I met SerenaGaia one evening at the summer gathering of GEN, Global Ecovillage Network. This year the meeting was held at La Comune di Bagniaia [the Commune of Bagnaia], in Tuscany. Between this event and the meeting of RIVE, the Italian Network of Ecological Villages, in July 2019, Bagnaia has hosted more than 1000 people. As a group, the “Piumani” are now a significant element in the event’s program and its organization. Since I am a Piumano myself, this year, I was happily one of the volunteers, or, as we call them here, “Volentieri,” a pun that plays on the meaning of this Italian word, “with pleasure”.
It was evening, after dinner, when this lady and I started chatting about a book I was reading. As we got closer, I discovered she is exactly the age of my mother, which out of respect for both ladies we won’t say. It was a very pleasant deep intriguing conversation under the moonlight. After a few hours we walked ourselves to our respective tents and we hugged for a while as a goodnight gift before parting. As I looked at the stars, while falling asleep, I thought “what a sweet, pleasant encounter.”
A constant image of her: curly white hair, sometimes with a purple-colored hair lock. Among that hair, often, a wreath of flowers. Bubbling smiles like an enthusiastic girl who, when laughing to her heart’s content, would not hide whiffs of healthy pleasure. Hands quick and clear in explaining concepts with gestures, as well as in caressing and stretching out energies when the vibration is high.
The next day I am with the leaders of the organization when she appears, in her most formal and professional demeanor, with a complaint about books she sent for her presentation which had been sent back by mistake. This way I discover she is one of the lecturers in one of the many workshops and seminars for which people from all over the world come to these events.
Dr. SerenaGaia, aka Serena Anderlini-D’Onofrio, whose Italian name means serene and joyful, holds a course in Ecosexuality, a quick taste of what can be more thoroughly experienced in her seminars on the Alchemy of Eco-sexual Love. One can also read about this in one of her many publications, to name just a few: Eros: A Journey of Multiple Loves, Gaia and the New Politics of Love, Women and Bisexuality and many others. On her site she is defined as a leader in the eco-sexual movement, as well as an expert in the ecology of love. “A world where it is safe to love is a world where it is safe to live,” she claims, and intends to create this world with her sacred activism.
By all effects an American, so much so that she no longer even feels Italian is her preferred language, she has lived in the United States for most of her life. In California she became familiar with, and supported the bisexual movement (sometimes known today as “queer”), and in Puerto Rico she was for years a university professor. And it is precisely in the USA the she joined the revolutionary movement that stands “for an ecological love.”
But who are, in short, these Ecosexuals? In fact, this neologism in quite new. if you google it you could get the idea that they are, or should I say we are, mad people having sex with trees. This kind of facile humor, which also often happens in relation to topics like pranic nutrition and other holistic practices, is a natural human defense against what is not known. Potentially very dangerous according to some, these ideas and theories take the risk of questioning everything upon which one’s life is based. Therefore they are often exposed to contempt, mockery, belittling. All it takes is a quick look at the cartoons about Darwin and his theory on the “ape man,” considered absurd in his times, at the disputes against heliocentric theories, or the disbelief around Columbus as he claimed he could reach the Indies etc. Ah ah ah. Big laughs.
Yet, as the web reassures, unlike other movements, this one, albeint rapidly growing, focuses on personal pleasure and attitude rather than protests or political ends. So, basically, “it’s okay.” What’s important, always, is for it to appear harmless enough. Or maybe not so?!
“Yes but, in concrete, what do you all do there?”
This one is also not really easy to answer, because there are no real and exact rules. Shall we say that, by and large, given a general program, a lot of “flow” will follow. The practices are similar to those in rainbow gatherings: no alcohol or drugs, and lots of love. We all eat together, in a circle, always celebrating with songs, dances and lots of hugs. Above all, people use non-violent communication, in particular the Cycle Way style from Native Americans. Moreover, at the appropriate moments, anyone can propose workshops any kind, to share and exchange knowledge and know-how.
What I like most is the affectional company that weaves every moment together, the great value given to others and to affectivity: in other words, the “Cuddling”!
…Depth with lightness also means a caress it mens respecting sadness […] Another custom of Piumani is sitting not too far from each other and consider, instead: “You know what I can do? I can place myself next to you and then we hug.” And with bodies tangled together, rubbed and superkissed, one never feels alone, undervalued, or bored…
Suffice it to say this: every day, there must be at least two people in charge of the wake up ritual–the sveglia piumana, as they call it, because, while one plays and sings good morning, the other one goes from bed to bed to hug everyone, considering that people usually sleep together as much as possible. If this were not enough to give you the idea, another common practice is offering a welcome greeting for every group that arrives exhausted from a journey, in order to shake off a bit of the hangover from Babylon. This includes a welcoming song, stretching in pairs, five minutes of wild dancing, a group hug and a piuman greeting. At departures, when someone leaves the gathering, the offer is a hand love shower and a circle of appreciation, also from the practices of the Manitonquat’s Circle Way. In this circle everyone says something he or she appreciates about the other person, and we all know how difficult it can be to receive appreciations.
We don’t have to necessarily imagine all Hippies as all naked and promiscuous. Some follow standardized fashions and are very reserved. The Piuman philosophy of life simply tries to look at qualities instead of problems, to emphasize love and beauty (which are always present, even in defeat), and to overcome fear with trust. This is all that makes these much denigrated revolutionary, the hippies, appear so alien, blasphemous, and especially dangerous. Because in the world out there, all this power, the immense energy we have if we allow ourselves to be covered in light, if we hold hands, is deliberately denied and ridiculed. And yet it is something so simple, honest and immediate, like every child’s joy and game. The finest culture and education turns us graceful into bonsais cut especially for this society, but if we grew according to nature we would be immense trees in a virgin forest.
“Yes, but in practice …”
In practice, even if I assure you that one paper it does not render, this was the general program of a typical day at the Piumanno 2017, for example. This event was held from 12/27, 2017 to 01/04, 2018, partly at Casale dei Giganti, near Vasto, in the Abruzzi, and partly at the ecovillage Giardino della Gioia (Garden of Joy), in the Gargano peninsula in Puglia. This is where the 2020 Piumanno will also be hosted. Day Program:
07.00 awake with song and hugs 07.30 meditative walk / yoga
08.30 breakfast
09.00 activities
11.00 free time
13.00 lunch in a circle
15.00 activities
17.30 free time
19.30 dinner in a circle
21.00 evening
11.00 cuddly good night
I can also add details and anecdotes from my personal experience. For example, to me it meant a lot not to look at a watch throughout the new year’s eve, and to do without the hateful countdown of the minute to get to the firecrackers, while us Piumani in the fire clan was preparing great special effects for the bonfire, and while we were involved in a continuous ritual of passage under the stars with play, dance, fun, emotion and sacredness. Yet I do not believe in any way that I’d be able to describe why and how much I fell in love with this unapologetically piuman humanity.
So much I was involved that I can affirm, with every one of my cells, without fear, and, indeed, with a happy emotion of pleasure that “yes, I admit it, it’s true: me too, I am a Piumano!”
“there is freedom waiting for you on the breezes of the sky and you ask “what if i fall?” oh but my darling what if you fly?”
“Sì, ma praticamente cosa fate?”
Anche questo non è proprio immediato da comprendere, perché in fondo regole vere e proprie non ce ne sono. Diciamo che in generale, dato un programma di massima, si segue molto ‘il flow’. Le prassi sono un po’ quelle dei rainbow gathering, ovvero niente alcool o droghe, ma tanto amore. Si mangia tutti assieme, in cerchio, celebrando sempre con canti, balli e tanto ascolto. Soprattutto si applicano la CNV (comunicazione non violenta) – in particolare la via del cerchio dei nativi americani – e lo scambio di condivisione orizzontale. Inoltre, chiunque può proporre, nei momenti adeguati, workshop di ogni tipo e genere, per favorire lo scambio di conoscenze.
La parte che io preferisco di più, in assoluto, è il costante accompagnamento affettivo che lega ogni momento, il grande valore dato all’attenzione agli altri, all’affettività: in una parola la “coccoleria”!
Profondità con leggerezza vuol dire anche una carezza che rispetti la tristezza […] Un’altra usanza del piumano è non sedersi troppo lontano ma pensare: “Sai che faccio? mi metto vicino e poi l’abbraccio”. E coi corpi aggrovigliati, stropicciati e pluribaciati, non ci si sente mai isolati, sottovalutati e nè annoiati.
Basti questo: le persone incaricate del risveglio ogni giorno devono essere almeno due, perché mentre una suona e canta il buongiorno, l’altra va di letto in letto ad abbracciare ognuno (si dorme di solito il più possibile tutti assieme). Se non bastasse a rendere l’idea, altre prassi comuni fra i piumani sono il saluto di benvenuto per ogni gruppo che arriva spossato da un viaggio, per scrollarsi di dosso un po’ di postumi di babilonia, che prevede una canzone di accoglienza, stretching di coppia, cinque minuti di ballo sfrenato, abbraccio di gruppo e saluto piumano. O ancora, alle partenze, quando qualcuno lascia il raduno, la doccia di mani piumane e il cerchio di apprezzamenti (sempre dalle pratiche della via del cerchio di Manitonquat), ovvero ognuno dice qualcosa che apprezza dell’altra persona – e quanto è difficile farne, e riceverne, di apprezzamenti.
Non sono da immaginare necessariamente tutti ignudi e promiscui, i figli dei fiori. Alcuni seguono anzi le mode standardizzate e sono molto riservati. La filosofia di vita piumana prova, semplicemente, a guardare alle qualità invece che ai problemi, a sottolineare l’amore e la bellezza (che sono presenti sempre, anche nella sconfitta) a vincere la paura con la fiducia: sono queste le cose che rendono così alieni, blasfemi e particolarmente pericolosi questi tanto denigrati hippie rivoluzionari. Perché nel mondo là fuori tutta questa potenza, l’immensa energia che abbiamo se ci lasciamo ricoprire di luce, se ci teniamo per mano, viene volutamente negata e ridicolizzata. Eppure è qualcosa di così semplice, onesto e immediato, come l’allegria e il gioco per ogni bambino. La più fine cultura e l’educazione ci rendono graziosi bonsai tagliati apposta per questa società, ma se crescessimo secondo natura saremmo immensi alberi di una foresta vergine.
“Si’ ma in pratica…”
in pratica, anche se visto così concretamente assicuro che non rende affatto l’idea, questo era ad esempio il programma di massima di una giornata tipo del Piumanno tenutosi dal 27.12.2017 al 4.01.2018 in parte al Casale dei Giganti, vicino Vasto, in parte all’ecovillaggio Giardino della Gioia, sul Gargano in Puglia [dove si terra’ anche il Piumanno 2020]:
07.00 risveglio cantato
07.30 passeggiata meditativa / yoga
08.30 colazione
09.00 attività
11.00 lavori pratici e tempo libero
13.00 pranzo in cerchio
15.00 attività
17.30 lavori pratici e tempo libero
19.30 cena in cerchio
21.00 serata
23.00 buona notte piumana
Potrei certo aggiungere dettagli e aneddoti della mia esperienza personale, dire ad esempio cosa abbia significato per me non vedere per tutto il capodanno un orologio – senza l’odioso countdown e senza botti (per quanto il clan del fuoco abbia preparato grandi effetti speciali per il falò) – ed essere invece immersi in un continuo rituale di passaggio sotto le stelle tra gioco, ballo, divertimento, ma anche commozione e sacralità. Eppure non credo in alcun modo riuscirebbe a descrivere perché e quanto io mi sia innamorato di questa umanità svergognatamente piumana.
Così tanto coinvolto da poter affermare, con ogni mio gesto, senza timore alcuno ed anzi con un felice moto di piacere che sì, è vero, lo ammetto, anch’io sono un piumano!
“there is freedom waiting for you on the breezes of the sky and you ask “what if i fall?” oh but my darling what if you fly?”
“I fell in love..” I’ve been saying as of late – and with whom? – people ask me
– with Piumani!
It is always difficult for me to explain who the Piumani are to those who do not know about them: as with anything else, Piumanitas should be experienced.
If I’m talking with foreigners, I also have to explain, in another language, the impossible triple pun implicit in the Italian neologism piumano, which is their name: “more human” [piu’ umani], “more hands” [piu’ mani] and, even more challenging, also a little bit “feather like” [piuma meaning feather]. Then I indulge in weaving on the latter considerations, as in, “because they know how to flutter like angels and they are cuddly like pillows”.
“Depth with lightness,” says as a motto at the beginning of their Piumanifesto, a manifesto written out as a rhymed poem: Stop! Don’t throw it in the bin it is a Piumani’s manifesto, it serves to explain to those who don’t yet know who these people are …
and, I swear, there are people who’ve learned it all by heart, just so they can, every time, answer this typical question:
– I’m going to an event hosted by the Piumani . . .
– by what?!?
Yet nothing can explain exactly how featherlike it is to participate together. How can I manage to even help you imagine the strange alchemy of openness and exchange that can be created in that feathery atmosphere. Because the Piumani are after all very regular people: just as any other alternative freak who professes universal love, they are people who, seen in a normal context (for example in a queue at the post office), cannot be distinguished all that easily. Maybe they tend to smile a bit more or be a bit more colorful than most, but sometimes they too have moments when they huff off and are pissed off. Some arevegan and some even tend to fruitarian raw fooders. Others, on the other hand, happily eat meat, drink, smoke, and don’t even recycle. Some are polyamorous, others less so; some live in ecovillages, others have normal work routines in big cities; some have “feathery” names, like Majid, Lapis, Kalish, others less so, like Lapo, Dinamite, Ama, Saggio, and still others are simply called Guido.
In short, describing them is not easy. One could tell of how they came to be, of how they were formed within the seasonal gatherings of the RIVE (Italian Network of Ecological Villages) where they brought a big load of joy, sharing, music, dances and abundant “hugs.”
From there they slowly began to organize themselves as a group, with the awareness that “the arrival of a good clown benefits the health of a city more than twenty donkeys loaded with medicines,” as Patch Adams reports quoting a 17th-century doctor. This is why eventually the Piumanis decided to multiply their events and contributions to humankind. Most of all, events worth saving the date for include Piumanno (New Year Piumani style) & Piumancamp (summer gathering Piumani style). The upcoming Piumanno is planned for Dec 29-Jan 5, 2019-20 at the ecovillage Giardino della Gioia. For more detailed information about all upcoming meetings the reference email is piumaposta@gmail.com
I am interested in a wider perspective for the #metoo movement, one that does bring together a number of correlated factors.
As a lover of clothing optional environments and a naturist, I completely agree that dress codes should not be imposed on any one gender more than another, let alone hijabs or burkas.
However, what I see on TV and in today’s fashion and entertainment industry (including, alas, most of the mainstream news) is the fashioning of a “woman” who is invariably youthful looking, excessively thin, perilously walking on trampoline type of stiletto heals that make it impossible to fight or flee, with wide surfaces of exposed skin regardless of temperature, and adornments that complete the image of a super decorated object available for viewing.
Why is this?
I don’t see any men intent in self decorating like this. I would like to. They would interest me. The Belmondo’s, the Pierre Clementi’s, the Alain Delon’s, the Billy Crystal’s of earlier years have disappeared. Where are they? I miss them.
Instead the scene of visualizable guys is full of trumpanzees (a Susan M Block neologism) who heavily wade thru life, with ugly limbs and muzzles full of mien, precisely like the main accused in the #metoo campaign: trumpanzee-in-chief and his doubles, Ailes and Weinstein. Who all, of course, like to be pictured next to the super decorative women described above. Even though it goes without saying that the “she” in question is barely containing her repulsion for the trumpanzee on shift, while the production of glamour is where her intelligence is applied to forge the hope for a career.
This produces an enormous gender difference. A monstrous one for our Bonoboesque species. Suppose you come of age in this era, who are the models? What stereotypes do you internalize and then reproduce? Can you really distance yourself from this polarizing trumpanzeeism and still hope for a career in, say, cinema, TV, politics or other lines of work that involve high visibility?
That’s the tragedy, I think.
The tragedy of the culture as a whole.
Then of course there are the individual dramas. We’ve all had them, smaller, bigger. And so I do say #metoo, even though I don’t want to emphasize that. A little squeeze on the butt on the city bus to school when I was 15 is nothing compared to what I observe now.
I am envisioning a bunch of sensuous, feminine, androgynous young men with gentle, seemly faces enfolded in wavy manes, encircled in dainty curls, with puffed up lips, glistening eyes, perked up nipples, and groovy tushes displaying their sensual beauty for everyone to see, enjoy, and model after. I sense their deep devotion to the pleasure of women.
“What kind of animals do we want to be?” Asks the ecosexual person in me.
Evaluations of academic programs are a lot of work and they require much patience.
The Curricular Sequence in Italian is a program I love and of which I am very proud to be part. It is coming up for evaluation as we speak.
The original version only included three of the four teaching faculty. A few days ago I realized that I, the fourth one, had been left out. I didn’t take it personally. I simply proceeded to complete the job.
The Sequence includes one of my favorite courses: Italian Cinema. My contribution to the Sequence includes the results of my one year of advanced study in Italian cinema and what that brings to the students of the SCI and others at our university.
The complete evaluation integrates the teaching of cinema as a path for students to discover one of the 20th century arts for which Italy is best known and appreciated around the world. This I believe makes the program stronger and more viable.
The version also includes the goal of having more that one faculty teach the course in Italian cinema.
This post documents the experience that ended the most torturous year in my academic career, 2014-15, and its subsequent effects. The documents I filed at the time are on record in the highest offices of the campus.
When mobbing is legal people will resort to it to attack those weaker than themselves. In Puerto Rico, I learn, the only female governor, Sila Calderon, tried to introduce legislation against it. But. You guessed right: she was mobbed.
When mobbing is legal, people will use ideas and opinions in the public domain to feel that they have permission to act violently against those who represent perspectives different from what those ideas represent.
For example, when I first presented my proposals for hybrid modalities to my department, a pandemonium erupted. Several colleagues started yelling in Spanish, “you’re not qualified,” others started nervously pacing the room to assuage anxiety, others yet tried to ask questions in English and their voices were covered up by the yelling ones. Some female faculty went to the hallway to breathe fresh air. I was cornered on the stage, feeling lynched while the chair fell silent. The proposals were never considered at that time.
I wrote an Affidavit in Spanish that described the scene in minute detail and filed it with the highest authorities on campus. Then I filed another with more background. One year later it was finally possible to consider my first proposal in a calm and respectful manner.
One of the philosophies whose effects are visible in the mobbing I suffered is, as I’ve more recently learned, the philosophy of cercania, nearness, which privileges the local and the presential at the expense of everything else.
On a small island where people are per se afraid of novelty and foreigners, this can be very damaging. The geophysical nature of islands is what creates that sense of being surrounded by waters which makes everything non isleno muffled and remote.
The mobbing I suffered impaired my mental capabilities for quite sometime. It made my body/mind reactive to Spanish, a language I otherwise use quite well, because that’s the language against whose violence I could not defend myself.
For quite sometime, it made impossible for me to sustain the long-term attention required of peer-reviewed research.
Finally, it weakened my personal ecosystem to where I suffered a fall while traveling to Rome, Italy, one of my research arenas where I also visit family, to the point that I fell on top of myself, with the left arm extended under my own weight.
The fracture of the radial head that resulted in the affected elbow turned out to be irreparable. The entire movement of the elbow was at one point blocked. Eventually, some 65-70 percent of this movement was recuperated via Tuina Chinese therapies and India’s Auyrvedic therapies, all at my expense for about $ 7000.
Back view. Limited flexibility of left elbow.
The remaining percentage is not subject to recuperation, orthopedic doctors tell me. The difference can be observed in these images. It is a permanent disability that’s not severe per se, but quite substantial nonetheless.
I am now in the process of having the entity of this disability verified by the authorities, so I can receive the proper protections and respect. I am also observing my own inner transformation as I accept my new body and its mild deformation as a result of my work. It is a humbling and sensitive process.
As I am in this process, I am also tremendously enjoying the new relationship with students made possible by the hybrid modality.
Front view. Limited extension of left elbow.
I love the vibrant discussions when we get together presentially and discuss the texts we’ve read. It’s analytical observation at its best.
And I love how they learn how to learn online as they attend modern history lectures on You Tube and engage in taking complex, probing, soul searching, wide ranging, and profoundly thought provoking tests.
When I teach the Humanities from the Point of View of Love, I want the experience of students in the course to match the universal theme chosen. I’ve practiced that thematic approach for over ten years. Ever since we reformed the course from an all-out canonical, Allan Bloom type of litany of works by the (in)famous “dead white males,” to one that accommodates for the diversity of human experience and endeavor.
I chose the theme of love back then, when we opened up to thematic approaches as recorded in the document at this link. And now with the hybrid modality, that alignment of theme and experience of learning is coming to fruition. Yay!
First Set. Hybrid Section. Students in H-Huma 3112: The Humanities and Love
There are practical advantages as well. How relaxing for my half crippled elbow not to have to gesticulate over and over repeating the same lectures till I sound like a broken record. Students can refer to a standard version and be sure that exams correspond to what’s been really taught!
The series of online lectures on modern history from the point of view
Gaia: The Blue Dot.
of the people and the Earth is available at this link to the entire world. Talk about cercania. It’s a small planet after all! The blue dot.
With my mental joy restored, my creative energies have resurged as well. Amorous Visions is the study of Italian cinema that took me to Connecticut some four years ago. The first chapter came complete in early September, when I felt some peace was achieved around me in relation to my choices. I miss all the foreign colleagues who’ve been bashed to silence or have left for more friendly shores where cercania does not reign.
“Ecologies of Love and Toxic Ecosystems” is perhaps my favorite among all my studies of an academic nature. I contacted the editor of a Deleuzian journal. It’s peer reviewed and open source, my favorite style because it is scientifically reliable and accessible to all.
Folded arms view. Left hand unable to touch shoulder.
She got excited and asked for the submission. I said, “it’s over 14,000 words, are you prepared?” She said “yes.” I sent it. Two days later here’s what I got: “We read your essay with great interest and like it very much!” After one round of blind review, they “intend to include it in the next issue.” Wooow!
I felt: “Well Serena it was worth while to live to be over 62 years old even with a half deformed elbow, and be active in research and scholarship for over 30 years, if you’ve learned your job so well!” “Can the energy of love survive in toxic ecosystems? ” asks the article’s meta-question. The answer is “yes, as it becomes love for love or erotophilia.” They got it. “Your fountain, Serena,” I told myself, “is still pulsating with vital energies.” It was an overdue joy!
The Isla del Encanto where mobbing is legal is full of adventures, academic and not, that reverberate in the distance and presentially with the energies of life around the globe. Can we welcome the energies that will make that encanto sustainable?
As an educator, I love to share knowledge. ABE: always be educating, as my sex-positive educator friends say. Here are my lessons for the day:
I have angels. Mobbing can be avoided when administrations are aware of what it is and how it happens. When I was mobbed, angels sent me a manual about it so I could identify it. The manual is available at this link. Enjoy!
Mobbing results from conflict–unresolved conflict. Conflict can be resolved by applying the process of generating consensus from conflict itself, as explained in the manual On Conflict and Consensus, by C. T. Butler and Amy Rothstein, two founders of the horizontal democracy movement Food not Bombs. The book is available at this link. May it bring the genuine consensus that makes agreements sustainable to our learning communities. Enjoy!
Memories come back. My loving friend C.T. Butler used this book when he came from far away to lead the first retreat the Humanities Department ever had, a two-day, in 2005, or was it 2006? He was an angel from afar I called here to save us as I saw the disarray. I was new. The chair then took the credit. That retreat was really a blessing that energized everyone as the department found its true north and kept the steady direction for a good while.
This time others are planning a retreat, or Coloquio. Humanities, they call it. I feel terribly scared that the scapegoating will continue. I want to duck the attacks and save myself.
Or, I want to be treated like a human being and not a criminal under special surveillance or a scapegoat.
“How would that look like?” you may ask. It will look like a space where the current chair and direction take responsibility for creating safety for everyone. For example: It will look like the event takes place in a space where
They establish a space of communication based in freedom of expression in language choice.
They take charge for openly recording all meetings in the Coloquio and for providing online access to the audiofiles thereof in a timely way?
They take responsibility for publishing all submitted syllabi and other relevant documents to the department’s website well before day of the Coloquio.
“How would that encourage you to participate?” A legitimate question.
I would know that the freedom of expression of ALL those who choose to practice academic freedom will be protected and valued as the essence of what dialogs, or colloquia, are about.
I would know that there will be freedom of expression in ideas as well as in language choice, between, for example, English and Spanish, as we did at that time by virtue of a translator.
I would know that people will put their cards on the table: what are colleagues teaching in their courses, what is the content of their syllabi, how can I study that content as detenidamente (attentively) as my syllabi have been studied when, after ten years of practice that went unobserved, it was found that, lo and behold, the theme I’ve chosen for my approach to the Humanities is Love!
“Is that just for your protection?” Good point.
These measures will, I believe, make the Coloquio safe for all those colleagues who choose to practice academic freedom and not only the “prominent” members whose fears keep the department from evolving. My presence requires them and other genuine educators will appreciate them.
“Hopefully, that’s exactly what will happen.” I’ll stay tuned for this manifestation.
“But education is more than just a bunch of courses. No?”
As a member in good standing of the sex-positive education community and movement, and as a leader in the Ecosexual movement, I naturally also want to bring to students the know how, the skills, the arts to practice love in their lives to the extent that it feels safe and healthy at any given moment to do so.
I can manifest a whole bunch of angels who will fly to our shores to teach the arts of truly conscious and aware consent and negotiation in interpersonal relationships.
I’ve negotiated the exclusive for a special type of event called Practices of Ecosexuality at UPRM. We had a very successful first run last year. This year the call is out for Practices of Ecosexuality and Sex-Positive Education. I get inquiries all the time while we wait for the proper venue to host the event. Do I have to tell them we’re scared of angels who come from far away? I hope not.
This while the millenials–here like everywhere else–speak English better than their professors because they learn online and are branching out through the social media to the entire globe. Would college be a way to scare them about the world? Ridiculous, no? I love the millennials because they are a game-changer generation. They won’t adjust. They’ll make change happen. It’s a pleasure to teach them how, with love.
They tell me the department is seeking its “true north” after a crisis that was endemic, deeply seated, and devastating. In Puerto Rico we’re in a debt restructuring situation where throughout the UPR system we’ve been asked to get rid of expensive red tape and bring our curriculum into the 21st century. The AGB Report is here. Crises are powerful opportunities for change. Are we going to take it? I hope so.
A department that sheds its fears can become capable of imagining a sustainable future for itself. I presented a plan for action when given a chance. It’s available at this link for everyone to access and enjoy.
Instead of being trapped in fear we can be a source of learning for love. Shall we?
The new sexual freedom we need to invent is the freedom of Ecosexual Love. This freedom is predicated on a shift from fear to love. Sex-positive education is key. And it needs to understand itself as something wider, more powerful, more planetary, and more significant than the fears of infection it was born to assuage. Sex-positive education is a wonderful way to bring joy to people as they reinvent the arts of love in the aura of the divine feminine and its infinite capacity for pleasure. It’s a great way to invite men and people of all genders to embrace the divine feminine within as their Kundalini awakens. In the Era of Ecosexual Love, sexual freedom will also be a way to honor long-term HIV + survivors as heroes of self-love. Allopathic and holistic practices of health manifest love in different ways. These perspectives can unite people today in a process of societal healing that brings the human family back to love. The ecosexual movement is an inspiration to practice sexual freedom as we share in natural, fluid, and inclusive practices of ecosexual love.
I practice safer sex and recommend that it be practiced to the extent that is required to ensure full consent from all those involved. I also educate people in my circles about barriers, risks, and the exchange of fluids. I include awareness of multiple theories of sexual health and reports about long-term survivors of STIs. But not as an excuse to overlook risks. Rather, as a way to instill hope in a future where people may enjoy sexual freedom more fully some day. I am not a “victim” of conspiratorial thinking. I am a responsible amorous player with a wider perspective of ecosexual health. I trust in the love of the partner we all share: the Earth. And I believe in empowering amorous players to be in charge of their own health in natural, intuitive, holistic, and time-tested ways. I have been successful in exporting the health and beauty of ecosexual practices of love to communities in the Hispanic world. In most areas of the world, people have their own time-tested medicine styles and practices of health. Their participation in the digital sphere is limited, yet they do long for sex-positive education. For example, in the Hispanic world, Conquistador behavior has produced machismo, and many women’s groins still clench in fear. Wherever I bring my wisdom, I invite respect for dissent and am excited about the infinite and abundant ways to practice ecosexual love that are virtually risk free. Expressing appreciation for dissent is compassionate and inclusive. This inclusiveness empowers those who have overcome fear with self-love and is a great contribution to sexual freedom and the science of love.
If we want sex-positive education to be relevant, to expand, to reach out to world-wide communities, we need to model respect for a diversity of perspectives and points of view on what health is. We need understanding for a wider spectrum of modalities of health that people can access from their communities. We need good listening for people options to be communicators and participants in the digital sphere. And we need compassion for people and the ability to embrace them where they are at in their evolution.
The world is on the verge of an Ecosexual ReLOVEution and this ReLOVeution is a way to reinvent the freedom of ecosexual love.
Dr. SerenaGaia – aka Serena Anderlini-D’Onofrio
Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico, June 23, 2016
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Biographical Note
Dr. SerenaGaia is the sacred name of Serena Anderlini-D’Onofrio, PhD, editor and author of, most recently, Ecosexuality: When Nature Inspires the Arts of Love. Dr. SerenaGaia believes that “love is the ecology of life.” Her prophetic books, including Gaia(2009) and Eros (2006) have inspired readers around the world to open up to the glories of our amorous life on “wide-bosomed Gaia.” Artfully weaving together ecology and eroticism, Dr. SerenaGaia revives the vibrant, prehistoric connection between nurturing Gaia and mischievous Eros, envisioned as a primal force that “blows the breath of life into all beings.” She is the author/editor of many books about Love, including Bisexuality and Queer Theory (2011), Plural Loves (2005), Women and Bisexuality (2003). A renown public speaker, Dr. SerenaGaia teaches Humanities and Cinema at the University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez. She convened the first academic symposium on Ecosexuality in 2016, and was a 2012-13 Fellow for “Amorous Visions” at U Conn’s Humanities Institute. She is working on exciting new books. www.serenagaia.org
A big wooow for this plant. Love of plants is a form of ecosexual love. And it’s good to love many plants that heal and bring joy in different ways. I’m so glad the industry is flourishing. It’s great that the shadow of criminality is being lifted. One sad news is that people who’ve been arrested for pot are now barred from getting into the industry. How could this be fair? These people often gifted others with their pot and took all the risks, including the extra risk of structural racism if they were black. They might have been mentors and initiators. NOW that it’s legal and profitable, the road is closed for them. That’s NOT fair at all!
It’s an interesting industry for one to get involved in. Where I get my info? The Democracy Now! segment is available at this link.
In a conjuncture where the best and most peaceful option we have is a wisely negotiated bankruptcy that will wipe out debts and keep the island’s assets in the island while suspending credit for Puerto Rico, this proposal for reform is like an extended hand that offers a lifesaver to those in a sinking boat. It is wise to appreciate life savers when one’s boat is sinking. They can make all the difference! I’ve had a bankruptcy. I learned one of the greatest lessons of my life: Serena, live within your means! Now I have assets, not debts. The same could happen to the UPR and all of Puerto Rico. It i my wish in writing this. Thank you!
The document and what it proposes matters to everyone a great deal. It recommends many things that we all know should have been done gradually over the years. We have been mired in what is often called inmovilismo, a fear of change that ultimately causes more problems than it can ever fix. Now is the last chance to finally get to those changes! Are we going to take it or miss it?
I propose very ample discussions about this proposal in all administrative and teaching units. Departments, faculty, administrators, employees, students. We all have to get in sync so that we can collaborate eagerly for the common good. Can we do it? I hope so. Please consider. Thank you!
“You can’t always get what you want,” as Tina Turner says. But there is a lot we can do when we become honest, upfront, direct, and sincere. Unashamed. For any process of renewal, self-knowledge is key.
This letter makes the AGB document available. It’s very important to study the project with keen attention, an open mind, and in the spirit of analytical observation. Knowledge is key. What does the document say? Do we really know and understand the content before we take action about it? Any action devoid of knowledge is ignorant. I have invited all my students to do what students do: study the document. Find it at this link:
For open discussions, there is some forum already in place too. A series of open meetings has been organized by the Comite de Autonomia. They’re at the Hora Universal. I went to the one on March 10. The next one is on March 15, in Stefani 113. Then on March 31 in Anfiteatro de Enfermeria. We need many more of these, at different hours.
There is plenty of room in these forums. That’s where it’s good to be. The more people participate, the more we can prove that we are capable of renewal and of welcoming change as a community. The more the renewal project the Report proposes becomes doable. The more our chance to save the life of the University of Puerto Rico becomes real.
of the organization when she appears, in her most formal and professional demeanor, with a complaint about books she sent for her presentation which had been sent back by mistake. This way I discover she is one of the lecturers in one of the many workshops and seminars for which people from all over the world come to these events.
07.30 meditative walk / yoga
