Transforming Communities

Be They Families, Neighborhoods, Towns or Cities.... or Countries

  Community change consultant Peter Block states the case that

“The essential challenge is to transform the isolation and self-interest within our communities into connectedness and caring for the whole.”

Peter Block's website name should tell you all you need to know about what he represents. His website is titled ABUNDANT COMMUNITY: Awakening the Power of Families and Neighborhoods.  

I first came across Peter in an article about building community in international schools. I loved what he had to say, including the above stand-out quote. 

Found an Eagle

Remember that song, "Found A Peanut"?

We were at the tail end of a winter solstice walk

tinged with snow on the ground and lots of cold air - Noah, Ken and Sarah came across an eagle on the ground at Walker Creek. It was frozen, perfect condition. Just the tiniest pin-prick blood spots on its white tail feathers.

What do you do with a dead eagle? Aside from keep your dog away - you are to call the National Eagle Repository.

Before we knew this, Noah was so excited about the eagle's talons: keeping them, tallying how many they were and who of his friends and family would be given one of these incredible power-packed claws. We didn't know what the National Eagle Repository was, or what it did. But Noah was feeling a bit deflated about this foiled eagle talon plans.

Sarah called to report the eagle - and passed on to Noah what she found out. If the bird is in good condition, like ours was, feathers and talons and sometimes the head are given to tribes for use in their ceremonies.

Noah's first words, when he heard the news about how the eagle parts would be used was, "Oh! That makes me feel so much better!" His reaction makes me think - we've taught him well.

From the wise collective of Wiki:

The National Eagle Repository is operated and managed under the Office of Law Enforcement of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service located at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge outside of Denver, Colorado. It serves as central location for the receipt, storage, and distribution of bald and golden eagles that have been found dead. Eagles and eagle parts are available only to Native Americans enrolled in federally recognized tribes for use in religious and cultural ceremonies.

After the legal protection of the bald eagle, Native Americans had no access to feathers and other parts of the birds they need for certain religious and cultural activities. The best known use is in war bonnets and other feathered headdresses. Some continued hunting and considered it legal on reservation grounds as hunting and their cultural self-determination was guaranteed in treaties. In the early 1970s the National Eagle Repository was operated out of Pocatello, Idaho and in the 1980s distribution was out of the USFWS Forensic Lab in Ashland, Oregon. The office collected birds and distributed them further. But the process was slow and the numbers of birds low.

President Bill Clinton signed an executive memorandum on April 29, 1994, after meeting with 300 tribal leaders at the White House. He reformed the National Eagle Repository and obliged all federal agencies to send dead eagles to the repository.^[4] Following this memorandum, in 1995 the repository moved to the Denver area and got its own offices at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal.

Dandelion Fritters: Befriend an Enemy

Who knew dandelions could be so beautiful?

People fight them and are vexed by them - so hard to pull out of the ground they are. Dent de lion. Tooth of the lion. Dandelion. Damn hard to pull out of the ground they are.

So today I took Katie out to the center, the meadow, with a woven basket with a handle and we filled it up with dandelion blossoms. Just the bright yellow pompomed tops, all fluffy and ready to cheer.

We mixed up a cup of flour with a cup of milk, added and egg and voila. Goop in which to dip them and fry them up in a pan. One side. Then the other. Comfort food. Gooey center, egg-y soft sponge exterior - sprinkled with powdered sugar, dipped in sryup, or hot sesame oil if you prefer the savory. The spicy seed oil won over with the adults.

How fun to make friends with an enemy. Or, more a stranger you've seen around and never really stopped to say hi - to talk to - to discover. What!? We can eat dandelion treats? Make dandelion wine? Make dandelion greens salad? Dry dandelion root for tea? I mean, really, how cool is that. Why fight them in our fields of green. Just go pick them.

A member of our sister community, Bianca Raffety, does the same befriending techninque with a yoga pose. A pose that has vexed her, eluded her, called to her in its challenge - she embraces for a year. Takes that sucker on. Gives it a big ole hug, every day, when some days you might want to punch it in the gut. She untangles its reason for calling to her, through diligent effort every day. This year, Hanuman.

Today, I felt as if I made friends with a maligned stranger - saw him in a different light. These flowers we poison and chop and bludgeon and hack. These roots that we pull and break off and curse. These wild yellow pompoms - I can eat them in gooey delight. [hello, Dandelion Blossom Fritters]