Most of the world’s population today lives in urban environments where exposure to bees and butterflies – our pollinator friends is rare. People are so accustomed to not seeing bees that the fact that they have gone missing may be almost a non-event. Certainly, biodiversity loss and the mass extinction crisis is something most people have no comprehension of nor anyway to conceptually frame the interconnected value of all life on earth. Pollinators play an uber-critical role in all of our lives helping plants have sex and thus ensuring a healthy supply of food for our tummies. While we may be able to mechanize vast aspects of agriculture, there is no substitute for pollination; we are dependent on the bees for our very life.
"Commercial bee colonies are important to agriculture as pollinators, along with some birds, bats and other insects. A recent report by the National Research Council noted that in order to bear fruit, three-quarters of all flowering plants rely on pollinators for fertilization." (Washington Post)
Alarmingly, there is a massive die off of commercial honey bees that is unprecedented in history. In recent news reports, 60-70% of the commercial bee populations spanning the United States have suddenly died off.
In order to celebrate the magical lives of bees and raise awareness to this sudden loss of our pollinator friends, an innovative event -- The Bee In Social -- is being planned and produced in conjunction with San Francisco-based ArtsFest to happen Friday May 25 at Grace Cathedral. Amira Diamond and Michael Gaio germinated the idea for the Bee In Social barely one month ago. Not only is the landscape of this event absolutely novel and rich, the way in which these two pollinators have created an opportunity for bay area activists to get together, create, collaborate and share a powerful intention drawing only on their intrinsic motivation is outstanding. As a community developer, I am always interested in what can happen even in the absence of money (although I highly support people being paid well for their work!) because then we get the chance to observe the purity of spirit that is necessary to drive the enormous amount of solutioneering required to heal our planet and thus maintain the option of continued living on this bioship.
This is a purpose driven event and one of the most creative aspects of the event is the way they have innovated the cultural offerings in the process of planning and designing the event landscape. Rather than worrying yet again about preaching to the choir, Amira thought why not celebrate the choir and let it hear itself sing. The Social Prophet Choir (inspired by Lynn Twist’s social profit versus not for profit language frame,) will have its debut at this event. The choir is made up of people from throughout the Bay Area social profit scene. They will be sharing an amazing song written by a local musician extraordinaire and Planetwork Program Director, Troy Lush. This performance alone is not worth missing!
If you want to join the Central Hive -- no problem, you too can Bee a pollinator and share the event info with your personal mailing list. If you want to Bee a Commanding Officer you’ll need to recruit choir members and so forth. Throughout the evening you will be treated to poetry, performance art, song and celebration. The house band has members of favorite Bay Area bands including Hamsa Lila.
