Blog of Zoe at Galien Valley
Galien River valley, southwest Michigan, North America

Definitionz

Language: Words Re-Defined

 

Let's define words so that we can use words in ways that helps us to describe how to sustain and enrich communities, people, nature, and the world. Plus, let's use words in ways that help us identify the interconnections of many major global and local modern chronic problems (poverty, illness, violence, filth, pollution, habitat loss, etc.). Plus, let's use words to state our clear goals on how we want to diminish those chronic problems and shape our communities and culture for the better (supply, health, peace, freedom, cleanliness, thriving habitats and nature, etc.).

art and science:
● Science is observation, awareness, knowledge, and education. Science is what you learn (take in) from your community and world. "Science is learning the patterns of nature and how nature works." ― Carl Sagan. Science is observation, exploration, research, curiosity, awareness, record, report, discovery, experiment, study, questions, knowledge, experience, wisdom, understanding, facts, theories, truths, and learning the patterns of nature and how nature works, how people can cooperate together to form sustainable communities, how human communities can live in harmony with habitats and ecologies, how cultures and educations and economies affect communities and people and nature, etc.
●Art is expression, creativity, building, working, and applying science to make things. Art is working to make (give out) things for your community and world. Good art is art "in which the hand, the head, and the heart of man go together." ― John Ruskin. Art is expression, creativity, designing, building, working, doing, action, caretaking, stewarding, and applying science to make things ― good art includes art of pleasing form and function, or appropriate form and function. Art is a unique thing that a person or people handmakes. Art is not factory mass-produced identical items. For instance, every handmade basket is at least slightly unique from other baskets. Plus, art is not limited to touchable items (paintings, sculptures, baskets, houses, etc.): art can also be untouchable forms of expression, such as dance, music, culture, morals, storytelling, and facial expressions. Science and art overlap, in that both science and art include experiment, experience, discovery, wisdom, understanding, and education. Science and art should be done with the motive to love ― to help communities, people, nature, and the world.
● Science and art. Science is learning, knowing, researching, and observing, and art is the making and creation of stuff. Art is applying science to make things of pleasing form and function. Science and art are fundamentally connected together; good sciences and good arts support each other; yet, modern culture largely separates science and art from each other.
● The best sciences and arts (the "community sciences" and "community arts") help to sustain and enrich communities, people, and nature, all together. The best sciences and arts strengthen sustainable interrelationships between people and nature within a local community landscape. The best sciences and arts help people and nature thrive together. The best sciences and arts boost community cooperation and social cohesion, as well as help individuals to take good care of themselves, family, friends, and the community. The best sciences and arts are done for the purpose of love ― brotherly-love, community-love, and world-love. It is with caring, moral, and loving motives that people choose to do the best sciences and arts, the sciences and arts that best help communities, people, and nature.
Click here for Holistic Science and Art
Click here for Holistic Days, which include science and art.
Click here for Science and Art Articles
Click here for Science and Art United in Education
See ABC Garden of Science and Art

CEEE see below for "culture-education-ecology-economy."

civilization (city-society):
● A civilization is a large society with one or more cities and has farmland to feed its people. A city has a 1,000 or more people. Civilized people are people who live in a civilization. Most civilized people live within a civilization's cities or farmland. At large, civilized people eat mostly farmed-food. Some civilized people are peaceful; some civilized people are violent. Civilizations usually have huge militaries.
● A civilization needs to import stuff. A civilization is a large society that needs to import one, or a few, or all resources and vital basic necessities (food, water, housing materials, clothes, etc.). A civilization has one or more cities. A city is too many people living on too little land with too few resources; hence, cities and civilizations need to import stuff from neighboring to distant communities. A civilization and city cannot be as locally-self-sufficient as wilderness tribal societies, but the best (most sustainable) civilizations and cities get their stuff from as locally as possible. It's better to get stuff from 1,000 miles away, than from 5,000 miles away. It's even better to get stuff from 300 miles away, than from 1,000 miles away. And so on. Less energy is wasted, etc.
● A civilization and a city includes rich people, poor people with enough stuff, and people living in poverty lacking stuff. A civilization and a city include people who eat too much, people who eat just enough, and people who eat too little. A civilization and a city includes people who are super clean, people who are clean enough, and people who are filthy dirty. Also read definitions for poor, poverty, and rich.
also see wilderness tribal society, below

community:
A local group of people working together (community cooperation) to be locally-self-sufficient. A local group of people living, learning, working, doing science, and doing art to sustain and enrich the local community landscape of people and nature, and running a community economy.
Click here for Longer Definition of community.

culture:
● A culture is a way of life and a set of values. A culture is how the way of life relates to communities, people, and nature. A culture includes how a society uses, sustains, enriches, and values nature. A culture includes how living, learning, and working affect communities, people, and nature. A culture includes how the process of making stuff (including art) and getting stuff affect community, people, and nature. A culture includes how people take care of the land, nature, people, and communities.
● Example parts of culture: How does the way food is grown affect communities, people, and nature? How does the way clothes are made affect communities, people, and nature? How does the way people use water affect communities, people, and nature. How does various art affect communities, people, and nature? How does the way people learn affect communities, people, and nature? What kind of education helps people to restore natural habitats, to eat healthy food, and to be locally-self-sufficient? How does the way people work affect communities, people, and nature? What types of businesses help people to restore natural habitats, to eat healthy food, and to be locally-self-sufficient?
Click here for Culture and Communities.
Click here for Holistic Community Culture.
Click here for Nature-Culture Connection.
Click here for Cultural Comments.
Also see, below, CEEE: culture-education-ecology-economy.

culture-education-ecology-economy (CEEE):
● Culture, education, ecology, and economy are very entwined together. They heavily affect, influence, and feed on each other. Culture (values) influences education, which sways children into being adults, who live a particular lifestyle and have particular jobs, which influences the economy, communities, and if ecology (nature) is being expanded, maintained, neglected, or destroyed. Ecology includes how well education is teaching students to take care of local nature and the local community economy. Education includes how well students learn to take care of the community, local ecology, and community economy. The economy influences culture and education and pressures people into particular kinds of education and to have particular kinds of life goals. In school and out of school, the culture and economy teach children to take care of communities and nature, or to neglect and destroy communities and nature.
● People need to talk about all 4 (CEEE: culture, education, ecology, and economy) together. It is all 4 together that sustain and enrich communities, people, and nature; or it is all 4 together that neglect and destroy communities, people, and nature. If nature and people are thriving together, then all 4 (the CEEE) are good, responsible, and sustainable. If nature and people are in distress, all 4 (the CEEE) are lousy, irresponsible, and destructive. Culture, education, ecology, and economy need to have the same sustainable goals and success indicators to sustain and enrich communities, people, nature, and the economy. (Click on 8 needed joint goals of CEEE: culture-education-ecology-economy.
Click here for longer explanation of CEEE: culture-education-ecology-economy.

"eco":
"eco" is the root word of both ecology and economy. "eco" means home, in the Greek language. Ecology is learning about your home in nature. Economy is taking care of your home in nature. A good economy takes care of people and nature together. People are a part of nature. A good economy sustains and enriches natural habitats, wildernesses, ecosystems, the environment, and the climate. A good economy makes sure that people have enough supplies and enough nature, for many generations into the future.
also see ecology, below
also see economy, below
Click here for eco: ecology and economy
See CEEE: culture-education-ecology-economy
Click here for Changes Needed in Education and Economy: 8 Joint Goals of CEEE: culture, education, ecology, and economy, in order to diminish poverty and social and economic injustice and inequality.
See ABC Garden of Ecology and Economy

ecology:
● Doing ecology - learning about nature - includes learning about local natural habitats (wildernesses), and global ecosystems; it includes learning about local native plants and animals, as well as exotic plants and animals; and, it includes helping to sustain and enrich local natural habitats, native plants, and native animals.
● "eco" is the root word of both ecology and economy. "eco" means home, in the Greek language. Ecology is learning about your home in nature. Economy is taking care of your home in nature.
also see "eco," above
also see economy, below
Click here for Holistic Landcare (Ecology)
Click here for eco: ecology and economy
See CEEE: culture-education-ecology-economy
Click here for Changes Needed in Education and Economy: 8 Joint Goals of CEEE: culture, education, ecology, and economy, in order to diminish poverty and social and economic injustice and inequality.

economy:
● An economy is people having stuff, how people get their stuff, and how people take care of nature as they get materials from nature and make their stuff.
An economy includes people's stuff, supplies, and necessities. An economy is based on nature, which is the source of materials for people's stuff, supplies, and necessities. The air we breathe comes from nature. The water we drink comes from nature. The soil, in which we grow our food, comes from nature. The wood, which we use to build houses, comes from nature. The cotton, with which we make clothes, grows in nature's soils. The wool, with which we make clothes, comes from sheep, which eat grass, that comes from nature and grows in soil.
● "eco" is the root word of both ecology and economy. "eco" means home, in the Greek language. Ecology is learning about your home in nature. Economy is taking care of your home in nature.
also see "eco," above
also see ecology, above.
● economy - 4 types:
1st economy: hunter-gatherer economy
no money used, no trading out of necessity
This economy has existed for over 100,000 years.
A hunter-gatherer society is a wilderness-society of tribal camps. Typically, a tribal camp has 2 to 150 people.
In general, people were generalists and each family hunted, gathered, and handmade all of their own stuff. They had enough stuff (water, food, clothes, shelter, soap, basic tools, etc.) and they did not need to get stuff from other people. Handmaking every necessity took a lot of time, but, commonly, people handmade all their stuff fast-enough and well-enough to meet their needs. Typically, hunter-gatherers met their weekly needs by working 30 hours per week. Plus, often, there was community cooperation and community sharing: people shared stuff with everyone within the tribal camp community. On rare occasions, there was casual trading of items between people for the fun of it.
Click on Nice5, Holistic, CEEE to read examples of hunter-gatherer tribes that were nice to people, sustained nature, and got enough stuff.
Numerous sources report a hunter-gatherer lifestyle of meeting human needs. Hadza: Hunter-Gatherers of Tanzania, by Frank Marlowe, 2010. History of the World in Seven Cheap Things, by Jason Moore and Raj Patel, 2017. The Tracker, by Tom Brown Jr., 1978. My Indian Boyhood, by Luther Standing Bear, 1931. Jared Diamond's thesis, in the 1980s. And many more books.
2nd economy: bartering economy
no money used, early trading, in early farming villages and in early civilizations
This economy has existed for perhaps 10,000 years.
A farming village may have 50 to 1,000 people. A civilization is a city-society. Each civilization has one or more cities. Usually, a city has over a 1,000 people.
In farms and cities, people are more specialized and make only a few types of stuff. Thus, people needed to trade some of their stuff to get other stuff that they needed. For instance, one person traded his cow to get a few blankets from another person. Later, as money came into existence, people could barter for how much money a commodity was worth.
3rd economy: money economy
simple money economy of ancient civilizations
This economy has existed for 3,000 years. Roughly, 3,000 years ago, metal coins were invented in Phoenicia. Roughly, 1,000 years ago, paper money was invented in China.
Money represented value and gave people more shopping flexibility. For instance, a person, who had a cow, could use money to buy a few blankets from a person, who did not necessarily want a cow.
In early money economies, simple money economies, it was kings, queens, emperors, and popes, who had the most money and biggest treasuries.
4th economy: capitalism and communism
complex money economies of today
This economy has existed for roughly 500 years. The Age of Capitalism and Industry started in 1460s, on the Island of Madeira, upon a bank of Genoa financing Europeans to set up the first modern industry outside of Europe. The Portuguese set up a sugarcane industry and plantation on the Island of Madeira. (See a book on the history of capitalism: The History of the World in 7 Cheap Things, by Jason Moore and Raj Patel, 2017.) Moreover, the same bank of Genoa financed Spain to send Christopher Columbus to sail and trade across the Atlantic Ocean, and to happen to discover the Americas. Spain was bankrupt from war; hence, the king and queen of Spain had to borrow money from the bank of Genoa to finance Columbus. In fact, this is what is different from capitalism and early money economies. In early money economies, the kings, queens, emperors, and popes had the most money and biggest treasuries. In capitalism, the largest banks, financial corporations, and other globalized corporations have the most money. Nations have to borrow money from banks. Some people think of capitalism as the current world government and call it a corporatocracy, in which a collective of globalized corporate monopolies rule the world. The national communism of 20th-century China and Soviet Union is an offshoot of capitalism. In capitalism, private businesses and financiers make more financial decisions within the nation. To the contrary, in communism, politicians make more financial decisions for the nation. Yet, capitalism and communism are similar in that they each have a few rich people and many poor people.
Martin Luther King Jr. saw capitalism's injustice and said, "Capitalism does not permit an even flow of economic resources. With this system, a small privileged few are rich beyond conscience, and almost all others are doomed to be poor at some level. That's the way the system works. And since we know that the system will not change the rules, we are going to have to change the system." We want economic change that lifts people out of poverty and not drags people down into poverty. Whatever economy we make next, we want it to be sustainable and for the wealth to go to communities and evenly throughout the people within each community, and not again for most of the wealth to go to only a few people, such as emperors, popes, kings, queens, and those in the upper rungs of ruthless centralized governments and large globalized corporations.
Click here for Holistic Economy
Click here for eco: ecology and economy
See CEEE: culture-education-ecology-economy
Click here for Changes Needed in Education and Economy: 8 Joint Goals of CEEE: culture, education, ecology, and economy, in order to diminish poverty and social and economic injustice and inequality.

education:
● An education is the variety of things learned throughout life, from babyhood to young adulthood, and beyond.  People learn in schools and out of schools.  There are a variety of educations.   Some people learn how to survive on the streets.   Some people learn how to make a lot of money.  Every education promotes the worship of something: the streets, money, or something else.
● In a "community arts" education, the goal is to learn how to sustain and enrich communities, people, and nature (land, water, air, plants, animals, etc.).  In a community arts education, students learn some academics, but the emphasis is to learn the vitally important skills of how to help communities, people, farms, and nature.  The community arts has students worship goodness: doing good by helping people, communities, and nature. The community arts has students use their heart, heads, and hands in unison. Community arts students both think and do light-manual-labor. Light-manual-labor is healthy physical exercise. Community arts students go out into the community to engage in the community economy, start sustainable local small businesses, grow and eat local food, work local, shop local, live local, engage with nature, and steward local natural habitats. 
● In an academic education ("liberal arts"), the goal is to liberate students from all manual labor, even the vitally important part-time light-manual-labor of taking care of communities, people, farms, and nature. The liberals arts liberates people from the vitally important family farms and local community economies. The liberal arts has students worship academics (reading, writing, math, etc.).  The liberal arts has students use only their heads, and to otherwise sit down at a desk. Because the liberal arts has no physical exercise, some students do sports. In a liberal arts education, the emphasis is in getting good report card grades and high test scores in academic subjects.  Liberal arts students learn academics in indoor classrooms, which are isolated from the community, community economy, and local nature.  Liberal arts students are pressured to leave the community, go far away to college, get a job in a distant city, and to serve the global economy and globalized large corporations - and to meanwhile, be liberated from and ignore the local community, people, farms, and nature.
Click here for Holistic Education
See ABC Garden of Education
See CEEE: culture-education-ecology-economy
Click here for Changes Needed in Education and Economy: 8 Joint Goals of CEEE: culture, education, ecology, and economy, in order to diminish poverty and social and economic injustice and inequality.

education - community arts:
traditional 100,000-year-old schooling:
Ever since people existed, some people have been learning the community arts. which is how to sustain and enrich communities, people, and nature.  The oldest kind of education is how to live, get all your needed stuff (shelter, water, food, clothes, tools, etc.), in ways that sustain and enrich the local community, people, and nature. People knew that taking care of people means taking care of nature, because it is from nature that people get air, water, fertile soil, wood, etc.  People wanted to have air, water, fertile soil, wood, etc. in the distant future, as well as today. Thus, community arts students learned and took action to sustain and enrich the local community, the local economy, and nature, to continually get stuff into the distant future.  Community arts students both think and do part-time light-manual-labor. Community arts students used their heart, heads, and hands in unison to live, learn, and work in the community and outdoors in its natural habitats, to engage in the local economy and local nature. 
Click here for Community Education
Click here for Holistic Education
See ABC Community Education Garden
See CEEE: culture-education-ecology-economy
Click here for Changes Needed in Education and Economy: 8 Joint Goals of CEEE: culture, education, ecology, and economy, in order to diminish poverty and social and economic injustice and inequality.

education - liberal arts:
recent 20th-century
modern pop schooling:
● Brief history. Several modern scientists say that people have existed for more than 100,000 years. Yet, it wasn't until about 5,000 years ago, as the ancient Sumer Civilization started accounting and writing, that a few people started having an academic education (math, writing, reading, etc.) - the "liberal arts."  For thousands of years, it was only about 1% of people who had a liberal arts education. Those people were totally liberated from doing manual labor, to instead be accountants or scribes.   In Medieval times, in Europe, a few adults learned to read and write at a few Catholic Schools or at a few universities.  200 years ago, in the USA, there were one-room schoolhouses, at which children learned academics. Children attended the schoolhouse for only a few years; and otherwise, children learned at home and in their community how to somewhat take care of communities, people, and nature.  In the 1800s, in the USA, many American children and adults could read, write, and do practical math well enough, and also they could somewhat take care of communities, people, and nature.
● During the 20th-century, the USA ended the schoolhouses, ended local education, ended the community arts, and started the national school system, globalized-market education, and the liberal arts of "modern pop schooling," which many children attended for 13 years, from age 5 to age 18.  In the 20th-century, in the USA, now children focused on academics, the liberal arts; hence, they were taught to ignore communities, people, and nature, to ignore the community arts, and to disconnect from communities, people, and nature. Many 20th-century American children and adults were totally liberated from all manual labor, even the vitally important part-time light-manual-labor of taking care of communities, people, and nature.  In a liberal arts education, the emphasis is in getting good report card grades and high test scores in academic subjects.  Liberal arts students learn academics in indoor classrooms, which are isolated from the community, community economy, and local nature.  Many liberal arts students are pressured to leave the community, go far away to college, get a job in a distant city, and to contribute to the globalized-market economy - and meanwhile, ignore the local community, people, and nature.
Click here for School, Learning, Education
Click here for Community Education
Click here for Holistic Education
See ABC Community Education Garden
See CEEE: culture-education-ecology-economy
Click here for Changes Needed in Education and Economy: 8 Joint Goals of CEEE: culture, education, ecology, and economy, in order to diminish poverty and social and economic injustice and inequality.

freedom and slavery:
● Freedom is doing good things.  Freedom is being a servant of good.  Freedom is doing good things by yourself alone or with a other people.  Freedom is having the motive to sustain and enrich communities, people, and nature.  Freedom is being free to do good, being free to have good, and being free from harm. Freedom is to be free to do the good of helping communities people and nature. Freedom is to be free from harm, such as social and economic injustice and inequality. (Click on Holistic Sustainability to read about gaining freedom from harm and freedom to serve good by supporting communities, people, and nature.) To "have good" includes having enough stuff, enough wealth, and to get stuff in sustainable ways; also, to "have good" does not necessarily mean having extravagant wealth, and it especially means to not waste extravagant wealth on selfish things. Let's be free to do good, free to have good (holistic good, unselfish good, a good that is good for you and everyone), and free from harm. An example of freedom: over 500 years ago, Native North Americans were free to use all the land in North America to sustain and enrich its natural habitats and wildernesses. 
● Slavery is doing bad things.  Slavery is doing greedy things for yourself or for someone else, or a group of people.  Slavery is having the motive to harm communities, nature, and or individual people.  Examples of slavery: over 100 years ago, the southern USA states allowed some people to own other people; over 100 years ago, USA businesses underpaid and overworked their paid labor to build the early railroads across the USA; and today, some globalized large businesses destroy communities and their local community economies.
● USA President Abraham Lincoln said, "Freedom is not the right to do what [selfish things] we want, but what [unselfish, helpful, responsible things] we ought." With more freedom, comes more responsibility.  With more land that we use, there's more land that we need to take care of.  Freedom includes our duties to sustain and enrich communities, people, and nature.
● Click on Holistic Sustainability to read about gaining freedom from harm and the freedom to serve good by supporting communities, people, and nature.  

free-market capitalism vs. fair, sustainable, regulated economy:
● Free-market capitalism means business is free to make short-term profits the top priority of business. It means businesses are free to grow as large as possible and to expand to anywhere in the world.  It means business are free to forgo all morals and ethics to achieve as much growth and profit as possible.  If profits are a top priority, that means that the health of communities, people, and nature is less important. Free-market capitalism means that businesses are free to neglect the health and well-being of communities, people, and nature.  It means that businesses are free to ravage communities, people, and nature of one nation in order to sell products cheaply to another nation.  It means that businesses are free to make money by taking the wealth from one community and selling it to another community.  Free-market capitalism means that businesses are free to do bad things.  Free-market capitalism means to commercially conquer and destroy communities, people, nature, and the world.  Free-market capitalism is synonymous with market globalization.
● A fair, sustainable, regulated economy keeps both businesses and national governments in check. A fair, sustainable, regulated economy sustains and enriches the wealth and empowerment of communities and local community economies. A fair, sustainable, regulated economy's top priority is to care about the health and well-being of communities, people, and nature. (See health care.) Local small businesses should make enough money, plus support health. A fair, sustainable, regulated economy prevents free-market capitalism and businesses from being free to make profits by commercially conquering and destroying communities, people, and nature, throughout the world. It also prevents dictatorships (such as 20th-century USSR and China) that gave national governments the power to politically and financially destroy communities, people, and nature within their nations.
Click here for Holistic Economy.
Click here for CEEE: culture-education-ecology-economy.

global and local stuff:
● Local means that stuff comes from within your town / city, county, state, or a neighboring state within 50 or 100 miles of your home. Local means stuff comes from within 50 or 100 miles of where you live. Very local means that stuff comes from within 10 miles of your home. "Local," especially very local, means it's "sustainable" for several reasons, including these three. 1. Transporting stuff shorter distances wastes less energy. 2. The closer you live to the source of materials for your stuff, the more easily you can keep an eye on the source, and sustain and enrich the source. For instance, you can better monitor local water, than water that comes to you from farther away. 3. Typically, buying local stuff supports local small businesses, which helps your community to flourish.
● Global means that stuff comes from a distant state or foreign country, which is over 100 miles away. Global means that stuff is imported from over 100 miles away from your home. "Global" means it's "unsustainable" for many reasons, including these three. 1. Transporting stuff farther distances wastes more energy. 2. The farther you live from the source of materials for your stuff, the harder it is for you to keep an eye on the source, and sustain and enrich the source. For instance, you can better monitor local water, than water that comes to you from farther away. 3. Typically, buying globalized stuff supports globalized large corporations and undermines local small businesses as well as your community.
● The more local the better (the more sustainable). Getting stuff from 1,000 miles away, is better than getting stuff from 5,000 miles away. Getting stuff from 300 miles away, is better than getting stuff from 1,000 miles away. Getting stuff from 50 miles away, is better than getting stuff from 300 miles away.
● Click on Holistic Sustainability to read how to help to take care of local and global communities, people, and nature.

god, gods, and God:
● A god is what you think about the most, what you daily and heavily rely on, what you think will keep you safe. A god is your top life goal. If your top life goal is to do good, be friendly, be peaceful, be honest, and try to help communities, people, and nature, then good is your God. If your top life goal is to buy the latest technologies, have technology do most things for you, always turn to the internet for advice, almost constantly use a smart phone, and obsess over high-tech security systems (such as a robot bodyguard), then maybe technology is your god. If your top life goal is to be the best in your professional field, win many professional awards, work every day as much as possible, be rich and famous, then maybe the career or being rich and famous is your god. If your top life goal is to pray to a statue, daily place flowers and fruit near the statue, and hide behind the statue at night, then maybe the statue is your god.
● Having many gods (being polytheistic) is heavily relying on no one god in particular, but heavily relying on many physical and or imaginary things. A polytheistic person may heavily rely on, heavily follow, obsess over a few or many of the following: technology, a career, profits, stock market, greed and power, college, trendy fads, pop music, sports, clothes, celebrities, awards, trophies, gold, silver, gambling, drugs, a weed-free perfectly-manicured lawn, statues, idols, zodiac horoscopes, ancient gods and goddesses, superstitions, etc.
● God (God with a capital-G) is the good God. God is good, all good, only good, and infinite good. God is not a mix of good and bad. To read more about the God that is good, at the moral and spiritual, caretaking and healing page.

good (holistic good):
Things that are good (holistic good), are not just good in one way or for one or a few reasons, but they are good in many ways and for many reasons. We should aim to do good that is holistic goodness. Good is good in many ways, for many people, nature, and communities, especially in the long-run. Good is moral, healthy, responsible, ethical, respectful, loving, peaceful, joyful, sustainable, unselfish, altruistic, compassionate, and simultaneously helps many people, nature, and communities all together.
Click here for the Good Journal

good moral cultures:
A culture is a way of life, a set of values, how people live, learn, and work, and how people get their stuff (economy).  A good moral culture is good, in many ways, for many people, nature, and communities, especially in the long-run.  (A bad and destructive culture may obsess over profits, which are good in only a few ways, for a few people, in the short-run.)  A good moral culture has a local community economy, in which people get their stuff in sustainable local ways, in order to sustain and enrich communities, people, nature, and the world.  In a good moral culture, students learn sustainable skills and how to cooperate as a community to be locally-self-sufficient to sustain and enrich communities, people, nature, and the world.  Students get a "community arts education" and learn skills to get sustainable jobs. (See above definition of "education - community arts") In a good moral culture, people have sustainable interrelationships with people and nature in the local community landscape.  In a good moral culture, there are many small local businesses that benefit both people and nature, and globalized large corporations don't put local unique mom and pop shops out of business.  A good moral culture supports local small businesses more so than globalized large businesses. In a good moral culture, the local community economies are the dominant economy and helps people to eat fresh, healthy, organic food from local family permaculture farms. 
Click here for ways a culture can be holistic
Click here for Holistic = Whole Culture
Click here for Cultural Comments

health care:
● Health care is largely disease prevention, and one small part of health care is disease treatment. Disease treatment alleviates symptoms of diseases and or cures diseases. Health care is daily and hourly. Health care takes place everywhere: everywhere you live, learn, and work. Usually, disease treatment happens occasionally, such as during a scheduled appointment at a physician's office, surgery at a hospital, or once or twice a day at home when you take pills. Currently, the USA has very expensive "disease treatments," which the USA popularly calls "health care." While there is adequate overall health care, diseases would mostly be prevented, so that disease treatment (physicians, pharmaceutical drugs, surgeries, and hospitals) would be hardly used. While overall health care is mostly lacking, then disease treatments (physicians, pharmaceutical drugs, surgeries, and hospitals) are used a lot. If people had enough overall health care to prevent diseases, then physicians and pharmaceutical companies would not be super rich. If physicians and pharmaceutical companies are super rich, that means health care is an overall failure.
● True health care, "overall health care" includes: the joy of helping people, mental health, learning about good (holistic good that is good for you and everyone else), being free to do holistic good and sustainable things, spending time outdoors in nature, eating fresh local organic food, using non-toxic natural products, living in sanitary conditions, having enough stuff and supplies (shelter, water, warmth, food, clothes, and tools), breathing clean air, drinking clean water, getting enough sleep, doing enough work (not being overworked or underworked), doing some part-time light-manual-labor (if able-bodied), having an interesting job that holistically helps people and communities and nature, using your heart and head and hands in unison, getting a community arts education (see above definition of "education - community arts"), learning skills to help people and communities and nature, living in peace, having family and friendships, having sustainable interrelationships with people and nature in the local community landscape, participating in a local community economy, living in harmony with nature and people, etc.
Click here for Holistic Health Care

high-quality life
high-quality simple life
● A high-quality (happy) life includes unselfish love, peace, morals, and joy, by having sincere and loving relationships with communities, people, and nature. Less important to a high-quality (happy) life includes amenities, comforts, conveniences, luxuries, and high-technology. While we need enough stuff (water, food, clothes, shelter, basic tools, soap, etc.) to live and be happy, having more than enough stuff, comforts, and luxuries, does not necessarily make us feel more happy. A primitive hunter-gatherer, who was loving and had enough stuff to be happy and healthy, had a high-quality simple life. (Frank Marlowe noted that many African Hadza hunter-gatherers had a high-quality simple life, and several lived more than 80 years. Tom Brown Jr. noted that many North American Apache hunter-gatherers had a high-quality simple life, and several lived more than 80 years.)
A high-quality (happy) life comes from a strong connection to community and nature, improving one's own morals and wisdom and skills, and lovingly helping community, people, and nature.
"High-quality" means quality of caring relationships and connections to community and nature. "High-quality" does not mean extravagant quantity of stuff, amenities, comforts, luxuries, and high-technologies.
A high-quality (happy) life does not come from buying extravagant stuff and higher-technologies. Happiness comes from love; happiness (a high-quality life) cannot be bought, nor can we increase it through globalized large corporations and higher-technologies. Shopping sprees and high-technology bring mania, mental illness, addiction, and shallow fleeting joys. Loving our neighbors (a diversity of people) brings holistic mental health and deep long-lasting joys (high-quality of life).
● Click on how CEEE: culture-education-ecology-economy can support a high quality life.
Click on how Changes Needed in Education and the Economy: 8 joint goals of CEEE: culture, education, ecology, and economy can support a high quality life.
also see holistic, below
See ABC Garden for a High-Quality Life

holistic
● I use the word "holistic"
not to narrowly mean herbal medicines alone,
but yes to broadly mean whole culture, including economy, education, science, art, the way we live, learn, work, etc.
"Holistic" means everything basic that people and communities need: food, water, shelter, nature and science, art and community, economy and ecology, community and culture, love, joy, peace, and
overall health (moral, mental, physical, social, environmental).
"Holistic" means that each skill, task, and activity is beneficial in multiple ways, and not in just one way. Holistic means that it's simultaneously beneficial in many ways including to people's health, safety, culture, education, economy, science, art, love, peace, joy, and more.   An example skill, task, or activity that is not holistic is beneficial in only one or a few ways, such as only making short-term money, and meanwhile ruining people's safety, health, long-term economy, education, skillfulness, peace, harmony, fun, and the health of nature.
Click here for Longer Definition of Holistic
also see high-quality life (high-quality simple life)

hunter-gatherer society,
stone age, wilderness tribes:
● A wilderness tribe is a small society, a camp community in the wilderness. A tribal camp usually has between 20 to 150 people. A wilderness tribe lives in the wilderness with no farms and no cities. A tribal person totally or mostly eats wild food. A tribal person hunts and gathers wild food. A tribal person may also do a little backyard gardening, but there are no big farms. Every tribe is different from all other tribes. But, in general, all tribes have community cooperation to sustain and enrich their community, people, nature, and run a locally-self-sufficient community economy. Some tribal people are peaceful; some tribal people are violent. Tribes do not have militaries, but everyone, especially the men, are excepted to help defend the camp.
● A wilderness tribe uses local stuff. A wilderness tribe does not need to import any stuff. In general, a wilderness tribe uses only local resources and materials from which they gather and handmake local products and stuff (shelter, water, food, soap, clothes, tools, and art). A tribe has everything it needs locally. There is no need to get stuff from far away. A tribe may occasionally trade stuff and ideas with a neighboring or distant community for the fun of it. A wilderness tribe is very sustainable, because it makes and uses local stuff - by using mostly local stuff: the tribe wastes no energy transporting stuff long distances; the tribe lives right there with the resources to constantly monitor and sustain local resources; the tribe is promoting their own local community economy by empowering themselves, instead of some distant business; and the tribes are sustaining and enriching the local natural habitats and wildernesses. Tribes knew how to live and get all their stuff (shelter, water, food, soap, clothes, tools, and art) while simultaneously sustaining the wildernesses, keeping the air and water clean, and keeping the soil fertile.
● A wilderness tribe is poor, but it is not in poverty, and it is not rich. A wilderness tribe has enough vital basic stuff (shelter, water, warmth, food, clothes, sanitation, and basic tools), or a little more. A wilderness tribe has all the necessary physical supplies, vital basic stuff, to live a healthy life. Also read defintions of poor, poverty, and rich.
● Also read definition of civilization (city-society).
Click on Holistic Days for primitive wilderness skills, bushcraft, and sustainability skills used today.
Click on Nice5, Holistic, CEEE to read examples of hunter-gatherer tribes that were nice to people, sustained nature, and got enough stuff (water, food, clothes, shelter, soap, basic tools, etc.).
● Also read history of community education in the outdoors of primitive tribes, ancient civilizations, and modern times. See Past, Present, Future.

landscape
(community landscape):
● A landscape can be different sizes. A landscape can be a family's 1-acre backyard. A landscape can be all the land within a 1-mile-diameter community. A landscape can be 30-mile-diameter region.
● A community landscape is all the land within the community. The community landscape includes public and private lands, as well as urban, rural, municipal, residential, commercial, streetscapes, backyards, farms, parks, and natural lands, as well as ponds, lakes, rivers, etc. A community can be different sizes. But first, think of a 1-mile-diameter community. Think of 200 people living in that community. Think of all 200 the people living, learning, working, and shopping, within the community. And think of all 200 people (except the very young and very old) working at least part-time (8 hours to 20 hours a week) to take care of the community landscape. Several families may have small permaculture farms to grow a variety of food, to eat and sell to the community. Everyone in the community eats local food. All working adults have a full-time job (30 hours per week) at a small local business, within the community. Children attend the local school and learn how to grow food, in sustainable ways, and connect with nature, and learn how to take care of the community landscape, keep the air and water clean, and keep the soil fertile, etc.
Also, see community.
Click on Holistic Sustainability to read how to sustain and enrich the community landscape.

landscape architecture:
● Landscape architecture is science and art. Landscape architecture learns (science) about the science of nature, and applies the science to plan and design (art) landscapes. Landscape architects plan and design landscapes of different sizes. For instance, landscape architects may plan and design 1-acre backyards, 5-acre parks, 1-mile-diameter communities, and 30-mile-diameter regions. Landscape architects manage the land, design communities, plan regional land use, and more.
● If planning and designing a family's 2-acres of land, a landscape architect may decide where the family's house should be built on the 2-acres of land. Before designing or building a new house or buildings or roads, consult a landscape architect first. If an existing house is already on a site, the landscape architect designs around the house. A landscape architect may design the hardscape: the layout of the driveway, a walkway from the street to the front door, a back patio, a back deck, a fire pit, a swimming pool, a treehouse, a swing set, etc. A landscape architect may design the softscape (plants), and decide which trees should be saved, which trees should be removed, and which new trees to plant. A landscape architect may design a flower garden, a rock garden, a vegetable garden, or a permaculture farm. A landscape architect may help to restore prairies, wetlands, or woodlands on the site. A landscape architect may design wildlife features to support and attract wildlife (butterflies, birds, etc.).
Click on more about landscape architecture.

local and global stuff:
● Local means that stuff comes from within your town / city, county, state, or a neighboring state within 50 or 100 miles of your home. Local means stuff comes from within 50 or 100 miles of where you live. Very local means that stuff comes from within 10 miles of your home. "Local," especially very local, means it's "sustainable" for several reasons, including these three. 1. Transporting stuff shorter distances wastes less energy. 2. The closer you live to the source of materials for your stuff, the more easily you can keep an eye on the source, and sustain and enrich the source. For instance, you can better monitor local water, than water that comes to you from farther away. 3. Typically, buying local stuff supports local small businesses, which helps your community to flourish.
● Global means that stuff comes from a distant state or foreign country, which is over 100 miles away. Global means that stuff is imported from over 100 miles away from your home. "Global" means it's "unsustainable" for many reasons, including these three. 1. Transporting stuff farther distances wastes more energy. 2. The farther you live from the source of materials for your stuff, the harder it is for you to keep an eye on the source, and sustain and enrich the source. For instance, you can better monitor local water, than water that comes to you from farther away. 3. Typically, buying globalized stuff supports globalized large corporations and undermines local small businesses as well as your community.
● The more local the better (the more sustainable). Getting stuff from 1,000 miles away, is better than getting stuff from 5,000 miles away. Getting stuff from 300 miles away, is better than getting stuff from 1,000 miles away. Getting stuff from 50 miles away, is better than getting stuff from 300 miles away.
Click here for Holistic Sustainability

moral:
Moral includes doing good, being ethical, responsible, fair, unselfish, altruistic, healthy to oneself and to all other people and to nature, being sustainable. Being moral includes having good thoughts, having good motives, and taking good actions to help communities, people, and nature. Being moral includes helping people and nature thrive together. Moral, good, ethical, sustainable, and healthy, are largely synonmynous.
Click here for morals-love-awareness-health.

moral cultures:
A moral culture is a local community culture that sustains and enriches people and nature within the local community landscape, and beyond. A moral culture has people and nature thrive together. A moral culture has people live, learn, work, play, socialize, do science, do art, produce, and consume in ways that help communities, people, nature, and local economies, near and far. A moral culture includes having children and adults undergo a local sustainable education that helps people to learn to steward the community landscape, to grow food on local permaculture farms, and to run local small businesses that help to sustain and enrich the community local economy, people, and nature.
Click here for morals-love-awareness-health.
Click here for holistic.
Click here for holistic community culture.

nature:
The natural features of the universe and earth, including the earth's air, water, soil, rocks, plants, animals, habitats, ecosystems, and natural environment.
See nature photos of southwest Michigan.

nice, being nice:
5 Ways to Be Nice.  There are many ways to be nice, but I think these 5 are the most significant ways to detect if someone is truly nice.  To be truly nice is to be holistically nice: nice in all 5 of these ways, and not just polite.
1. Friendly to People / Daily Personal Behavior: acting friendly, polite, peaceful, joyful, thankful, loving, caring towards family, friends, co-workers, and community members.  Do not be abusive, violent, harmful, aggressive, bossy towards people.  Do not put people down and call people names.
2. Unprejudiced: Friendly to Everyone: friendly to everyone no matter gender, race, family, nationality, religion, ethnicity, profession, rich or poor, neighborhood of residence, sexual orientation, etc.
3. Friendly to Nature: be aware of and pay attention to nature (local nature and global nature), go on nature walks, study nature, grow native plants, and more.
4. Help Individuals in Occasional Emergencies / Help Individuals, who are Occasionally in Trouble. Charities.  Donate Money.  Donate Time.  Literally or figuratively, helping to lift someone up on the rare occasion that they fall down.   Random acts of kindness.
5. Daily Community Help / Help Communities / Holistic Help. Daily Live a Moral Culture, a Community Culture. Daily, live, learn, work, play, socialize, do science, do art, produce, and consume in ways that sustain and enrich morals, altruistic individual people, nature, families and friendships, communities, and people getting enough vital basic stuff (shelter, water, warmth, food, clothes, and basic tools).  Daily, live a way of life, live a culture, that holistically helps communities, people, nature, community landscapes, community economies, community cooperation, and personal self-sufficiency.
Click on "morals and 5 Ways to Be Nice" to read more about being nice.

phenology includes the change of plants and animals from month to month or season to season, throughout the year. For example, an apple tree has flowers and new leaves in the spring, dark green leaves and ripening apples in the summer, ripe apples and leaves fall off in the fall, and the branches have no leaves in the winter. Be aware of your local phenology: when do certain plants flower?, when do certain birds migrate? etc.
Click here for examples of phenology in Zoe's Daily Blog.

poor, poverty, and rich:
● Poor has two definitions.
Poor (A) - Has enough vital basic stuff (shelter, water, warmth, food, clothes, sanitation, and basic tools), or a little more. Having all your necessary physical supplies to live a healthy life. Eating enough calories and eating nutritious food; having a balanced diet; eating fresh local food. Breathing clean air. Drinking clean water. Working and exercising just enough; not being overworked or underworked. Lacking extravagant financial wealth, but having enough. Plus, having many priceless things. Having morals, family, friends, connecting with and helping a community, participating in a community economy, and having a vibrant community landscape and nice outdoor spaces. Having the wisdom and skills to help to sustain and enrich communities, people, and nature. Nothing is wrong with being poor. Poor is great. Yet, it’s unfair when some people are poor and other people are money-rich and own much more stuff. It’s fair when everyone has roughly the same amount of wealth (enough stuff and many priceless things).
Poor (B) - Everyone who is NOT money-rich. Both people who are poor and people who are in poverty, destitute, and starvation. But, I think people should distinguish between the poor and those in poverty. People should speak about the
"rich, poor, and poverty," instead of just saying the "rich and poor."
● Poverty has three definitions.
Poverty (A) - Lacking enough vital basic stuff (shelter, water, warmth, food, clothes, sanitation, and or basic tools). Poverty includes one or more of the following.
Destitute, Starvation. Hungry, not eating enough calories, and or not eating enough nutritious food; being malnourished or undernourished; eating too much cheap junk food; eating an unbalanced diet. Obesity. Breathing polluted air. Drinking polluted water. Not drinking enough water. Living in filth and garbage. Being overworked or underworked.
Poverty (B) - Having enough money to live a comfortable life, yet lacking some priceless things, such as a functional community, community economy, community landscape, and vibrant local nature and global nature. Perhaps lacking family or friends. Perhaps lacking morals.
Poverty (C) - Lacking both enough stuff and priceless things.
● Rich has two definitions.
Rich (A) - Having much more than enough stuff. Having lots of money to buy lots of stuff. Having extravagant financial wealth. Eating enough food calories and enough nutritious food; eating a balanced diet. Being clean; perhaps even obsessively-clean. Owning lots of stuff, comforts, conveniences, and luxuries.
Rich (B) - Rich without money. Having enough stuff plus many priceless things. Having morals, family, friends, connecting with and helping a community, participating in a community economy, and having a vibrant community landscape and nice outdoor spaces. Having the wisdom and skills to help to sustain and enrich communities, people, and nature. Breathing clean air, drinking clean water, and eating enough local fresh nutritious organic food.
Click here to read more about rich, poor, poverty, and economy in Holistic Economy.

religion, culture, way of life:
Religion, culture, and way of life are synonymous. A person's culture and way of life is the way someone lives, learns, works, plays, socializes, does science, does art, produces, and consumes. A person's culture and way of life includes goals, daily goals, yearly goals, and life goals, and why the person works. Same thing as religion: religion is what a person thinks his or her purpose and meaning of life is, what his or her goals in life are, why does he or she work, what is he or she working towards, what is he or she trying to learn, etc. Religion, culture, and way of life are what a person does during many days of the week, and not just on Sunday mornings.
Also see culture, above

rich, poor, and poverty:
● Poor has two definitions.
Poor (A) - Has enough vital basic stuff (shelter, water, warmth, food, clothes, sanitation, and basic tools), or a little more. Having all your necessary physical supplies to live a healthy life. Eating enough calories and eating nutritious food; having a balanced diet; eating fresh local food. Breathing clean air. Drinking clean water. Working and exercising just enough; not being overworked or underworked. Lacking extravagant financial wealth, but having enough. Plus, having many priceless things. Having morals, family, friends, connecting with and helping a community, participating in a community economy, and having a vibrant community landscape and nice outdoor spaces. Having the wisdom and skills to help to sustain and enrich communities, people, and nature. Nothing is wrong with being poor. Poor is great. Yet, it’s unfair when some people are poor and other people are money-rich and own much more stuff. It’s fair when everyone has roughly the same amount of wealth (enough stuff and many priceless things).
Poor (B) - Everyone who is NOT money-rich. Both people who are poor and people who are in poverty, destitute, and starvation. But, I think people should distinguish between the poor and those in poverty. People should speak about the
"rich, poor, and poverty," instead of just saying the "rich and poor."
● Poverty has three definitions.
Poverty (A) - Lacking enough vital basic stuff (shelter, water, warmth, food, clothes, sanitation, and or basic tools). Poverty includes one or more of the following.
Destitute, Starvation. Hungry, not eating enough calories, and or not eating enough nutritious food; being malnourished or undernourished; eating too much cheap junk food; eating an unbalanced diet. Obesity. Breathing polluted air. Drinking polluted water. Not drinking enough water. Living in filth and garbage. Being overworked or underworked.
Poverty (B) - Having enough money to live a comfortable life, yet lacking some priceless things, such as a functional community, community economy, community landscape, and vibrant local nature and global nature. Perhaps lacking family or friends. Perhaps lacking morals.
Poverty (C) - Lacking both enough stuff and priceless things.
● Rich has two definitions.
Rich (A) - Having much more than enough stuff. Having lots of money to buy lots of stuff. Having extravagant financial wealth. Eating enough food calories and enough nutritious food; eating a balanced diet. Being clean; perhaps even obsessively-clean. Owning lots of stuff, comforts, conveniences, and luxuries.
Rich (B) - Rich without money. Having enough stuff plus many priceless things. Having morals, family, friends, connecting with and helping a community, participating in a community economy, and having a vibrant community landscape and nice outdoor spaces. Having the wisdom and skills to help to sustain and enrich communities, people, and nature. Breathing clean air, drinking clean water, and eating enough local fresh nutritious organic food.
Click here to read more about rich, poor, poverty, and economy in Holistic Economy.

science and art:
● Science is observation, awareness, knowledge, and education. Science is what you learn (take in) from your community and world. "Science is learning the patterns of nature and how nature works." ― Carl Sagan. Science is observation, exploration, research, curiosity, awareness, record, report, discovery, experiment, study, questions, knowledge, experience, wisdom, understanding, facts, theories, truths, and learning the patterns of nature and how nature works, how people can cooperate together to form sustainable communities, how human communities can live in harmony with habitats and ecologies, how cultures and educations and economies affect communities and people and nature, etc.
● Art is expression, creativity, building, working, and applying science to make things. Art is working to make (give out) things for your community and world. Good art is art "in which the hand, the head, and the heart of man go together." ― John Ruskin. Art is expression, creativity, designing, building, working, doing, action, caretaking, stewarding, and applying science to make things ― good art includes art of pleasing form and function, or appropriate form and function. Art is a unique thing that a person or people handmakes. Art is not factory mass-produced identical items. For instance, every handmade basket is at least slightly unique from other baskets. Plus, art is not limited to touchable items (paintings, sculptures, baskets, houses, etc.): art can also be untouchable forms of expression, such as dance, music, culture, morals, storytelling, and facial expressions. Science and art overlap, in that both science and art include experiment, experience, discovery, wisdom, understanding, and education. Science and art should be done with the motive to love ― to help communities, people, nature, and the world.
● Science and art. Science is learning, knowing, researching, and observing, and art is the making and creation of stuff. Art is applying science to make things of pleasing form and function. Science and art are fundamentally connected together; good sciences and good arts support each other; yet, modern culture largely separates science and art from each other.
● The best sciences and arts (the "community sciences" and "community arts") help to sustain and enrich communities, people, and nature, all together. The best sciences and arts strengthen sustainable interrelationships between people and nature within a local community landscape. The best sciences and arts help people and nature thrive together. The best sciences and arts boost community cooperation and social cohesion, as well as help individuals to take good care of themselves, family, friends, and the community. The best sciences and arts are done for the purpose of love ― brotherly-love, community-love, and world-love. It is with caring, moral, and loving motives that people choose to do the best sciences and arts, the sciences and arts that best help communities, people, and nature.
Click here for Holistic Science and Art
Click here for Holistic Days, which include science and art.
Click here for Science and Art Articles
Click here for Science and Art United in Education
See ABC Garden of Science and Art

self-sufficiency:
● Being self-sufficient includes gathering and handmaking all of one's own vital basic stuff (shelter, water, fire, food, clothes, soap, and basic tools). We learn and practice local-self-reliance skills to help us to learn more deeply about local nature and the local community. The more we know about nature and communities, the better we can help to sustain and enrich them. We learn and practice self-sufficient skills to be both personally self-sufficient and to cooperate within a community. We learn to be self-reliant, not to live alone, but to be skilled enough to help people, families, the local community, and beyond. Self-sufficiency helps people to be helpful instead of helpless. Moreover, people do self-sufficient skills in order to beneficially contribute to functional community cooperation. A community of skilled people working together is better than a community of unskilled people working together. Self-sufficient skills help people to not only survive, but also thrive. While being self-reliant, people can learn how to gather and handmake supplies in ways that best sustain and enrich nature, on which communities and people rely.
● In recent modern times, “homesteading,” “local food,” "being local,” and other self-sufficient pursuits are regaining popularity. It’s not to become stupid iron-age or stone-age people of the past (if they were ever stupid), but it’s to be wise and usefully-skilled people in general, no matter what technology we use. To lose our self-sufficient skills and connection to local water, food, clothes, shelter, tools, and the nature of the community landscape, makes us dumb and disconnected. Today, although the electronic “world wide web,” many modern people feel increasingly more lonely, isolated, and helpless. To be connected to the world, we have to stick our hands and feet into the local mud (literally, and figuratively).
Henry David Thoreau lived self-reliantly at Walden Pond for 2 years; yet, many people consider him to be wise. Being locally-self-sufficient helps a person to be wise, caring, skillful, helpful, and connected, and
not ignorant, complacent, negligent, helpless, and isolated.
Click here for more about self-sufficiency in Sustainability: 40 ways to sustain communities, people, and nature.

sin:
A sin is a mistake. The word "sin" comes from archery and means to make the mistake of missing the target's bullseye. Spiritually, we exist to be good and hit the bullseye of good and spirituality. During our time on earth, we should continually try to advance our understanding of spiritual goodness, no matter how good or bad we think we are. Learn more about goodness, do more sophisticated good. Spirituality is learning more about goodness and how to better listen to God. Like the physical sport of archery takes practice, spiritual skills require practice too. Archery takes practice, but we can get better at it. Spirituality takes practice, but we can get better at that too. God, good, is infinite, and there is always more to learn about God, good. Happy discovering more about good!
Learn more about goodness and spirituality at my Good Journal.
Also see virtue

skills, vital basic skills
What are the most important skills to be learning in life, in school and out of school? To figure that out, we need to think about what is the most vital things and stuff that we need.
A. shelter. We need shelter and housing; thus, we need to learn how to build shelters and housing.
B. water. We need to drink water; thus, we need to learn how to sustain, conserve, protect, clean, filter, and purify our water. We need to learn how to farm in ways that conserves water.
C. food. We need to eat food; thus, we need to learn how to get and grow food, and prepare and cook and store food. It's important to learn how to grow food in ways (such as establishing permaculture farms) that sustain and enrich the soils and nature, so that people can farm at one location for over 200 years.
D. air. We need to breathe clean air; fossil fuels pollute the air; thus, it's important to learn to live in ways that do not use fossil fuels.
E. community. It's important to live in locally-self-sufficient functional communities with local community economies. Doing so helps to sustain the air, water, soil, and food for people, and it also helps people to decrease their fossil fuels usage. (See definitions for "self-sufficiency" and for "community".) Hence, it's very important to learn how to establish, uphold, and enrich locally-self-sufficient functional communities with local community economies.
Then way down the list of educational importance and practical priorities is learning about academics, sports, and electronics. Unfortunately, in modern culture, modern pop education, and modern pop economy (corporate globalization), many kids are taught to obsess over less important things (academics, sports, electronics, etc.), and to meanwhile ignore the most important things to be able to live: communites, people, nature, housing, water, food, and the air. It's not bad to learn some academics, as long as people also learn about the most important skills. Yet, it is bad to obsess over academics, sports, and electronics, to the unsustainable and irresponsible neglect of communites, people, nature, housing, water, food, and the air.
Click on Holistic Days to see the practice of vital basic skills.

slavery and freedom:
● Freedom is doing good things.  Freedom is being a servant of good.  Freedom is doing good things by yourself alone or with a other people.  Freedom is having the motive to sustain and enrich communities, people, and nature.  Freedom is being free to do good, being free to have good, and being free from harm. Freedom is to be free to do the good of helping communities people and nature. Freedom is to be free from harm, such as social and economic injustice and inequality. (Click on Holistic Sustainability to read about gaining freedom from harm and the freedom to serve good by supporting communities, people, and nature.) To "have good" includes having enough stuff, enough wealth, and to get stuff in sustainable ways; also, to "have good" does not necessarily mean having extravagant wealth, and it especially means to not waste extravagant wealth on selfish things. Let's be free to do good, free to have good (holistic good, unselfish good, a good that is good for you and everyone), and free from harm. An example of freedom: over 500 years ago, Native North Americans were free to use all the land in North America to sustain and enrich its natural habitats and wildernesses. 
● Slavery is doing bad things.  Slavery is doing greedy things for yourself, for someone else, or for a group of people.  Slavery is having the motive to harm communities, nature, and or individual people.  Examples of slavery: over 100 years ago, the southern USA states allowed some people to own other people; over 100 years ago, USA businesses underpaid and overworked their paid labor to build the early railroads across the USA; and today, some globalized large businesses destroy communities and their local community economies.
● USA President Abraham Lincoln said, "Freedom is not the right to do what [selfish things] we want, but what [unselfish, helpful, responsible things] we ought." With more freedom, comes more responsibility.  With more land that we use, there's more land that we need to take care of.  Freedom includes our duties to sustain and enrich communities, people, and nature.
● Click on Holistic Sustainability to read about gaining freedom from harm and the freedom to serve good by supporting communities, people, and nature.  

social and anti-social:
● To be social includes being pro-community. To be social includes helping to sustain and enrich communities, people, and nature. To be social includes talking about useful things, such as how to help communities, people, and nature. To be social includes helping to overcome global chronic problems (poverty, depression, habitat loss, etc.), and not just dramatic acute disasters. To be social includes helping nature. Helping nature helps people too. Keeping water clean provides people with clean water to drink. To be social includes being skilled with self-sufficient skills to be helpful to the community, instead of helpless. To be social includes participating in a local community economy and local small businesses; as well as detering and banishing national and international businesses from destroying local community economies and local-self-sufficiency. To be social includes supporting local education that helps people learn how to sustain and enrich the local community, community economy, people, local nature, the community landscape, and beyond; as well as detering and banishing national and globalized educations that obsess over academics, sports, high-technology, and globalized corporations to the neglect and ruin of communities, people and nature.
Click on Holistic and Holistic Community Culture to read more about being social and supporting communities.
● To be anti-social includes being anti-community. To be anti-social includes neglecting and destroying communities, people, and nature. To be anti-social includes mindlessly, idly, and excessively talking on the phone and doing electronic social media, buying the latest trendy stuff to keep up with the Joneses, attending reckless parties, and hanging out with violent gangs. To be anti-social includes to mindlessly, idly, and excessively talk such as about gossip, celebrities, clothing fashions, pop music, sport statistics, the lawn, novels, traveling to distant places, trivia, vanity, and greed. To be anti-social includes being too busy to pay attention to nature. To be anti-social includes ignoring nature and letting the modern way of life and businesses destroy nature. Letting nature be ruined ruins people too. Letting water be polluted forces people to live with and drink polluted water. To be anti-social includes includes being helpless, having no practical skills, and being a heavy burden to society. To be anti-social includes participating in and supporting national and international businesses that destroy local community economies and local-self-sufficiency. To be anti-social includes supporting national and globalized educations that obsess over academics, sports, high-technology, and globalized corporations to the neglect and ruin of communities, people and nature; as well as thinking that community education is stupid, narrow-minded, and backwards.
Click on Holistic andHolistic Community Culture to read more about being social and supporting communities.

society:
A society is a group of people living together. A society can also mean a large society including several communities. A community can be a society. A club can be a society. A hunter-gatherer camp can be a society. A city can be a society. A nation can be a society. Society can also mean the whole world of people.
A society can be different sizes, but I'm going to explain 3 types of societies. In all of human existance, there has been at least 3 different types of society:
1. hunter-gatherer society: a camp in the wilderness; a wilderness tribe; a society without farms and without cities and without livestock to herd; a stone age society; a primitive society. A small society, usually with 20 to 150 people. Hunter-gatherers generally use only local resources. Hunter-gatherers eat mostly or only wild food. Some hunter-gatherers may do a little gardening on the side.
2. farming society: farming village; pre-civilized (pre-city) farming society; a farming village that does not correspond with any city; agricultural society; agrarian society; pastoral society; herder society. A medium society, usually with 100 to 1000 people. A farming society eats mostly or only farmed food. Some farmers may do a little hunting on the side.
3. civilization (city-society): a city society of one or more cities and their surrounding farms. Civilized people usually live at a city, suburb, small town, or farm. A civilization is a large society with cities; a city has over 1000 people. Cities and civilizations import some or all of their resources from neighboring and or distant lands. Civilizations have city, state, kingdom, national, or globalized economies or try to be as globalized as possible. In a civilization, most people eat mostly or only farmed food food. Some civilized people may do a little gardening and hunting on the side.
also see civilization
also see hunter-gatherer society

spiritual, spirituality:
Spiritual means absolutely good, infinite good, perfectly and completely good, all good and only good, no evil, no mistakes, no physical features, no harm, and no limitation. Spiritual includes the moral. Spiritual includes good qualities such as love, as in neighborly love, community love, and world love (to love the goodness of mankind and nature, worldwide). Neighborly love is spiritual, not material or physical. Spiritual is eternal, unchanging, infinite. Spiritual is synonymous with immortal, immaterial, and metaphysical. Antonyms are mortal, material, physical, temporary, ephemeral, changing.
If someone is pursuing spirituality, it means they are learning more about what is good and what is spiritual, what is our spiritual identity, what is God's spiritual identity, and how can spirituality be made practical to help us today in our lives.
Learn more about goodness and spirituality at my Good Journal homepage.
● Spirituality includes to uplift your thought about mankind. We should know that mankind was created to be in harmony with creation. Mankind and nature were created to thrive together. Mankind can get all the supplies and stuff that it needs in ways that benefit nature too. Man is not naturally destructive to nature; plus, man does not naturally succumb to poverty in order to help nature. Also, we should know that nature does not aim to harm mankind. Nature and mankind exist to mutually help each other. Yes, humans make mistakes, but that does not mean that people cannot live in ways that are beneficial to both people and nature. People can live in ways that benefit both people and nature. 
The Little Engine That Could could not get up the mountain unless she thought that she could. Likewise, mankind cannot get all the stuff he needs in ways that benefit people and nature together, unless mankind thinks he can. We all have to uplift our thought and say that people and nature can thrive together. People can live in ways that benefit both people and nature. That's not to imply that should continue to live according to capitalism's reckless ways. We do need to change our culture, education, ecology, and economy to be more considerate of nature. (See 8 changes in culture-education-ecology-economy.)
Learn more about goodness and spirituality at my Good Journal homepage.

stuff and things
Stuff and things generally mean the same thing, but I'm going to give them different particular definitions.
● Stuff is physical supplies (housing, water, food, clothes, soap, tools, art, etc.), items you can hold in your hands, items you can buy to own them, items you can buy from a store and put into your house. The house itself counts as stuff.
● Things is a broader category including stuff, but it's not just stuff. Many things are large and or complex social and ecological things that you cannot buy and you cannot hold in your hands. For example, a friendship is a thing. A friendship cannot be bought at a store. To have a friendship takes patience, trust, sharing, caring, etc. For another example, a sustainable functional community is a thing. A sustainable functional community cannot be gained by buying it from a store. To get a functional community takes hands-on work and thorough participation in community cooperation of local-self-sufficiency and sustainable social-economic-ecological interconnections.
● Why am I differentiating between things and stuff? I do so, because modern culture focuses so much on stuff, that it forgets many important things. Modern culture promotes that if a person has enough stuff (housing, water, food, clothes, soap, basic tools, and medicine) the person has everything that is needed. Yet, I disagree. I think a person needs at least 7 more things, including a sustainable functional community. Without a sustainable functional community, it gets harder and harder for people to get enough stuff.
also see, below, "things - 8 most important things to mankind on earth"

subsistence - thriving
Subsistence is living off the local land, being locally-self-sufficient. Subsistence is generally living without importing any luxuries, comforts, conveniences, and extravagant wealth.
●Subsistence Thriving is having just enough vital basic stuff (shelter, water, fire, food, clothes, soap, medicine, basic tools, and art), plus having the 7 other important things. Subsistence thriving is being money-poor, stuff-poor, but things-rich. Read the below definition of "things - 8 most important things to mankind on earth." In subsistence thriving, everyone is equally money-poor. In subsistence thriving, there are no money-rich people, but there is no poverty either. Read the above definition of "poor, poverty, and rich." In general, as long as conquering nations and globalized businesses do not intrude upon self-sufficient functional communities, those communities experience subsistence thriving.
subsistence - poverty
●Subsistence Poverty is not having enough of one or more of vital basic stuff (shelter, water, fire, food, clothes, soap, medicine, and basic tools), and lacking one or more of the 7 other important things. Read the below definition of "things - 8 most important things to mankind on earth." Subsistence Poverty happens when a community tries to live off the local land and be locally-self-sufficient, but a conquering nation and or globalized business intruded into the community, destroyed local nature, took away local resources, and ruined the local community economy.
Click on Holistic Sustainability and Holistic Days to learn more about subsistence thriving.

sustainable, sustainability:
● Sustainable means helping to conserve and not waste a resource or energy, so resources and energy last for a longer time than if people more recklessly use that resource or energy. A sustainable action is relative. Some actions are more or less sustainable than other actions. For one example: it's more sustainable (wastes less energy on food transportation) to eat food from 500 miles away, than to eat food from 1,000 miles away. It is even more sustainable yet to eat food from an organic permaculture family farm, that is only 30 miles away. For another example: it is more sustainable to buy a shirt and wear it 50 times before throwing it away than to buy the shirt and wear it only 5 times before throwing it away. It is even more sustainable yet to buy a locally-made biodegradable-textile shirt, wear it 100 times, and then compost it in your backyard compost pile. For a third example: it is more sustainable to flush a toilet with as little water as 1.6 gallons per flush, than to flush a toilet with 3.5 gallons of water per flush. It is likely even more sustainable yet to use a composting toilet that uses even less water. For a fourth example: it is more sustainable to use only 2 gallons of gasoline today, than 5 gallons of gasoline today, for many reasons, one of which is that the less fossil fuels are used, the less pollution is added to the air, so people have cleaner air to breathe.
● Sustainable enough. What is sustainable enough? It depends on the situation. For one example: lets say that you have only 20 gallons of water to use for the next 30 days, and you need to use some water every day for those 30 days. Using only 1 gallon of water per day is more sustainable than using 2 gallons of water per day. If you use 2 gallons of water per day, you'll run out of water sooner, as in only 10 days. Using 1 gallon of water per day, helps to conserve water, you'll get to use water for more days, as in 20 days. But using 1 gallon of water per day is not sustainable enough, because you'll will run out of water before 30 days. Think about this: Scenario A: what if we want people to have enough drinking water, clean air, and keep existing on earth for only the next 10 years. In order to live for 10 years: what kind of economics do we need; what kind of ways do we need to live, learn, and work; what types of jobs should we have; what skills should we learn at school; what kinds of products should be buy; how local should we be; how much fossil fuels should we use; from where should we get our energy; how much water should we use; etc.? Scenario B: what if we want many generations of people to have enough drinking water, clean air, and keep existing on earth for the next 200 years and longer. In order for earth to be a habitable planet for people for 200 years or more: what kind of economics do we need; what kind of ways do we need to live, learn, and work; what types of jobs should we have; what skills should we learn at school; what kinds of products should be buy; how local should we be; how much fossil fuels should we use; from where should we get our energy; how much water should we use; etc.? Obviously, we need to be much more sustainable in the situation of Scenario B, than we do in Scenario A. Scenario B requires people to live very different lifestyles and have very different and much more sustainable economics, educations, jobs, products, water usage, energies, and energy usage, than in the case of Scenario A.
Click here for Holistic Sustainability

things and stuff
Things and stuff generally mean the same thing, but I'm going to give them different particular definitions.
● Stuff is physical supplies (housing, water, food, clothes, soap, tools, art, etc.), items you can hold in your hands, items you can buy to own them, items you can buy from a store and put into your house. The house itself counts as stuff.
● Things is a broader category including stuff, but it's not just stuff. Many things are large and or complex social and ecological things that you cannot buy and you cannot hold in your hands. For example, a friendship is a thing. A friendship cannot be bought at a store. To have a friendship takes patience, trust, sharing, caring, etc. For another example, a sustainable functional community is a thing. A sustainable functional community cannot be gained by buying it from a store. To get a functional community takes hands-on work and thorough participation in community cooperation of local-self-sufficiency and sustainable social-economic-ecological interconnections.
● Why am I differentiating between things and stuff? I do so, because modern culture focuses so much on stuff, that it forgets many important things. Modern culture promotes that if a person has enough stuff (housing, water, food, clothes, soap, basic tools, and medicine) the person has everything that is needed. Yet, I disagree. I think a person needs at least 7 more things, including a sustainable functional community. Without a sustainable functional community, it gets harder and harder for people to get enough stuff.
also see "things - 8 most important things to mankind on earth"

things - 8 most important things to mankind on earth
1. morals - Be good. Love, care, respect your neighbors. Be responsible and ethical. Love to and want to take good care of communities, people, and nature.
2. oneself - Be unselfish. Take good care of communities, people, and nature. Become self-sufficient, not to live alone, but to be skilled enough to help your family, local community, and beyond.
3. nature - Local nature, global nature.
We need nature for air, water, fertile soil, wood, etc. Play outdoors. You learn about nature as you play outdoors.
4. people - Your family, friends, neighbors and strangers, near and far. Teach them to take care
of the community.
5. local community - Local community cooperation,
local helping hands, to grow and make local food, local jobs, local schools, local stuff, local tools, local clothes, local small businesses, live local, learn local, work local, shop local, eat local, etc. Think Global, Act Local.
6. community landscape - Landcare. Help to watch
and take care of the whole local community landscape: urban lands, rural lands, wild lands, public lands, private lands, municipal lands, parks, streetscapes, yards, water, air, soil, etc. The landscape includes people, plants, animals, water, rocks, etc.
7. community culture - Live-learn-work to take
care of the community and the 8 most important things, to not only have stuff, but also to get and make stuff in ways that sustain and enrich both people and nature.
8. stuff - shelter, water, food, fire, energy, clothes, tools, art, soap, supplies, etc.
Click on Holistic Sustainability to learn about how to sustain and enrich out 8 most important things.

virtue, good, morals, spiritual
Being virtuous includes being moral. Being moral includes doing good, being ethical, responsible, fair, unselfish, altruistic, healthy to oneself and to all other people and to nature, being sustainable. Being moral includes having good thoughts, having good motives, and taking good actions to help communities, people, and nature. Being moral includes helping people and nature thrive together. Moral, good, ethical, sustainable, and healthy, are largely synonymous.
Being virtuous includes pursuing deeper understandings of what good is and learning more of your spiritual identity to help others. It's learning more about spirituality, what is God's spiritual identity, and how can spirituality be made practical to help us today in our mortal lives.
Click here for morals-love-awareness-health

vital basic skills
What are the most important skills to be learning in life, in school and out of school? To figure that out, we need to think about what is the most vital things and stuff that we need.
A. shelter. We need shelter and housing; thus, we need to learn how to build shelters and housing.
B. water. We need to drink water; thus, we need to learn how to sustain, conserve, protect, clean, filter, and purify our water. We need to learn how to farm in ways that conserves water.
C. food. We need to eat food; thus, we need to learn how to get and grow food, and prepare and cook and store food. It's important to learn how to grow food in ways (such as establishing permaculture farms) that sustain and enrich the soils and nature, so that people can farm at one location for over 200 years.
D. air. We need to breathe clean air; fossil fuels pollute the air; thus, it's important to learn to live in ways that do not use fossil fuels.
E. community. It's important to live in locally-self-sufficient functional communities with local community economies. Doing so helps to sustain the air, water, soil, and food for people, and it also helps people to decrease their fossil fuels usage. (See definitions for "self-sufficiency" and for "community".) Hence, it's very important to learn how to establish, uphold, and enrich locally-self-sufficient functional communities, local community economies, and local small businesses.
Then way down the list of educational importance and practical priorities is learning about academics, sports, and electronics. Unfortunately, in modern culture, modern pop education, and modern pop economy (corporate globalization), many kids are taught to obsess over the less important skills (academics, sports, and electronics) to meanwhile ignore the most important things to be able to live: communities, people, nature, housing, water, food, and the air. It's not bad to learn some academics, as long as people also learn about the most important skills. Yet, it is bad to obsess over academics, sports, and electronics, to the neglect of communities, people, nature, housing, water, food, and the air.

wilderness tribal society,
stone age, hunter-gatherers:
● A wilderness tribe is a small society, a camp community in the wilderness. A tribal camp usually has between 20 to 150 people. A wilderness tribe lives in the wilderness with no farms and no cities. A tribal person totally or mostly eats wild food. A tribal person hunts and gathers wild food. A tribal person may also do a little backyard gardening, but there are no big farms. Every tribe is different from all other tribes. But, in general, all tribes have community cooperation to sustain and enrich their community, people, nature, and run a locally-self-sufficient community economy. Some tribal people are peaceful; some tribal people are violent. Tribes do not have militaries, but everyone, especially the men, are excepted to help defend the camp.
● A wilderness tribe uses local stuff. A wilderness tribe does not need to import any stuff. In general, a wilderness tribe uses only local resources and materials from which they gather and handmake local products and stuff (shelter, water, food, soap, clothes, tools, and art). A tribe has everything it needs locally. There is no need to get stuff from far away. A tribe may occasionally trade stuff and ideas with a neighboring or distant community for the fun of it. A wilderness tribe is very sustainable, because it makes and uses local stuff - by using mostly local stuff: the tribe wastes no energy transporting stuff long distances; the tribe lives right there with the resources to constantly monitor and sustain local resources; the tribe is promoting their own local community economy by empowering themselves, instead of some distant business; and the tribes are sustaining and enriching the local natural habitats and wildernesses. Tribes knew how to live and get all their stuff (shelter, water, food, soap, clothes, tools, and art) while simultaneously sustaining the wildernesses, keeping the air and water clean, and keeping the soil fertile.
● A wilderness tribe is poor, but it is not in poverty, and it is not rich. A wilderness tribe has enough vital basic stuff (shelter, water, warmth, food, clothes, sanitation, and basic tools), or a little more. A wilderness tribe has all the necessary physical supplies, vital basic stuff, to live a healthy life. Also read definitions of poor, poverty, and rich.
● Also read definition of civilization (city-society).
Click on Holistic Days for primitive wilderness skills, bushcraft, and sustainability skills used today.
Click on Nice5, Holistic, CEEE to read examples of hunter-gatherer tribes that were nice to people, sustained nature, and got enough stuff (water, food, clothes, shelter, soap, basic tools, etc.).