Here's a copy of Paul Hawken's 2009 commencement address to the University of
Portland. A magnificent flourish.

http://tinyurl.com/ry5ug5

Do any of you remember seeing Hawken speak at the U of Oregon some years back,
to a packed EMU auditorium? I seem to recall the elder anarchos in the audience
were atypically non-dangerous that night, and even as I did rather miss their
usual, hilarious asides - I do rather enjoy a proximate seat - at least we had a
dependably Boltmanesque presence on the Q&A microphone. I tell ya, events in
this town just aren't complete without the proper cast of local aristos in
attendance.

I must admit that as I set out for the EMU that particular evening I was
prepared not to like Hawken. I knew little of the man himself and the title of
his recently-released text, "Natural Capitalism" had me pegging its tanned,
handsome and strikingly photogenic author as a suave, pin-up apologist for the
fundamental incoherence that is an exchange economy - the boy wonder up from
fancy-assed Sausalito to peddle the greener face of materialist fundamentalism.
Boy, did I make a complete fool of myself with that aspersion on his character -
but then again don't we _always_ when we judge? As it happens, I found his
delivery refined, engaging, and redolent with a humility that matched its
piercing intelligence.

I was quite taken by Paul's experience since he has become a 'name.' Recognition
has afforded him access to the very highest corridors of economic and political
power and he was at once decorous but utterly scathing about what he has
encountered in his efforts to nurse transition in those particular corridors. In
this regard, his experience resonated completely with my own in the years I
found myself tooling, somewhat precociously, around the innermost recesses of
the 'Expert' State on both sides of the Atlantic. I was enormously struck by
Paul's parting words, offered almost under his breath, as he finished answering
questions and was literally turning from the microphone to leave the stage.
This, to reiterate, from a man with a highly sophisticated, deeply
_experiential_ understanding of the realpolitik of moolah: "We have to move to a
gift economy," he concluded. 'Nuf said.

Ah, if you picked up a winter cropping guide from me at the recent winter
cropping workshop, it has since been updated, at:

http://www.seedambassadors.org/avalon/wintercroppingtablejune09.htm

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