A Message
from Bilbo
Here’s
a secret from the road. There are three universal languages and no matter where
you wander everybody in every village understands them.
The
first language is music. Whenever people gather music happens. Everyone has
music in them, a harmonica and a pair of spoons are all you need.
The
second language is gardening. You can kneel in the dirt anywhere and with
anyone and engage in the timeless pursue of nurturing plants.
The
third language is shelter. Everyone
understands four walls and a roof, they are our second skin.
We
live in a funny old world. A long, long time ago in the wild wet woods if you
built your house in a day you owned it freehold. The building materials where
under your feet. Today, with a hobbit-size fist full of dollars you can still
build a home that exceeds all building codes for structural strength and
coziness using earth bag construction. It’s called a hobbit house.
Today
a half of North America's energy and carbon emissions comes from housing
and yet owning a home is beyond the beyond for many because a middle class
income no longer supports a middle class lifestyle. We’ve been on a crazy
shopping spree leaving a debt-ridden economy and climate swinging on their
hinges. We have driven ‘old blue’, our planet, into the ditch and to get back
on road we need hook the tow chain to nature and keep fingers crossed that she
still has the strength to get us back on the trail.
Dancing barefoot on a grass roof leaves no
footprint. A third of the world lives in dirt built houses and their homes last
for centuries compared to the sixty-year lifespan of the standard modern house.
No matter whether you from the Shire or dark Mordor all buildings are ruled by
the four gods of construction: water, earth, air and sun. Water goes where water
wants to go, weak foundations and walls wobble, fresh air gives you energy to dance
all night and the sun keeps you warm, the lights on and the music playing. Views
of distant horizons remind you that great things happen when men, women and
mountains meet. Hobbits know housing and they also know that the good life
depends upon having a vibrant community. The village provides support for people
as they adjust to a kinder world.
