Maybe it's human nature to dismiss (or fear) that which we don't understand. I know I've certainly changed my entire attitude on a few key issues over the years. Part of that is an inevitable part of growing up and maturing - and I'd say I easily grew up as much from 22 to 32 as I did from 12 to 22 - and part of it is simply being exposed to that which was previously a mystery.
When I was 20, I got a ride from Freiburg to Wangen with a woman who was also studying at Freiburg. She asked me the state of organic agriculture in Canada. At the time, I didn't know anything about it - but that didn't stop me from voicing the opinion that I'd heard my father deliver during the 70s. Essentially, I had no time for something I perceived as implicitly critical of the farmers I knew, who were working so hard and living so well within the environment. I should have shut up, and asked her questions - undoubtedly, she would have given me some valuable insights that might have contributed to a process of getting beyond my father's opinions and making my own critical choices. Maybe I wasn't ready for it then.
By 23, I'd started questioning my food choices - I was moving beyond what I was eating to include questions about where it was grown or produced and under what production system. I'd started considering food additives, seasonality, excess processing and labour conditions. By 25, I was curious about organics - why would some people work so hard, for so little money? Why were young people willing to farm themselves into the ground?
Soon after that, I started talking to the organic farmer that didn't fit that profile - Lorenz seemed much more... professional, perhaps. Less willing to exploit himself, maybe. Or maybe it was that he was more critical, or maybe because he wasn't defensive. Whatever it was, I started reading more, and before you knew it, I'd changed my ph.d. topic...
Thing is, I can explain the why of organics in a way that makes sense to me, perfectly. It doesn't require a leap of faith for me, because my decision to go that route does not hinge on a belief that it will make me live longer. I don't just see it as better quality of food, but a less damaging way to grow it for both the land and the people doing it. By no means am I uncritical of what I see going on in the organic sector, but I've got a whole thesis to explore some of that in.
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So, given that I'm a firm believer in something I readily dismissed based on what I'd heard as a child and what I just hadn't bothered to think my way through - I treat the temptation to brush off concepts with caution. I'm very tempted to think of biodynamics as a bunch of hocus-pocus - because it's not based on "science"? Here I am, incredibly critical of the notion that the scientific method is the only true way of producing knowledge. Beyond that, I've even argued that in some cases it prevents us from reaching further knowledge. And yet...
Biodynamics, according to Steiner, is "a science of life-forces". We must broaden our understanding of what is relevant - and apparently, that includes forces deep within the earth and beyond the earth. Now, me, I'm inclined to be the doubting Thomas here - but I can't see these forces! why would one day be better for planting leavy crops, another better for root crops? It doesn't make any sense!
And yet... I accept all sorts of things that wouldn't make sense if science hadn't explored them. I accept that my magnetic compass works, and I can even point to the scientific explanations for this. Same thing with tides, rainbows, northern lights... all of these would be mysteries of nature if somehow we hadn't turned the lens of science onto them and turned them from a mystery to "fact". But deeper forces? Medicine for the earth? There I balk.
I shouldn't. I don't understand how dousing works, yet I accept that. I accept biorhythms as they relate to my own body - if anything, I'm keenly aware of the cycles it goes through and how sensitive that is to perturbation. So why do I want to say bunch of baloney to biodynamics?
I'm not saying it. I just don't understand it. I have, over the years, gotten beyond my father's dismissive attitude on Steiner, and while I have many reservations with all school systems, the Waldorf principles have not been dismissed by me. I should embrace it - after all, the argument that you have to move your field of consideration to include things that you did not previously consider relevant dovetails nicely with much of what I say in other areas. I should be far more open to it.
I think the chief cause of the balking is not the philosophy here, but the prescriptive nature of it. I don't dismiss that there are all sorts of rhythms and forces that we don't understand - but by making medicine for these through BD preps and following a prescribed calendar, we're assuming that we do understand them? And how much is this influenced by our own "forces" - if some of us are more susceptible to them than others (and I'll tentatively accept that one too), does that mean that if I'm not influenced by them, or convinced of them, that biodynamic preparations stirred together by me are less effective than those of a committed Demeter-certified farmer? I wonder.
It really wouldn't be that much of a leap. I'm firmly convinced that my mental attitude has much to do with my extraordinary good health. It doesn't extend to, sick people are to blame for their own illnesses - but I think there's a lot to be said for being very conscious of not disrupting natural balances. I've never taken antibiotics - and I've never had a yeast problem. I took the birth control pill for a few years - and the recovery from that, in terms of rhythms and cycles, took years. Beyond that, though, I think that the fact that I think of myself as a very healthy person is a self-fulfilling prophecy - and by not seeing limitations as to what I can do, I'm more likely to do things which avoid developing limitations (like running. I'm not a natural runner. For me, being able to run 20km is a huge accomplishment - but I wouldn't have that accomplishment if I had started off with the attitude, I'm not a runner).
Maybe it's time I applied that attitude in other areas of my life!
Posted by Johanna at April 2, 2004 10:45 AM