Dana
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@vastman
Post Falls, Idaho  USA Joined Oct 10, 2010
Emotional stories of where we are, what's at stake, and where we're headed... This IS the MOMENT people... when our species will either Stand UP... or perish...
My best friend, who works tirelessly to create the weekly program at RadioEcoshock, once told me that music can open the mind to receive new information. While powerful forces resist, we have all we need to change EVERYTHING! So, come on, people. What the future becomes is up to US! My story, if you're interested: I've been a futurist and a dreamer all my life. As a child growing of the 50's my fondest dreams were of aliens giving me powers and turning all the missiles and bullets into butter... to change the world I saw all around me. I read every sci fi novel in the library and wrote stories & poetry, loved science & became a singer/songwriter/musician. I fell in love with possibilities & after college I began working with GAO, the "eyes and ears" of the US Congress during the Arab Oil Embargo. This is when our nation began doing great things & "government" wasn't smeared & co-opted. Given our oil problems I started exploring renewables, fission, fusion, & all kinds of options. One day I spoke with Dr. Murray Mitchell, who ran the nation's first climate center in Boulder, Colorado and he told me, in a scared & truly passionate voice, "Dana, my greatest fear is by the time we're able to prove what we think is happening, it's going to be too late." He foresaw global warming and his words have rang in my mind every day. His utterance changed me forever. It became my goal to explore ways out of what our dilemma... new pathways; these things called "renewables", wind, solar and so many other opportunities. I spent time with Howie Wilcox, the ocean farming visionary, Bill Avery, the OTEC & ocean's cities pioneer, followed Bill Heronemus, the visionary ocean wind machine guru and so many others...About the only person I respect who's still around from that time was a brilliant young man named Amory Lovins. His 1977 book, "Soft Energy Paths"...I bought dozens & spread them around. He is such a genius; I was only 22 years old. OMG! GAO gave me a platform to try and get a grip on what we were doing, & I worked 18 hours a day on these issues till Reagan & his fossil buddies derailed all the pathways towards a saner & safer world. When I couldn't take it anymore I bugged out, started creating gardens & got back into music, writing songs & trying to make sense of it all. Hah! Fat chance of that! Also, hooked up with an interesting human, had a daughter who really galvanized my worries about the future, & well, became a nature loving artist/urban farmer & started getting serious about "high tech" home studio songwriting... till the lady took off and took Ellie with her and caused me pain I never imagined experiencing. The farm kept me sane but in a financial prison. Till I escaped it all. Fast forward to today, and we're on the brink of total climate collapse yet on the edge of the scientific/technological changes with wind/solar/batteries/biological transitions I've always dreamed about... if only we had more time. But time is short and huge ugly forces have been working at cross purposes to slow transition. Today I still wonder, EVERY F'n DAY "will we make it?" Dr. Mitchell's words STILL roll around in my brain, constantly and as I follow everything, I just don't know... At 67 I left my northern CA urban farm to care for my dying mother. Now that she's gone I've retired to the home she left me in Northern Idaho, near Coeur d'alene. It's here I'm creating a little haven & writing more songs about our world & what we can do to save it. Hoping to get to YouTube as it's a more powerful platform to change hearts and minds. I find myself in a country going insane. Still wonder, as I did as a child, "WTF am I doing here?" Hope Elon & others who want us to smile about our future somehow pull it off. I am trying to keep it together & do my little part, trying to stay focused enough to play a roll in making it through this mess we've made of this wonderful world we were gifted. If this is a simulation, it's really F'n
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vastman
Aug 20, 2018
I believe we can navigate the challenges ahead...the answers are all around us, though few see and understand. Maybe that's why I'm still here. There are many of us. There is much to do. Life is so precious and resilience is a part of this regenerative life force which sprung to be on this lovely blue dot. I'm grateful I'm still here... and I'm feeling like I'm done wallowing between recovery and despair... Actually bought my first stock!!! Invested in Elon, my hero... We are a family that yearns for a smiling future. I need to do my part... I've been given a reprieve so I can to get to work... Working the edge of tomorrow is what I was born to do.... How about you?
vastman
Aug 20, 2018
For a time I thought my simulation... or whatever this is... was over. But not so easy... New life, new space, new friends, new challenges... butt wow, at 68, things are truly spinning out of control, humans are coming unglued, yet more answers and pathways are unfolding...making THESE moments more critical and precious than ever! I'm both blessed and challenged like never before... as is the entire Eaarth, it seems. It was excruciatingly lonely for the past half decade but once I let go of my prior life and journeyed north with my best friend, Volt! I found a miraculous purpose to shephard my mom beyond the veil... and both through it all and afterward I came to more deeply understand how precious and fragile these moments are. I will not waste them. There's so much to do... and our challenge is to focus on that we CAN control and let go of that we can't... This last bit is painful. It hurts. But it hurts more to smash my head against a wall not of my own making... I be
vastman
Dec 12, 2013
Your words invigorate me, Mind Map! I've been swimming in the chaos of community/gardens/family/survival for too long this time and will soon delve back into the "wake up" memes which scream beneath my skin... my DAW died 4 months ago, which I took as cosmic intervention..."get your sphere in order to free yourself to delve more deeply in that which you are called to do..." Now compiling a 6 core i7 megavastmaschine with hard earned upgrades up & down the line from wonderful sample/vst creators I feel bonded with... all accumulating, awaiting the new push. This holiday season will be a deap plunge for me... so much new, unbridled power to wield the lances of Diva, Zebra, Aeon, Sample Logic's wonderful powerhouses, and many more...len's of such clarity that who knows...maybe we CAN change the world!
vastman
Nov 04, 2013
been away for awhile, taking care of life's insane callings.... but lots to do and getting ready for a huge year end push....