Here are three stories to rewild your mind, shift horizons and help you regenerate life on Earth. With Crack Flowers I am seeking to bring new perspectives, ways of thinking, seeing and being into your life. The stories that make you question your worldview, knowledge and beliefs.
Did you spot a Crack Flower Story? Drop me a message to share her with the Shifting Horizons Community!
#1 🧭 Guugu Yimithirr, The language without egocentric directions
“Guugu Yimithirr is probably uninque among the world’s languages in that it has no egocentric directions, like left/right or in front/behind. So to describe where something is you have to reference cardinal directions like North/South”
- Tom Pepinsky
Guugu Yimithirr people place the earth rather then themselves at the centre of their directions and communications. Eco-linguistic relativity’s hypothesis is that this influences the way they see and interact with their environment.
“This evidence from Guugu Yimithirr suggests a ‘weak’ version of the linguistic relativity hypothesis: the language we speak influences how we experience the world in very subtle ways.
Weak linguistic relativity influences the world in subtle way’s, in the article linked below Gavin Lamb continues to explore the assumptions and pitfalls around Strong Linguistic relativity and why it might be more useful to focus on the kinds of “stories-we-live-by”. I am very curious to hear your thoughts on the hypothesis and questions explored in the article.
» Dive deeper into (Eco)linguistic relativity in Wild Ones #60: Environmental Communication Digest
A quick interruption from the three Crack Flower stories for a sidestep to the beautiful Frailejons seen on this picture above. I could’t help myself but elaborating, they are fascinating. The Frailejons are part of the now carefully protected Paramo Eco-system, they are like big sponges holding and regulating water in drier seasons. Without Frailejons water regulation would be disturbed leading to an overflow of water in the rain season and Cracked dry soil in the dry season.
”The king of the paramos, is the frailejon. This is special type of plant, very unique, that can carry a lot of water. It's almost like a sponge. And it has amazing leaves that are able to capture every drop of water and carry it in their body. So through the leaves, they can create fog. And through its roots, it can create rivers.
They can carry four times their weight in water. Whenever there's not enough water, they start giving it back to the land. When there's sometimes drier seasons, they regulate it, they work like reservoirs. Around 80% of Colombia's drinking water depends on the frailejon's. They also have the capacity to do what we call carbon sequestration. ”
- Conservationist Marcela Fernandez in a BBC interview
#2 Anti-assholism memo
The refreshing and very necessary honesty that we are ALL fucked up assholes provides a grounded and honest starting point for treating this collective potentially curable disease.
The text below is the introduction to the anti assholism memo, a list of suggestions/reminders that can help us to be less and less of an asshole every day. Every since I came across the memo it’s suggestions & reminders have been going round and round in my brain. Some of them confrontational, others supportive, creating friction, questions, breathing room, lightness and all of them a strong reminder to be intentionally aware in the relationships and systems I am a part of.
“Modernity/coloniality, especially in its contemporary configuration, casts a powerful spell of hyper-individualism, hyper-consumerism and (self)destructive narcissism. Through formal education, social media and job incentive packages, both mainstream and counter- cultures encourage and reward toxic behaviors. This includes seeing ourselves as separate from each other and from “nature”, and as “exceptional” in order to justify merit and moral authority so that we can expand our entitlements and autonomy without responsibility.
We are unconsciously wired to reproduce behaviors that support the destruction of the web of relationships we are embedded in, including the planet that we are part of and depend upon. If our contemporary cultures cannot provide a pathway for collective sobriety and maturity or a compass for repairing damage and for building relationships based on respect, reciprocity, consent, trust and accountability, human extinction is indeed around the corner.
Realizing we are ALL fucked up and that we have become assholes may be one (or the only) way to break this spell of modernity/coloniality, to seek re-habilitation and to do the painful decluttering and composting work that is needed to get ourselves out of the mess we have created.” - Anti assholism memo intro
» Read & Share Gesturing Towards Decolonial futures Anti-Assholism Memo
#3 Nature Needs Translators
In 1997 Julia Butterfly Hill climbed into Luna, a gigantic 1500 year old redwood tree, standing tall and mighty in Stafford California. She lived in the crown of Luna for 738 days to save her from being cut down by a Lumber Company. In December 1999 she climbed back down after reaching an agreement to protect Luna. Julia managed to stay strong and not climb down once in does 738 day’s, not only through courage and determination but also through the support of a wide network of friends and strangers. This story reminds me that being seemingly foolish is extremely powerful and that connected networks of people who believe in change can make the world turn around.
Julia listened to what the forest and Luna needed and choose to translate nature’s needs in a world that has forgotten how to listen.
“For the first seven years after I came down from Luna, I averaged 250 events a year, so I pretty much hit the ground running. People are always shocked that I’m an introvert, but I’m an extreme introvert. I remind people, like, how long do you think an extrovert would have lasted by themselves in a tree in the middle of nowhere? Only an extreme introvert could do what I did, but then the trees told me when I was up there, they said, “Julia, just like when you go to a new country, you need a translator, nature needs translators…We’ve been communicating since the beginning of time, and people have forgotten how to listen, and they’re going to listen to you, so we need you to do this.”
» Read more about Julia & Luna’s story in this interview from 2021 → Then & Now! Julia Butterfly Hill & The Disease of Disconnect
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🖋️ Articles that Shift Horizons
📚 Books I am (re)reading
Citizens by Jon Alexander
The Evolved Nest, Nature’s way of raising children and creating connected communities by Darcia Narvaez and G.A. Bradshaw
Hard boiled wonderland and the end of the world by Haruki Murakami (a writer who never fails to boost my imagination and spark a feeling of natural wonder).
I'm going to dive into Julia and Luna's story. Thank you! Also, Haruki Murakami is one of my favourite authors I can never get enough!