Tennesseetransitions

I’m a long time member of an international, interfaith group known as United Religions Initiatives (URI). There’s a small but active local chapter here in NE Tennessee that wants desperately to promote peace among faiths. We are Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Pagan, Jew, Buddhist and more. We’re all different, but united in our hopes to see and experience world peace. Is that too much to ask? We don’t think so, and to commemorate International World Peace Day on September 21st, our chapter will be showing a PBS  film, titled “Talking Through Walls: How the Struggle to Build a Mosque Unites a Community”, this coming Sunday afternoon at 3 PM at the Johnson City Public Library. If you don’t know where the library is on Roan Street, I’d like to suggest that simply finding it and making it a part of your life might be an excellent way to promote peace! Our group is using this auspicious date to begin a whole series of films with the hope that we “Watch a Film, Start a Dialogue, and Make Peace Happen”. The only commitment from you is a desire to have peace-in your life, and in our community. Even if you can’t attend the film, I hope you’ll use the day to contribute to peace in whatever way you see fit. The UU church that I attend will be planting a new Peace Pole right after our regular service Sunday morning, with the words “May Peace Prevail on Earth” in Arabic, English, Spanish and Swahili written on it. Two years ago, the Carver Peace Gardens came together on Peace Day for a harvest potluck and peace pole planting at the entrance to the community gardens. Check it out:

Speaking of the community garden… Michael and I will be offering a workshop tomorrow (Wednesday) night at 6 PM on how to erect a low-cost, reusable, hoop house. This workshop is open to the public, there’s no charge to attend, and we’re hoping it will enable and encourage folks to construct their own simple hoop houses so that they’ll be able to grow fresh food right through the winter, without using any fossil fuels to do so! We’ll meet out in the garden, located at Carver Park, 322 W Watauga Ave in Johnson City- the weather’s supposed to be nice.

Future News: I’m going to be the guest this week on Rev. John Shuck’s  radio program called ‘Religion For Life’. He and I will be discussing ways that we can transition our lives and communities to the post-petroleum reality that is coming. It’s actually just a rehash of the same ideas that I write about in this blog, but if you’d like to listen in, you can catch it

Thursday, September 20th at 8 pm on WETS, 89.5.
Sunday, September 23rd at noon on WEHC, 90.7.
Sunday, September 23rd at 2 pm on WETS, 89.5.
Monday, September 24th at 1 pm on WEHC, 90.7.
Via podcast beginning September 25th.

Rev. Shuck writes his own blog called “Shuck and Jive”  which is where I first learned about  “Peak Oil”. He’s a goldmine of information about the subject and is a kind, funny and inspirational man to boot. Listen in!