For My Daughter
That's why.
If you could kindly tap the ❤️ at the top or bottom of this newsletter it will make it easier for other people to find this publication. Ahéhee'! བཀའ་དྲིན་ཆེ།! 謝謝! Thank you! ขอบคุณ! شكرا ! תודה! Спасибо! धन्यवाद! Cảm ơn bạn! អរគុណ! Merci y Muchisimas gracias!
I don’t rise at 4:00 A.M. every day to do sitting meditation for an hour followed by an hour of research and study for my own benefit. I do not work all day teaching, leading workshops on basic forgotten knowledges like organic farming, appropriate technology and seed saving because it will make my resume look better. I don’t put myself in uncomfortable situations day after day, year after year, learning and unlearning myriad skillsets, thought processes, songs, myths, riddles, and endangered ways of being in order to make myself feel better, to heal my trauma or to find new ways to “get ahead.” And at the end of each day, when I am exhausted, I do not then force myself to stay awake after putting my daughter to bed to write for several hours with the goal of becoming famous or getting rich. I do all of this because I believe another world is truly possible. I have seen it. I have tasted it. And I am dedicated to helping bring what I briefly touched again into view. We can’t just talk about such things. We have to actually leave the world that isn’t working and begin building a new one. We have to commit to this work. We have to be willing to exit the illusion empire sold us and get our hands dirty again (literally). We have to leave modernities life-destroying comforts and learn to love the eARTh again.
We can’t keep pretending. Our situation is indeed dire. We don’t need to freak out, but we do need to be honest with ourselves. We need to do our research, get serious about what needs to be done and take direct action. We have to be creative. We must stop fighting with each other, stop being lazy, train our minds and hearts to be peaceful and loving and cultivate clever ways to organize ourselves. No one is coming to save us. We are on our own dear friends. We need to support each other and be kind. We have to have fun. Simple fun. We have to stop giving all our attention to people who don’t give a shit about us and offer it instead to those needs it the most; our children.
I have heard that some wise person once said that it’s easier to imagine the end of the world than it is to imagine and end to capitalism. I feel that. The whole world appears to have already been devoured by its narrow view. This may in fact be the ultimate result of empire; to make everyone stop believing in anything at all and simply fall in line. Nonetheless, we can’t allow this. We have to remember how to believe again. With every fiber of our being we have to genuinely know in our heart of hearts, with an unshakable certainty that a more beautiful way of being is absolutely possible. Not in some stupid profile pic belief kind of way, but in a quit your earth-killing job, pull out your war funding investments, stop settling for the lesser of two evils, put your entire life on the line and commit deeply to Higher Vision kind of way. I am refering here to the kind of intergeneration, long-game devotion to life that not all that long ago we, especially those of us who call the so-called United States home knew very well.
Being a Buddhist, part of my daily practice is to consciously generate strong motivation. For me, the main motivation is a more beautiful world for my daughter. When I was young, my main motivation was simply for myself. I suppose we could argue that for teenagers, that may be an alright motivation. There is a time and a place to focus on our own needs to be sure. But as we mature, we have to find greater motivation, Motivation that is for the benefit of others. If we don’t do this, we risk ending up mindlessly electing so-called “leaders” who care nothing for soil and water, who think McDonalds is food fit for the White House and have extramarital affairs with porn stars and don’t have the balls to admit it (no diss intended on porn stars mind you. All blessings to all of you and big props to Stormy!!). If we don’t find a way to regenerate the proper kinds of rites-of-passage that transform our pre-pubescent motivations into the BIG kind of Motivations that inspire Bodhisattvas, than we will likely become the kind of people who do nothing more than post emotionally triggered opinions on social media when kids are being bombed and thing that’s enough. We gotta get into this. Life won’t wait.
If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you.
– Gospel of Thomas, verse 70
I started this Substack because there were stories in me that were going to either save me or kill me. By the age of 21, with no formal initiation, forced by a “culture” of forever adolescents to figure out how to orient myself in a world gone mad, I had already experienced enough to know that we were heading in the wrong direction. The horrific events of 9/11 crystalized dissipated all doubts. Seeing how quick my country was to immediately attack other people with little context regarding the cause of a peoples rage broke my heart. I was a christian at the time (or so I thought) and even my pastor was in favor of the so-called “War on Terror” that would leave countless innocent men, women and children dead and would ironically escalate into the birthing of myriad terrorist organizations. We were not using skillful means. Too many stories were not being told and I knew it.
There were no elders around me then to help me make since of what was going on. My so-called “education”, mixed with the dominate zeitgeist of the time seemed to constantly shout, “Bigger, Better! Faster! More! Don’t ever quit!” A patriotic colonizer battle cry of sorts that had transformed itself into some kind of prep school rally chant inspiring yet another generation to do yet further damage to an already traumatized world. And so that’s what we all did… and that’s what we still do. We can’t ever admit defeat, we can’t rest, we can’t back down, we can’t let go. To do so is seen through the foggy lens of modernity to be a sign of weakness and will get you “fired!” as one sad, lonely businessman who is currently on trial now in New York famously said on a ridiculous reality television show that glorified being an asshole.
Anyways. The point is… We need Motivation (with a capital “M”). It’s a real superpower than can give us extraordinary strength. If we don’t have a strong enough reason to act than, we won’t! It’s that simple. Which is likely why the powers-that-be have no problem whatsoever with us all lying around on our asses all day numbing our brains on social media like a bunch of apathetic opium addicts. It’s so easy to control people who are addicted and numb! Too easy!!! Addicts aren’t motivated by anything other than what they are addicted to. Just make sure the junkies get their fix, and you have total control. Easy. As American as apple pie.
“We live in a kind of dark age, craftily lit with synthetic light, so that no one can tell how dark it has really gotten. But our exiled spirits can tell. Deep in our bones resides an ancient singing couple who just won't give up making their beautiful, wild noise. The world won't end if we can find them.”
-Martin Prechtel
In addition to strong motivation, we need faith. I may be naïve, but I still believe there are a few out there who haven’t given up yet, who still have dancing in their ancient souls a wild life-serving spark that refuses to accept the milk toast narrative being shot into our veins now that suggests this is all there is so the best we can do is buy an electric car, use a reusable bag at Whole Foods and vote for the “lesser of two evils”. Oh I’m sure even this here platform, which has impressively managed to avoid advertisements and algorithms will eventually be pimped and hijacked by the usual suspects. It probably already has been in ways of which I am currently unaware. So it goes. Nonetheless, I have decided to abandon constant sarcasm, doubt and toxic skepticism, to accept the things I cannot change while actively committing to cultivating, against all odds, a real faith that we still have in us the uniquely human capacity to co-create truly useful tools that can move us in a far better direction than where the mind-sucking platforms that currently dominate the conversation have recently led us. As such, I feel Substack offers an honest alternative to the divisive modes of communication now hogging the mic. And because advertisements, billionaires and corporations with questionable intent are not funding Substack (at least not that I know of!), this means it is up to us to regularly support each other as best we can, not only by reading what people here write but by paying them too. Personally, I have found this to be enormously empowering! Which brings us to our third super power…
…ACTION!
“What I truly believe makes a difference is where we choose to place our attention and where we choose to spend our money.”
I vote. Do I believe it makes a difference? Not really. But I still do it anyway, mostly as a symbolic salute to all those who selflessly put there lives on the line for the rights of “minorities” to do so. Those courageous people set the stage for all of us to face our fears too, to be bold, to take real chances. But what I truly believe makes a difference is where we choose to place our attention and where we choose to spend our money. Therefore, I have begun making it a spiritual practice of sorts in this uninspiring era of misinformation and mediocrity to actively seek out thoughtful writers, dedicated journalists, artists and poets of whom many have nobly exited the glitzy world of good pay and fame to instead sit here in circle with The People, right here on Substack. I read their work regularly. I interact with them directly. I think deeply about what they share and actively challenge both them and their readers… and, I PAY THEM.
We have to pay people who make our lives better. If we don’t, they can’t afford to do what they do. Let me rephrase this, we get to pay the warriors among us who remind us there are other ways of seeing and being. It is an honor to be able to do so. It is such an empowering act to consciously give our hard earned money, not to the government, not to Jeff Bezos or Mark Zuckerberg, Musk or any of the other uninitiated, forever adolescents who don’t deserve (or need) our money but to the people who really do. It feels really, really good to be able to do that. Because, um, no one* deserves to be a billionaire and it feels reeeeal icky giving the uber rich money when so many others could use it way more.
*Sorry Taylor Swift, not (👏) even (👏) you (👏)! Love, LOVE your music though, and your new video is 🔥!!)
Next week my daughter turns 4. Born in the crux of COVID lockdown, when it seemed like the U.S. was about to again find itself in the midst of another civil war, she chose to come into this world at very exciting time. It is, needless to say, a very interesting time to be a parent. As I was without work for most of her life due to all the reasons we’d all rather put behind us, it’s high time I level up my ability as a father to, as my pops use to say when heading off to work each day when I was but a wee lad, “bring home the bacon”. To be frank, I need to get paid more.
As anyone who writes, or paints or offers anything that challenges the dominate narrative placing themselves in the spotlight, naked, alone, raw and vulnerable knows, it’s hard friggin’ work to do this and it pays next to nothing. Yet the people who do this, keep the world alive. The talking heads controlling the easiest to hear narratives who DO have money on the other hand generally only talk about pop culture and war, making a narrow view ever narrower until nothing is heard but the endless echoes reverberating outwards from within the bowels of a lifeless chamber of a dangerous dream. I am honored to be among the many voices doing what we can to sing a different tune. Or, regenerate a forgotten one. And I am deeply thankful for all of you who listen, and dance.
Friends. I wish to keep this Substack free. I have decided to quit capitalism as it is generally understood and experiment with the good old fashion people-powered ways of being. Many of my closest kin, even my most radical thinking brethren have encouraged me to think twice about this, suggesting that I instead put up a paywall, offer occasional glimpses into my work, but keep the juiciest essays behind the Great Paywall. Maybe they are right. It’s certainly true that most artists do not ask enough to be fairly supported for the work they do. But I need to try this out a bit longer. So siblings, I come to you now, vulnerable and raw, to ask you thus, Do you appreciate my work enough to pay for it? I don’t feel right putting up a paywall. It feels yucky to me. I want to ensure that there is room for everyone at the table here. Those blessed with financial abundance and those not. I think there are enough of you here who resonate with what I am saying who are in fact able to support the work I do with a generous financial contribution to ensure that those who cannot do so will still have access to all of my offerings too. I believe this. This belief motivates me.
Ultimately, this plea is my birthday present to my daughter. I don’t like asking for money and only do it now because every morning when I sit on my meditation cushion it is her face I see. I have to support her and lord knows I don’t get paid enough from teaching or farming or seed saving! So this is the best I can do for now. Please, dear friends, if you can afford it, make the upgrade from free subscriber to paid subscriber. It would mean the world to me, and many others. Substack tells me around 2,000 people read this page every week. If I can get 10% of you to offer a minimum of $5.00 a month (less than the price of a latte) than I promise I won’t put up a paywall.
I have to extend my gratitude to all of you once more. I’ve been receiving a delightful stream of kind emails from so many of you recently regarding my writing. As cheesy and cliche as it may sound, this whole thing really is all about our relations (“Mitákuye Oyás’iŋ” as the great Lakota say.). In this time of increasing cultural divides, when the mainstream media keeps trying to suggest that we all hate each other, I refuse to believe it. We still have time to come together again.
There is another way. Have faith. Act.
All blessings.
No evil.
-Gregory Pettys
#mayallbeingsbehappyandfree
Strong motivation is what I'm cultivating now. I burn out often, and I struggle to feel a sense of purpose, but writing keeps me going. Thank you for your words.
I thought I'd wait a while with this comment, since it's a bit more personal.
When I first read this piece and saw the picture of your daughter, I couldn't help but start crying. I cried for myself, for you, for your daughter, for all the parents and all the children, for the world, for the lost opportunities, and for the lives we didn't get to live. I cried for the kids I could have had, had I been born at a different time in history or in a different world.
But allow me to back up a bit: early on in our relationship, my wife and I decided not to have children, because of the general state of the world, and because we think that a lot of things about the coming transition/simplification/collapse will be easier if you don't have kids. About eight years on, we firmly stand behind this decision.
But it's getting harder. The decision not to have kids was a conscious, rational, left-hemisphere decision - my heart wants something else. In different circumstances, I would have loved to have children. I've long dreamed of having two (or three) daughters, and raising them to be mindful, conscious, gentle, and connected eco-warriors hell-bent on smashing patriarchy, restoring ecosystems and creating a more beautiful world in the ruins of the old.
Thanks to the general state of the world, I am refused this most basic biological right. I mean, I *could* have kids - but the lifestyle we're leading would simply not be possible anymore. We would have to do a lot more things we don't like, and we'd probably have to look for "real jobs" to make money. In this society, kids come with a hefty price tag.
Words are not enough to describe the cruelty of a system that forces parents to enslave themselves to it in order to be able to "afford" their children. You love your children? Better go get that paper! Better chase that job, that promotion, that sale, and MAKE MONEY!!!
We naturally do *everything* for our kids, so we obey. The system knows this, and willingly exploits this increasingly profitable revenue stream.
At the same time, the system has worked relentlessly to destroy traditional community. Back in the days, everyone could have and raise children, with the help of the entire community. Those communities have been torn up and ripped apart by the system, which allows no other allegiances than those to itself. Everything must be paid for, everything must be accounted for. Everything has to be valued in monetary terms, including a parent's love for their child. How unspeakably fucked up.
You're very lucky to have a community surrounding you, but we don't (at least not yet), for various reasons. We know how crucial it is, but in our circumstances it's simply not an option right now. And we could never handle parenting on our own, nor would we want that for our children. The "nuclear family" is a catastrophic failure. Kids *need* to be part of a community to grow into health adults, and so far we simply can't provide this.
So with neither money nor community (and considering the general state of the world and our personal outlook), I am denied this dream.
And maybe (probably!) it's for the better, as sad as this sounds.
Please don't get me wrong: I don't say it's a bad idea to have children (and I don't blame people for having kids - we're animals, for chrissake, it's our biological duty!), but I believe it might help take pressure off society & the environment if there are more people who decide not to have kids, and thus fewer people in the future.
I hope we'll be able to build a community once collapse intensifies, supply chains rupture, and people have to rely on one another again. My deepest wish is to live in a multi-generational traditional community, so that I can help raise children who are not my own. You know, be the weird white uncle who knows stuff about the world. Maybe a storyteller and educator.
I'm a huge advocate of alloparenting and communal child-rearing (our "evolved nest," in the words of Darcia Narvaez), and I truly hope I'll be granted the opportunity one day.
The closest I could get to true fulfillment, I reckon.
Thanks for writing this. As a fellow subsistence farmer, I sadly don't have spare cash to send to you, but I can relate to your thoughts & ideas here. I don't write as regularly as you do, so I don't feel comfortable pushing my readers too hard to become paid subscribers - but I totally understand it if you do it. If I'd have a daughter, I'd do the same thing.
Good luck and best wishes to you, stranger-friend. May the World smile upon you and your family.