Life and Spirituality

https://twitter.com/BEAUTIFULPlCS/status/634229660528869376/photo/1 T he majority of humankind now lives in cities around the world but some also live in farming villages scattered around the globe. While cities offer opportunities for modern services, they lack green and open spaces and also suffer from poor air quality. On the other hand, while farming villages offer green and open surroundings, they lack modern facilities. Many farmers, when they move to cities rarely want to return. This author applied his mind to the issue and tried to visualize urban and rural designs that overcome both these drawbacks so that mankind may achieve a much better quality of life than is possible now for most. Existing farms and villages can not be changed easily but whenever new cities or farming villages are conceived it would be wise to refer to these postmodern concepts. For ease of reference they have been termed as AM village or AM cities. AM Farming Villages https://twitt...

The Driveway Very many posts in this blog have stressed the usefulness of growing more trees and green plants of all kinds to improve the planet we live on. It may be mentioned that an increasing human population on the planet has caused an expansion of cities and this is one of the factors that contributes to adverse climate changes. Not only is there less oxygen and bird songs when cement and concrete filled spaces increase but such cities act as heat sinks contributing to global warming. Humans do need strong homes to live in but there are ways in which cement can be minimized. An example is my urban home. A portion ahead of the gate is paved to create a driveway in my area, but mine has left a foot unpaved on a side to grow trees and bushes as shown in photo. Then a central portion on which a car tire would not come has been pebbled. That way rain can soak in. There was a time grass grew in the pebbled portion but now because of shade it does not. Some worry about ...

Without groves of trees cities lack beauty: Image source: https://twitter.com/BEAUTIFULPlCS/status/634229660528869376/photo/1 S everal earlier posts in this blog have mentioned it is better to live in a rural or country area surrounded by greenery rather than in crowded cities. An earlier post proposed a configuration of farm lands (termed AM farms for identification) that combined some of the advantages of urban living with rural life. However many persons are still compelled to, or prefer to, live an urban life in big towns or cities. That is just as well because the population of our planet is now around seven billion and with such a heavy population it is a necessity. A large proportion of humans must continue to live in cities. However, it is possible to live amidst greenery even in urban settings provided cities are designed for it. This post proposes the configuration of a city that brings some of the advantages of a rural life along with its greenery to towns and...

In a comment of my last post it was mentioned that rural living might be good for some individuals. Present day urban life usually involves an eight-hour workday along with commuting that may be up to one to two hours a day for the round trip. This leaves little time for an individual for himself or herself and it is not surprising then that some individuals who go through that for most of their lives get dehumanized. It is not written in any scripture that the normal workday should be a fixed eight hours, day in and day out. I have lived in towns and countries where the work hours were from eight a.m. to one p.m. six days a week and commuting time to work was just five minutes. However, that is an exception rather than the rule. In ancient times the normal working hours of an individual varied throughout the year. There were weeks of round-the-clock work followed by weeks of lean hours. In modern times this sort of thing has become confined to a few areas of life such as farmers and s...