Finding Bullets in the Garden

I remember walking to school when I was young.  When my father was on active duty in the Navy we lived on bases and my earliest memories were of walking to school alone, sometimes stopping to play by a ditch near our house.  I would arrive at school dirty.  Later, we would move to a small subdivision in the south where I would take the bus to school, but still there was never any fear of the things we fear now.

A few days ago, we found a full clip of .45 ammo just lying on the ground near one of our school gardens with no idea how it got there or why.  We thought we were in a good neighborhood.  Thankfully, it was after the kids had left and there was no sign of anything else in the area.  Thankfully no gun to go along with it.  Ironically, we were thankful it was full because that meant that it had not been fired.  Still, there it was.

We visit schools now and the sights and smells bring it all back.  Little kids rushing through halls.  The chairs are smaller.  "Eye level" is a lot lower.  The smell of glue and markers and construction paper are all still the same.  Still, we have to hit a buzzer and stand in front of a camera to be let in.  

This morning, I had to talk to our friends returning from Christmas break about working in our gardens.  I had to give a talk about something that I never really thought I would have to.  We had to talk about procedures for finding things like this and recognize that it might be an issue.

Our schools were different than their schools.  The mandate is to create a safe space for them to learn about the world.  Sure, we would like for them to be able to walk along streams on their way to school, but the chances of that, well...

We talk a lot about what we call "neopermaculture" and how it means being able to create sustainable systems in our modern world with modern challenges.  We have people coming to us saying "why don't you turn that abandoned lot into a garden?" Growing things is the easy part.  The hard part is navigating the rest of it.  The hard part is wading through the politics, dealing with egos, and sometimes, finding bullets in the garden.

The new year is going to mean a lot of things and a lot of work. The Life Cooperative is working on a lot of initiatives that are going to be a lot of fun and educational for big and little kids.  The main goal is not to forget about the reason we are doing the things that we are doing.

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