Martin Prechtel
MartÃ­n Prechtelâ€™s experiences growing up on a PuebloÂ Indian reservation, his years of apprenticing to a Guatemalan shaman, and his flight from Guatemalaâ€™s brutal civil war to life in the U.S. inform this lyrical blend of memoir, cultural commentary, and spiritual call to arms. ,The Unlikely Peace at Cuchumaquic ,is both an epic story and a cry to the heart of humanity based on the authorâ€™s realization that human survival depends on keeping alive the seeds of our â€œoriginal forgotten spiritual excellence.â€, Â , Prechtel relates our current state of ecological crisis to the rapid disappearance of biodiversity, indigenous cultures, and shared human values. He demonstrates how real human culture is exterminated when real (not genetically modified) seeds are lost. Like plants that become extinct once their required conditions are no longer met, authentic, unmonetized human cultures can no longer survive in the modern world. To â€œkeep the seeds aliveâ€â€”both literally and metaphoricallyâ€”they must be planted, harvested, and replanted, just as human culture must become truly engaging and meaningful to the soul, as necessary as food is to the body. The viable seeds of spirituality and culture that lie dormant within us need to â€œsproutâ€ into broad daylight to create real sets of cultures welcome on Earth.
Biology,Ecology,Nonfiction
The Unlikely Peace at Cuchumaquic: The Parallel Lives of People as Plants: Keeping the Seeds Alive