Today, Brush led us in a conversation about how we can observe ecological systems, like forests, (because they seem to be functioning pretty well!!) and then design a community of people based on the same structure.
One of the key components to a healthy ecosystem is diversity.
But for some reason, a lot of people have invested in the idea of having one single crop covering an entire farm. Corn is great. But corn does even better if it has other vegetables and flowers growing with it to balance the nutrients in the soil and insect population. Fields of one crop aren't sustainable! If a bug that eats corn finds the farm it'll quickly spread over the entire field, which means you then have to buy pesticide. The pesticide will kill the bug, as well as the other nutrients in the soil. Then you have to buy fertilizer to replenish the soil... and on
and on....
Just like monocrops, monocultures aren't sustainable either! People change very quickly and because of this, many people when joining a particular community will lose their own distinct qualities. It is wonderful to bring differences together, but can we allow space for the differences to maintain their uniqueness?
Can we have a world of different worlds without war?
Creating a space for conversation of different view-points is key to a functional and sustainable community. It is in the tension and edge of opposing opinions where new insights and growth can occur.
picture from:here
Here is an example of functional diversity. All of these elements are playing a unique role which contributes to the overall health and balance of the system.
*picture from here
How do we collaborate while still remaining distinct?
*picture from here/
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