The New Evolve Detroit!

Please read it in its intended format:
http://detroitevolution.com/evolvedetroit/ed100708.html

Here's my Favorite Part:
From Ethan Cronkite, Librarian Extraordinaire
Ethan has been joining us at the Lab for yoga for over a year now and in that time he's become a great friend and ally. Sometimes daily, Ethan sends The Lab Development Crew a vital bit of information that inspires and/or enlightens. He has a real knack for finding things that hit the nail right on the head and we're pleased to share what we hope will be the first of many notes from Ethan presented here.

I always look forward to the links in the Astrology Newsletter. This week, my favorite is Charles Eisenstein's Money and the Crisis of Civilization.

The crisis we are facing today arises from the fact that there is almost no more social, cultural, natural, and spiritual capital left to convert into money. Centuries, millennia of near-continuous money creation has left us so destitute that we have nothing left to sell. Our forests are damaged beyond repair, our soil depleted and washed into the sea, our fisheries fished out, the rejuvenating capacity of the earth to recycle our waste saturated. Our cultural treasury of songs and stories, images and icons, has been looted and copyrighted. Any clever phrase you can think of is already a trademarked slogan. Our very human relationships and abilities have been taken away from us and sold back, so that we are now dependent on strangers, and therefore on money, for things few humans ever paid for until recently: food, shelter, clothing, entertainment, child care, cooking. Life itself has become a consumer item.

The painful truth! Just what you want with your horoscope, right? :) But don't worry; it gets much more inspiring:

Any forest you save from development, any road you stop, any cooperative playgroup you establish; anyone you teach to heal themselves, or to build their own house, cook their own food, make their own clothes; any wealth you create or add to the public domain; anything you render off-limits to the world-devouring machine, will help shorten the Machine's lifespan. Think of it this way: if you already do not depend on money for some portion of life's necessities and pleasures, then the collapse of money will pose much less of a harsh transition for you.

Right on!
- Ethan

Shifting Away From Dollar Dependence - Trade With The Lab!
We inspire everyone to read Eisenstein's Money and the Crisis of Civilization and also to give yourself a couple of hours to view Zeitgeist Addendum. Whether you agree with these takes upon the current "crisis" or not, we feel it is important to explore different views. It is important to take a step back and look at as many potential outcomes as possible. We agree with Eisenstein's statement that the less dependent we are on money the less this crunch will hurt. To grow that we are actively creating a trade/gift exchange network for the Lab. Most everyone reading this knows what we do here at the Lab and, to open this up, we'd love to trade our services for other services that we frequently use. If you are interested, lets sit down and see how we can reduce our dependence on dollars mutually. No matter what you do, from housecleaning to accounting, from making clothes to massage, if you'd like to figure out ways to get your yoga or food for trade, this seems like as good a time as any. The upcoming Evolve Detroit site will include a forum on trade and exchange to assist in facilitating this. We are going to provide workshops on drafting trade terms to be mutually beneficial as well. As we begin to move in this direction it is important that we create meaningful and socially responsible terms and practices into place. If this kind of talk excites you and you would like to help to develop a local trade economy please get in touch with our volunteer coordinator about opportunities to help us grow trade in Detroit.

Until Next Time
We look forward to the next time we see you and thank you so much for your support. Have a wonderful week and remember to stay positive in the face of these times. Connecting more deeply and creating real change on our own blocks will help us weather whatever is to come. Our blessings to you and yours!

In Health, Joy and Liberation!
Gregg, Angela, Aya and the entire Lab crew!