Fall                                                                                 Hunter Moon

This trip into Judaism, my journey as a fellow traveler, has begun to transfer into strange territory. Both the Reconstructionist movement and a newer one, the Renewal movement, have representation at Beth Evergreen. They are, I think, the result of rabbis and scholars beginning to ask a question similar to the one I’ve posed in my reimagining faith project. That is, how can the religious imagination, that poetic impulse in the human spirit, respond to contemporary life?

The answers in both Reconstruction and Renewal are still opaque to me, largely because of my ignorance of their fine-grained details. But I know this already, there is a strong contingent in both movements that lean pagan, that follow many of the Jewish practices back to their earth-centered roots. Sukkot is an excellent example since it is a harvest celebration as well as a commemoration of the Exodus. The sukkah, the booth built outside and used for informal gatherings, recapitulates the temporary shelters agricultural workers in ancient Israel would use while engaged in the all important task of ingathering crops.

Yesterday Kate and I went to the Sukkot sabbath, a day focused on children and religious education, utilizing the Sukkah as a place to gather the kids. Rabbie Jamie played his guitar and led them in song, parents and older adolescents participating, too.

There are, I now know, people at Beth Evergreen who combine Judaism and paganism. One woman calls herself a Jewitch. Another has a strong element of sun-earth-moon worship in her approach to the tradition. And, there is me. I’m there because of my love for Kate and a long time fascination with Judaism, really more the Jews I’ve known, and what I see now as an incurably religious poetic soul.

I am religious with a small r, no longer interested in dogma or institutions, but with an abiding appreciation for religious community and the quest of the religious self. In this sense I suppose Kate could have been a Hindu and I would have followed along, not as a believer, but as an appreciator, as one willing to use the deep metaphors to understand my own life.

A beloved community, one where love and affection dominate abstract thought, but do not eliminate it, is a place where I can flourish even without embracing a theological position. Beth Evergreen is, I believe, such a community. How I’ll end up attached to it, I don’t yet know, but it will come from knowing individuals, their dreams and their passions. My suspicion is that it will be the great work, creating a sustainable presence for humans on the earth, that opens the way.

Beltane                                                           Moon of the Summer Solstice

Swipes forehead with bandana. Since May 20th wildfire mitigation has been an almost daily project. Today, June 14th, I stacked the final logs, trying to place them so that if a wildfire occurs before Seth and Hannah can claim them, they won’t literally add fuel to the fire. So, as of today, I’m declaring the fire mitigation I began last fall over. For now.

There are other matters to address. The limbs on remaining trees, screens on our vents and clearing needles out of the gutters, but those are not for right now. Today I’m celebrating the finish line for a major chunk of work.

That garage is next. Finally bringing an organizing hand to the last remaining bastion of post-move chaos. A few niggling inside matters, too. Room for a good bit more work there, but all in its own time.

Beltane                                                                               Running Creeks Moon

As the precipitation has backed off over the last week, the creeks are less vigorous, though still full. Properties with a driveway running over a creek have to build strong bridges and use solid culverts, a considerable expense I imagine. And sometimes, like last year, the creek washes them out.

The Gransfors limbing ax got a workout this morning, finishing the limbing in the back. Tomorrow the chainsaw. First task, cut the felled trunks into either fireplace size logs or larger logs that Seth can come pick up. Second, move the limbs and tree tops to the front so they can be chipped or hauled away. Third, cut down the remaining trees marked by Splintered Forest last fall, limb them and cut them up, moving the limbs and tree tops to the front. Last, cut down a few more trees I’ve identified, dead ones or small ones blocking the growth of larger trees. Limb, cut up, move.

The blue ribbons are a little faint, but they’re about a fifth of the way up the trunk. This is how Splintered Forest marked the trees to cut. A two topper is a lodgepole with a branched trunk at the top. These are prone to splitting under stress and are almost always marked to come down. This one was near the house so I had Always Chipper cut it down. The limbing goes up to the narrower tip of the branch which I’ll cut off with a chainsaw. It will be chipped or hauled away. The rest will get cut up.

The felling ax may come out for some of the smaller trees just because it’s fun to act fully like a lumber jack. Gotta keep the Minnesota forest cred somehow.

Beltane                                                                        Running Creeks Moon

The beauty of a mountain morning. The rising sun catches the peaks of Conifer and Black Mountains, the lodgepole and aspen still punctuated by a web of snowy lanes.

Someone has cut five long ski runs down the face of Black Mountain. The land is private, employees of the Arapaho National Forest confirmed this in an e-mail. These ski runs, all beginning at around 10,000 feet, still have snow cover.

Using Jefferson County property maps the name of the owner of much of the land seems to be Jeffery Lysol, a vice-president for Armstrong Oil and Gas, based in Littleton. He is a skier, biker and runner according to his facebook page. Private ski-runs, Jon says, are not unusual in Colorado.

Business meeting this morning, then back to limbing. This will be a chainsaw week since I want to finish our fire mitigation before Memorial Day.

Imbolc                                                                        Valentine Moon

So here it is: A billionaire who guarantees, guarantees, there is “no problem there.” A man whom his senatorial colleagues despise and describe as unlikeable. Or, a senator with the number one absentee record in his day job. These are the Republican front runners, the best of those challenged by the rigors of the “invisible primary” that selects candidates worthy of large donations. They are the best of those sorted out by the early voters in primaries in 15 states. 15. This contest is actually happening in the richest, most powerful nation the world has ever known. A beacon for democracy.

Gosh. Honestly. I mean…

Yule                                                                               New (Stock Show) Moon

The triangle of influence came from thinking about the limits of reason. A field where this sort of thinking has become very important over the last few years is economics. Classical economics assumes the rational man (sic). This central figure in all economic thinking chose economic actions based on a logical analysis of his own self interests. His choices maximized his self-interest, so a cheaper car made with the same quality as a more expensive one would always be his choice since he got similar quality for less money.

Problem is, people don’t actually behave this way. Many factors influence a consumer’s choices and some of them create decisions actually opposed to a rational man’s self-interest. Our solar array is a good example. We voluntarily tied up thousands of dollars of capital in an energy generation system that will take years to pay off. This means we eschewed certain short term benefits, having the money to spend or save right now, for a future good. This future good is not defined by the return on investment, but by a shift from a polluting energy source to a non-polluting one. The field of behavioral economics tries to take into account this more typical choice making.

Those whose influence flows largely from the Nietzschean corner, secularists like myself, must account for the choices made by people influenced more strongly by the Smithian. We cannot dismiss it, as the new atheists, flat earthers I call them, do.