Calling all PermaCulture CoCreators!

Came across this today, The CoCreation Rules .. by two marketing people I think, and loved it, especially this bit

"Co-creation is an energetic process, not an intellectual exercise"

Great that it's already out there in the vernacular from time ... hadn't heard it before though, needs to be popularized!

Unfortunately - or not - innovations in marketing probably happen faster than anywhere else, both for necessity and also because (turbo-capitalism being what it is) this industry has sunk the vast majority of the creative talent of the planet. So maybe I should pay more attention to what they're up to ..

If only we were half as creative or adventurous in the Permaculture Movement.

I started the Passionate Dialogue Wiki a few years ago, in order to unite all the amazing radical articles I was finding and that (initially) we were discussing in some permaculture email groups. But infact the dialogue has rarely continued for long or been that been passionate, at least outside of the great co-learning I've done with some close friends and colleagues (you know who you are, thanks for saving my life!)

Trying to talk about things which are more than gardening topics (see articles in PDfor examples) on the wider permaculture scene just got me into trouble most of the time (eg. getting kicked off an international PC list twice), and this is just one small symptom of how our Collective Intelligence (which Bill Mollison told me categorically does not exist) keeps being stunted by (mostly male and white) tradition.

Hopefully those days are numbered, as it becomes more and more obvious that although our physical needs are very important, designing a sustainable humanity is about so much more, (and all of society's injustices won't miraculously disappear once we have covered the earth with forest gardens). And that we won't get far even with the physical needs if we don't attend to - and urgently - all the other ones. This is actually included in basic PC design theory (see The Social and Abstract Components) since always, but often forgotten. Or rather, conveniently ignored...

That the biggest permaculture email list should have felt it necessary to include this guideline " Avoid the usual.... politics, diet, and religion... as much as practical." is pretty sad in my opinion: much of People Care - one of only 3 main ethics of PC - is about those 3 'hot topics'.

This is what my dad told me when I had to do when I worked behind the bar (they run a pub for a while): not get into any conversations about politics, religion or .. there was another one I forget, but probably it was just as interesting and just as unpopular to be seen to disagree as diet it to permies. All of that was to avoid controversy as to not run any risk of becoming unpopular. It seems everything is a popularity contest these days, and then people go to therapy because they can't be themselves..

Well, the call am putting out to the 8 extraordinary people who will be perfect for this8th Life project is that they have no such taboos: I'd like them to all be infinately curious, opinionated, excited-by-life people for whom nothing is out of bounds, and who have decided to take on a life with no limits, challenge themselves totally, in any and every direction, because they're eager to grow and be everything they are meant to be (so what is there to be frightened of?)...

Am excited that today i did some more work on this 8 Core People page, and also that I added some photos of my s/heroes (my mentors and spiritual mothers and fathers, people whose thinking has influenced me a lot and for which I am hugely grateful for) in the 80 Experts page.

This is the cool icon for the 8 roles ..