Updating the map
I want to speak briefly here about the map that was unfolding. Showing it to others and speaking about it, it dawned on me that the elements that I named ‘Subtle Arts’ and ‘Tending the Land’ were not the right categories and they didn’t really fit in the map either, they were not the same category of things.
Like designers who strip away what isn’t necessary and programmers who search for beautiful code, there is also a simplicity and a rightness when getting to a map that works. Here is why the two elements weren’t working: the Subtle Arts is about right relationship with much more than the land alone, and people-place relationship isn’t only about the land but it is about connecting with all that surrounds us.
Starting left on the map, it is about a subtle relationship with the past. Not as strong – and sometimes heavy – as we see in some indigenous cultures, but (much) more aware of ancestry and lineage than we do today in the West.
Also relationship with the future (right on the map), the seven generations, and more, which will follow us. Here the whole sustainable movement, up-cycling, cradle-to-cradle and so on fit in; but also what Scharmer calls ‘learning from the future’ and the subtle sensing of what is the next elegant step to take.
The work of Christopher Alexander – which I would describe as a subtle listening to the land and sensing where buildings fit in – and the many experiments these days with buildings out of local and natural material, houses and factories that use zero energy and inviting future residents in planning of neighborhoods are all practices of our relationship with the human build environment. Some are tried out for the first time; others are up to a level of mastery.
Connecting with the non-human, the plants, the animals, the landscape and the many, many layers of energy of the intangible is part of reality that we, Westerns, have to learn a lot about, but it is so essential when we want the Earth to be called our home, and not just the space within the walls of our house or apartment.
I’m sure this map will be fine-tuned when people start relating with it and work with it. It will only be by combining the many practices – in all directions of the map – that we will reach the mastery and artistry that is needed for our challenging times ahead.