26 posts tagged “amo”
Dulzura was largely destroyed during the Harris Fire that took out hundreds of thousands of acres in Southern California this past fall. Firestorms like that are rarely so intense and the areas destroyed in California are larger than many cities; hundreds are still without homes.
Over the last four years I've made at least 6 trips up the mountain to spend time with the monks at Madre Grande Monastery. After visiting a dozen major spiritual communities across America I found one that felt most like home, a Theosophical space for esoterics who enjoy the arcane mysteries and wisdom traditions from around the world. Madre reaches out to their community, assisting other fire victims while they rebuild their lives.
Their
In December we took two trips to Dulzura to assist with fire cleanup efforts. The monks were overwhelmed with the amount of work to do after the fires and were very appreciative of community support, from frequent visitors as well as from those who may have never been there before. For the month prior to our arrival the monks had to shower in a nearby town, 30 minutes away by car, and had no running water or phone on site.
We took a small team from Amoration with Burners without Borders to take on basic plumbing, electrical and welding needs for the community. The Amoration team took on a few basics: electrical boxes, plumbing in the remaining bathroom on site, welding the gate to keep the land safe. Madre Grande is in a remote but somewhat precarious location, just a few miles from the border with Mexico there are often border patrol and other people driving the road through the property. In the months after the fires there were also issues with locals and lots of utility trucks around, along with the county support staff that hauled out 40 containers and truckloads of burnt ruins away from Dulzura.
The future is uncertain for Madre Grande; they have a long road ahead and many decisions to make for their best possible future. Moving and rebuilding would be a great challenge but they may no longer be able to fulfill their mission in their current state on this property. As they assess the cost of maintaining a spiritual retreat and monastery we look to what we can do as individuals to support these spaces with our time, talent and care. AMO friends have donated awesome gifts such as new hoses and faucets, showerheads and sprayers.
Words do not do this place justice.
What you see here now is gone.
Art, like the spirit, is a temporary collection of idea and expression in some public display of opportunity.
This place has given me so many opportunities, such a rich landscape to consider over the years. Many of my toughest struggles and greatest joys have been known in these fields, from my marriage to the handsomest husband to tears flowing in a hot sweat lodge as asthma and I work to have a parting of the ways. I am not yet detangled from this mess.
We feel so lucky to still have my home, my handsome husband, my friends Marta and Rob who joined us for the first journey and who took these amazing photos of Madre Grande to share with you.
These places sometimes enter our hearts and do not let go.
I sometimes want to remember Madre and her fire the way it can be....sweet, fun and full of laughter, my wedding night, almond champagne by the case, hundreds of friends in full formalwear as our fire performer friends hit the stage. Madre Grande once hosted a regional Burning Man event known as Xara....please enjoy this video from our 2006 wedding to see the life that this place has known...and will hopefully know again soon.
As with anything in this world, take the time to explore for yourself.
All I can say is oops....I did it again. I'll continue to do it, and love it. This community, the greater community that Madre represents, means more to me than just about anything on this particular planet. The sickness I felt at its loss has been healed by helping clean and cook up a better future.
Most of my day is spent envisioning ideal environments.
Here's my life desires:
* Collaborative safe spaces for creativity, innovation and invention
* Surrounded by sweet people in vibrant communities supporting each other through interlaced networks
* A vibrant mix of flora and fauna respected and integrated with human life
* Low cost local energy production from existing materials and resources
* Easy to find resources without searching multiple websites and real world locations
* Immediate supply and material retrieval for projects
* Low cost exchanges and shipping of objects with little friction or time wasted
* Secure access to basic survival needs: water, air, food, shelter
* The right to cultivate and consume any food or medicine known to man that's still available and not extinct
* To be surrounded by beauty, filled with art, living in love
What do you want most? What do you need?
We are up against some epic challenges in these coming decades. We have each other and only this awareness that will chart our future. Where do you see us going?
Inspired by a look ahead ten years on Wall Street Journal: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120119369144313747.html
Start doing this NOW if we want to survive and thrive these next 50 years:
- Stimulate green industries and build local alt-energy solutions into daily life
- Challenge the US FDA, the WTO and World Health on issues regarding the Codex Alimentarius
- Local water purification systems available to all people (and animals, plants, ecosystem)
- Stop deadly practices like Mountaintop Removal and chemical dumping in our waterways in favor of clean mining
- Gut parts of the USPS and our local post offices (I'm a Postmasters' granddaughter -- this is heavy to say)
- Rethink our entire transportation system and reduce automobile use
- Work from home in virtual spaces, attend business gatherings without unnecessary travel
- Create a foundational framework for international transparency and governance that is decentralized and democratic for the vox populi
- Restore Habeas Corpus
- Provide universal internet access, public computers and basic training to all students at a young age
- Learn to see ourselves as infinitely abundant, free and capable of reshaping our experience
- Love without fail: no abandon, no boundaries.
Tell me your path, your desires, your challenges.
For today's address before the UN Climate Change Conference the congressman from Massachusetts chose to appear in Second Life rather than fly to Bali and address the crowd directly. His talk on climate change and the metaverse of possibilities echoes the policy reflected at globalwarming.house.gov
Rep.
Markey, head of the House's committee on climate change, fielded questions on education, conservation and the "use" of Nature.....should we consider nature something to be used until those resources no longer exist? Do we have a role in preserving land, planting new forests, considering the greening of our cities?
This historic speech in Second Life wants to prove a point about energy use and climate change. For Rep. Markey to address the crowd for 20 minutes in Bali would take 5.6 tons of carbon emitted in flight from Washington. How many were used in Second Life?
"The technology is moving so fast that this really is just the beginning." Daniel Nelson from OneWorld UK noted. Daniel is also featured at the end of this In Kenzo machinima video attached from today's interactive town hall meeting with Rep. Markey at OneWorld Meetings Island in Second Life.
We've come a long way in a few months! The next major AMO event is happening this Sunday December 16th from 11-2PM at AMO Island in Second Life, a dance party to benefit Great Strides with DJ Nexeus Fatale. Bring out your horses and help us raise money for equine therapy. Every boogie counts.
GIVING CIRCLE
The ONE LAPTOP PER CHILD GIVE XO CHALLENGE ends soon. Do you have someone with small hands who would love the XO laptop's ease and portability? Give one get one, a great opportunity to share goodwill.
At AMO we've seen the potential for empowering young talent to do more with their digital skills. In the last two years our interns have gone on to great work with professional companies and nonprofit organizations...all for scripting or designing items in Second Life! Those who still wonder about the power of the virtual world for education should visit Holy Meatballs, New Media Consortium and the SLEDucators who are teaching and taking on exciting new research endeavors in the wild petri dish of the metaverse.
LAND TO LEASE/OWN!
We have mainland for sale along with office/research area plots both land and sky on AMO. Talk to me directly if you are looking for space in the coming weeks. Short term and long term opportunities available.
AMO is all about experimentation. This month we collaborated with the Car Lovers to host The Ridebuilders Challenge on KULA last Friday. I get the privilege of announcing the winners for the sweetest rides in Second Life! We awarded over L$50,000 to the following artists for their extraordinary work
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RamessesIII Pharoah F1 Color Changing Sculpted |
Ahkenatan Grommet 1938 X-07 |
Natascha Rives NATAMO |
Abacus Mimistrobell AMPro GT 500 |
Ray Monnett 427 Stingray |
Audience Award Winners (L$1000 bonus award)
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Darren Oyen, dtht8er Aaybe Scion XB, Green |
Natascha Rives NATAMO |
Special thanks to the Car Lovers community for making this challenge possible and to Creative Commons for the use of the KULA Amphitheatre for this contest. Congratulations to all of our participants for great design work!
To make a gift for AMO visit our giving circle page at Amoration/International Humanities Center. Your donations support our virtual internship programs along with providing the AMO Island space for groups to develop new works in the metaverse. Thank you for supporting new media bridgebuilding experiments!
Bridgebuilding and Rebuilding
For the last few weeks we have been coordinating with friends at Madre Grande, a monastery and retreat farm near San Diego and the Mexican border town of Tecate. During the Harris fire around Halloween they lost most of their residences, archives and gathering spaces; seven monks are now living in one building together as they work out a long term rebuilding plan in the midst of codes, permits and inspections, cleanup and fire debris removal. One of the monks was an interactive designer for the Cartoon Network, another a financial officer in London; this bright young ecumenical group of leaders has appreciated the support of the AMO community along with your gifts dedicated to this rebuilding effort. We were glad to go to Madre Grande with Burners without Borders last week and we will blog in more detail with photos soon. Thanks to Marta Collier, Brent Heyning and Rob Darman for their wizardry with pipes and electrical tech!
The leaders in AMO never cease to amaze me. Thank you all for getting out there and doing what you love to do most. Come visit us soon in meatspace, metaspace or any space!
In AMO,
In Kenzo
Creative Commons is good too; know your licenses and limits!
If anyone runs across a copy of Contribute Magazine, please pick it up for me. We have art in there this month.
There's apparently a great article on the Nonprofit Commons project in Second Life that I'd like to read.
Thanks to the friends, supporters, partners, advisors, volunteers, interns and artists who make AMO possible!
The AMO are at it again, sharing good will and tools for change around the world. This time you can get involved very easily and get a laptop for a child at the same time!
Starting on November 12th at www.xogiving.org you can sign onto the One Laptop Per Child giving challenge and receive a laptop for yourself or a child you love while also giving a laptop to a child in another part of the world. Right now you can also choose to donate $200 to send a laptop to a child.
I'm glad to see xogiving.org featuring the Cambodian youth on their main page, as Beth Kanter and friends have been doing a ton to bring digital media tools to that country.
On the TED blog, Engadget and others they're reporting that production looks to be solid now that Intel has signed on to support the project. Their Give1Get1 campaign will be short lived (a few weeks) and machines will hopefully ship by Christmas. $400 will buy two laptops: one for you and one for a child in another part of the world.
After using one this summer I'm eager to get a few available for our AMO team so that we can begin to develop digital media curricula and projects with the XO. I was lucky to visit their office in Boston on a day when Negroponte and Intel were meeting this summer, a good sign of collaborations to come as hundreds of little green froglike machines dangled from the ceiling while they undertook advanced mesh network tests. When playing with it, the keys on the XO feel child-sized but the applications are fairly robust, especially so with the mesh they've developed that allows a classroom of kids to effectively share information far more easily than most classrooms currently can in America.
So here's the AMO Challenge for you: we're looking for 10 people who will commit to GiveXO this holiday season. It's easy to do, a few clicks and you've bought a very cool little green machine for someone you love and have given a big gift to a child around the world. Amazingly simple.
This is leapfrogging technology at its finest and we want to see more projects like the XO grow in popularity around the world. Thanks to ALL OF YOU for helping to make sure that these tools end up in the hands of kids who are eager to join the digital media revolution. Think how much better our music will be when the kids in Africa, Asia and South America have access to music production tools!
Teacher, it's always possible to try something new.
Collaborate, explore, experiment, share, play with the possibilities!
Spent five weeks straight on the road, working on OYA and exhibiting and burning her in Black Rock City, along with trips to Boston, Vermont, New York and San Francisco. Here's a sample, more in the Flickr stream.
At various stages in one week I saw a lunar eclipse, immolation X10, a double rainbow with UV spectrum (11 bands!),
Every day felt like a new adventure, an experiment in potential as we raced out into the desert to find the next great inspiration. This year it wasn't in the art....it was in the people who reminded me that not only am I surrounded by love, i am love. I am AMO.
As our communities grow more tightly woven, it no longer matters what city or country you live in. We all share this love, this one fire with many flames burning brightly. How do you choose to burn?
Tell me how it feels for you to live with lightning in your hands....
Elucidate my friends!
Holden @ GiveWell challenged us this week to speak from the heart and get to the core of why we support our primary cause. This is your AMO Challenge for the week....write your own blog post explaining your contribution to the Giving Carnival and link your blog back to Holden by 8/4/07.
Why Do You Do What You Do?
My friend Tony Deifell asks it this way...wdydwyd? When he asked me a few years ago back when Omidyar Network was young, I considered love to be the renewable resource that could move us beyond our complex problems; love is the gift within all of us that must be held as primary for all other solutions and opportunities to arise. What I was seeing back in 2005 was a fundamental closedness and hardness within us towards the world, many layers of walls and boundaries set in place to keep away the pain and fear thrust upon us by unfriendly fire.
LOVE is still my primary cause, it's the root of the Amoration inquiry. But has my pursuit of wisdom through love brought greater or less impact in the lives of others around me?
There are certain things our avatars cannot fully do for us. For the past few years I have grown deeply quiet, speaking more through blogs and threads than through direct hand and eye contact. DIRECT CARE AND TOUCH is what we need now more than any other gift we can give to one another. As much as we need to plug in, we also need to feel the flow that we share with others as a direct current, a circuit formed every time we invest in each other.
Every motion we make in this world is an investment.
Our lives are full of practices that bring us closer to the world or away from it.
To be honest, right now I feel deeply wrong at some level, a bridge with little land to anchor in.
We have a great time moving others into AMO Action Dances, PeaceTiles project workshop, OYA and Sugar Arts there are missing pieces, ways that I have not been able to successfully bridge in my community. Serving on my local neighborhood council has been a trial by fire and I'm not made for long meetings in hard chairs. At heart I want to be home, creating, mentoring and working with others to amplify and spotlight their dreams in development.
Admitting imperfection in love gives me room to grow
There are so many things I would like to change about myself...first on the list is my weariness with the homelessness and displacement so common in our world (and on my doorstep!). It is inhumane how we allow so many people to suffer right in front of us without care or compassion. I do this every day, pass a homeless person without offering them food or anything that can help them. When I think of 10,000 people here, another 70,000 ejected from another refugee camp in Darfur forced to close by the Sudanese government....how can we let our people die right in front of our eyes in silence, without a tear? Have we lost all touch with ourselves?
Sometimes it saddens me that two decades of love inquiry has not moved me past these fundamental fears. I still feel every emotion in the book and struggle with the silly ideas and presuppositions that my culture tries to thrust upon me. Inundated with messages on beauty, fear and imperfection as airbrushed fantasy....here is my ocean to bridge, the walkway to a reality where you are beautiful no matter what is going on at surface level. I strive to give room for these passions to grow into fruitful endeavors, large and small. Every movement, every moment.
Each of us has a glow to share....we choose how to let that out, how to share it with others and use it to power the lives we manifest. Love is the access point, the opening to life and energy in movement. I do not know if it will change the world, nor would I make such presumptions or claim to know The Path to Transformation....I know one path, my own, the smiles I see and eyes I look into every day. Making that decision to look into others eyes is the first step for me in an endless process of reaching out and holding those around me, no matter what background, cause or party they support.
I want to be more for you, and for me too
There's nothing too big, too impossible. We specialize in dreambuilding and love creating new visions for the future. I feel so blessed to live this life of creative pursuit yet want to do much more with this space, with you. Help me help you grow by telling me here what you need most and how we can help you create more love throughout your circles.
Visit the OYA installation in Black Rock City from August 27-31st for a demonstration of free energy flow using water as the primary source of electric power.
Make a gift to the AMO Arts team for supplies to help build this project: we currently need ~$2000 in construction materials to manifest OYA for this unique green technology project; you can help by picking up AMO goodstorm shirts, OYA edible love rocks and other gifts to help us grow. Our Next Toyshoppe Thursday Theatre (and OYA fundraiser) in Los Angeles will be August 16th; in Boston on August 9th we will also host an OYA resonance event.
Special thanks to Ryan Wartena at MIT, Elizabeth Marley (Farmlab, Growing Architecture), Brent Heyning (Toyshoppe Productions), Evonne Heyning (Toyshoppe/AMO) along with Carmen, Blue, Tomas, Crimson, Larry and the Burning Man community for helping this project grow from seed to full power.
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