Thursday, May 19, 2016

I have gone gaga for biomimicry

This semester I had big research assignments for two different classes:  Creative Non-Fiction (CNF), and University Foundations 300 (UF 300, which is a required general education class).  I decided to double dip and use the same topic for both classes.  Cheating?  I thought so at first, but it turns out that each project helped to deepen the other and hence, both were enhanced.

Fortunately, all that research and thought went towards something that has turned out to be a new passion of mine.  Crazy what school will do to a person.  I stumbled upon the word by accident.  I had no idea what it meant and decided to Google it, an auspicious moment.  It was attraction at first sight, and I have been deeply in love ever since.  I predict a long and happy affair.

Here is my paper for CNF on biomimicry.




From our Elder Species:  A Word of Hope

     Imagine if you will, the age of the Earth is the length of a calendar year.  Using this measurement for comparison, think of today as being the last minute before midnight on New Year’s Eve.  The human race showed up 15 minutes ago, and our recorded past started only 60 seconds ago.  On the other hand, our fellow planet-mates – the animals, plants, and microbes – have been here since March.  “Been here since March” translates to 3.8 billion years.  While some species are now extinct, those that are still with us, survive and thrive.  Humans on the other hand, use resources to the extent that there are now massive sustainability problems.  We have soiled our earth home to the point that it is becoming less and less inhabitable.  One only has to do a simple internet search to see the continuing destruction of our planet.  I can hardly bare it.  I avoid said internet searches because the story is just too grim.  Is there no real hope?  Is there no realistic, achievable solution to this predicament?  And what of our fellow earth neighbors?  What do they seem to know that we do not? 

     I stumbled upon a new word the other day.  Finding a word I do not know, is not all that unusual.  What was unique about this experience, is that this word has opened up a whole new world to me; a world which contains a solution to our spiraling earth plight and thus, a hopeful future.  The word is “biomimicry”.  It was coined by an American inventor named Otto Schmitt in the 1970s.  Over twenty years later, author and scientist, Janine Benyus, popularized this word with her 1997 book, Biomimicry:  Innovation Inspired by Nature.

How did biomimicry take flight?  In a network.  It wasn’t obvious at first
 but now there are biomimicry leaders all over the world.

- Janine Benyus-

     The key to this promising word is a question.  Janie Benyus says that we should ask it daily. 

How would nature solve this?
-Janine Benyus-

     According to AskNature.org, biomimicry is the idea that nature has already solved many of the problems that humans have not yet figured out.  As it turns out, our planet-mates are consummate engineers.  After their billions of years of “research and development”, those that remain on earth, contain the secret to survival.  The failed attempts are fossils.  More specifically, biomimicry is the creation of products, processes, and policies which are patterned after nature’s tried and true outcomes.  When observed, these elder species can show us new ways of living that work for the long haul.  Billions of years to be exact.  

It’s valuing nature, not for what we can extract, harvest, or domesticate, but for what we can learn.  That’s a new relationship.
                                         
- Janine Benyus-

     One way that humankind has fouled its home planet is in the use of high heat, high pressure, and toxic chemicals for the creation of products.  Oddly enough, nature does not seem to need to use these damaging techniques.  Consider the spider.  Architect, Michael Pawlyn speaks of the example of the spinneret glands on the abdomen of a spider.  He states that they have six different types of silk which the arachnoid spins together into a fiber, which is tougher than anything man has ever produced.  The closest we have come to reproducing this feat is with aramid fiber which requires extreme temperature and pressure, and creates a large amount of pollution.  The spider, on the other hand, produces a far superior product using raw materials of dead flies and water.  It uses no harmful heat, pressure, or pollution which would be destructive to it’s surroundings.  At this time, we do not know the spider’s secret, but if we could learn it, we would have a healthier home, and a stronger fiber.

We don’t have a moment to spare in honoring these geniuses.
- Janine Benyus-

     The study of biomimicry has uncovered some of natures secrets, and we have started to utilize them for better products and processes, and a cleaner planet.  Forbes magazine ran a recent article on biomimicry.  It spoke of the benefits of the skin of the Galapagos shark.  Extensive research has gone into this species when it was found that they never have bacteria on their skin.  It was discovered that the structure of the skin cell does not allow bacteria to land and adhere.  This was astounding, and the implications where numerous.  Instead of using harsh chemicals in hospitals for cleaning to prevent the spread of infections commonly found in health care centers, some are now using this unique pattern on structures such as hand rails and door knobs.  Structure is also found to be the reason peacocks have their vibrant color.  There is no color in a peacock’s feathers.  Rather, our brain perceives the colors by the way light refracts through the cell’s structure.  What if we could eliminate the environmental waste hazard of toxic paints, for example?  Instead of painting a car, we could color it with structure.  

Take heart.  We are surrounded by genus.
- Janine Benyus-

     The creation of products is not the only thing we can learn from our wise neighbors.  For example, we are just starting to deepen our understanding of how nature works as a community.  Braden R. Allenby, Research Vice President of Technology and Environment at AT&T said, “We should be running a business like a redwood forest.”  I have learned that this is because the forest species live in eco-harmony, taking in the resources present and producing waste that in turn, is used by another species as a resource.  They have a symbiotic relationship with each other, and thus do not create toxic, unusable waste that would pollute themselves and their environment.  Mr. Allenby also said, “The Industrial Revolution as we now know it, is not sustainable.  We cannot keep using materials and resources the way we do now…At present, our system will collapse on itself.  It is currently linear using virgin raw materials and creating unusable waste.”  He goes on to talk about “no-waste economy” where there is a web of closed loops.  Very little raw material goes into the system, and very little waste escapes from it.  This is already happening around the world.

     One example of a “no-waste economy” is in Kalundborg, Denmark.  They call it an “ecopark”.  Four companies have come together in this community; they are linked, dependent on one another for resources or energy.  The power company pipes some of its waste steam to power the engines of two of the other companies: a refinery and a pharmaceutical plant.  Another pipeline delivers the remaining waste steam to heat thirty-five hundred homes in the town, which has eliminated the need for oil furnaces.  The power plant also gives it’s cooling water (which is now warm) to a nearby fishery which makes the water a perfect temperature for the fish to thrive.  The pharmacy’s nitrogen-rich slurry which used to be dumped into the fjord, is now donated to nearby farmers to be used as fertilizer.  The list goes on of waste products that are now recycled into useful resources for others in this community.  Much like a redwood forest would do.

We do not live in splendid isolation.

- Janine Benyus-


     One place to find this community of eclectic, earth-friendly, solutions-seekers is on the web site, “AskNature.org”.  It contains the world’s most comprehensive catalog of nature’s solutions to human design problems.  It is a continuously growing body of information of over 1,800 natural phenomena and hundreds of bio-inspired applications.  Who browses this library?  Designers, architects, engineers, chemists, and biologists, to name a few.  It is a collaborative effort where people seek information and share information.  Cross-pollination between disciplines is encouraged and naturally happens at this online meeting place.  The global biomimicry community seeks to make the act of asking for nature’s advise, a normal part of everyday inventing.  I am relieved beyond words.  Not only are there answers to our questions regarding these issues, there are people who are already taking those answers and implementing them into viable solutions.  Ask me what I Google search now!  My spirits soar as I see example after example of biomimicry in action.  I am mesmerized and enthused.  Blessed Nature.  Blessed Askers of Nature. 

Virtually all native cultures that have survived without fouling
their nests have acknowledged that nature knows best, and have had the
humility to ask the bears and wolves and ravens and redwoods for guidance.

- Janine Benyus-


Works Cited

Benyus, Janine M. Biomimicry. New York: William Morrow, 1997.
Deldin, Jon-Michael, and Megan Schuknecht. "The AskNature database: enabling solutions in biomimetic design." Biologically inspired design. Springer London, 2014. 17-27.
Kotler, Steven.  “Move Over Genetic-Engineering; Biomimicry Seems The Better Bet For Solving Global Hunger.” (2011)
Worden, Keith, William A. Bullough, and Jonathan Haywood, eds. Smart technologies.  World Scientific, 2003.

Wednesday, May 18, 2016

Brevity, business cards, and secret lovers

I have been searching my life for something fun.  Thankfully, I have recent assistance in my endeavor. (See blog post, "Blame the Dolphins 5/16/16)  I stumbled upon a doozie today.  As is so often the case with insight and discovery, it was right there all along.  I just didn't see/hear/feel/taste/realize it, until now.  I hadn't smelled it either, yet it was right there under my nose. 

My Creative Non-Fiction Writing professor, this past semester, introduced me to "Brevity", a non-fiction blog.

https://brevity.wordpress.com/about/




Shout out to professor C., one of those teachers who changes a student's perspective and hence a life's trajectory.  She has given me such insight into writing and being a writer.  It frightens me because as I suspected, the reality is vast and wide and I have just started to peek at its edges.  Oh, but it calls me.
  
Now that I am on summer break from school, I finally have some time to read Brevity.  It's been high on my "Things-I-want-to-do-after-finals" list.  So lovely, to be sitting on my porch drinking coffee and - the mother of all decadent behaviors - reading something which has not been assigned for a class.  This morning I read a submission by Gabriela Denise Frank, "Writing on the Fringe".  She talks about her passion for writing and seeking the opportunity to do so on the fringe of her life, around her other obligations.  In describing that situation she states, 

If you're like me, writing is not your spouse, your fiancĂ© or your steady.  Writing is your hot, secret lover who you only get to see in rare (and blissfully silent) hours stolen away from your commitments.  If you're like me, you don't have a business card with the title Writer on it, either - yet writing is central to your identity and if you didn't write, a part of you would die.

That statement got to me on so many levels, serious and random thoughts flit through my brain.  Do I have that kind of passion for writing?  I hadn't thought of it before, but I want a business card that says Writer.  I'm so ready for a hot, secret lover.

Wait, what?  I want a business card that says, Writer?  What does that mean?  Do I identify myself as a writer?  Am I allowed to identify myself as a writer?  Who gives permission for something like that?  Coming from the nursing world, you have to have licenses, credentials and external approval for that kind of undertaking.  So, how is someone deemed worthy of writing?  

As I am mulling these thoughts, I finally let it happen.  I allow the sacred reality to form itself into a clear sentence in my mind.  It would be pure bliss to sit on my porch every morning and write.  There, I've said it.  And even more ominous, I've blogged it.  No going back now.  

Ms. Frank uses these phrases to describe writing, "Frolicking in language and story", "The joy is simply everywhere", and "That’s what flow feels like, I realize—the sweet nectar of deep sensual ecstasy that erases the boundaries of time".  If that doesn't sound fun, I don't know what does.

Maybe I should have a business card that says, Writer at Play.  Oh, this is good!

Monday, May 16, 2016

Blame the Dolphins

I had a party last night. A simple fair really, not to go down in the annals of great party history.  But a mile stone of sorts for me.  Somewhere along the line, I have forgotten how to play.  Now, maybe you are thinking that a 55 year old women ought not to be playing anyway.  But I beg to differ.  Did you know that there are studies that show that we are healthier when we are with other people that we like and who like us, and that we are healthier when we laugh?  It's true.  I won't go into the details here, but look it up.  Good stuff.

But more importantly for me, my Spirit Guides have been telling me it's time to add Fun to my plate.  The trouble is, I hadn't a clue how to do that.  Then along came the dolphins.  But before that, along came Anne.

Anne Gordon de Barrigon is a biologist, business owner, author, public speaker, and an adventurous, inspirational person.  She is also a Dolphin Energy Healer, and Whale Whisperer.

http://www.annegordondebarrigon.com    


I caught a free webinar by her and my friend Maria Anderson (Healer and business women - http://www.hhpdx.org).  They are joining forces to present a kick ass Whale and Dolphin retreat this August in Panama.  Anne has a great reverence and connection with these amazing creatures.  I have worked extensively with Spirit Guides and Animal Helpers for many years, but I had never really worked with whales and dolphins before.  Anne has opened up a whole new world for me, as I am meeting these wise and generous teachers.  I am learning that dolphins are about fun and joy, while whales are about abundance.  Not only that, each kind of dolphin and whale has it's own specific magic and individual teachings.  They are so beautifully and generously willing to share.  They want to talk with us, teach us, and heal us.  I am blown away.  If you are at all drawn to these animals I would suggest you reach out to Anne.

This is Anne with the children of her beloved Embera tribe into which she married.





Back to my lack-of-fun story.  I was whining to the dolphins that I didn't know how to have fun.  They gently said, why don't you have a party?  Hmmmm, I could do that.  And I did.  They are now whispering other ideas to me.  Gifts to get me kicked started.  It's time for this girl to let her hair down and rejoin the human race - or rather, rejoin the humans that know how to have a good time!  I lovingly blame the dolphins.  



Sunday, May 15, 2016

Ursula Le Guin

I just read that Ursula Le Guin found math difficult.  I find that encouraging.

Where the hell did I go?

Between a bad job and a bad relationship in recent years, I have found myself crushed and lost.  Really lost.  No, you don't understand me.  I couldn't find myself at all.  Entirely my fault mind you.  No one can do to us what we don't allow.  And boy howdy, do I have a long history of giving myself away in relationships.  Old patterns stemming from abuse and neglect that left me confused and hollow, desperate to fill the void that was me.  So I get it, and I claim responsibility.  I endeavor not to hang my head in shame and defeat because that behavior is just as useless and destructive.

So what to do?  I don't tend to stay in defeat, though I know it well as I seem to find myself there all too often.  But I'm nothing if not a survivor.  So step by step I inch my way back to myself.  Where the hell did I go?

Recently some of my healer friends and I were helping another friend with a tear rendering problem.  An old ex-boyfriend she just couldn't seem to let go.  She knew she was done with the relationship and she knew that it was toxic for her to return again...and again.  And yet she kept thinking of him and had to force herself not to call.  If, in one weakened moment, she ever reached out to him, the dance would start anew until she would get up the courage to end it again.  Sound familiar?  I know it well.

I told her a Shaman would call that, "Soul Loss".  Sometimes...too often...we give pieces and parts of ourselves to a partner, that in a healthier state we would keep for ourselves.  Even if the partnership ends, we don't always give back or collect those pieces.  This can leave us feeling drained, lost, and constantly thinking of the other person.  The remedy?  Get your parts back.  And give back any that you may still be holding that belongs to the other.  It's only fair.  And trust me, you will never truly feel well while you still have them.  That is not the way our body's energy is designed to function.

So, we helped her do the energetic exchange, she a willing participant - him, not so much.  But when it comes to getting your soul pieces back, they have no say in the matter.  You may need to find a strong healer or Shaman to do the job, stronger than the hoarder.  But it's completely doable.

As I was doing the dishes last night, my first thought was, "Wow, her experience reminds me so much of my own."  Second thought, "Could that be what's going on with me?"  Third thought, "Duh!"  It's not like I hadn't been working on this before.  But when it comes to healing I have found that it is often done in layers, as we are ready.  So I turned to my revered Spirit Helpers last night and long story short, they got the job done.  Recovered, were two critical pieces I have now welcomed home.  Essential parts from my chakras two and four:  Labido and the ability to give and receive love.

Thursday, May 5, 2016

Spliced

     This is two old blog posts that I spliced together for an assignment for my Creative Non Fiction Writing class.  It was harder than I thought it would be.  Plus, I lost interest.  Earlier in the semester when I started this piece, these topics were still up for me.  Meaning, I was still struggling and working though these issues.  Last week when I was working on it for a final rewrite, I found that I had moved on.  I love history and what it can teach me.  But then let's move on, shall we?  Maybe that's why I like to blog so much, it's immediate, authentic and raw.  Otherwise, what's the point?

     So, hot off the press - my last semester's angst.



Madeleine Albright’s 4:03 AM Visit
     I’m still laughing about a Gilmore Girls' episode I watched recently.  It depicts the night Rory dreams her mother is Madeleine Albright.  In this scene, Ms. Albright plays herself!  Rory and her mother Lorelei have this freakishly close, girlfriend-like relationship.  I try not to think the word enmeshment, and just enjoy it because for the story line, it works.  Plus, Rory gets her chance to individuate in the end, so what's not to love.
     Ah, but I digress.  Back to Madeleine.  Every year at the exact time of Rory's birth (4:03 AM), Lorelei wakes her up by coming into her room, laying in bed with her, and telling her the story of her birth.  In hysterical and blatant terms, she says things like, "My ankles were huge…It was like doing the splits over a crate of dynamite...I was swearing like a sailor - on leave."  But this time, it is the first women Secretary of State of the United States of America who is running the lines.  Priceless.  
     Have I mentioned my recent obsession with Gilmore Girls?  I heard on NPR a couple of months ago that Netflix may be bringing it back with new episodes.  I think the original show is about 15 years old and at the time I probably only saw the first season or two.  There are seven, so I'm enjoying what is for me, a fresh new story.  The writer Amy Sherman-Palladino said that if they do the show again, it would be done right (good writing, good story line, same actors, etc).  I decided that if they are going to do it again, I wanted to see the old stuff first.  It’s the absolute perfect balance of effortless entertainment and intellectual, rapid-fire dialogue, with jam packed witty, obscure pop culture references.  Hold on to your hat, cuz it's a zany ride.  And it came into my life at a much needed time.  
     I had a mini melt down this semester.  I’m in school again after many years, and for the first time since starting this odyssey, I wanted to throw in the proverbial student-towel.  I was ready to call it quits.  How do you stop being a student....in mid semester no less?  I'm sure there is a lengthy process for that.  Damn, it had taken me all that time and hard labor to figure out the process of becoming a student.  The prospect of figuring out how to stop being a student, seemed just as exhausting.  It didn’t help that I was functioning (or not functioning as the case may be) on sleep deprivation and anxiety - produced by the double whammy of extra work shifts, and more homework than usual.
     This quick and unplanned decision to leave school, suddenly solidified during an uncontrollable cry in a bathroom stall somewhere in the math building.  I tried to be quiet about it.  I really did.  But you know how these things go, you're heaving and sobbing and sounds unavoidably escape.  But the women who were coming and going from the bathroom, didn’t seem to mind.  Thankfully they didn't call the campus police, or a school nurse – medical or psych.  Point being, they mercifully just let me blubber on.  (Maybe it's a common occurrence for people to be crying in the math building.  It wouldn't surprise me.  I feel their pain.)
   It had become clear to me that I just couldn't keep up this pace.  I jumped into school a year ago with my usual "get it done" determination, a motto which has taken me far in life.  (Oh, the long list of accomplishments I could show you!)  But the truth is, I have come to believe that the price is too high.  And I have paid dearly for my "go to" attitude over the years with illnesses and burnout of several professions.  The older I get, the more I ask, "Why?"  Actually, I know why.  I've had a life time of pushing faster and faster on the hamster wheel.  The faster I go, the less I have to feel.
     Life has been hard, and with that comes painful emotions.  Who wants to feel that?  One of my emotion-numbing behaviors of choice has been to embrace the Type A Personality of “go go go - do do do”.  Yea, I was a champ.   Recently, as I mapped out my curriculum until graduation, I realized I would be in school another two and a half more years.  My original plan was to just bulldoze through it.  I can make it happen!  But after my wake up call in the bathroom stall, I remembered that that's not the way I want my life to look.  Other than school and work this year, I haven't done a whole lot.  No time.  No money.  I can't even tell you the last time I went to a movie or had lunch with a friend.  As I saw this path stretching out before me for the next two plus years, I felt a serge of depression.  
     The upside of this story is that I am learning, and healing.  Good therapy, good healers, good support - all have made a positive difference in my life.  I can now spot my old patterns faster, and with that clarity I don’t buy into them as much.  I know that pushing ahead at a breakneck speed, will not bring me the balance in life that I seek.  Far from it.  And so I am backing off and slowing down.  It may take me longer to graduate, but a diploma is not my only goal here.  I also want to feel my emotions and experience all that life has to offer, in a balanced way. 

     So I flipped on Netflix for practically the first time in a year, and there they were.  The Gilmore Girls.  We are getting reacquainted, they and I.  They are reminding me how to slow down and have a laugh, or cry, over good entertainment.  It’s OK for me to go there, to allow myself to let go and have some fun.  Of course, when I slow my hamster wheel down, the emotions will come.  That’s what happens when we pull back from our addictive behaviors.  But I’m ready.  I know what some of those issues are and they scare me.  But I’m ready. 


Monday, May 2, 2016

I just want to sleep for a week.

Thanks all I'm asking.



Where do I live now?

     My last math class is over.  And while I don't have my grade yet, I no longer have math homework.  I have lived for the last two semesters in the math lab.  A place like home, where much time is spent, and I am greeted warmly by one and all.  My family of sorts, consisting of fellow struggling math students and brainiac math TAs that answer my constant questions without fear or hesitation.

     But I can't live here anymore.  They won't let me.  I have a distant memory of another home in which I lived.  I must remember and go back there.  It's a hazy, vague recollection of another place, another time - before algebra.  Where, oh where, do I live now?