Tai Chi, Green Building and The Grateful Dead: A Sustainable Golden Braid
We live in an extraordinary moment in the history of humankind. Just as the destructive forces of the human animal are peeking, with such intensity as to have literally altered Global Climate Systems, there is a rapidly growing movement of awakened and very concerned, very smart people who are bucking the trend, including green business professionals who are beginning to compete and win in the marketplace. If "the business of America is business" then it is only through the greening of business that we have a fighting chance at moving towards real Sustainability.
As someone who has worked for 13 years at trying to start and grow a green building firm in NYC and beyond, I have boiled down my green business strategy into three Principles: Integration; Synergy; and Collaboration. At my greatest moments when I am performing at my best and helping to bring love, compassion and positive change to this beautiful Earth and to this Divine Animal we call Humankind, I am able to weave these three Principles into my own small thread (and make money as well.) And it is with this thread that I hope to make a contribution towards the Sustainable Golden Braid that we will have to weave if we are to continue living on this planet for much longer.
Coincidentally, three of the greatest loves of my life, Tai Chi, Green Building and The Grateful Dead all embody elements of Integration, Synergy and Collaboration. It is through doing Tai Chi, practicing green building and playing Grateful Dead Music, that I weave my thread. And it will be so inspiring to hear how others are doing their weaving and how we can assist one another in this most important personal and collective mission of Sustainable Living, referred to here as The Golden Braid. As it is written in the Dead Song, Terrapin Station:
"I can't figure out
if it's the end or beginning,
but the Train's put its breaks on
and the whistle is screaming."
PRESENTER: Robert Politzer
In the Summer of 1979, Madison Wisconsin was completely overtaken by Grateful Dead "Deadheads" with the Dead playing out of every Hippie household. That summer, I started to understand the profound depths of Jerry Garcia's music. I also learned first hand that there really was nothing like a Grateful Dead concert.
That same summer in Kibbutz Regavim, I was introduced to Taiji Quan by John Lash, a red-haired, Jewish convert, ex-marine from East Texas. Four years later, I traveled to Taiwan where Master Wang Yen Nien introduced me to the Yang Family Hidden Tradition of Taiji Quan. I have been practicing this style ever since and for the last 15 years have been teaching this Taiji in New York City.
After teaching Bilingual Chinese Biology at Seward Park High School and then working as an Environmental Engineer and as an adjunct professor at NYU, I began a green construction company called GreenStreet. GreenStreet Inc. has grown from a small environmental testing and abatement company to a leading green building firm, operating primarily in the tri-state region. I am a LEED accredited professional and was the Chair of the Sustainable Business Task Force of the New York State Environmental Business Association.
Tai Chi, Green Building, and The Grateful Dead are intimately liked within my body, mind, and heart and if nothing else, this is my story.
