Wild Goose Festival 2025
A sample schedule from the Wild Goose Festival 2025, including indigenous cultures, African-American spirituals, atheists, lovers of god, beer & hymns, and french toast.
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Is it a new moon if you can't see it?
A moonlit walk with Einstein, lunar phases in wisdom traditions, moonsighting in Islam, and the face of god.
Plum Village and prophetic witness
How Quakers overcame empire and became the first religion to forbid members from participating in slavery. How Plum Village thrives outside of capitalism.
Working for god, not money
The day of silence gets awkward: navigating silent interactions within the empire. How to live in poverty yet flourish: group industry without private property. The economics of love: guaranteed employment for life.
Sharing wealth: Plum Village, Bruderhof
Commonwealth starts in the mind. Sharing the same worldview or philosophy allows us to make commitments to sharing wealth and taking care of each other. That is no ordinary decision or commitment, it requires vows.
Exiting capitalism, entering commonwealth
To question capitalism from a wisdom perspective is not to endorse marxism, communism, socialism, or any other economic theory. Rather, lovers of wisdom criticize capitalism for elevating love of money above love of god. And they manage money as commonwealth, not as private property.
Seasons change, systems change
Note: There is plenty of bad news these days. Lovers of god tend to not focus on bad news. Rather, they pay attention to what is alive and life-giving. In that spirit, this post is about the change in seasons, and changing systems that cause harm and thrive on bad news.
why the moon?
Amid tensions between god and empire, between life and money, between nature and machine, we have a choice. We can choose to ignore the natural month – the new moon – or we can choose to participate in it. To organize part of our life around it. To be alive to it.
new moon, may 2025
In the face of unjust systems, multiple crises, and deep despair, what can we actually do? What am I going to do? “If there aren’t large-scale solutions to large-scale problems, it’s all about the small scale.”
empire • freedom • imagination
To renounce anything (besides addiction) is not common in our society. Yet, renunciation is central to loving god. It is at the heart of every major wisdom tradition, the second step on the Path of Love. Until we renounce empire, we serve it instead of god or the common good.
mother power
Note: Today is Mothers Day in the U.S. But this place has another, older name – Turtle Island – given to it by its first peoples. Today I cede this time and space to mothers of Turtle Island. Their message is so very relevant to the climate emergency, and their words are more eloquent than mine.
changing our words to change the climate
Wisdom traditions have different rules for different kinds of members. Universal rules apply to all members. Changing behavior around air travel may not be for everybody. Talking about climate crisis should be.
new moon, april 2025
Wisdom communities make choices about what to embrace and what to renounce, including modes of transportation. Is renouncing air travel wise? Necessary? Delusional?
which story are we living?
“I will tell you something about stories. They aren’t just entertainment. Don’t be fooled. They are all we have to fight off illness and death. You don’t have anything if you don’t have the stories. The evil of the world is mighty, but it can’t stand up to our stories.” (Leslie Marmon Silko)