WWOOFing: An Introduction

If anybody is looking for an inexpensive method of travel, as well as an opportunity to immerse themselves within a particular culture, World-Wide Opportunity in Organic Farming (WWOOF) is a fairly new program created for seeing the world through the layman's eyes.  Originating in England in 1971 as a means of experiencing the country for those from the city with not much time, WWOOFing quickly became popular locally, until finally gaining international recognition in the year 2000 when the first worldwide conference was held between 15 countries to discuss the expectations and values of both workers (WWOOFers) and farmers.  Since then, especially with the lightning fast growth of telecommunication in the world, the population of WWOOFers has risen well into the thousands, with farms in 50+ countries.  There is no sort of commission to work on a farm, for the only money involved is to become a member.  The program revels in respect, and the exchange between labor on the individual farms, and hospitality from the farmer's end.  To become a participant in WWOOF all it takes is a desire to see a specific area of the world and the member fee, as little as 15$.

WWOOF is a system held together by the people participating, a glue made of hard work and good vibes.  It acts as a web, forming communities across the world, with even more accommodation from social networking which allows people to stay in touch easily over long distances.  It's real-life social networking pieced together not by a foundation, but by the bonds of friendship and promise.

The evolution and importance of WWOOF is obvious through both the construction of intimate communities, as well as viewing grass-roots parallels, like farmer's markets and music festivals.  In the past century, and especially the last decade, the breaking away from commercial systems in culture as a whole has been obvious with people connecting at local levels in order to construct a unique message of kindness as neighbors.  Information is moving rapidly at an exponential rate and this is true also of culture.  We see it both with larger world populations and growing access to knowledge.  Anybody can create, be it through music, visual art, agriculture, or any other sort of practical means.  I believe that like localized music festivals, farmer's markets, and grassroots companies, WWOOF will play a very significant role in the future of international relations and our growing world identity and culture.

I attended the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, WA from the fall of 2011 to the spring of '12.  Despite the beautiful area and many new friends, I knew that it wasn't the place for me.  I had enough of sitting at a desk with the incentive of letter grades to persuade me to take in the funneled knowledge of the world, something that I had been made to do the entire decade before I had started University; everybody learns uniquely, and it was obvious to me that I needed to immerse myself in a more hands on environment.  This mindset, of  course, is not true for everybody, and I think that the most important notion is to "learn how you learn".  I don't think anybody can denote that for you as well as yourself, for it takes personal practice and experience in becoming vulnerable and taking risks, molding a perspective through your own eyes.

I don't remember how I first heard of WWOOF, but a few months after I did two of my friends traveled to Hawaii to work across the Pacific.  It sounded wonderful, like an experience that I definitely needed to try, however I wanted to go alone.  I've worked since I was 15, including waiting tables at a restaurant, working in a grocery store and in the school cafeteria's kitchen.  I've grown to understand the value and importance of honest good work, but the incentive of pay always seems to become an obstacle in a way.  I think that the most advanced of societies would have a transactional system based on merit and exchange rather than on monetary token, so even though I was enjoying and gaining many experiences, friends, and skills from working, the idea of money and "why I was really there" almost distracted me even though that's not what my heart really wanted.  Even so, as soon as school got let out, I immediately went back to my old job at the grocery store in Minnesota and worked as long of hours as possible to save traveling funds before June 25th, when my plane took off for my destination: Paris, France.

I chose France because I wanted to travel to somewhere new, somewhere that didn't speak English as a primary language, yet was still within range for me to participate as a member of society.  I originally considered going to South America-its "end of the world" depth and exotic temperament appealed to me.  I  realized that leaving school to go work on farms in a foreign country was out there enough, so it would probably be more reasonable to travel somewhere "closer to home".  My Dad is from England, so somewhere in mainland Europe was an obvious balance between new and old, aiding from the fact that I have plenty of family easily accessible in the UK, and also being able to simply apply for dual-nationality and extend my stay or come back if I ever want to.  Being a white, Anglo-Saxon would be an advantage too in terms of inconspicuousness...

I'm not trying to write about the surface experiences, like a journal, but more so my thoughts throughout the journey, and maybe enough to answer any potential questions that anybody reading this might have.  This is my experience, and rather than offer everyone the nitty-gritty, I'd rather let people know what is going through my own mind regarding certain humps in my adventure, cultural similarities and differences, and ideas and philosophies about the cosmos at large.  Many people reading this will be interested in traveling lightly to foreign countries or even WWOOFing, and hopefully I'll encourage some to look into it themselves.  I'll provide some sorts of foundational ideas, and it will be up to the reader to fill in their own blanks, hopefully leading to their own profound thoughts and maybe a misadventure or two. 

The Story of Sorry

Our society has been constructed in a way where people heed words and terminology with far more traction than emotions and ideas. In politics, this could be the dreamer who is allowed support until it's finally realized that he's essentially a socialist. We see it in schools with final judgement being given in terms of grades and tests rather than cumulative expression and participation. On an even more basic, everyday level, it's the daily interactions that people hold, and the artificial groups that people form to shut others out, as well as to differentiate themselves from others with mundane words and labels. I think that manners also fit in this category, as many people don't seem to have a thorough understanding of politeness past the initial list of words used repetitively in social situations.

I was raised to adhere by politeness, taught expressions like please, thank you, excuse me, and sorry, and to always practice respect, especially toward those older than me. It was a basic, yet necessary part of my existence, but around fourth grade, my politeness went in a pretty satiric direction. I became instinctively triggered to use the word sorry in just about every situation, not just those that could potentially offend, but any instance where I even interacted with a person. I look back, and see it as a high wall that I had caged around myself, and eventually a solid case of obsessive-compulsion. It become so habitual that it was something that I was infamous for throughout the rest of elementary school. Sometimes people thought it was cute, but I think that was with the individual sentiment, and every time I said it, often over and over again, it felt like it drained a little bit of the human out of me. One of the last straws was going to camp the summer after 5th grade, and seeing a skit around the campfire where they acted someone out, and we had to guess who that person was. The utterance of "Soory, soory, soory", with my trademark 'double o', made it fairly obvious. That word became a crutch.

As I unconsciously started to let go of my troubled constant apologies, I began to understand that often times, it didn't matter what you said, or even how you said it, but what it came down to was intention. I think that a lot of people are raised to act by certain standards, but they never learn what those standards mean in terms of themselves, and how to weave it into their own lives and mindsets, instead of just piling it on top and calling it practice, action, or belief. It's like, you have to have a foundation of emptiness in order to allow particular notions to mold with your process of thinking. I'm as polite than I've ever been, if not more due to constantly growing, and it's because I've become a different sort of instinctual about it. I can't put a number on times that I express verbal gratitude in a day, but it really doesn't matter, because I think my manners are an efficient part of my personality, and the way that I deal with other people one on one. This doesn't mean that I don't say things like please and thank you, it's just that everything is so subjective, that I can become a chameleon and adapt through action, saying particular sentiments when I know that they will make an impact. It becomes easier to connect with people, I believe, when you are both able to disregard terminologies and let actions speak for themselves, like a secret that both parties mutually understand. There is, however, one word that I usually refuse to verbalize, let alone think. A single word or thought can have an impact on your entire psyche, so to change and minimize your process of thinking or speaking is to cut clutter. At first, I began to cut the number of times that I said sorry in a day, trying to limit it in regards to authenticity. With that, and with age, my perspective began to encompass this understanding that everything happens for a reason, and that to say sorry was holding up a barrier, refusing to learn from mistakes. This isn't always the case, of course, and with societal expectations it seems inhumane to completely cut the word out of your vocabulary, but I also think that it's like an act of defensiveness and a refusal to gaze life straight in the eyes.

The word sorry can hinder your feeling of timelessness, the ability to live in the present moment. If used in moderation it's the occasional reflection, but when saying the word profusely becomes a habit, it's like constantly being dragged back into the past. I don't think it would really make sense to calculate the time lost as an argument, but life has the potential to be meditative and maintaining composure within the Now without necessarily looking behind or into the future definitely counts for something. Living in the moment is also a chance at ecstasy, true bliss. Again, this is akin to meditation, and I think it relays a feeling of happiness. I'd actually be interested in seeing a study comparing how frequently people use the phrase "I'm sorry" and their daily levels of happiness. There would need to be a function to differentiate people who had once said, "I'm sorry," from people who had never, for that would most likely make a difference, the smaller the number the more fascinating in regard to the study. Quantitatively, I believe that there would absolutely be a difference between the "apologizers" and their previously afflicted counterparts, of course with outliers, and that the numbers would be much smaller with the latter group.

Historically, social norms have always existed as they reflect the collective mind playing influence above the individual, which is natural in a society cohabited by man. Slang and dialect, like every aspect of culture, can branch out within a society if enough people immerse themselves, so of course these becomes instances of social normalities as well. There's a funny cause and effect reaction when a person's personalities, attitudes, and beliefs cannot be separated from the individual's action, in either direction. They become indistinguishable, and it's hard to tell which one affected the other. A society saturated with apologetic people has so many defenses up that it's difficult to make progress, as if we're not open to disagreement, which makes it impossible to change and progress. There was an article in the New York Times opinion page about politician Newt Gingrich's reaction to a joke that Robert De Niro made about first ladies. Gingrich's response was that it was "inexcusable and the president should apologize for him." This depicts a pretty great representation of what the American people have come to truly be about. It's like society has disregarded the entire idea of a means in favor of the ends in almost every situation. Every thought seems so definite, like it's either good or bad. That leaves a lot of room in between untouched. Progress, of a nation or an individual, requires balance, tolerance, and the ability to both imagine and act upon a dream. Honestly, I believe that Gingrich's comment shows how the media and politics have becomes more cluttered than ever before. It's like tabloids, seeking resolutions for even the tiniest bit of conflict. Every single action requires a letter to the man upstairs, telling your mother every time somebody acts independent of the status quo, and at 68 years old, goddamn it!

I'm not trying to call out manners in general, I just think that they represent a step in the level of growth for humanity. It's like a musician learning an instrument through scales and practicing technique, but eventually finding his own flow and branching through that. Practice ethics to becomes an ethical human being, and I think the playing field stretches as far as the eye can see. At a certain point, allow ethical thought to become inherent and unsaid, free flowing actions that represent ethics and respect. It's a crutch and a paradox, in that to be sorry is to be untruthful either to the other person by lack of sincerity, or demeaning by calling yourself out. Be the judge of your own actions and let acting ethically be a part of who you are. I think that "Judge not lest ye be judged" of Matthew 7:1-5 in the Bible doesn't dissuade a person from judging, but it states that judging subjectively demands one to look at themselves as well from the same perspective as their other critiques, practicing respect by looking down.

MLK Dream

I find myself dreaming differently when I spend the nights in new places, and this is as true as ever in Portland, at my Uncle Merle's home. Here is a snippet of one particular dream:

There was an art exhibition in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. and several art students and teachers had set up a display on a stage to honor the man. There were about seven pieces, and they were arranged in the shape of a curving snake, growing progressively larger from the tail to the head. Most of them were made out of stone, and it was cool because each of them seemed to have a different international style. The smallest one was a tear drop carved out of rock, divided to symbolize the balance of yin and yang. There was also a 3 dimensional picture of different poses of MLK, and then the final, and largest piece was an oriental tree that crawled up vertically rather than stretching along across the stage. The tree seemed to be an extension of the the previous 3-d picture, but it blended MLK's silhouettes with the tarnished, noble bark of the tree, frozen in rock. As each artist described the piece that they were representing, a couple of them pushed each other out of the way so that they could say something about a particular piece, which was totally inappropriate for the demonstration. On girl's hand was red when she slapped a stone trying to knock it away from another student. I was positioned at the end, in front of the grand tree, and I described it as: "All of these memorabilia are connected as they represent MLK and his love for peace, and his perseverance for connecting human-kind. The art is just as important as the space between the figures, and this rings true growing into the ancient tree, the bark blooming between the faces, and acting as time and space, bringing together the different poses and ideals of MLK so we as a people can position our thoughts in between these cracks. Room for us is room to roam, and to see how we relate together as a whole, wise words for one community and humanity." Not exactly verbatim, I guess, but I really liked the dream