What Is An Ecosystem?

Basic Definition

An ecological system is living and non-living things interacting with each other and their natural environment. “Ecosystem” is a shorter way to say “ecological system”.

Broader Definition

An ecosystem is the interconnectedness of all things in a system of give and take with zero waste. The ecosystem called Earth, includes and depends on many things not widely considered. It includes all matter on Earth, in the soil and below the soil. Some of the other things Earth's ecosystem includes and depends on are wind, temperature, humidity, gravity, volcanoes, moon, stars and space plus Earth's cores, rotation and revolution.

Contextual Perspective

Earth's ecosystem not only includes all Earth contains but all that contains Earth – the solar ecosystem, galaxy ecosystem and universe ecosystem.

Currently, Earth's niche in the universe ecosystem is unhealthy because the human element is becoming cancerous. This recent malfunctioning endangers the cellular structure and body of Earth, thus the universe.

The existence of interconnections within an ecosystem does not depend on awareness. It seems unlikely bees are aware of earthworm activity, land plants know of oceans, squirrels think about bacteria, bottom feeders consider the source of sediment or clouds know I'm here. Yet, in the short-term, the health of Earth's ecosystem does depend on human awareness.

Humans must return to living in accordance with universal principles and with the universe in mind to improve their quality of life. Once we resume growth in this wisdom of connectedness, relationships and the whole, we'll recognize this: the universe, more significant than humans, more magnificent than Earth and more immense in power than in size, must also have an immune system.

In an ecosystem, of lives and souls,
The body will respond to heal the whole

Separation of Church & State: No Escape

The following definitions are used:

“Church” means personal philosophy that guides behavior of an individual.
“State” means public philosophy that guides behavior of a group of people as agreed upon by those with equal voice.

Separation of Church & State might sound good because there's “religious freedom,” but just because it's called freedom, doesn't mean it is.

In America, separation of Church & State is overly wrung from the First Amendment to the Constitution. In order for Church & State to be separate:

1. Both must be able to act independently.
2. When they reach the same crossroad, each must be able to proceed in the direction of choice.
3. When an individual participates in voting, personal beliefs are set aside, because voting is about the philosophies of State that will govern the group not for how the individual wants to live.

This is as ridiculous as it sounds. It is impossible for an individual to live with separation of Church & State. Try it and the spirit will be rendered useless. The only way to live with separation of Church & State is when there is no separation - the philosophies agree.

It is also impossible to have religious freedom if State makes rules that pertain to personal choice. Believe it or not, all public law has personal philosophical implication and impact. This means, even though separation of Church & State is the written and spoken American rule, it has never existed.

Separation of Church & State is the epitome of a house divided. Any group of people who attempt to set public rules different than their personal rules, dooms itself to wasting its resources addressing and readdressing endless inconsistencies and challenges to those inconsistencies. For example are issues of enslavement, abortion, right to die, eminent domain, same sex marriage, right to vote, environmental, right to food, shelter, education, medical care, job opportunities, etc. This constant stirring of the embers of unrest leads to:

1. Dissolution/realignment of State OR
2. Conceding of authority over personal matters by Church to State. This renders the spirit useless. OR
3. State using force to douse personal unrest OR
4. State meeting one or more of the personal demands of Church

Let's be clear. State is always the mirror image of its voters. If it is not, voters will clean the mirror so the image accurately reflects them. This means, any State that disrespects the inherent rights of anyone and anything for more than one voting cycle, only does so because the majority of its voters personally believe it is okay. What we loathe or like about State exists within the Church beliefs of its voters.

Another way to say this is that in the long run, Church & State are never separate; therefore, when State does not change over many years, the majority of voters want it that way. If the 99% of the Occupy Movement want fairness, then, as the majority, the greatest opportunity to achieve that goal is within personal control. Keep considering all candidates fairly and voting for those who believe in fairness. This is the only valid political issue or platform. All else is as drops of dirt to drinking water. Voting using a Church philosophy that does not honor equal rights will never result in a State that does. Furthermore, when the majority of voters of any State change their personal beliefs, State, by default, changes.

The State, as in United States, is an aristocracy with feifdoms by another name. This elite, by its nature, considers Church as enemy #1 of State. This is why a constitution was written using Church beliefs, then Church, was immediately removed in the administration of those beliefs in the very first amendment. This has created a gremlin government running rampant with no moral censorship. This, because, capitalism, per Karl Marx, requires an underclass via the stampeding of inherent rights. This, along with a State-sponsored, ensured and insured consumption mentality and carnality, are in opposition to morality, thus Church.

Mankind has steadily fallen from its apex of achievement, awareness, peace and harmony several millennia ago. Ancient philosophy in existence when all of the foundations for science and civilization were developed, operated under the wisdom of unity of Church & State. The temple was the nucleus of moral genetic code that instructed Church, State, education, science and the natural world. Temple teaching guided humans in their role as part of the ecosystem.

Separation of Church & State, when separation is not intended, can only produce self-endangering results. Since it's not possible to separate Church & State, we cannot escape the truth that: We are as a country, who we are as a people. We, the people, are the government. Church is State. The government is doing what we personally believe.

We can no longer hide neatly behind the pretension that the most pressing concerns are protecting against the personality of the few; when it is clearly, protection against the impersonality of the many, that's needed. Keep your personal beliefs to yourself and show me your State. The most significant aspects of character is always known by this fruit alone, inescapably.

Just as President Barack Obama has said, "We can't leave our moral values at the door."

Self-Maintaining Plants & Gardens

Earth is filled with garden varieties to meet year-round survival needs of life varieties.

Food Fight #42

Sparrows jump onto grass stalks that have flowered, been wind pollinated and produced grass seed. The weight of each nimble bird bends the stalk like a flexible pole. The sparrow maintains balance during the brief ride down. It scoots sideways on the stalk towards the seedhead that is now on the ground. So this is how they do it! Sparrows eat many other things including clover petals, grass, ants, spiders, beetles and other insects. For sparrows, even a small patch of natural environment is like a salad and insect bar.

Because we can, humans single-mindedly plant rock gardens, flower gardens, vegetable gardens, water gardens, butterfly gardens, rose gardens, wet gardens and container gardens. Why not embrace an original, self-maintaining garden? A spot where what grows, stays, and is not messed up or messed with for one or more years.

A self-maintaining garden, or aspects of it, could be in the corners of the yard or along fence lines. No, it doesn't have to be a yard full; but simply this: not cutting or removing plants along one or more sides of a house, garage, shed, doghouse or any structure. It could be under trees or bushes. It could be a single plant allowed to grow wherever it finds a suitable home, even if that's within one of our precious gardens. There is benefit to a dandelion here, a grass plant there, clover over there or a plantain somewhere.

Learning the importance of every plant and leaving just one more plant alone to do its thing and complete its life cycle is a respectful goal. This small change makes a bigger difference for a variety of small creatures whose only ability to survive through every season (especially winter) depends on nutrients, shelter and materials they can only get from a self-maintaining plant or a self-maintaining garden.

See Also:
Growing Food: Green Thumb Not Required But Three Things Are. Food Fight #51 – Another Grown-Folks Misconception

Natural Hair Poem, Untwisting Perceptions

To: Natural, My Love

by Usiku

Natural, My Love
When you embrace your hair
It’s like, you’re with child
Blossoming enhances your smile
You bring to life, fresh air
Your twists, locks, braids and afro stuffs
Add elegance to any room
As glorious as the peacock’s plume
Always the exquisite touch

Natural, My Love
My destiny, your legacy
Mesmerizes like Victoria Falls
As primal spirits call
You captivate and satiate
Texture, length, color, magnificence
Imbued with strength Afrika made
Varied with styles imagination laid
Accept your roots and essence

Awaken, let it happen
You are your own dimension
Wear your natural crown
Shades of black and brown
Without their pretensions
Your natural chemistry
Is appreciation and pride
Sustenance is in your strands
Unquestionable, professional

Good hair is
Natural, My Love
Don’t lye to yourself
Natural, not kinky or nappy
Let Kujichagulia grace your brow
Like Ethiopia, then and now
Natural, you are becoming
Yourself
Rhythm
So beautiful
So free
(I just nod my head)

---

To: Natural, My Love is from Eloquence: Rhythm & Renaissance

”Be Natural” by Fertile Ground

Natural Hair Reflections

I love having conversations with people who've grown up in different cultures, especially outside of America. One such woman from Jordan told me what struck her most about America. “The obesity of the people and the hair styles of African [Black] women.”

All women can keep their hair long or short or straight or curly or in a pony tail. Yet, more variance comes with African hair. The texture lends itself to creativity. So much so, it stands out as a significant cultural difference. The texture of African hair is a gift. It is in the image and the texture of creation that can take on many forms and be shaped and re-shaped according to whatever you imagine.

Nappy hair is 'divine' - The choice of God!

Temples Built With Cellular Nutrition

Food Fight #41

If my body is a temple, shouldn't I build and maintain it with the best materials? The best materials for buildings are designated on the architect's plan. A quality building requires good planning, materials and workmanship. Likewise, a quality body requires good planning, nutrients and working systems.

Nutrition Is Synonymous With Health Before Conception.

Separately, the health of egg and sperm begin to define the individual. This is true for one simple reason:

Sperm and egg contain genetics. These genetics were formed using nutrients. How accurately these genes were formed depends a lot on the nutrient history of each parent.

Nutrition Is A Significant Consideration During Childhood

Before the time a human gets teeth, most caregivers tend to give nutrition significant consideration, after all, a rapidly growing body needs nutrients. Growth, development and learning require nutrients to give the child the best chance to develop to potential. It is said, 0 to 3 are the critical years and evidently, that's it. Afterwards, it's usually a free for all, free fall from an optimal approach to eating, even to the point where soda, candy and countless unnatural things become rights/rites of childhood with the full support of frequent traditions.

Nutrition For The Fully Grown

Though an adult may not be growing rapidly in physical size, there is still a continuous need for nutrients. Nutrients are still needed for growth, learning, development, sharpness, daily activities, metabolism, digestion and maintaining health. Most of the cells in the body must be replaced on a regular basis. This includes the genetic code. If meals supply partial nutrients, no nutrients or nutrients mixed with toxic materials, the structural integrity of the temple will start to erode.

Nutrition sets the foundation for quality of life. From each cell's perspective, there is no time where not getting nutrients is not a big deal. This is true not because of a single day or meal but because the notion that sometimes is okay opens the door for this practice to expand or increase to continuous or intermittent habits that creep into life undetected until symptoms appear years later.

The same quality materials that build a body from the start must be used to keep it in good condition. In current societies, after teaching a child harmful eating habits, it seems the trend accelerates in adulthood because increased purchasing power is often used with no oversight to purchase inferior building materials to satisfy the likes of corrupted childhood taste buds.

Nutrition From The Past

The body has been constructed from what parents ate and what the individual eats. Every part of the body requires nutrients to construct it properly in appearance and properly in soundness. For instance, skin is a bunch of nutrients and bones didn't form today. Both were formed from what was eaten in days past.

Past nutrition is stored in cells and all body structures because cells and body structures are made of nutrients. When those structures are replaced/repaired, they are broken down and what can be reused, is reused. A nutrient eaten long ago can be used today just like materials from an old building can be reused.

We've learned the body will manufacture certain nutrients if those nutrients are not eaten. The body is only able to make nutrients if the components (other nutrients) are already in the body.

Picture Your Dream Home As A Temple

A healthy body requires healthy organs. Healthy organs require healthy tissue. Healthy tissue requires healthy cells. Healthy cells require nutrients. The picture of health is eating to provide construction materials so the temple maintains its structural integrity according to The Architect's Plan. We have a good plan, all we need to do is return to it, burn all those “How To” books and use the ashes to return nutrients to the soil.

The Inner Journey To Peace

Over the years, this blog has explored being silent, still, listening, knowing thy self, the inner voice and peace. These foundational components, that help nurture personal growth, are summarized nicely in, "The Inner Journey To Peace" by Joan Chittister. In this video she speaks about cultivating solitude and silence as a way to live peacefully.

Reliability Of Political/Opinion Polls

Before I place faith in a political or opinion poll, here are some of the things I should verify:

1. The administrator has used objective standards.
2. A small sample group can be used to make inferences for everyone.
3. The sample is representative of the population it is attempting to estimate.
4. The sample reflects all significant factors that affect responses.
5. Subjective answers from a small group can be extended to the large group.

At a minimum, these five conditions must be met before relying on poll results. I must also ask additional questions.

How accurate would it be to sample half the students in a school and then say this is what everyone wants to eat? Not even with sampling 50% of the population would I be right. Percentage-wise, political and opinion polls take an extremely small sample and then claim to be accurate. Samples might work when estimating fish in a pond, but not when estimating personal choices and preferences which depend on a different set of factors for each person. It is more scientific when the population is likely to behave the same as the sample. This same behavior will only occur when the sample and the population reliably use the same set of criteria to guide behavior.

Undoubtedly, nature is guided by instincts; therefore, all members of a population will exhibit a similar set of behaviors. This makes sampling reliable. Humans use individual choices based on many variables. This makes sampling/polls unreliable when asking humans subjective questions.

Why haven't I been polled on anything in 50 years? Does this mean there are others who have been able to accurately speak for me?

If I am polled, will my answer be an indicator of how hundreds of thousands of people will respond? Even two people who call themselves soulmates respond differently to the same question. Trust a poll on matters of personal preference? Come on now! The game show, Family Feud, is a good example of how often an individual response doesn't match a sample group.

If I had been polled, I'd probably respond off the top of my head instead of first making sure I arrived at my answer independently. I wouldn't be thinking how important my answer might be to others. I would respond quickly which rarely involves careful consideration. I would say what I could quickly recall. I would likely recall what I had heard and read frequently, accurate or not.

If I had been polled, I would probably change my response at least half the time after further consideration.

Political and Opinion polls are also problematic in that they are never an indication of which direction people will head when the time comes or where they will finally take root. To be swayed by a poll is to navigate by dandelion seed.

Truth is, many polls are not taken to help the public but to help spinmeisters gauge the effect of their spinning. They are checking “whether signs,” to see if the hype has us sufficiently off balance. Going along with polls is thinking by substitute thought. It's like using an unreliable replacement head.

Related: Financial Information Sources, Gaming The Economy & Our Education

G-8/G-20, Groupthink, Morality Crisis

The G-8 and G-20 consider themselves the preeminent group of thinkers for the world when in fact they preempt thought for groupthink. Despite years of low interest rates, monetary easings, Quantitative Easings, Operation Twists, Stimulus Packages, too big bailouts and laws containing more handouts of taxpayer money, banks have not relented on foreclosures, businesses have not hired and banks have not extended credit. The G-8/G-20 believe doing more of the same will cause things to change. Who are these people?

The Group of 8 (G-8) is France, Germany, Italy, Japan, United Kingdom, United States, Canada and Russia. The European Union is represented which makes nine.

The Group of Twenty (G-20) is the G-8 and Australia, Saudi Arabia, China, Brazil, India, Indonesia, South Africa, Turkey, Argentina, Mexico and South Korea. (Alkebu-lan "Africa," the most resource rich continent, from which many countries steal is largely unincluded.)

Most of G-8 have been meeting for almost 40 years and there are a growing number of crises facing the majority of both group's populations. In no particular order, here are a few:

1. Financial
2. White collar crime
3. Governmental crime
4. Wars against certain citizens (loosely, discriminations/injustices)
5. Knowledge
6. Pollution
7. Food, including water
8. Weapons to defend corruption
9. Loss of biodiversity/extinction
10. Loss of biodiversity of human contribution
11. Over-consumption, including natural resources
12. Basic physical needs unmet
13. Damage to natural systems, (79,000 damns in America)
14. Disease increase
15. Over taxation
16. Legal larceny
17. Social program failure, medical care, social security, pensions, education
18. Societies dependent upon citizens behaving as servants of public servants

Though, the G-8 has been working on several of these issues for years, the average citizen is still subject to the upheaval of broken systems held together by notions that can't withstand scrutiny. Our great planners of common era national and global prosperity have flawed strategies. We are way behind in the fourth quarter. There are no more timeouts for further research, study and discussion. Citizens must stop misbehaving as choreographed spectators doing the patriotic wave while the GT-8/GT-20 govern glibly by enabling exceptions rather than enacting and enforcing rules that stabilize and ensure balance.

Most of these countries have never been fiscally responsible and will never put all the people's interest first. 99% of us in these countries have been left to fend for ourselves during the recent incarnation of financial turmoil and deservedly so because we continue to make decisions using the same flawed processes.

Unless we want more of the same, we'd better stop avoiding thinking. Only then will we be able to rediscover the common ground of higher ground. This will never be found at summits where less than a hundred people set policy for 7 billion, of which at least 2 billion have no representation and 4.9 billion are underrepresented.

All the crises we face are crises of morality/spirituality. If we sensed better, we'd long for civilizations 10,000 years old upon whose broad advances Kemet/Nubia/Egypt owe their greatness. It's time to demand all levels of government put away the erector sets, play dough and make-believe schemes and return to simpler holistic models where spirituality (church), governance (state), health, science, education and daily practices are symbiotic. Societies where the best of everyone is put to betterment's use. This will only happen by learning and voting for those people whose thinking is to help as many people as possible.

To stimulate the economy, money must be placed in the hands of small businesses and in the hands of individuals via reduced taxes and fees. Do not give money to banks and large corporations. Government must get out of the way of the little guys and in the way of the big guys.

The G-8/G-20 solve what they want to solve and help who they want to help. Whether it's the Group of Eight or Group of Twenty they don't hesitate to ensure groupthink aplenty!

BTW: Don't forget other groupthink tanks such as the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, World Trade Organization, World Health Organization NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) and The Bilderberg Group.

G-20/G-20 Summit Motto

We, the groupthink tank
Raise our dranks
To central banks with checks blank
Close ranks against being frank
Preserve power before solution's rank

Reading, Eating, Stream of Consciousness

Food Fight #40

Reading and eating are similar. For cells to eat, nutrients must be absorbed into the bloodstream. For the cognitive mind to eat, nutrients must be absorbed into the stream of consciousness. Thought processes, like body processes, must be fed on a regular basis.

Reading is one of the sources of nutrients for the thinking mind; however, words must be absorbed. Reading that merely reaches the surface layer of the mind is like rubbing food on the skin and calling it eating.

Just as food must reach the stomach, words must reach the “stomach of the mind” where words are held for further processing. We've learned from experience digestion takes time, happens in stages and involves participation by many portions of the body. Shouldn't we allow more time for the proper processing of information? This time allows meaning locked in words to be released by passing through the bowels of the mind. Once digestion begins, it does not need us to figure our what to do with the food. No need to worry sister; the spirit has an immune system of discernment that works with the stream of consciousness to fish out foreign substances. No need to worry brother; that which should not be absorbed will pass through like fiber but will aid the workings of the mind.

Lastly, if praying before consuming food is useful, it should also help before consuming words. Doing so invokes the protections of the immune system in the manner above.

Words as food and food as words. Foods nourish the body; words nourish its ways. We may never have to eat our own words, but there is a health benefit to eating the words of others. Read, eat and stream on!