July Newsletter InterdepenDance!

Vital Ones

With the Fourth of July upon us, I want to reflect a little on a couple of ideas I’ve been considering lately, share some momentous news about the future of industrial hemp in the USA, and invite you to participate in a parade!

First the invitation: this year, for the first time, Vital Hemp will have a presence in Santa Monica’s 4th of July parade. We plan to have a small hemp float, share some good music, and wear colorful hemp clothing as we skateboard, dance, bike and hoola-hoop down Main Street, carrying signs, such as “Hemp Cools the Globe!” “Satisfy your Hemptations” and “Let Us Hemp You Out!” If you live anywhere nearby, and want to participate, don your favorite VH gear and find the check-in table at the Santa Monica Civic Center on Main St. at 8 am. We’ll be making signs nearby, and then parade at 9:30. Any customer who participates receives a free hemp tea towel, or $10 off their next VH item. I hope to flood the street with a memorable vision of hemp for every curious spectator.

The theme of freedom resonates powerfully for many this year, as ever. I think about it in terms of “freedom from” and “freedom to,” and have lately been considering these ideas in the context of turning inward and focusing outward. Last night, I attended a free-form dance (loosely inspired by the five rhythms method); it’s a kind of dance I’ve done since my Berkeley grad school days (twenty-five years ago!) when it was called Barefoot Boogie. Here in LA, it goes by Fumbling Towards Ecstasy, Sweat your Prayers, Ecstatic Dance, or simply Dance Tribe! I love it because it can be a perfect place to be free to express yourself through movement, in whatever way you wish, without being judged.

Of course this freedom also has its limits—particularly when someone’s expression impedes upon someone else’s.

Dance can be challenging. At dance, we can explore and break free from the conventional forms that seem to dictate what movements are normal or acceptable. For many years, I danced like a kid who learned to dance in an 80’s nightclub. It looked like I was skiing. At these new dances, I saw people moving in weird, unfamiliar ways. They looked beautiful and sometimes goofy. I admired and judged them. And then I closed my eyes…. Instead of focusing on the attractive woman across the room (or across from me) who I really wanted to connect with, I turned inward and felt what my body wanted to do, how it wanted to move. I let it move, even in weird ways. If I opened my eyes, I was surprised to find no one was looking at me; I had the freedom to express myself. I was safe. I was welcome.

This freedom has been an immeasurable gift over the years. Through it, I have identified and addressed physical pains; but more importantly, I’ve become a vehicle for my imagination. I’ve become trees, and animals of every sort. I’ve become space and sacred geometry, exploring and expressing an inner cosmos that I didn’t know existed until those moments (and the DJ) took me there.

Often, I witnessed people who seemed to be expressing themselves freely while connecting with others who were doing the same. It took me years to overcome a childhood shyness around this kind of connection. Dancing with another, I’d fall back on familiar default ways of moving, that started to feel more like a prison now that I had experienced what my body could do, what my soul craved, a freedom of expression beyond known, sanctioned forms.

If you’ve read this far, you might be wondering, “What does this have to do with hemp? --or even Independence Day.” Well, to address this for a moment before I continue, I’ll just say: Dancing is better in hemp…in fact, I think that will be one of the signs we make for the parade! Also, in case you didn’t know, Old Glory, our first American flag (you know, like the Chinese-made, plastic ones you’ll see in abundance on the 4th) was made from hemp cloth. Finally, the industrial hemp crop, that our government promoted and encouraged farmers to grow for more than a century (before wrongheadedly demonizing and criminalizing the plant in the thirties and again in the 70’s) is about to be freed again. More on this later….

On Independence Day, we celebrate freedom from the tyranny of the British Empire. Those old forms of monarchy didn’t serve us; they taxed and attempted to control a people who would take a stand and fight to be free, free to devise and evolve a new country.

And yet, we also know the troubled history of this land: how our freedom, that we fought so dearly to obtain also encroached upon, and obliterated the freedom of those who lived here before us: the Native Americans. How for so many years our nation maintained the system of enslaving other human beings, a cruel and greedy system that we inherited from the country from which we revolted. And this brings me to the next idea. Where do the freedom to express ourselves, and the freedom from tyranny find peace and dance together?

On the dance floor, we rid ourselves of tired forms that no longer serve us. We open our eyes and find new ways of moving and relating to other human beings—with compassion or playfulness, and always with respect. Sometimes, the old forms creep back into the space, as when a gentleman’s unrestrained desire for connection gets the best of him, and others feel him stalking them, intruding upon their dance, or inappropriately touching without consent. This also happens. And so the community responds, and creates guidelines to follow, customs to insure safety, like removing your dirty boots before entering the space.

On a macro-level so much can be said…. The same behavior exists in Hollywood, in Congress, and sadly, in the conduct of the man who now holds the office of president.

And while it may be easy to ask a creep to leave the dance until the rules are understood and followed, it’s much harder to enforce laws against powerful people—particularly when they’ve been elected to lead us, and hold so many reigns of power.

Still, even monarchs fall. People take to the streets and tyrants topple. The best in us will not be repressed, like Whitmans leaves of grass pushing up through the sidewalk, or another weed I know gaining ground in North America. Irrational laws will eventually crumble, like the walls we build to create the illusion of safety.

And now for some good news:

It is with great pleasure that I share with you news that the Senate has just passed a version of the Farm Bill that re-legalizes the cultivation of industrial hemp in the USA. This version now goes to the House. The vision of Vital Hemp of legal, domestically-grown hemp crops (that I imagined when I founded the company could take ten years) is finally being realized after fifteen. It’s been a long, worthwhile journey. And the hemp industry has so far to go.

Read about it in this Forbes article here:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomangell/2018/06/28/u-s-senate-votes-to-legalize-hemp-after-decades-long-ban-under-marijuana-prohibition/2/#825d9e95de83

Last night after dance and a nice post-dance soup with some fellow dancers, I paused in front of Vital Hemp. The lights were dim and the store looked beautiful, peaceful. I felt grateful for the chance to build and grow the business, happy to have held a space for hemp on Main Street. When I began on the Venice Boardwalk, it was a stand for freedom against the tyranny of unjust laws, outdated forms of governance that never served us in the first place. I strove to make clothes in shapes and colors that even the hemp world hadn’t seen before. As we’ve evolved, I’ve opened my eyes and looked outward…so many lovely dance partners! It’s no longer about independence, or independance, but interdependance! So, dance with us in whatever ways you want. Let us celebrate our creativity together, with hemp projects that heal Earth and prolong the miraculous diversity of life.

And on the most quotidian of notes, we again have men’s hoodies and long sleeves, as well as women’s soft drawstring pants on hand. So if you’ve been waiting, now’s the time to get them. Thanks for your support, and…

Thanks for being vital!