This week I had the good fortune to interview water activist Charlie Toledo about the upcoming election ballot measure Proposition One that provides funds for alleviating some of the water problems in California.
We are in our third year of drought. Suddenly the general population is acutely aware of the implications! There are some big changes happening, and this interview, along with one that I did in February 2014, outlines not only a very different approach to Water, but also to Earth.
Recently we had a 6.0 earthquake in Napa that damaged a number of our old buildings in downtown Napa as well as several hundred homes. Of course, this came up in the course of the conversation. People are jumpy! There is a great deal of collective fear: will we have another devastating quake? Will the rains come this year? Is this all a part of something much larger?
During the course of the interview, Charlie told me a story about the Loma Prieta earthquake of 1989. She said that her then eight-year-old daughter ran outside, yelling, The Earth is alive! The Earth is alive! This is in sharp contrast to my own reaction in this last quake! I thought we were going to lose the house and perhaps our own lives in the process. I wonder at how much fear separates us from Earth, polarizing us. Charlie talked about how the earth was regaining a balance through the quake. To listen in another way to the lack of rain, the shaking of Earth, is to be in relationship to Her.
I felt some healing after this conversation about Earth, Water, and earthquakes. The Earth is alive and has her moments and her needs, of which we have been pretty oblivious for at least a couple of hundred years. When we view her as the living entity that she is, we are bound to make different decisions about how we treat her.
Please enjoy these conversations with Charlie. May they bring a healing gesture!
Charlie Toledo on Water Legislation
Charlie Toledo: The Drought: February 2014