[compost_tea] Hogwarts School of Compost Tea Magic (was Re: Not confused and Not alarmed)

From: chriscreid <reidchris_at_earthlink.net>
Date: Sun, 21 Dec 2003 15:10:47 -0000

Jason said:
> The list was simpler and gentler then, and I must admit I look
back to those days with nostalgia when I observe the harsh tone of
some of the posts that have been coming up recently. Positive
debate is essential, but some of the recent posts amounted to
personal attacks. Lets hope that 2004 will bring tolerance!
>
Reply:

Sorry for my own intemperance. I usually am more diligent about
hitting the delete key and finding a way to be constructive when I'm
frustrated and upset. As I have reviewed posts from the tea list in
the past, I couldn't agree with you more -- the list was beautiful
and people were excited and participating in the process.

I find the list in its present condition intolerable and upsetting,
and want to take responsibility for my contribution to that. And I
am evaluating whether I am willing to tolerate the level of stress I
feel in the current condition of the list in exchange for
information about tea. I am sure I am not alone, so I would advise
people who want to vent on the list to think about what they are
doing -- they may turn off the very person whose help they could
most use.

Look, this is not "compost tea television", folks. We can't just
write an angry note when the compost tea tv show is not what we want
to watch. People contribute to the list because they want to share
what they have seen and learned, because they're excited, and tend
not to contribute in response to being attacked or the object of
intemperate tirades.

I think all of us need to remember that this list is a volunteer
effort on the part of all contributors, from the moderator Jeff
Lowenfels on down. No one here has the title of "national compost
tea educator". Coming to this list and complaining about "the
industry", "you people", and so on is pointless. We all sit in the
flicker of our little screens and imagine a world out there that we
can respond to. I encourage all of us to be careful how we imagine
this world before we hit SEND. Because this list is not like a
toilet -- when you flush it by hitting SEND, it doesn't just go
away. The sh*t ends up stinking up living rooms around the world,
and coming back up the pipe, and on and on it goes.

*Compost*, on the other hand, is quite fertile stuff that anyone
would be glad to see. So let's all turn out Sh*t into good compost
that will help nurture and feed the world. Make sure you are being
constructive before you hit FLUSH -- er, SEND -- and I will do the
same.

How to do that? I find I complain when I'm frustrated, and if I ask
myself "Why am I frustrated?", I often discover there is something
missing -- something that I want or need that I have been
unsuccessful in my efforts to obtain.

I am choosing to understand the outpouring of frustration on this
list as a positive thing in one regard: people really, really want
to know about compost tea. It's like a pent-up demand.
So -- because the aggression is tremendously upsetting and I walk
around with its residue after reading these posts -- I choose to
believe people feel frustrated BECAUSE they have a commitment to
learn about tea and have not yet done so to the level they desire.

Most of the people in my life get pretty turned off when I rant and
rave. Asking calmly for what I want and need ranks a little higher
in getting intended results. I uniformly and without exception live
to regret it when I unleash aggression on others. Sometimes there's
a momentary "so there!" but it doesn't last, and I by and large know
not to listen to the little voice that wants to go there.

So, may I suggest that we scale down our perspectives and
undistinguished agression at the world, or industry, or all compost
tea users, or any of those grand-levels and just see "what
information do *I* want or need to make and use good compost tea?"

Please just start there and ask those questions, okay? As Elaine
Ingham has often said, without the facts we can't solve the problem.

Maybe we need to think hard about the way we post, too. It's like
this: if this were the Hogwarts School of Compost Tea Magic, how
long would you put up with the magic wand salesman in the middle row
standing up and waving his wand around in the middle of the class on
Chanting Spells? And what if one of the students from Slitherin
kept standing up and saying; "watch me take this coin out of my
ear!" and that incited another student to say "So what -- watch me
take a rabbit out of this marigold!" By about day 3, students would
be a bit restless and start to wonder if this was a Magicians Trade
Show or a Magic Exhibition/Show or a Class on Magic.

But many of us are clear we are looking for the Class on Magic --
how can we contribute? By making posts as fact filled and complete
as we can, so other magic students can spend less time fumbling
around with the wand.

I see the accusations about science and am not really willing to go
there. My goal as a member of this list is not to publish hard
science, it is to use and encourage others to use a systematic
approach to making observations, gathering information, and having
data to bring to bear on the results I see. IF we share carefully
and well, we will begin to see patterns about what works and doesn't
work. If we don't share or share vaguely, it will all look pretty
arbitrary and confusing. That, by the way, is only fodder for the
folks who want to shut compost tea down.

Coming to this list and complaining about the hard science available
is not only pointless, it's silly. See Elaine's recent post that
mentions several journals if you are really serious about examining
the science of tea. If you are only repeating what others have
said, I encourage you to be very discerning in what you repeat.
Have those others researched and considered the quality of the
science on using various kinds of liquid biological amendments? Or
did they hear that "there is no science" somewhere and repeat it?

Anecdotes are quite useful -- when they are clearly labeled as
anecdotes. It is when we make the leap to wider generalizations
about "tea does this" from one experience we have had, without the
context and the background to understand the starting conditions and
other management that is done, that they may become misleading. The
accumulated experience of a number of people reporting anecdotes may
lead us to try new things.

As I started moving from being a home gardener to professional
gardener, my education in the School of Hard Knocks began -- not
everything grows in others' gardens as it grows in my garden. I
thought I knew how to grow certain plants and perennials, and was
getting different results on my property than others'. Different
conditions at play. So, when we tell people as much as possible
about OUR conditions, they don't have to "believe" our results, they
have some basis for comparing what we are doing to what their
conditions and actions have been.

Sorry this is so long -- hope it at least addresses some of the
areas where people have ruffled feathers.

Chris Reid




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Received on Sun Dec 21 2003 - 10:42:22 EST

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