Life on the Edge

If I know intimately the stories of the ancestors (hear here, great great grandparents calling through my bones); if I know the heartbeat of the future to be (hear here, great great grandchildren calling back to me); --- and bow in gratitude to the one, while walking responsibly to the other--- this is appropriate living in the Long Now.

What do these people have in common with the Peace Fire?

Ryan Phelan is the CEO of the All Species Foundation.
Stewart Brand is president of The Long Now Foundation.

Both understand the importance of fostering peace in the environment and grasping and holding within our present consciousness hugh time spans covering centuries if humans are to survive into the next millennium.

The intention of the Peace Fire is for it to stay lighted for six hundred years. Compared to Stewart Brand's 10,000 year Millennium Clock, this is small cookies. However, in today's fast paced planning schemes, thinking ahead more than ten years is considered brave. Yet, it is imperative that our governments and corporations start considering how their actions will affect, at least, the seventh generation.

One of the dedications of the Peace Fire is to create a peace between humanity and the rest of the living world. Whether the ten million to thirty million species that Ryan Phelan is attempting to catalogue remain alive or become extlinct will play a big factor in how humans will fare.

So, toss another log on the fire and let's all pray for Peace. Peace in the forests, peace in Iraq, peace in the oceans, peace in the skies, peace everywhere.

What you're looking at is what I had to look at before heading into the water for day 148 of my six month ritual of swimming at Roaring Beach everyday. With such a strong wind and squalls of rain blowing in, it was hard to take a decent photo, but I hope you get some idea of the mood of the ocean. Yes, somedays are better than others. And, this was one of them. To quote Thoreau: "In wildness is the preservation of the world". Today could not have been wilder with hugh surf pounding into the shore and gale force winds hammering anything exposed out of the water. Odd thing is that I'm finding this sort of day not as dangerous as less wild days because the surf rolling in is so big that it is almost impossible to get past about the forth or fifth break. One just gets pushed back into shore. The rips carry me out just so far before a six foot wall of white foam takes me in the opposite direction. Exhilerating is too soft a word to describe the emotion that sweeps over the person out in this water. Funny that I'm always alone. I don't know about preserving the world, but I do know that after today's swim my sanity has been preserved for a few more days. So, come at me again Bush, Blair and Howard with your depressing, stupid ideas of war. I'm feeling more peaceful than ever and more willing than ever to keep on marching for peace.