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Sleeping on a Volcano

9/1/2016

9 Comments

 
Picture
Photo by Heeusk Ekorb, via unsplash.com

I slept on the slopes of a volcano during my recent trip to Ecuador and the Amazon, along with John Perkins and 33 others. John's words about the experience we shared are so powerful, I’m re-blogging them. (More to come on that journey, and learning from the indigenous peoples and shamans. A sneak preview: it helped me realize my own core intention goes beyond helping stuck entrepreneurs and creatives. It extends to "preserving the expression of all beings.")

I hope you enjoy John’s piece in the meantime.

Sleeping on a Volcano, by John Perkins

Last night I slept on the slopes to Tungurahua, a highly active volcano in Ecuador. I felt the earth shiver, heard her rumble, and smelled her smoke. I was very conscious that this earth of ours, our home – what the local Quichua people refer to as Pachamama – is truly a Living Earth.

A few days earlier I had travelled down the Avenue of Volcanoes, also in Ecuador, and had passed by another mountain, one that is barren, scarred with gullies, and ravaged by erosion. I remembered the time when a group of US agronomists had been paid by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) to visit the people who farmed the slopes of this other mountain.These US “agricultural experts” convinced the local Quichua people to change their planting techniques. Instead of growing the 20 varieties of potatoes, alternating different varieties each year, as their ancestors had done for centuries, they were encouraged – some might say coerced through promises of more aid –  to plant just four varieties. According to the USAID specialists these were the four varieties that were the most efficient and nutritious.

Less than two years later a terrible blight hit the entire potato crop. All the plants died. The livelihood of the farmers was destroyed. The mountain itself was laid bare. It became a wasteland. The farmers and their children were forced to sell themselves for less than living wages to operators of sweat shops and flower-growing green houses that exported their products to markets in the United States.

This is one of the many true and tragic stories I have witnessed – stories that highlight the devastation that follows in the wake of an economic system that I and other economists call the Death Economy. There are hundreds of similar tales, throughout Latin America, Asia, Africa, Europe, the Middle East, and yes in the United States also.

Tunguragua is a symbol. Our Living Earth is waking up and sending us a message.
​
Some years ago I led a Dream Change trip with people from the United States, very much like the one I am leading now for Dream Change’s sister organization the Pachamama Alliance, to the site of this destroyed mountain. One of the members of our group asked a Quichua shaman lady, “How do we save the earth?”

“Save the earth!” The Shaman laughed. “Don’t be so egotistical. We don’t threaten Pachamama. We threaten ourselves and many other life forms that we love. But if we disappear, so what? We will be just another failed experiment, similar to the dinosaurs. Something else will come along to replace us. We are like so many fleas; if we get to be too much of a nuisance Pachamama will shake us off.” She looked around and gave us a gentle smile. “The good news is, Pachamama is warning us. She’s twitching.” The Shaman pointed at a nearby mountain. “The glacier that used to cover that peak is gone. Around the world, I understand, the glaciers are all melting. The oceans are rising. Pachamama is twitching, sending the fleas a strong message. She’s giving us the opportunity to listen. And to change.”

So, as I was falling asleep on the slopes of Tungurahua, I thought about the floods, the hurricanes, the earthquakes, the tornedoes, the droughts and the fires; I thought about how our Living Earth is speaking to us, everywhere. She is indeed sending us a message. Let’s take it to heart. Let’s embrace the opportunity to listen. Let’s take actions and change!

You can learn about specific actions you can take by exploring John Perkins' latest book The New Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, as well as by exploring his organizations including The Pachamama Alliance and Dream Change: non-profits devoted to establishing a world future generations will want to inherit. The first edition of Confessions of an Economic Hit Man spent 73 weeks on the NY Times non-fiction bestseller list and has been translated into 32 languages. John is also the author of 8 other books on geopolitics, indigenous wisdom, and personal transformation. Learn more at johnperkins.org.

P.S. Also see fellow traveler Annie Bugeau's blog on her experience of this transformational trip here.

9 Comments
Meryl link
9/1/2016 03:50:55 pm

Beautiful reading... I read Confessions of an Economic Hitman some years ago, interesting to see where the writer's journey has brought him. Very inspiring!

Reply
Kathleen Skoller
9/1/2016 06:12:26 pm

Thanks Mark . . . Hmmmm much to consider.

Reply
Mark Hurwich link
9/2/2016 12:21:01 pm

John is a great writer, isn't he! Amazing where parallel interests, a world we want future generations to inherit, and curiosity in indigenous wisdom and expanded ways of learning and knowing can take us.

Reply
Jackie link
9/3/2016 06:56:59 am

Thanks for posting, Mark! I read one of his earlier books and was extremely impressed by him. I will check out those organizations. I have read that shaman's sentiment before.

Reply
Jay Fischer
9/6/2016 11:03:35 am

Thanks Mark. To borrow a baseball term - Mother Nature bats last - - and we're reminded of that in so many ways. Jay

Reply
Melodie Somers
9/7/2016 07:08:38 am

I was once asked by a very wise Shaman, "how do you teach someone to act?" I would add to that, "how do you teach someone to listen?" Unfortunately for our species, we seem to require the old 2x4 to wake up. Mother Nature has been available with her message since the beginning. It's our listening that is so primitive because we are attached to beliefs, habits and "comforts" that we don't like to question. Sounds like an incredible journey that you took!

Reply
Melodie Somers
9/7/2016 07:09:13 am

I was once asked by a very wise Shaman, "how do you teach someone to act?" I would add to that, "how do you teach someone to listen?" Unfortunately for our species, we seem to require the old 2x4 to wake up. Mother Nature has been available with her message since the beginning. It's our listening that is so primitive because we are attached to beliefs, habits and "comforts" that we don't like to question. Sounds like an incredible journey that you took! Make it last!

Reply
Mark Hurwich link
1/9/2017 05:37:39 am

Annie Bugeau also tells her experience of this journey, especially some of our work with a shaman, here: http://www.anniebugeau.com/blog/2017/1/4/memoirs-of-a-privileged-white-chic-chapter-1

Reply
Backpack Ben link
12/3/2020 08:35:13 pm

Thank yoou for being you

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