The Mushroom and the Earthworm People

Hello,

My name is Armen.  I do visionary social work.  My methods are unorthodox and unconventional.  My etiquette, often disruptive and passionate.  I sometimes wish that I had the luxury of being polite, so that I could take my time.  Lord knows I've had to be patient.  But, it's something I simply can't afford.  Time is running out, and I've got lots to do and say.  I am driven by a sense of urgency, a soulforce which seems to be taking hold of more and more people.

I am pained by what I see around me.  I am pained by the incredible corruption, and crushing destructiveness that rules this planet.  I am pained by the complacency I see in my communities.  It seems we have become unwilling participants in a murderous game of musical chairs. 

I am inspired by what human beings could be, and invigorated by the growing number of people who are investing their passions, talents, genius, and efforts towards that potential.  As much as I am filled with rage at what has happened, my rage is really an act of love, for I have a love affair with humanity that can only be described as utterly irrational.  It is because I love humanity so dearly, that I am so angry at what we have become.

I did not consent to this, and like many around the world, this collective rage, which could also be described as passion, is driving more and more people to do something about it.  In this enormous effort to unravel the incredible bind we have gotten ourselves in, I am aware that many different people are driven towards many different missions.  As such, I have my own personal contributions to make.

It is in this spirit that I want to advocate for, and represent a group of people who I feel has been marginalized and pushed to near extinction.  I refer to them now as the Mushroom and Earthworm People.

Paul Stamets has presented us with amazing insights as to why mushrooms are so important to our ecosystem.  Mycelium and earthworms seem to have a similar role, in that they are organisms who replenish and strengthen the soil with nutrients.  Without such organisms, the soil becomes arid, weak, and dead.  When looking at the social fabric as our human soil, I would say that there are people who perform similar functions for the social soil. 

Humanity is the humus of our social soil, and there are people who work to keep our humanity in tact.

I see them as our medicine people, shamans, sages, mystics, and prophets.  But, they reveal themselves in a myriad of ways in modern life.  They are our artists, our social workers, our homeless, our "mentally ill", our idealists, our visionaries, and truth tellers.  These are the people who process human experience, reflect upon, express, and thereby convert what happens into living, breathing cultures which enrich the human experience.  They remind us why we are here in the first place.  They awaken us.  They point to what we are trying to become, and provide us with technologies of how to get there.

They are our outcasts.  There was a time when we understood that they walk a different path, and we made room for them in the community.  We understood that their attention and talents were tuned towards things that from a material perspective appear to be impractical and intangible, but we understood that in supporting their journeys, they could serve their function of keeping alive the human mission of creating, exploring, sharing, and loving.

However, we have eroded their place in society.  We have pushed them to the outskirts, and forced them to scavenge on the scraps of what society has to offer.  The pattern is clear to me.  For example, artists move into a neighborhood that is dilapidated, because that's all they can afford.  Through their efforts they create vibrant communities which draws people.  This draw raises the value of the neighborhood.  Developers come in and use their financial leverage to take over.  The cost of living increases.  The community becomes gentrified, and the very artists that worked to create vibrancy can no longer afford to stay in the communities they built up.  They move on to the next forsaken neighborhood, and the process starts all over again.

I am aware that there is an untold number of people who have incredible contributions to make to shifting global consciousness.  They are heartcentered geniuses who have been dismissed and driven to the edges of existence because the mind/material dominated culture could not see value in them.  And now, as we move into this renaissance, they don't have the means to participate and contribute, because they don't have access to having their voices heard.  They neither have the channels, nor the resources.  They have become accustomed to being neglected and ignored.

Most of what they have to offer can never surface, because they are constantly struggling just to provide basic food/shelter needs. 

It is time to integrate these people back into our communities.  It is time to see them.  To help them.  To hear them out.  To give them a chance to participate.  They often appear as strange and bizarre to the mainstream culture.  Even frightening.  But, they have so much to offer, because they are visionary.

I am generally known as an eloquent man, but I tell you, my eloquence fails me on this point.  I don't feel that I can find the right words to deliver the urgency and importance for providing logistical channels to bring these people back into society.  I don't think it is eloquence that can deliver this message, but maybe passion and emotion. 

Part of the social work I am called to do, is to be a patron and advocate for this marginalized, yet valuable group of people.  Being such a person, myself, I intimately understand the challenges and suffering of being such a person in our modern world.  It's like we suffer from a severe case of autism.  I understand how to develop and encourage such people.  I understand how to help people like this see their own value.  I have gotten fairly skilled at translating and describing why these people are valuable, and what the conditions are they require to be fully functional and healthy in society.

Thanks for taking the time to hear me out.

I am aware that I am, above all else, intensely human.  My greatest attribute, is also my worse.  I care.  As such, I am stumbling my way through the journey of having something important to say. 

I am grateful that I still have the ability to cry my eyes out when faced with the tremendous cruelty that exists in the world.  I am grateful that I can be outraged, and channel that energy into creative action.  I am grateful that my heart is in tact, and that I don't turn away from the pain of the dehumanization and trashing of what I love so dearly.  This planet, and all life that inhabits it.

What I want most of all, is for people to reveal their passions, for it is our inner truths revealed and negotiated, which become the pillars of a just world.  That is my belief.

If you want to know more about my work, you can go to www.learninglove.org