The Club of Tuscany
A poetic plea for fun, health and solidarity… and survival. Unedited, inspired by Bill McKibben’s “The World at 350″ (http://www.zmag.org/znet/viewArticle/17605).
by Richard Oxman

What’s here is, in great part, a function of my having gotten on my knees and then my belly — repeatedly — asking for guidance. However, if you’re not smiling with epiphanic slack in short order… my proposal below probably isn’t for you.

This article is primarily for people who believe that significant, irreversible environmental disaster is imminent… or already taking place. It is also for souls who simply want a better quality of life now*.

*Planetary health potential is inextricably bound up with this, of course.

Please read the excerpt below from Ferenc Máté’s The Hills of Tuscany: A New Life In An Old Land, and then review the following two entries on The Club of Rome: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Club_of_Rome and http://www.abc.net.au/science/slab/rome/default.htm. Leisurely, with careful attention. As if your life depended on it all. Perhaps, at the very least, authentic joy in your life is contingent upon your embracing this Club of Tuscany to some degree.

No one knows for sure, of course. But this is my best shot during this… “dusk on Planet Earth.” It represents my appreciation of “the dearest freshness [of] deep down things….” (1)

From Ferenc Máté:

“The stone walls of the hamlet were golden in the low sun. The cow was no longer tethered in the chapel yard, but we heard its snorting from nearby, and the soft thud of its hoof on a solid floor. The wooden door to the small stable near the chapel was open, and from a chest-high opening in the loft above where a handmade wooden ladder led, an invisible hand pitched hay into the street. We stopped and watched. When there was a goodly little mound, the old man who had tended the smoldering fire the night before came out, and climbed with his pitchfork, piano, piano, down the uneven rungs. He looked up, saw us, and he smiled. It wasn’t a smile of either surprise or slight embarrassment, nor the slightly hollow city smile that we had gotten used to, but a deep, heartfelt smile, full of expectation, that beguiling smile that children have, tugging at the wrapping of a present. It was a smile that we would see often through the years in the Tuscan countryside, the smile of men and women who had grown old finding life’s greatest pleasures in the company of people: family, friends, neighbors, passers-by. And now the old man with the pitchfork was meeting us, and his face shone, looking forward to the adventure.

‘Buongiorno,’ Candace and I said almost in chorus.
‘Buonasera,’ he responded, the smile still blooming.”

It’s that smile I’m seeking. So hard to come by midst the increasing numbers of unsmiling faces — that’s being kind with words! — which envelop us at present. If you can’t relate to this… perhaps you can save some heartbeats by forgoing the rest of this article, and returning to your normal routine and environment.

That smile mainly. But also the untainted water available to this day (and for the foreseeable future). And… the rich soil for growing food. The wind patterns in certain segments of the region are a huge plus too.

To review: Smiles, water, a garden, and favorable phenomena which are likely to provide protection of some sort from the outside.

There are more pluses, of course, just as there are downsides. But for the purpose of this article, this should suffice. Elaboration on all counts is available upon request.

I don’t mention the lovely climate in particular because that’s part of what’s changing dramatically (in unpredictable ways) these days, yes?

Sylvie and Marcel and I want to relocate at our earliest possible convenience. The nuts and bolts of doing so will gladly be shared with interested parties. Our aim is to immediately revitalize our lives, improve everything ‘cross the board. (2)

The Club of Tuscany is immersed in that kind of reverie which is the only worthwhile dream: The Impossible Dream. Literal and linear thinkers probably need not apply, but we don’t rule out anyone out of hand. We welcome inquiries from all quarters.

We are looking to create a community, contribute to a sense of healthy community. Serve and respectfully take our place as guests on Italian soil, enjoying ourselves to the hilt along the way. And, in the process, not stay glued to, or associated with, in any way, the non-environmental horror which Americans incessantly impose on the world, to which they are historically addicted (Elaboration on this upon request.).

.There are all kinds of possibilities ( pastabilities?) for our friends, but we’d like to connect with strangers too for a number of reasons. Not in the Tuscany of Francis Mayes, but rather in the Tuscany of D. H. Lawrence, still accessible, believe it or not, here and there: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3708/is_200401/ai_n9401379.

You don’t need to have deep pockets to take part in this project. It goes without saying, however, that we welcome being introduced to people who have some means. Whether or not they are interested in relocating permanently. Ditto for one and all within what is sure to be a highly select group. For we are convinced that anyone invited to join hands with us respecting The Club of Tuscany on any level will profit in almost every conceivable, worthwhile way.

Pass the word? Quickly or piano, piano, as the spirit moves you.

Smiles in solidarity,
Richard
headburg@yahoo.com
(My email address was created as a tribute to Mitch Hedberg, a singular comedian)

Footnotes:

(1) Part of a line from Gerard Manley Hopkins’ great work, “God’s Grandeur.” A positive poem midst the muck and the mire of 19th-century (so-called) Great Britain. My family feels that McKibben’s “last chance for civilization” has passed (as per Derrick Jensen’s “Endgame”… and common sense), and so… smiles, the arts and Italy take on an unprecedented appeal.

(2) As a family introduction of sorts — nothing that was touched up for this article, by the way (old stuff) — you can check out all sorts sites: www.cancerfreeitaly.com (Review “You Live in Mondragone” http://oxtogrind.org/archive/248 to see why that project’s been put on hold… while we research more), www.sosylvie.typepad.com, www.parisgraves.com, http://www.flickr.com/photos/sosylvie/2461134058/, www.marcelsgeo.blogspot.com, www.frenchpaintbox.com, www.ctravelc.blogspot.com,
http://www.counterpunch.org/mickey02102004.html, www.blossomhome.com http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VM-Hdn7h7tU#GU5U2spHI_4
and http://www.selvesandothers.org/view93.html. A lot of the above is NOT flattering, but all of our warts and all of what begs for updating/qualification is appropriate for putting on the table at this juncture. We’ll certainly ask the same of you.

l