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Thursday, July 19, 2012

The Velvet Underground

Occupy Wall Street
Occupy LegoLand - Andrew Burton/REUTERS
The mycelial network underground
Social media network connections for Tweeters mentioning OccupyWallStreet
I just returned from the annual Biomimicry Education Summit in Portland. What a fantastic trip! The highlight for me was dancing with Janine Benyus until two in the morning. That lady can indeed dance. Did you know she was a New Jersey DJ back in the days of the Talking Heads? I bet she could spin some tracks...

I asked her what she thought of the Occupy movement. She replied with this story:

Some time ago, the late Vaclav Havel, revolutionary poet and reluctant first democratically-elected president of Czechoslovakia, wanted to speak with her. She arrived to find him already too ill to meet her, but his Velvet Revolution friends took her on a whirlwind tour of the old underground hideouts. Janine was amazed to discover that most people lived their ordinary lives right below the surface, completely separate from their official lives above ground. Havel's friends explained that one day, everyone simply came out into the light to live their real life, and the revolution was a reality. Janine sees a parallel to our current situation. The infrastructure is already here in place, just like the mycelium of the fungus underground, and the new future, just like the fruiting body of the mycelium (the mushroom), is ready to pop out from the underground network that is right below our feet. Even as we speak.

Thank you, Janine, for a night of revelry and optimism.

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