I wrote Blog 3 from the Fingerlakes Project Workshop on sustainability and education that is held at Ithaca College every Spring. There are speakers discussing sustainability from different disciplines and programs around the world. Click on the program to learn more about the various topics. The first night of workshop, we dined at a restaurant that only serves local organic food.
The Moosewood restaurant has been here since the first time that I lived in Ithaca, when I was attending Cornell for a summer program in 1992. I stayed to work on my dissertation. I lived in cooperative house called Schyler House. I loved team cooking and our house motto which was, “Bad meals make good compost.” I left Ithaca right around the time the first ecovillage meetings started up.
For the past year, I have been involved in the planning of a third neighborhood here at Ecovillage Ithaca, Tree.
I have also been able to draw on my expertise in Public Relations to help to support a new charter school, New Roots, dedicated to sustainability and social justice.
Over the years, I have been involved in various cohousing and community efforts, including the start up meetings for what would grow into a cohousing neighborhood in Blacksburg, Virginia called Shawdowlake.
Shortly after I first moved to Hilo in 1998, I toured several sites with a famous Ecovillage architect, who told me that from the time that we were standing on the land until occupancy, it would be six years of meetings. My daughter, Malia, was a baby then. I was working full time as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication at UH Hilo, and that’s not how I wanted to spend my nonexistent spare time.
When Malia became old enough to start school, I wanted to avoid Malia getting Nature Defecit Disorder, so she attended several alternative schools in Puna including a Sudbury- influenced school.
We lived in a house with screen walls, buckets for composting toilets, and walked about a half mile to our car. To see a nearby community with similar structures, check out Gaia Yoga Gardens.
However, I found it challenging to maintain a professional career while battling back the jungle. One night our little home was surrounded by wild boar caught in traps; they were squealing angrily while rats and centipedes crawled across our bed. So we moved back to Hilo and tried to create a life with less driving. I enrolled Malia in the school just up the street from our home in central Hilo. It was better, but I still wasn’t experiencing the levels connection and intimacy I that I have felt in community.
After my pneumonia and the vent opening in the volcano last spring, I realized that I might have left Hawaii to heal. So as soon as the semester ended, we visited Ecovillage Ithaca I went on the tour, which is the first step necessary for being able to live here, I decided to ask the spirits of this land for permission to be here. I swam out into the middle of the pond to listen to the spirits of the land. I was floating when my cell phone rang. Malia was playing at the home of one of the fifteen girls her age her age that lived here, so I thought I better check to see if the call was about her. The call was coming from that number so I answered it. The mom told me that they had subletted their home for ten days, but the people just canceled and it was all paid for, so she invited us to stay there while they traveled. I took that as a clear sign.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Blog 2: Ecovilages
Blog 2: Ecovilages
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This Blog introduces the concept of Ecovillages as an Emerging Cultures that attempt to foster sustainability.
For an example check out Ecovillage Ithaca more on www.youtube.com/watch
weny.com/News-Local.asp
Dr. Becker's Blog
Catherine Becker
Associate Professor
Department of Communication
University of Hawaii - Hilo
beckerc@hawaii.edu
My Ph.D. is in Communication with an emphasis in Intercultural and Organizational Communication. My research focuses on cultural, organizational, and individual transformation and its relationship to communication. To learn more about my education, teaching, and research visit my UH Hilo faculty website
My interest in sustainability began when I was growing up in the industrial wasteland of Buffalo in the 1960s. I played in shadows of abandoned factories and swam in polluted waters. My craving for nature and more pristine environment led me to travel across the United States on a motorcycle at the age of nineteen and eventually, to Hawaii. My forthcoming book, Moving Between the Lines, is about that experience.
The first time I visited Hawaii, it was to attend graduate school at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. I was shocked to discover the amount of development on Oahu and sought refuge by backpacking in some of the Islands’ most remote locations. I became deeply connected to the natural and spiritual world of the islands have created a tool for personal and organizational transformation that was inspired by Hawaii called, Mana Cards: The Power of Hawaiian Wisdom.
In February of 2008, I developed pneumonia in both lungs and was hospitalized. Before that, I had been a mild asthmatic. Upon returning to teach at UH Hilo, my symptoms returned. My doctor suggested that my worsening condition might be linked to mold from a sick building. I investigated and found out there was a mold problem in K, the building where my classes met and the office was located. Shortly after that, Kilauea Volcano blew open a vent and the sulfur dioxide that was emitted from it further worsened my condition.
Associate Professor
Department of Communication
University of Hawaii - Hilo
beckerc@hawaii.edu
My Ph.D. is in Communication with an emphasis in Intercultural and Organizational Communication. My research focuses on cultural, organizational, and individual transformation and its relationship to communication. To learn more about my education, teaching, and research visit my UH Hilo faculty website
My interest in sustainability began when I was growing up in the industrial wasteland of Buffalo in the 1960s. I played in shadows of abandoned factories and swam in polluted waters. My craving for nature and more pristine environment led me to travel across the United States on a motorcycle at the age of nineteen and eventually, to Hawaii. My forthcoming book, Moving Between the Lines, is about that experience.
The first time I visited Hawaii, it was to attend graduate school at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. I was shocked to discover the amount of development on Oahu and sought refuge by backpacking in some of the Islands’ most remote locations. I became deeply connected to the natural and spiritual world of the islands have created a tool for personal and organizational transformation that was inspired by Hawaii called, Mana Cards: The Power of Hawaiian Wisdom.
In February of 2008, I developed pneumonia in both lungs and was hospitalized. Before that, I had been a mild asthmatic. Upon returning to teach at UH Hilo, my symptoms returned. My doctor suggested that my worsening condition might be linked to mold from a sick building. I investigated and found out there was a mold problem in K, the building where my classes met and the office was located. Shortly after that, Kilauea Volcano blew open a vent and the sulfur dioxide that was emitted from it further worsened my condition.
Consequently, I took an unpaid leave and moved to Ecovillage Ithaca in upstate New York State to heal. The road leading to Ecovillage is called Rachel Carson Way, named after the famous scientist who inspired the environmental movement.
I developed this course while living at Ecovillage Ithaca working out of my home office overlooking the pond. I hope that the unique perspective offered by connecting Ecovillage Ithaca and Hawaii will provide you with an opportunity to learn about sustainability, culture, and communication from the ground up. It is my vision that what we can learn in the course can contribute to fostering a sustainable future in Hawaii and beyond, for future generations."
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