I’ve learned a new word: Ecotopia is a name for a fertile edge that lies between a forest and a meadow. It is a metaphor for many “fertile edges” that lie between disparate situations.
I am discovering a Ecotopia as I live on the fertile edge between my remembered time of 91 years and the unknown future. On my bucket list is a wish to walk the halls and byways of Greencroft on a pilgrimage to bless others and me. Last evening I pursued the pilgrimage and paused at the doors of Manor III to think well of its residents. The three pictures in this blog appear on resident’s door in Manor III.
To illustrate the use of ecotopia as a metaphor consider Otakara Klette who chooses to live on the edge when she respects modern medicine and listens to the whispers she hears from deep within her body. She believes Hippocrates the founder of modern medicine who wrote that “Natural force within us are the true healers of disease.” Otakara aims to help us unlock our self-healing mechanism. Click to hear a you tube on “hear your body whisper.” by Otakara. Mind you, Otakara doesn’t deny a role for modern medicine. But, in my opinion, she may have discovered a fertile edge between her creative imagination and modern medicine.
Jarem Sawatsky thrives on the Ecotopia between life and death with the reality of being a victim of Huntingtons disease which he describes as an incurable, genetic, progressive, fatal brain disease, a kind of combination of Parkinson”s, Alzheimer’s and Schizophrenia. Sawatsky accepts his situation to be a fertile space in which he has helped produce and edit Voices of Harmony and Dissent: How Peacebuilders are Transforming Their Worlds. he has helped compile a Peacebuilders’ Toolbox: 52 Online Resources for Peace Work. To pursue this Ecotopia click here.
Hauahaus and Coles are professors at Duke University. Through interaction with their students the two professors found a fertile edge between evangelical theology and liberal democracy that produces what they call a “radical ordinary”. I have not read the book to the end, but I believe that such phenomena exist. To join in the conversation on the radical ordinary between the professors click here.
I am a king of small domain and free therein to be a fool.
I don’t deny it, I am a fool.
Thanks for introducing these neighbors to us through your writing and photos. It inspires me. I need to find out more about our neighbors !
I didn’t say “ your comment is awaiting moderation. “ What’s that all about?
Thanks Martin, I especially liked the motto about the mountain, which God helps us climb. I needed to hear that in light of a mountain which I am climbing.