We send out an all-thumbs-up and appreciative salute to the audience that gathered and shared thoughts at our special afternoon film and conversation exploring the worldview of Gregory Bateson on April 28. About 100 gathered for the film — and wonderfully — half as many further inquiring folks took part in a stimulating exchange with our stellar panelists: Nora Bateson, Derek Cabrera, and Dana Levy. We thank these educators and idea-navigators profusely for their time, engaged endeavors, and presence of mind.

This event was organized around the new documentary film, An Ecology of Mind, which Nora Bateson has made about her father Gregory.  Some of the questions that were discussed include:

- If ecology is one of the newest tools we have to aid our understanding, how can we better cultivate its insights?  How can relationships, patterns, and perception be considered less mechanistically?
- How can we disrupt toxic patterns and increase diversity and resiliency?  Nature seems to embody the reconciliation of paradox- yet humans have not yet adapted to do this.

Certainly an array of useful ideas were circulated between one and five p.m. that Saturday – and the conversation will no doubt continue among the colleagues and allies who were in attendance (and among those viewing the 40+ DVDs sold after the show).

We extend our appreciation to our donors and supporters who helped make the program possible: NYSERDA, Finger Lakes Environmental Film Festival, Sustainability at Ithaca College, Cornell University Department of Anthropology, Macromamas Catering, Gimme Coffee, Finger Lakes Wine Center, Greenstar Cooperative, Blair-Richards Design, Anthropology Graduate Students Association of Cornell.

About 50 people came together on April 24 at La Tourelle Inn to explore the possibilities for forming a Local Investing Opportunity Network.  A mix of local entrepreneurs and potential investors sat down over food and drinks to get acquainted and learn about our options for creating a stronger local economy by shifting our investments into local businesses.  We were delighted to see the strong interest expressed by attendees.  Thanks to Scott Wiggins of La Tourelle for hosting us, Greg Pitts and Fred Schoeps for presentations on local investing and the mechanics of a LION, Krys Cail for her fun icebreaker, and representatives of EcoVillage, Bandwagon Brew Pub, Swidjit, Black Oak Wind Farm, and Ithaca Biodiesel Cooperative for sharing their stories of entrepreneurial leadership.  Thanks to Tompkins Weekly for featuring our first meeting in their Business section on April 30.

Be sure to join us on May 22 at the Finger Lakes Wine Center for our next gathering of the Cayuga LION.

(Pictured: Fred Schoeps of Sustainable Tompkins, Dean Koyanagi of Black Oak Wind Farm, Gay Nicholson of Sustainable Tompkins, Greg Pitts of Natural Investing, Alex Colket of Swidjit, James Jones-Rounds of Ithaca Biodiesel Cooperative.  Photo by Anne Marie Cummings.)

APRIL 28th SPECIAL EVENT!!   

Finger Lakes Bioneers Presents “An Ecology of Mind- A Film and Conversation About the Pattern that Connects.”  Cinemapolis, 120 East Green St. in downtown Ithaca, 1:00-4:00PM.  Reception at Finger Lakes Wine Center to follow screening and panel discussion.

Finger Lakes Bioneers and Sustainable Tompkins are very pleased to host a visit to Cinemapolis of the international tour by director Nora Bateson who will introduce her new documentary An Ecology of Mind.  The 60-minute film presents a richly engaging portrait of the very relevant and compassionate insights of her father Gregory Bateson (1904-1980). He was and is recognized as an influential figure in a number of arenas of thought especially family therapy, anthropology, early cybernetics and environmental philosophy. Nora walks the viewer through a landscape of ideas her father (the son of one of the founders of genetics) explored and together we better appreciate “the pattern that connects.” The film offers a ”tender and poetic portrayal…of one of the most provocative thinkers of the last century but also a vivid relationship between a daughter and father.”

Humanity faces highly complex and interwoven problems. Crises and conundrums. Science and art — our search for pattern– help us find solutions, yet our understanding of relationships is lacking. We are all interconnected and speedily we advance, we hope, in the direction of well-being for all. BUT we are all on a learning curve here and now– co-educators struggling to cope and seeking still to inspire. Gregory Bateson’s ideas and Nora Bateson’s film can help to cut through the din and assist in the quest to design for the “pattern that connects.”  In An Ecology of Mind,  we discover a resonant voice and renewed insights for advancing human wisdom and ethics as well as for guiding technology. Read more…