Ringing Cedars of Russia

Every once in a while I am researching something when I run into some other tangential thing on the Internet that has Anthropological value.  I was investigating Dacha gardens in Russia when I stumbled across The "Ringing Cedars of Russia" or Anastasia movement.  RCOR is one of those tangential "things" of Anthropological interest.

Imagine the mysticism of Carlos Castaneda's Don Juan, the fresh-scrubbed appeal of Anne of Green Gables, the innocence of hippy communes and the eclectic, hybrid vigor of the New Age Movement.  Then overlay a heavy Russian accent.  That, in a nutshell is the Ringing Cedars of Russia movement.

This fellow glues wood shavings, one-by-one into animal sculptures.  Even the most self sufficient community benefits from being able to buy outside inputs.

The newsletters are a treat.  They have many photos of people trying to go back to the land.  That is pretty tough sledding when "the land" is in western Siberia.

Community celebrations are a big deal.  The communities are inward looking.  They do not compare their musicians to Eric Clapton or Pepe Romero nor their actors to Robert Downey, Jr. They simply listen, appreciate and dance.  The glory is in the doing, not the comparing.

This might be one of the things Ringing Cedars of Russia can offer the rest of the world.  What to do with "The End of Work".  You don't have to be the best to be entertaining or to effectively weed a garden.  Just do it.

One reason for the lack of work is that Pepe or Eric or Robert can be recorded electronically and cloned a billion times with almost no human input.  But what if physical presence was equated with "great" and people wanted to hear music untweaked in real time?  What if that became the standard of excellence?

A beautiful nature shot tossed into one of the newsletter just because it was beautiful.

Not Russian super-models, but perhaps healthier than the general run-of-the-row Russians.

It is very much about giving their kids a chance at a better life.

For some reason they all have bees.  It must be part of the template.

So what do folks do when snowed in?  They create wooden sculpture to fancy up their houses!  If you like fretwork then you probably want to visit this newsletter, Wooden Architecture

I could not resist including this photo.  Just because.

Even the cats help out.

Don't just whine about how ugly the road is, fix it.

I threw this in because I like the lady's skirt.

I don't want to present this as a subsistence movement.  These people have money.  They have foreign SUVs, lap tops, solar power, "costumes" and pervasive marketing.  They also have energy and a vision.

I don't present it as Nirvana.  I present it as a bunch of folks with a common vision getting off their dupa and going to work.