the history associated with this date and open to the vibe.
Seventy-one years before my own ride, Albert Hoffman rode with visions in Basel and the world was changed. In the warm and humid pre-dawn Maui darkness, as I roll, I’m trying to read the landscape. Universe speaks in metaphors and signs - what is the pattern this morning? Smoke from the burning cane field drifts over me in the darkness.  The cane ash local people call 'Maui snowfall' drops around me.  Stars still shine as the eastern horizon begins to glow.  My bike light opens a tunnel on the path directly ahead while Universe wheels about me in shapes, smells, visions and sounds.  A feral pig darts across the path and I see the cane spider’s eyes glowing in the dark at the edge of the field.

Beatles  Across the Universe

Images of broken light which dance before me like a million eyes,
They call me on and on across the universe,
Thoughts meander like a restless wind inside a letter box they
Tumble blindly as they make their way
Across the universe

Author's photo

My mind calls up an image of Indra’s Net in the sky around me.  The vision is a fractal unfolding, an infinite network of web-like connections and at each junction rests a sort of jewel.  Each gem reflects every other gem and each reflection contains within itself the reflection of all others in an endless procession. The web of our global Internet is constructed of light transmitting fiber-optic spun-glass cables.  This global network, too, is a kind of Indra’s Net where at each node a device is able to access the entirety of the web and its content. Hawaiian legend also speaks of something like Indra’s Net. The description of Hihiloa depicts it as a magnetic web like a fishing net which unites and permeates all existence. I remember too, that the Greek root for our word ‘technology’ refers to weaving which then makes me think of Ariadne and her thread . . . which thread will lead us through the maze and into the light.








         

HIHILOA Daniel Ford Tarr

As I rode along a realization hit me like the veritable hammer strike.  It was all around me and on top of me, fully articulated and complete.  I beheld a vision of what a city-state could be and further, how any number of these could be woven together into a living organism. Each community would be a jewel reflected in, and reflective of, all the other jewels. Best of all, I knew that the realization of this vision was possible within the context and the game rules of our present politics and economy.  I would follow Ariadne’s Thread.

What I saw was eutopia.  No, dear reader, not a typo.  Wikipedia taught me that ‘utopia’ literally means ‘no place’ and ‘eutopia’ is from the Greek for ‘good place.’  What I experienced was a good place and a sweet spot.

“For we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill.”  Here, (John) Winthrop has returned to the Sermon on the Mount.  In Matthew 5:14, Jesus said to the throng before him, “Ye are the light of the world.  A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid.” Sarah Vowell.  THE WORDY SHIPMATES

Author's photo

 Given our recent technological developments, and networking possibilities,  living together
sustainably and in harmony with the planet is an attainable goal. In my dream these city-states were connected through a shared economy founded on cryptocurrency and a blockchain.  This blockchain would include a permanent public ledger recording all manner of useful data. Each person would  control her/his online identity, information, and history over this two-way web. I will explore these ideas further in future posts.

By employing currently available materials and strategies and energizing like-minded
people around the world into new forms of collaboration, new cities will be made to bloom and proliferate.   Degraded areas will be restored and reoccupied.  Previously isolated people will take charge of their lives and their surroundings and work together for a common good. All of this flashed through me and made me very happy.  It was an awe inspiring and overwhelming experience.

What we need now are grand visions that are practical to achieve   Ralph Nader.


I will use this blog to describe how such a eutopian vision can come to fruition. These were my thoughts as I bicycled along the edge of the burning canfield to my job at the Central Maui baseyard on that early April morning.