[Oe List ...] For Brian Stanfield

[Harry Wainwright]

Colleagues,

 

The following message and poem is from Nelson Stover for Brian.

 

Peace,

Harry

 

Here's a poem I wrote.

 

Nelson

 

F. Nelson Stover

Center for Ecozoic Studies

(336) 605-0143

 

Pendulum Swings

Recounting the 5 great endeavors of the human species.

 

 

In the land between forest and savannah, the Pendulum of Decision swung.

            Whether to keep walking on four paws or to start walking on two
legs,

            Became a challenge confronting individuals and species across
Africa.

 

A vertical body stayed cooler, having no heated backside facing the
blistering sun,

            And nimble hands could carry food home to growing families

            Once tricky balancing skills were mastered across the rolling
landscape.

 

Upright backs allowed female's pelvic opening to gradually expand

            Permitting delivery of off-spring with larger brain capacities

            While everyone's vocal chords loosened to enhance tonal
variations.

 

After 3 million years of experimentation and effort by unnamable ancestors

            The lands of the ocean-bound continent in the tropical sun

            Became filled with humans committed to upright travel in
community.

 

 

At the edge of the northeastern land bridge, the Pendulum of Decision again
swung.

            To stay in familiar forests or to venture into unknown
landscapes

            Prompted deliberations among the complacent and the concerned
alike.

 

Daring ventures and periodic painful tragedies

            Allowed the capture, care and control of fire for cooking meat

And providing dependable heat on cold winter nights.

 

New found animal friends like horse, dog and cow

            Had social patterns compatible with the 2-legged species

            Permitting easier travel, additional energy and a
protein-enhanced food supply.

 

After nearly a million years of exploration and discovery

            All of the life-sustaining niches of Planet Earth

            Had been visited by the roving vanguard of the human species.

 

 

Population density increased in each bioregion, the Pendulum of Decision
again swung.

            Choosing between learning the cycles of their present place or
keeping exploring

            Challenged clans and tribes across the Blue Marble.

 

Settled sages marked the solar cycles and named the stellar bodies.

            Stories of seasonal patterns enchanted children

            And reminded citizens when plants and animals would become
available.

 

Using their particular languages, symbolic representations and cultural
patterns

            Tribes developed sophisticated social systems and appropriate
technologies

            Allowing reflection on their situations and an understanding of
their environs.

 

For more than 30 thousand years, the Indigenous Ones enlivened their
locales.

            Their spirits pulsed to the rhythms of the surrounding flora and
fauna

            And they knew themselves ingrained in the four elements and
directions.

 

 

For the fourth time, the Pendulum of Decision once again began to swing.

Along the rivers of the temperate climates in Mesopotamia and China

Individuals and societies debated the merits of tending crops rather than
foraging.

 

Secure and sufficient food supplies allowed social stratification and
political protection.

            Manufacturing classes produced tools, arts and comforts

            As societies tapped into energies stored in wood, sun and fossil
fuels.

 

New explanations emerged to help citizens comprehend the world in which they
lived.

            The gods cared for priests who cared for people who cared for
plants

            As social hierarchy and historical progress became foundations
of wisdom.

 

Fueled by carbohydrates and proteins from farms, pastures and plantations,

            The Human Species seemed to manage the progress of the planet

            While growing in numbers and consumptive capacity for 10
thousand years.

 

 

Now again, across the Planet, in villages and cities, the Pendulum of
Decision swings.

            Each one choosing whether to continue rampant extraction of
non-renewable resources

            Or to invent lifestyles promoting the mutual enhancement of all
species.

 

Those electing to participate in creating the Ecozoic Era draw on past
wisdom

            Yet learn the Universe's ways of communion, differentiation and
autopoesis

            And build sustainable systems of social and environmental
interaction.

 

Scientists utilize schema of incommensurate numbers to refine quantum
calculations,

            Sociologists understand that each individual actively
participates in creating tomorrow

            And sages find the Holy in every moment and action.

 

The unborn creatures and unmanifested potentialities of countless future
eons

            Await their turn on the time-space stage of reality

                        And the celestial clock ticks as the interminable
future

Passes through the embodied present 

                        To join the by-gone actors in the annals of history.

 

F. Nelson Stover - nstover at ica-usa.org

August 24, 2004