Remember those cheesy “choose your own adventure” novels? I used to read those a bunch when I was a kid. I was kind of a dorky kid that read fantasy novels like Lord of the Rings and I was all into those choose-you-own-adventure books. Can you believe I was a nerdy kid? Seems crazy, I know. But there you go. I also built model airplanes and hung them from the ceiling of my room with fishing line. So I guess I am a first-class dork-wad.

Anyway, for a long time I have thought of my life like one of those books, a kind of living experiment in seeing what happens next. And since adolescence the organizing principal of the experiment of my life – the central research question, in other words – has been: “How far can I coast on charm?”

Well, I just spent several hours updating my CV, which forced me to look back over all the places I have been and what I have done. I think at this point I can put my research question to rest and declare the field closed to further inquiry: Apparently I can, in fact, coast a helluva long way on charm.

While it’s pleasing to have a result that I know I can rely upon, I’m left with a vacuum – a void – while I come up with another research question I can apply my life to. Since Nature supposedly abhors a vacuum, I thought, why not frame up a couple of research scenarios and put the question to the community?

So here you go: Go ahead, experiment with my life!

I was put on this planet to shake things up – not just to sit around and fart and pick my nose and complain about popular culture, although I do those things quite a bit. I’m here to leave a mark on society and on the planet, for better or for worse, but definitely a distinct mark of some kind, even if it’s a sort of greasy stain or unseemly discoloration.

By the way, as for this bit about “being put here to shake things up” … I don’t know if any of this is true or not. I don’t know what is true or isn’t, or even what truth is. I’ve just about completely given up the search for Truth. I’m much more concerned about what “works,” what is “effective,” what “feels good,” and is “groovy.” Call me a Sophist if you will: I can’t take any more high-minded, supposedly pure, idealized Socratic verbosity about Ultimate Truth.

In fact, my life is a game that I find immense pleasure in playing. The game I am currently playing is called transformation. How it’s played is I have to work out how to most effectively cause transformation for many, many people. To cause transformation in the lives of many, many people means helping them to make their lives a lot more groovy, in a big way, that sticks.

OK, so let me explain some things…

Transformation is a quantum shift in grooviness. To Transform myself means to make my life a lot more groovy. Like, way more groovy, not just a little bit nicer. So much nicer, in fact, that after the quantum jump my previous way of being is almost completely unrecognizable from my new level of quantum grooviness. I mean this quite literally. Electrons do this kind of thing all the time – one minute they are in one energy level, and then POOF! the next moment they are in a completely different energy level. I’m not making this up. The crazy thing is that they are never between energy levels. So how do they get from one to the next? Quantum mechanics: weird properties of matter that make no sense to us because we cannot detect their effects at our normal scale of life.

So all I am doing here is applying rudimentary principles of quantum theory to my everyday life in effort to cause these quantum jumps in grooviness, which is just my term for how integrated I feel with the rest of the universe. Being in a state where I perceive my integration with the universe is synonymous with “feeling groovy.”

If you don’t like the term “groovy,” if it seems too hippy-dippy for you, you can substitute quality in its place. Quality describes a relationship you have with your self and your surroundings. It’s pre-intellectual in nature – that is, it’s not a tangible thing or a concept you can think about in the typical sense. It’s something that you know what it is when you experience it, but you don’t necessarily know how you know you know it.

So, being in a “groovy” state means being in a quality relationship with whatever you’re doing in the present. It means being there and really participating, having energy and attention and focus and connection with what’s going on. It means not being caught up in grief or drama or stories associated with the past; and it means not being preoccupied, anxious, worried and fearful about the future. In this state of being-in-the-present you can develop a quality relationship with your surroundings, including other people, and experience the freedom and peace that arise naturally when you are not identified with (caught up in) ego-generated pain and suffering.

Maybe this seems like I am getting “way out there.” So let me get to the point: If everyone, or not even everyone but, say, most people or even just a lot of people, felt this state of groovy integration – or quality, or presence, or whatever you want to call it – then we’d have no more wars and ecological devastation – these kinds of negative trips would be impossible, irrelevant, wouldn’t happen, wouldn’t even come into consideration, period, end-of-story. So there’s the motivation for dedicating my life to promoting quality and the general groove and helping to cause this kind of transformation in many, many people.

Get it?

Good. I’m glad we understand each other. Now, here’s where you come in:

Below I describe some more details about what I think transformation could look like, and two possible scenarios that I might go about, in playing The Game of My Life, to cause lots of groovy transformation, for many, many people.

Your job is to pretend you are reading one of those cheesy choose-your-own-adventure novels. You just got to the part where the Hero (me) has to decide whether to fight the fire-breathing dragon or the terrible sea monster. Only in this case the fire-breathing dragon is academia and the terrible sea monster is industrial agriculture. Yeah, that probably sounds confusing – but keep reading, you’ll see what I mean…

So, the overall question is:

“What strategy will I use for facilitating transformation?”

And more precisely, by transformation I mean:

A broad and deep shift in consciousness and lifestyle practices, on the part of many people, to ways of being that are nurturing and regenerative, in both social and ecological dimensions, and as distinct from the currently prevalent exploitive and destructive patterns.

And let’s start by dividing this question of strategy into two possible approaches, one termed the “academic-institutional” and the other one termed “local-grassroots.” By voting in the “comments” section of this blog, you can play choose-the-adventure from these two scenarios. I’ll tally the votes after a while and plot them on some kind of graph because I like to geek-out with numbers and make them into graphs. Then I’ll post the graph on this site so you can see which scenario wins out.

Be sure and put your name with your vote so that I can make sure each vote counts only once. And please feel free to leave commentary as well describing why you chose as you did.

Now for the scenarios…

Scenario One:

Should I finish a PhD and take a more academic and institutional approach to transformation, primarily through activities such as research and teaching with universities, non-profits, NGO’s etc.?

In this case, I would focus on economics and “development,” politics and globalization, and target upper-level decision-making structures (e.g. the UN, World Bank, universities, non-profits and think-tanks) to promote primarily top-down transformation.

This strategy would lend itself to city life and a “modern” lifestyle, probably involving a lot of travel and advanced technology.

Or,

Scenario Two:

Should I take a more local, hands-on, down-to-earth approach to transformation, through the creation of a small, primarily self-reliant homestead and organic farming community?

In this case I would work with others to build a model community that promotes health and a high quality-of-life, sense of place, ecological awareness, meaningful work, and nurturing values and character. It would be a practical experiment with small economics, possibly through participation in a CSA program. It would offer opportunities for teaching and research, though these would be aimed primarily at engaging, inspiring and empowering “regular” people (as opposed to shifting consciousness among “elites” as in the academic-institutional approach) such as high school and college students, churchgoers and other local community members, as well as workshop and short-course attendees, for example.

And, it would lend itself to a primarily rural lifestyle and involve growing most of the food consumed, producing on-site much of the consumer durables used, utilizing mostly on-site renewable energy sources, embracing more of a low-tech lifestyle, and existing in interdependence with the supporting ecosystem, surrounding community and local economy.

OK!

Please carefully consider these choices and how effective either path is likely to be in facilitating transformation, their respective pluses and minuses in terms of the learning and experience I’m liable to encounter along either path, as well as the probable implications for lifestyle and livelihood. Consider also how you might fit in to either plan – chances are you will be part of the transformation and your own level of quantum grooviness is at stake! Feel free to email me with clarifying questions.

And most especially, remember! You are experimenting with my life here! So choose wisely, and together we may acquire the One Ring of Grooviness and rule all of Middle Earth, forever and ever…