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Andrew Jackson, with his forced march of the Cherokee along the Trail of Tears is no darling of humanitarians. He did, however, get one thing right. Upon closing the Second Bank of the United States, he correctly accused the bankers of having privatized gains while socializing losses. He recognized, two hundred years ago, what many of our most revered economists fail to acknowledge today. Many of our nation’s largest enterprises are leveraging the worst aspects of both capitalism and socialism.

There is a big, big difference between the entrepreneurial business person that can create something of value from almost nothing, and the custodial CEO, who’s chief talent is sticking it to taxpayers in parasitic fashion. There is a stark contrast, between the custodial management that persuades constituents and investors to expect every indulgence, as opposed to those highly disciplined entrepreneurial leaders who exude a spiritual idealism, one that has the awesome power to take an enterprise and even a nation from one level of attainment to the next.

True leaders steadfastly refuse to discount the value of motivational factors. No one of quality wants to work for a company that fails to exemplify a higher calling. Those companies that make gobs of money without making meaningful contributions to the public treasury, while using the infrastructure that is mostly financed by individual taxpayers, are properly defined as freeloaders. The companies that pay wages so low they make public charges of their employees, forcing them to seek heating, rent and nutrition assistance, are operating in a parasitic fashion, while embarrassing their the employees and making them take the rap.

Those companies that have advanced the fiction of corporate personhood have clearly distorted what was, at one time, a constitutionally grounded democratic republic. While such companies masquerade as good neighbors and “good corporate citizens” they are, in actuality, no such thing.

The static cliche in the suburbs is promoted by the evangels of mammon, the penny-wise, pound-foolish that are currently at the commanding heights of the world’s economy. Even so, we must know, that we are not going to put a ten to twenty trillion dollar national debt to rest by sustaining the last gasp of an outmoded economy or the fossilized thinking of those deeply vested in it.

We are faced with the reality that we must rebuild our nation’s economy. We should be asking ourselves: “What kind of economy do we want?” Faux corporations, those controlled by outside investors, act in parasitic fashion. They engage in tax avoidance to maximize returns primarily for those outside investors. This is most recently evidenced by the fact that 91 of the Fortune 500 companies paid no federal income taxes in 2018. It is common practice for a business, consistently offering high dividends and low prices, to deliver these competitive advantages to investors and customers by the systematic tamping down of employee compensation, through a combination of poverty wages and hollowed out benefit packages.

A new type of Employee Owned Benefit Corporation or EOBC is less likely to exert a distorting and malevolent influence upon our democracy. It is far more likely to act in the greater interest of the community. Within the body politic, healthy enterprises are the foundation for affluent countries and a thriving global economy.

If we are to expose the blithering incoherence of those who believe increasing the minimum wage is a job killer, it will be by questioning how paying a CEO over one thousand times an entry level employee’s wage is not a job killer. Pseudo-conservatives have demonstrated their calloused disregard for the health and welfare of marginalized people throughout human history. They have claimed that financial assistance for those in need would run up deficits, negatively impacting future generations. In their self-serving world view, only the most privileged are likely to become a part of any future generation.

The US economy and that of the world is not sustainable to the extent it is overly burdened with an increase in the cost of disease care, perpetual warfare, migration patterns driven by genocide, pollution, and climate change; plus a seriously demotivated workforce. When the will of the electorate is continually subjugated to that of the moneyed interests and the whims of authoritarian leaders, democracy declines as would-be participants adopt a “Why the hell should I bother?” attitude.

We can break this cycle of corporate socialism and parasitism for ours is an entrepreneurial country. To fix it, we must first realize that a corporation, controlled by outside investors, is not a store of value nor is it typically a center for creativity. It is not a job creator and instead devotes significant resources to getting the people out of the loop. It is far more likely the means to siphon the life plasm out of any organization, composed of diverse personalities, working together for a better life.

Intentional consumerism is how we vote every day with every dollar. It is how the citizenry can express its preferences for a promising future with each and every transaction. It’s how we can direct our purchasing power towards employee owned corporations and better yet, Employee Owned Benefit Corporations (EOBC’s).

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If you could measure the quality as well as the quantity of natural light entering your greenhouse or growing dome, you could supplement with the kind and amount of artificial light needed for optimal plant growth. The colors preferred by plants for rooting, stemming, branching, leafing, flowering and seeding vary just as they do for the temperature, atmospheric pressure, gas envelope, hormonal balance, and nutrient complement.

While there are many moderately priced systems for measuring the amount of light, measuring spectral quality has long been elusive for hobbyists and start-up entrepreneurs. Low cost, Internet of Things computers such as the Nucleo, GeekCreit, BeagleBone, Seeed Studio, AdaFruit, DFRobot, Elegoo, Raspberry-Pi, Arduino, SparkFun, and SoraCom can serve data loggers using a wide variety of sensors. They can communicate via cellular services, WiFi, or hard-wired home scaled networks. They can be polled by a more robust system capable of doing the required analysis and effecting some action such as running artificial lighting systems for remediation or compensation for any shortfalls in the natural lighting.

Sensors have been the most cost-prohibitive components since the cost of networks and the polling computer are typically shared with that of other applications. When one’s approach to gardening technique is characterized by a pinch of this and a dash of that, light balancing has long been relegated to the category of mystic art. Control has been determined by a simple clock.

Photosynthetically Active Radiation (PAR) plays an active role in your cultivation efforts while also controlling forest carbon and water quality. Research quality PAR sensors, that are calibrated to National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) specifications, are expensive. There are however, ways to beat the $300 – $1200 cost of a laboratory quality sensor. The focus for this little monoscussion is on just how the most expensive and the cheapest sensors can be calibrated to some standard using a simple setup.

When that standard is informed by your experience as a grower together with the natural light that enters the growing chamber, your analysis will more likely be based upon your observations and supported by the logged data. Your decisions will be along the lines of “I want more of this and less of that.” When you start measuring the relative progress of plants adjacent to the North, East, South, and West windows, your standard will evolve as you try to give your plants the agricultural equivalent of personalized medicine.

Standardizing your own PAR sensors can be achieved by simply measuring the light reflected off of a white surface from a light source where consistency can be assured from one test to the next. You have a choice between balancing the output of sensors subjected to this reflected white light without filters, or measuring through color filters. The essential point is that whatever you do, do it the same way next time. Measuring at multiple windows within the same greenhouse, or from a few windows across a widely distributed group of greenhouses, calibrating the measurement systems prior to deployment will give you reliable, actionable intelligence. 

As for the sensors themselves, they may be the kind that output a variable current or a variable frequency. Simple LEDs can convert light energy to electrical energy just as they can convert electrical energy to light. All of the sensors can be placed behind precision photographic filters to divide the whole white light into bands for measuring either the red-green-blue or cyan-magenta-yellow components of whole light. These additive and subtractive primaries are used extensively in scientific, photographic, and video-graphic applications so the consistency within a particular brand of filter is reliable.

Photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) is defined as light with wavelengths between 400–700 nanometers. As one might expect, PAR has high spatial variability, especially in rugged terrain that features some combination of forested, cleared, and developed areas. Other variables include the accuracy and stability of the sensor array. The less expensive sensors tend to exhibit less consistency at low PAR levels.

As a grower, the low light levels may not be of serious concern as you are less likely to be troubled about the plants getting more than enough light. Then again, the cost of running artificial light to compensate, where no compensation is required, may justify a closer look or more expensive sensors in a large scale system.

A simple and inexpensive device for logging photosynthetically active radiation is well within reach for most growers. Complementing that measurement effort with a system capable of running artificial lighting at just the right color and for just the right time is also doable. Reverse engineering comprehensive systems to achieve modularity will make it possible to swap out components such as sensors, signal converters and amplifiers, micro-computers, and code as needed.

Evolving such a system can be rewarding personally and financially, as well as gastronomically.

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Ask any number of Christians why Jesus came to earth and you are likely to receive an equal number of different answers. While one camp will advance the statement “To die for our sins,” others will quote the Gospel according to John and the verse “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” While the unbeliever is likely to be confused by the difference in emphasis, those sharing the cardinal precepts of their faith are always free to choose what amounts to the lead line for the greatest story of all time.

Time provides the essential context for our story. When Jesus was born into this world as a helpless babe, Isaiah had already put forth the question: “”How are you fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How are you cast down, you who dared to confuse the worlds!” During his short sojourn on earth, as the Son of Man; Jesus was, in weakness, made powerful by faith and through submission to the will of Our Father.

Prior to the Incarnation Christ had declined to quash the Lucifer Rebellion by power and might. Lucifer’s blasphemous pretensions and shameful misrepresentations resulted in tremendous losses among the children of light. John in the Book of Revelations referred several times to the dragon that became the enduring symbol of the insurrection. He wrote:

• “And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon” . . .
• “And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth” . . .

• In referring to God’s angel John said: “And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.

Jesus referred to the devil as the Prince of this world. When the disloyal prince was confronted by the Sovereign of our universe incarnated as Jesus, a great humanity that had been rebellion-segregated was then, depending upon individual choice, liberated, set spiritually free. What Christ had chosen not to do, by the power of arbitrary authority, he did as the Son of Man. When Jesus said: “The Kingdom of Heaven is within you” he not only threw us a life line, but also revealed that Heaven abides personally. Our Heavenly Father actually resides within us.

Now you may be wondering why, as John wrote, the dragon was “loosed a little season.” Any understanding of why must be informed by taking a deep dive into the concept of free will. When we pray to Our Father; “Not my will but your will be done” or “It is my will that your will be done,” we are acknowledging the gift of personal volition. God could have easily created a race of automatons and yet, for a variety of reasons, he chose not to.

The Book of Genesis quotes God as saying “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

John Wycliffe, in the preface to his 14th Century bible translation to Middle English, made it clear that the bible advances “government of, by, and for the people.” The offended priesthood of his day, dug up and burned his bones. Lucifer, and apparently some priests of Wycliffe’s time, would deny the unalienable right of individuals, communities, nations, and even worlds to be the arbiters of their own destiny. 

The Son of God had declined, through the exercise of his creator prerogatives to discredit the those individuals fomenting insurrection. Instead, as the Son of Man, one who was made lower than the angels for a time, he then wrested dominion from the hands of the fallen. In so doing the whole local universe in all fairness clearly and forever recognized the mercy as well as the justice.

The next time you, or a friend in the grips of an atheist perspective, are caught up in the question “If God is all powerful, why does he allow such human misery to exist,” consider the wisdom behind the time lag, wherein the dragon must be loosed for a season. 

God will not allow his justice to destroy what mercy can save. The careful response to Lucifer’s sophistries is a clear indication that God wants us to be free and un-coerced in making a deliberate choice. The Father, and the sons for The Father desire only that loyalty and devotion that is voluntary, wholehearted, and sophistry-proof. We are the ultimate beneficiaries.

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When most people think about the Roaring Twenties, the highlights quickly come to mind. Women in the U.S. gained the right to vote in 1920. People of that era also witnessed the advent of broadcasting, a steady climb-out from the post Word War One recession, and a shift in emphasis, from wartime production, to a new mass production that yielded an abundance of consumer goods. In our reprise one century later, we hope to tap the enthusiasm that characterized the twenties of a century ago as we also consider ways to avoid the pitfalls.

The 1920s were capped off with a global depression, caused by recklessness, the counterfeit wisdom of many who occupied the commanding heights of the U.S. economy. The 2020s began with a similar, all too familiar recklessness. It started with a depression that is, in no small part, also attributable to such run-of-the-mill selfishness on the part of the inheritors, skimmers and hoarders of wealth.

The fiscal policies of the years preceding 1920 and those preceding 2020 have certain common elements that suggest our leaders have failed to learn from history while dooming the rest of us to repeat it. A pair of once in a century global pandemics revealed that the so-called “smartest guys in the room” ran their businesses in such a way that they failed to maintain a rainy day fund, they paid their employees poverty wages that made it almost impossible to build any kind of savings on a personal level.

Where the 1920s ushered in a frenzied era of mass consumerism. Today we must place a new emphasis on a form of consumerism that is far more intentional. We will borrow the best from the earlier era’s artistic, social, and cultural dynamism. And we will, at the same time, give preference to those businesses that exhibit a genuine culture of benevolence.

John Wycliffe, in the preface to his fourteenth century middle English translation of the Bible wrote: The bible is about government of, by, and for the people. This principle is reflected in the cardinal precepts of the United States Constitution through the first three words: “We the People.” The thread was later highlighted when Abraham Lincoln said: “that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

The Horse and Sparrow Theory of Economics holds that, if you feed the horse all the oats it wants, the sparrows can subsist on the undigested oats that are to be found in the dung piles along the road. Since this theory was advanced in the 1890s, a number of efforts have been made to disguise a clear condescension and disgust, the most privileged among us hold, for We the People.

Today, the same theory has undergone some name changes to make it a bit more, if you’ll excuse the expression, palatable. Leaky, trickle-down, and supply-side are among the names floated to make such unmitigated selfishness less discernible and thereby less offensive to the masses. All of the inequities on our planet are directly traceable to such depraved heart indifference and unconscionable attitudes.

The United States was formed when the founders sought to throw off the yoke of those they described as “foreign potentates.” Then over time, the ownership of certain companies and corporations transitioned from control by the enthusiastic entrepreneurial cohorts that formed them, to the domestic robber barons, and then to a new generation of outside investors, foreign potentates.

These inauthentic companies and corporations are no longer characterized by people associating for a common purpose or acting corporately. Their fate is rather in the hands of outside investors that have no deep-set stakes in the companies or the countries in which they operate. The Supreme Court of the United States has effectively promoted a strangely sociopathic form of corporate personhood through a clear lack of intellectual rigor, together with its failure to differentiate between the persons within, against a fictitious oftentimes heartless overlay.

What if we could strike, perhaps even force a better balance? What if outside investors could participate without siphoning the life plasm out of our enterprises, without exerting the kind of control that has resulted in hollowed-out benefit packagers and subsistence wages? After all, the compensatory costs, such as housing, heating and nutrition assistance are borne by the taxpayer. Think about how vibrantly alive and competitive our companies and our communities could be if everyone within them was truly enriched by them.

That passes for conservatism today is, for the most part, penny wise and pound foolish. It is, at times, even parasitic. How much healthier would our democratic republic be if the outside investors were unable to exert a distorting influence in the name of those by whom the company actually operates?

To effectively convert or sunset such pretentious companies, while raising a new 21st Century enterprise architecture, can help to cure the ills of our otherwise abundant world.

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Television networks have worked continuously to maximize their return on investment by making spectator sports more exciting. For example, I once heard a proposal about how NASCAR races could be more compelling by putting the beer stand in the middle of the track. “Now that would be a sport!” said one producer. News organizations have long operated in accordance with the same doctrine “If it bleeds it leads.” They’ve been pushing the fine line between news and entertainment for a long, long time. One of the initiation rituals is to put young, low seniority reporters downtown to describe an incoming hurricane.

As they stand, waiting to be decapitated by a flying stop sign, they often struggle to be heard above the wind as it messes with the big furry microphone they’re holding. The synthetic fur cover you often see on a microphone is referred to as a “dead cat” or “wind muff” by TV news crews. Experience hath shewn the funny looking covers can actually help to reduce the amount of wind noise that gets broadcast or recorded. One time, when I was tilting at windmills on a calm day, it occurred to me that I was missing the glorious battle. While windmills are ferocious noisemakers, they are highly efficient energy generators because of the wind. 

In recent decades some engineers, after spending years trying to protect microphones from the effects of wind while recording on location, have finally decided to just go with the flow. Among them are those who investigated the possibility of using microphones to charge batteries from noise. While the idea behind microphones has always been to capture intelligible sound, what if they could be used to produce electrical energy from brute force noisemakers like a Boeing 747? Such experiments are ongoing.

They’ve considered numerous ways of converting otherwise wasted energy into useful energy. They measured the noise produced by aircraft, elevated trains, industrial plants, auto horns, jazz bands, trucks, quiet conversations, and enraged spouses. The’ve imagined fences running along the side of busy highways where over 20,000 cars would pass by daily, all of them generating sound. They mused about giant puppy mills with thousands upon thousands of puppies, all hooked up to microphones, with a few cats wandering around outside the cages.

All of these schemes had just one drawback. There isn’t enough energy in the sound to make it worth-while. Think about it. We have little tiny, highly sensitive eardrums. It doesn’t take much to move them. Even very loud sounds, while perceived as big, are only a tiny vibration within our ears. Big noises only sound loud to us because we have evolved very sensitive auditory systems. We can’t harvest large amounts of energy from sound if it just ain’t there.

What if, instead, we take another look at our perceived enemy. Not just the noisy windmills but the wind that drives them. A well designed microphone that is sensitive enough to respond to acoustical energy would also resonate with the wind. Air is always on the move and some combination of upslope anabatic current and downslope katabatic current is always present. It may not be thought of as wind. It may not be enough to move a windmill. But it is likely to contain more energy than sound.

Breezes that are visible as they move across the grass and leaves that flutter when all seems calm, are indications of atmospheric turbulence that can be harvested. While a pressure wave and a mass flow wave may be associated with an acoustic wave, they may have potential beyond that of the acoustic wave. A microphone is simply a transducer between air current and electrical current. While it may be, and usually is, tuned for intelligible sound, it doesn’t have to be. It can also be optimized to respond to tiny convection currents and built to withstand powerful gusts.

An array of microphones installed on a slope or in windy places can perform like a windmill with little environmental impact, posing no threat to birds, and at very low cost. Aggregating the small about of electricity produced by each individual mic could be achieved as many small capacitors give up their charge to a larger one. Several of those burst to an even larger one and so on until they top off a battery somewhere.

Does it sound complicated? Yes. Is it more complicated than your 4k flat panel TV? Certainly not! Is the array of crystals in your TV the same as an array of crystal microphones? No. But, there are similarities when it comes to getting those boys in line to work in synchrony if not idiosyncratically.

The ultimate success of failure of micro-wind technology, as a means to harvest energy, is largely dependent upon the way such systems are configured. Installing individual microphones on a slope should require no more skill than installing low-voltage landscape lighting. A roof covered with photo-voltaic panels on parts that are illuminated by the sun, would look far less kludgy if they could also be covered by resonant panels on the parts that are shaded. Light sensitive shingles and wall panels could be complemented by vibration sensitive panels that are identical in outward appearance.

The technology that must be leveraged to make electricity from blades, leaves, or panels that are responsive to weak convection currents while, at the same time, able to survive being slammed by a rogue rain drop, is well within our grasp.

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To the earliest hunters and gatherers, the struggle for survival was often a lonely experience. The mind was occupied with fetishes, charms, and magic in an effort to better the odds in the attempt to insure good luck over bad luck. The agrarian societies were among the first to enjoy true settlements. But they were still dependent, to some extent, on the luck of the draw. The dealer in the latter case was one of the many fertility and sun gods that evolved on each continent.

The farmer’s survival depended upon the success or failure of the harvest. They sought to curry favor with their temperamental pantheon through a variety of bribes we term sacrifices. When Melchizedek, the Sage of Salem, introduced bread and wine as a sacrament at what is now Jerusalem, the practice of sacrificing virgins to the volcano became less important to those competing for the favor of distant deities.

By the time Jesus walked the earth, the quest for understanding the Nature and Attributes of God had advanced to a point where Our Heavenly Father was seldom seen as mercurial or wrathful.

One of the ways we rise to a plateau, where we can truly enjoy what God has provided, is through the communities where neighbors gather for the modern day equivalent of a barn raising or bringing in the harvest. The harvest is a time for gathering, sorting, separating, sifting and sharing. It is traditionally a time when the community comes together to assist neighbors with their harvest. It is usually the most labor intensive activity of the growing season. Nothing of value is lost when the harvest is conducted properly.

For those able to appreciate the inspirational qualities of God’s handiwork, it’s easy to become enraptured by the beauty of the landscape. Ralph Waldo Emerson suggested we should “Never lose an opportunity of seeing anything beautiful, for beauty is God’s handwriting.” Rogers and Hammerstein observed “All the sounds of the earth are like music.” As we gaze upon and listen to the beauty of the countryside, we become more appreciative of and more responsive to the splendor of the stars and the music of the spheres.

All of the de-compacting, rock breaking, row clearing, and soil amending pays off as the objects of our labor come into full fruition. Whether the objects are hearts of lettuce the hearts and minds of humanity, there are similarities in the way we must work to produce results.

Grace is not a matter of luck. It is rather unmerited favor. As the faintest flicker of our faith becomes more serviceable, as our fledgeling loyalties become more dependable, our faithfulness yields increasing certainty as with the trust a child has for a doting parent.

Divinity is the unifying and coordinating quality of Deity. Our loving father is understood through his truth, his beauty, and his goodness. He has arrayed these like pearls on a drawstring that pulls us ever nearer to his heart. We are not coerced into God’s camp. We are instead drawn into the fold through the power of his love for us. We are attracted to his incomparable values, to his quality of coherence, and to his willingness to share even his divine attributes.

He has given us a perfection hunger that venerates all that is proven to be good. We, as an evolving species, have the potential to grow, to become unerringly appreciative of, and responsive to, beauty. And, we are insatiable as truth seekers. As we see the stars moving about some unseen center, and as we pay attention to the higher thoughts that stream through our consciousness, we understand there is much more to this life, than just what meets the eye.

In all of human experience as it relates to the pursuit of happiness, the joy of finding God is, by far, the most real. In the physical world the seedling had to poke through the soil and unfold its leaves as it reached for the warming fire at the center of our solar system. Similarly, our ancestors had to make their way from the slime of the lagoon floor, through a long arduous evolutionary struggle, to stand tall on the mountain tops. Even for them, while the blazing sun was once a focal point, the sun gods were not enough.

For those of us that need help to see past the sometimes blinding rays of the star at the center of our planetary system, God sent his son, that we should not perish but have everlasting life. Jesus joined is in our struggle, meeting us on the long journey between the lagoon floor and the Paradise at the center of all creation. Today, he works along side us, doing the heavy lifting while at the same time nurturing.

When the community comes together for the harvest, the most labor intensive activity of the growing season, Jesus is working with us through the Spirit of Truth.

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In the first week of this year, we saw just how fragile even a mature, constitutionally grounded democratic republic can be. As we reached out to family, friends, and colleagues, we got the sense that we, as individuals, are just as siloed as our media. We finally came to realize how about six hundred billionaires control the information flow for a country of three-hundred and thirty-one million citizens within the United States. And to our dismay, it was revealed, that the most privileged among us have become even more enriched, while the marginalized and powerless are dead, dying, or stewing in hormones of stress.

For years we’ve watched helplessly as a sociopathic few presume to speak for a world population that is fast approaching eight billion human beings. And now we are witnessing an abrupt shift as the most inauthentic, shell like corporations have found that, despite all the deceptive practices, the public’s perception of their corrupt political influence is now more acute than ever. The dark money is now front and center and so, supporting the most integrity challenged politicians is therefore, no longer convenient. 

We have long been told that the natural world’s response to overpopulation is through war, famine, and pestilence. And when we’ve witnessed behaviors of elected representatives willing to write off entire swaths of humanity in the name of “culling the herd” and “herd immunity, we are somehow expected to adopt the same kind of calloused world view, together with the depraved heart indifference they have shown towards the people we care about. 

The thin vernier of religiosity, that is now on full display in the realm of religion and politics, has failed to conceal the moral cowardice of those prostituting themselves for forces intent on undermining our constitutional republic. Their corrosive influence, on the democracy underpinnings of our nation, is a clear betrayal of the oath to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.

Standing in stark contrast to those who have disgraced themselves are the heroes, the steadfast healthcare workers that have held the line while those sworn to provide for the common defense were AWOL. The coronavirus pandemic infected more than 80 million people and killed more than 1.8 million globally over the course of just it’s first year. While microscopic foes have proven to be just as deadly as political adversaries, our conventional definitions of what it means to “provide for the common defense” are clearly inadequate.

We’ve seen some supremely heroic and some truly pathetic responses to the global pandemic and, while we have also listened as some claimed the economy will come “roaring back,” others don’t want to rebuild the economy in the same old way. These opposing forces have very different ways of experiencing the economy. While one group holds that the stock market is the leading indicator of economic health, others have noticed that this particular market tends to rise in tandem with the human misery index.

The question before 331 million of us affecting the eight billion of us is this: If we are to “build back better,” just how will that be achieved? Some would undoubtedly like to see us rebuild on the same old rotting foundation of baser instincts and moral bankruptcy. People of true integrity would prefer to build upon a culture of benevolence.

The United States fought a revolutionary war to throw off the yoke of what the founders called “foreign potentates.” Then, in less than 250 years, the arch-typical democracy devolved into a feudalistic corporatocracy. One that is controlled by other, more brutal, foreign potentates.

There are those among us that are entirely ok within a world where the rich get richer and the poor die. That form of fascism that is often seen wrapped in the flag, while carrying a cross, is fooling a group that is getting smaller and smaller every day. The year 2020 was a defining moment for them. Those elected officials that were once engaged in a masquerade as constitutional conservatives, have been exposed as anything but.

Likewise, Justices on The Supreme Court of the United States that have long been masquerading as originalists and textualists while ignoring the entire Preamble to the Constitution, have demonstrated a lack of intellectual rigor. They have clearly dishonored themselves and the institution as they capped off a long series of cases advancing a counterfeit corporate personhood, with the case Citizens United.

They have failed to differentiate between those inauthentic corporations that are controlled by foreign potentates, shells with no affinity for company or the people they claim to represent; as opposed to those authentic corporations composed of people in good company, choosing, associating, and operating for a common purpose, real people who are acting corporately.

In contrast to counterfeit corporations that enrich only the few, Employee Owned Benefit Corporations are of, by, and for We the People.

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The romantic era poet George Byron wrote “The dust we tread upon was once alive.” Such contemplative reflection, over the interaction humans have with the environment, continues today in the evolving intellectual disciplines of science, philosophy, and religion.

Those that would have us believe that liquid is gas and that solar energy is “alternative” have long been packaging ideas for those they assume lack critical thinking skills. All of the physical energy that we can leverage while on earth traces its roots to that blazing orb at the center of our solar system. While the taming of fire is considered one of the cornerstones of civilization, any use of it today is seen, by some, as clear evidence we be bad!

While composting is considered an environmentally responsible thing to do, the methane rising from your open air compost heap has a “100-year global warming potential 25 times that of CO_2,” and, “measured over a 20-year period, methane is 84 times more potent as a greenhouse gas than CO₂” according to the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe. Methane that is released directly into the atmosphere is harmful to the environment, for it quickly rises to the top where it remains for about 8 years until it is reduced, through oxidation into carbon dioxide and water.

As the main component in natural gas, that methane produced from non-fossil sources such as green waste can, when burned under the right circumstances, reduce such harmful environmental impacts. The advantages of using methane to produce heat at ground level has environmental benefits as compared to letting it absorb infrared radiation from the sun at high altitude. Whether you are trapping methane from the compost to run an internal combustion engine, burning it to send supplemental heat to your home or greenhouse, or simply accenting your backyard with continuously burning tiki torches, you are helping to mitigate further damage to our shared air envelope.

Methane is lighter than air, so redirecting the gas can be as simple as laying a perforated pipe on top of the compost pile with a tarp above that. There is usually no need to worry about gas escaping from beneath the lower edges of the tarp as long as the gas is being pulled from the top of the mound fast enough. Pulling it too fast has little benefit as methane is not usually stored in tanks. This is because the symmetry of its molecule makes it hard to liquify. One could, theoretically, store methane in a tank in a gaseous state. In such a case it would then have such low density it’s unlikely you could, in all practicality, store a usable amount.

There is, however, an advanced science related to composting that fulfills the entire wish list as it relates to biogas production, storage and use. It also introduces greater efficiencies with respect to the traditional use of compost dating back to at least the times of ancient Rome, and as it was practiced by George Washington. While the soil amendment benefits are well understood, optimizing the process through what is now termed anaerobic digestion has become an exciting field of study for hobbyists and other problem solvers.

At the head end of a digester is some combination of kitchen disposals, leaf shredders, mulching mowers, and wood chippers,. These grinders effectively chew the food that is then dropped into the artificial stomach where digestion is aided by means of the probiotics that support the composting equivalent of gut flora. The microbes contained in what gardeners think of as compost activators will do the real work of generating a valuable gas while also producing the finest of soils.

The entire biological waste stream can be processed through anaerobic digesters, although human waste is usually dealt with separately to provide an extra layer of protection against the spread of human pathogens. The digesters themselves can, for the most part, operate passively depending largely upon the activities of a variety of microbes. The process can be enhanced with some combination of stirrers, turners, and blowers. Effective storage of biogas can be achieved through the use of balloons within, or a floating rooftop upon, the digestion chamber. Such expanding storage systems can also serve to pressurize the gas line as it feeds cooking, heating, and electrical generation systems.

As with any composting effort, having a variety of materials in the mix will insure success with the fermentation process while yielding the highest quality gas and soil. The process can be optimized through any combination of wet or dry, batch or continuous, thermophilic or mesophilic, and one stage or multi-stage systems. 

Whatever you decide about how you design your system, success ultimately depends upon keeping your cute little pet microbes happy. The good news is that, whether you decide to feed them from a long neglected pile of munchies from your lawnmower or by means of the advanced cooking methods we’ve described, we can assure you, they’re not picky eaters.

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In the beginning was the Word, and the Word choreographed an assembly of amino acids into an exquisite array of specific proteins. Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food.” In so doing God demonstrated a penchant for genomic writing, preceded by an amazing series of prebiotic events, in a highly orchestrated presentation of evolutionary over-control.

Ok, well, maybe John expressed it a little differently when he said: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.” In the days that Christ walked the earth as Jesus of Nazareth, he certainly knew about all those “pre-biotic events,” but his audience only knew seed that is sown in good soil quickly germinates. They did practice crop rotation so they knew it somehow benefits from an environment below the surface where the soil has retained much of that which nourishes.

They clearly understood that, once planted, a seedling can develop deep roots for water and nourishment while, at the same time, reaching for the warmth and nourishing rays from the sun. With the help of intentional sowers, it can become fully established early to take the best advantage of a long growing season. They also knew something about the laws of fruitfulness because, in the Parable of the Barren Fig Tree, when the farmer told the vinedresser to ‘Cut it down.” Saying ‘Why should it use up the ground?’ The head gardener offered instead to dig around it and put on fertilizer.

Like the gardener, the sower of Gospel seed may remain in place to tend the fields. Whether the sower also plays a role in nurture and growth is largely a matter of circumstance and tradition. Where there are others to whom cultivation may be entrusted, the sower may move on down the road, for there are always other fields to be seeded. Sowing is a speciality similar to that of the Circuit Riders of the early church. Today, they not only carry good seed, the circuit riders also engage in a certain amount of cross pollination.

Just as seedlings depend upon a rich variety of relationships within and above the soil, other communities need such complementary associations if they too are to thrive. To the seedling it is interactions with the microbial biomass together with the life sustaining water and the beneficial rays of the sun. To us, it is the love, mutual support, and the encouragement we enjoy courtesy of our fellows. This is augmented by the inspiration we receive as we grow to appreciate the attitude of bestowal as evidenced by the sojourn of our beloved Sovereign while he showed his desire to come close to the life he created. 

His mercy, his patience, his wise understanding was on full display as Jesus worked to understand our viewpoint through the incarnation experience. As he labored, to help us focus upon the qualities of good soil, he was also teaching us to build up foundations in the interest of authentic community. The individuals that express real appreciation for one another, are the same ones that have taken the time to know what truly motivates those in our midst. These are the building blocks of authentic community and congregations that are truly vibrant.

Few, if any, of those bearing responsibility for pastoral care would be content with tending the mission field equivalent of an ornamental garden. We are, after all, not called to build clubs of self-righteous exclusivity. A spiritual rebirth is not brought about through a program of selective inbreeding. We are instead focused upon the seed bearing and fruit bearing qualities of those within our sphere of influence. Of course all fruit production requires pollination and this is especially important with the Fruits of the Spirit. If the essentials of our faith can not be wisely and effectively socialized or shared, its value to a greater humanity is diminished.

A true understanding of the laws of spiritual fruitfulness is informed by what happens in the physical world. Pollination is an essential part of insuring agricultural crops, as well as human communities, grow to full fruition. Every spring, nearly half (about one million hives) of the honey bees in the United States are trucked to California almond orchards. In New York, the apple crop requires about 30,000 hives and Maine’s blueberry crop uses about 50,000 portable hives each year.

We live in a time when people display plants in their home that derive all the moisture and nutrients they need from the surrounding air. We enjoy salads that are produced through a water culture known as hydroponics. We have soil that is so depleted there is little of what nourishes and the microbial biomass necessary to replenish it has been poisoned. We also have a new generation of growers that view the entire process of growth in a more holistic manner. For much of what is contained in the soil can be carried by other means.

The challenges inherent to building authentic community are similar. When we view those within our unique sphere of influence as Jesus did, we are blessed with a greatly enhanced view of what’s on the horizon. We are better equipped to fulfill his commandment: “Love one another as I have loved you.”

Tooling Up for Hydroponics

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A deeply resonant CSN song began with the lyric “You, who are on the road, must have a code that you can live by.” While this is likely true, one would hope the rest of us don’t need an Ovaltine Decoder Ring to figure out what it is. Many singers, composers, authors, parents, pastors, and elected representatives each have some power to sway in a way that can help insure our ultimate survival or destruction as a species. And yet, trying to decipher the values proposition such people put forth is often a matter of guesswork.

Throughout the history of our planet, there have been people, at the commanding heights, who are unable to differentiate between true and false liberty. The bully pulpit is, as often as not, occupied by people that can’t seem to balance freedom with self-control. Many of us, as parents, have had to contend with one or more children that don’t think the rules apply to them. Our responses range from an off the shelf “cause I said so,” to a dissertation on the golden rule that can be procured from any major religious tradition on earth.

Today we find ourselves and our fellow human beings situated somewhere between a Luciferian license and a Jesusonian form of self mastery. Politicians can spend lots of their constituent’s money on media to rile us. When we are on an even keel, it doesn’t serve the interests of political operatives intent on leveraging FIBS, the Fear, Ignorance, Bigotry, and Smear that are in every dirty trickster’s toolkit.

They want us to hate the Chinese, Iranians, Russians, Hebrews, Palestinians , and Arabs when the real, most objectionable conduct is usually traceable to the egomaniacal leaders of those nations. They have encouraged us to view anyone that doesn’t exhibit a complexion exactly like ours, as somehow less than human to perpetually justify man’s inhumanity to man through international or internecine, hot or cold warfare. And, as they do, they often characterize themselves as liberty loving freedom fighters.

Just what is this thing that we call liberty? Is it permissible, in the name of free speech, to yell fire in a crowded theater when there is no fire? And what about truthfulness? Is it ok to mislead someone who may rely upon your word to their detriment?

Liberty that is unintelligent, unconditioned, and uncontrolled is a cruel deception that invariably leads to abject bondage for someone. It may be you; if you should decide to go wilding with the hordes through the hallowed halls of representative government. You could lose your freedom, for life, in accordance with the felony murder rule. You could lose your cherished 2nd Amendment right to own a gun. You could find yourself on a list that forever bars you from boarding a commercial flight.

If your idea of liberty gives you license to rape, pillage, and plunder or engage in human trafficking, you are imposing bondage on someone else. There is a delicate balance between true freedom and self-control. And, while good parents teach it, bad-faith pastors do not. The counterfeit wisdom that flows from many in authority, who are often enjoying excessive prominence, is leading us into an orgy of darkness and death. They often fail to teach that diminishing external restraints are always contingent upon augmenting internal restraints.

If we are to survive as a species, we must turn our attention to those purpose driven leaders that are advancing us towards an era of light and life. They are easy to recognize because their values proposition is crystal clear. They focus us not upon themselves but on our own highest and best understanding of truth, beauty, and goodness as they give creative expression to those qualities. They encourage us to consider just how we can contribute, in an active and spiritually pragmatic way, toward the healing and elevation of life on our planet.

Democracy, throughout the world, is under attack. And, at its most basic level, it is problematic. It can be three wolves and a sheep deciding on dinner. It can lead to the domination of mediocrity. And, every time it stumbles, authoritarian wannabes will say: “You see, it’s messy. It doesn’t work. That’s why to need me.” But in the final analysis, government of, by, and for the people is the only design that is truly sustainable. It is the only one that is spiritually serviceable; as it alone has the power to elicit the enthusiastic consent of the governed.

The choice now before us is autocracy versus democracy. We must learn to recognize any sophistry that has the effect of corroding the democracy underpinnings of our constitutional republic. Long ago, Edmund Burke, in referring to the American colonists, described our ancestors as “able to snuff the approach of tyranny with every tainted breeze.” Today the tainted breezes are delivered by means of powerful airwaves that Burke probably never imagined. And, right now, the most deceptive practices, ones that push fear, ignorance, bigotry, and smear are generating howling winds in contrast to the gentle breezes of true benevolence. The most refreshing breezes are the ones that are spiritually fragrant, the ones where truth, beauty, and goodness are clearly in evidence.