One on One ~ Keith Harding
Fall 2010
GLCC: How do you
make an income in our community? Do you
acceptRiverHOURS for this work? How do you spend them?
Keith Harding: My wife, Karen, and I make our daily living doing what most would call childcare. We call it “Childlife Habitat for ecological literacy” and “how to be truer humans.”
Ecological literacy
includes learning and
appreciation of how the wild world works, and a sense of reverence, wonder and enchantment for the wild world. Our kids are out in the wild world every day, rain, snow and shine.
Part of the education is off-trail, slow, observant bush whacking. Kids need
to test their skills.
Conventional lifestyles are so tame compared to just a couple generations ago (my generation). They are empowered when they know they can trust their strengths on an adventure like
crossing a creek on a fallen tree or moving silently over the ground.
Most of our kids by the age of five know and
appreciate a great deal
about Earth and its place in the Cosmos. They are empowered to bless and heal where they can. They learn to draw, paint, and model clay making art that
celebrates their connection to all of life. The forest is their alphabet. The forest nurtures them, and they nurture the forest.
I also make simple and functional walking sticks from Vine Maple and Red Alder which work well as a third leg balance point for up and down hills, over streams, and warding off dogs, and cougars,
if necessary.
These sticks are intended for use, and not for you to feel bad if one gets broken or lost. Just get another. (Years living in Alaska I always carried guns afield, now I carry a whistle, pepper spray and a stout walking stick.) I “bush whack”, off trail, a lot and have a lot of use for a walking stick.
We gladly accept
RiverHOURS for payment, but have not as yet received many. I would like more people to call me for a
walking stick. It’ll do your heart good to get out more in the wild. It is as necessary as eating! I just know that if you had one of my walking sticks you would have
amazing stories to tell of your adventures!
Speaking of stories, that is one of my other listings. I tell short stories from New England, with a twist of humor and usually a lesson. You have to hear them to
appreciate my full expertise as a story teller, so again please, call me. Employ your neighbor, enliven
your mind!
I enjoy paying friends
who do work for me in
RiverHOURS. One of my favorites is Anthony
Villagomez, who does very careful tree and brush work. I highly recommend him.
Karen brings home
RiverHOURS that she exchanges for regular money from people who are not spending them, just piling them up. I won’t name names here, but we get
them that way.
GLCC: In your work with children and forest
literacy, do you find parallels between those two communities and the “grown up” world? What could a local currency learn from young
children? What could we learn about economics from the forest?
KH: I see local currencies as having a real parallel to wild ecosystems in keeping energy more local, being part of a never ending circular system. This is one of the things kids learn about the water cycle, or the “Round River” as Aldo Leopold called it.
There is much intimacy, interconnectedness in
wild nature, as there is in
indigenous human
cultures... as there could be with a modern human community fully embracing a local currency and other systems based on principles of equity, caring and true ecological sustainability.
Children are generous, and spontaneous. This is what we could experience using RiverHOURS, if we could let go of old habits using regular money. We always try to save and skimp, which really narrows down making connections with our neighbors. The whole network stays small and cramped this way.
Children are generally more open to new
possibilities. They don’t think it through so tightly that nothing unexpected could ever happen. Children don’t worry so much. There is a lot of fear and distrust out in the world, some for good reason! We just have to have some common ground where we can play, and trust and be creative, safely!
I think that local currency could be that kind of
common ground, if we are willing to let it be. I relish the chances I have to be more creatively playful, when I am around children, even in these dreadfully
serious times.
GLCC: You have had
involvement in our local currency from the
beginning, and around the edges, as your wife is on the GLCC steering committee. What do you think of the system thus far? What can we glean
from the community
experiences with
RiverHOURS that could enable us to improve
the system?
KH: Like all things new from the grassroots, local currencies take time to catch on. If GLCC had the advertising budget of some consumer products, I suspect the “catch on” time would be pretty quick. RiverHOURS represents one piece of
moving towards
“newforming” a better,
more equitable, ecological and sustainable world
for everyone.
RiverHOURS could play a key role in developing a stronger, more vibrant local community by paying people for beneficial work that is often not recognized in the conventional system and keeping equity in the
community. We need a
bigger network, more
mainstream folks to be
open to this system for a solution to draconian budget cuts, and the constant
drain of money out of our local economy.
All of my observations and study over many years tell me that the economic stew we are in won’t be over soon. We will not be going back to how things were. We are in the birth quickening of a new paradigm based on ecological health, equity, care, and sustainable
prosperity for all.
Fall 2010
GLCC: How do you
make an income in our community? Do you
acceptRiverHOURS for this work? How do you spend them?
Keith Harding: My wife, Karen, and I make our daily living doing what most would call childcare. We call it “Childlife Habitat for ecological literacy” and “how to be truer humans.”
Ecological literacy
includes learning and
appreciation of how the wild world works, and a sense of reverence, wonder and enchantment for the wild world. Our kids are out in the wild world every day, rain, snow and shine.
Part of the education is off-trail, slow, observant bush whacking. Kids need
to test their skills.
Conventional lifestyles are so tame compared to just a couple generations ago (my generation). They are empowered when they know they can trust their strengths on an adventure like
crossing a creek on a fallen tree or moving silently over the ground.
Most of our kids by the age of five know and
appreciate a great deal
about Earth and its place in the Cosmos. They are empowered to bless and heal where they can. They learn to draw, paint, and model clay making art that
celebrates their connection to all of life. The forest is their alphabet. The forest nurtures them, and they nurture the forest.
I also make simple and functional walking sticks from Vine Maple and Red Alder which work well as a third leg balance point for up and down hills, over streams, and warding off dogs, and cougars,
if necessary.
These sticks are intended for use, and not for you to feel bad if one gets broken or lost. Just get another. (Years living in Alaska I always carried guns afield, now I carry a whistle, pepper spray and a stout walking stick.) I “bush whack”, off trail, a lot and have a lot of use for a walking stick.
We gladly accept
RiverHOURS for payment, but have not as yet received many. I would like more people to call me for a
walking stick. It’ll do your heart good to get out more in the wild. It is as necessary as eating! I just know that if you had one of my walking sticks you would have
amazing stories to tell of your adventures!
Speaking of stories, that is one of my other listings. I tell short stories from New England, with a twist of humor and usually a lesson. You have to hear them to
appreciate my full expertise as a story teller, so again please, call me. Employ your neighbor, enliven
your mind!
I enjoy paying friends
who do work for me in
RiverHOURS. One of my favorites is Anthony
Villagomez, who does very careful tree and brush work. I highly recommend him.
Karen brings home
RiverHOURS that she exchanges for regular money from people who are not spending them, just piling them up. I won’t name names here, but we get
them that way.
GLCC: In your work with children and forest
literacy, do you find parallels between those two communities and the “grown up” world? What could a local currency learn from young
children? What could we learn about economics from the forest?
KH: I see local currencies as having a real parallel to wild ecosystems in keeping energy more local, being part of a never ending circular system. This is one of the things kids learn about the water cycle, or the “Round River” as Aldo Leopold called it.
There is much intimacy, interconnectedness in
wild nature, as there is in
indigenous human
cultures... as there could be with a modern human community fully embracing a local currency and other systems based on principles of equity, caring and true ecological sustainability.
Children are generous, and spontaneous. This is what we could experience using RiverHOURS, if we could let go of old habits using regular money. We always try to save and skimp, which really narrows down making connections with our neighbors. The whole network stays small and cramped this way.
Children are generally more open to new
possibilities. They don’t think it through so tightly that nothing unexpected could ever happen. Children don’t worry so much. There is a lot of fear and distrust out in the world, some for good reason! We just have to have some common ground where we can play, and trust and be creative, safely!
I think that local currency could be that kind of
common ground, if we are willing to let it be. I relish the chances I have to be more creatively playful, when I am around children, even in these dreadfully
serious times.
GLCC: You have had
involvement in our local currency from the
beginning, and around the edges, as your wife is on the GLCC steering committee. What do you think of the system thus far? What can we glean
from the community
experiences with
RiverHOURS that could enable us to improve
the system?
KH: Like all things new from the grassroots, local currencies take time to catch on. If GLCC had the advertising budget of some consumer products, I suspect the “catch on” time would be pretty quick. RiverHOURS represents one piece of
moving towards
“newforming” a better,
more equitable, ecological and sustainable world
for everyone.
RiverHOURS could play a key role in developing a stronger, more vibrant local community by paying people for beneficial work that is often not recognized in the conventional system and keeping equity in the
community. We need a
bigger network, more
mainstream folks to be
open to this system for a solution to draconian budget cuts, and the constant
drain of money out of our local economy.
All of my observations and study over many years tell me that the economic stew we are in won’t be over soon. We will not be going back to how things were. We are in the birth quickening of a new paradigm based on ecological health, equity, care, and sustainable
prosperity for all.