I wrote this piece in 2008 and for some reason I never published it. Now seems as good a time as any.
Love.
-Jackson
Goooooooooooood Morning SuperForest!
I’d like to tell you all about how SuperForest came to be, how it came to be what it is now, and how and why I SuperForest full time. Sit back, fasten your brain belts.
In 2005 I was working in Kauai building a house. I worked from 8 AM until 5 or 6 and then I had the rest of the day free. Most days I would go surf. But when the waves were down or the weather was junk, I would stay at home and look around online. I have always been interested in technology, and the new branch of technology known as sustainability was particularly interesting to me, as it concerned the future of human growth and our success on this planet. I spent many fine afternoons researching sustainability online.
I thought: “Man, this green movement is really exciting! I really want to play a role in this somehow.”
So my idea was to produce a show about green power, called: Green. This was ’05, and if I’d done it then I would have had a two year drop on Planet Green and treehugger and all of the beloved sites and channels we’ve got today that are dedicated to the green lifestyle. I guess I needed more time to think. :^)
Cut to a year later… Now I’m living in Los Angeles, and Barry Holiday and I are busy working on the second version of the green show idea. Now the show is called “Creamy Forest” and it’s a sketch and variety show to teach kids about sustainability and sustainable behavior. A lot of work went into Creamy Forest. Many scripts were written, drawings done, puppets built, costume choices explored. But something didn’t feel right.
I knew inside that I was trying to express something big, and to do something that had a ton of meaning, and used technology to help itself spread. I felt that Creamy Forest had to be something bigger and that it and I both needed more time to explore and think. At this time I was working as a cameraman/videographer for the amazing Andrew Zuckerman. Andrew said that if I wanted to, I could come out to New York and that he and his partner, the incredible Alex Vlack, would partner with me on making Creamy Forest a reality.
So I moved to New York, with SuperForester Baloo and my then fiancee, Linda. We drove across America and ended up in a basement apartment in Harlem. I set to work with Andrew and Alex full time in March of 2007. The name Creamy Forest had been an issue (too evocative?) and was changed to SuperForest. The switch from Creamy Forest to SuperForest was a small one, but energetically it was a revelation.
My days consisted of writing, drawing, and creating. Miss Christine Norrie came in to work with me on the drawings, and together we produced a lot of amazing artwork, none of which has ever seen the light of day. (One day…)
SuperForest was going to be an epic kid’s show. The action all took place in a green skyscraper in Manhattan, with a magical forest on its roof, where Jackson SuperForest and his pals would have adventures and learn new and wonderful things. It was an incredible time for me, full of creation and growth.
Since I was spending a lot of time each day researching sustainability and learning about who was doing what, I started compiling big lists of cool things I found that made me happy, and that I thought we should cover on the SuperForest Show. At first, I was sending these lists around to everyone in the office, but since I sent them daily, my officemates were overwhelmed with sustaino-techno-goodness.
So, in October of 2007 I started a blog on blogspot called “SuperForest NYC.” For the blog, the only real rule I set for myself was to make sure that everything I posted made me happy, or inspired me. That was it. The posts had to elevate my mood. Pretty flexible. It was a good way for me to keep track of all the amazing things I was finding online, as well as my growth personally.
Going back and rereading some of the earliest posts is pretty funny for me. So much has changed, and so little has changed. I believe now just as I believed then that humans are good inside and that if their basic necessities are met, they will behave well towards each other.
I had been blogging for a few weeks when Andrew asked me to sit down and write what would become the Humanifesto. Writing this little document turned out to be a huge turning point in my life. The Humanifesto became the nucleus around which SuperForest formed. I figured that if people would think of their rooms, houses, towns, and cities as “the environment” that it would make the idea of “saving the environment” much more accessible. If “environmentalism” could be as simple as cleaning your room, painting a neighbors fence, and being polite to each other, then more and more folks would be willing to become environmentalists.
With the Humanifesto written and beginning to spread around, I found myself developing a new way of doing things in response to negativity. I have been to many protests, marches, and demonstrations. I’ve made signs and chanted and walked to show how I felt. But something always felt wrong. Energetically, to come out and say “NO!” to anything felt like a missed opportunity. Instead of saying no to things, I would start saying “YES!” to things. And I would say yes louder than I had ever said no.
I would not attend an Anti-War Rally. I would Party for Peace. I would not criticize companies for dumping chemicals into our lakes and rivers, instead I would highlight the companies that were being environmentally responsible and I would cheer loudly for them. Even massive companies that had unfortunate histories of destructive behavior had parts of themselves that were doing good things. I would work to support and spread the word about any good deed or action undertaken by anybody. No need to hold a grudge. If Clorox buys Burt’s Bees: win for Clorox! Win for Burt’s Bees! Win for me for telling you about the win!
I call this New Environmentalism, and it is distinct from old environmentalism in several ways. New Environmentalists use the internet to join forces, and they use positivity to accomplish their goals. They do not start fights, they do not protest conventionally. New Envionmentalism is about having fun and being smart. Using the tools we have in new ways.
Old environmentalism seemed to be about being outraged at damage to the environment and giving that outrage a voice. New Environmentalism is about realizing that people are people, that behind every atrocious act of environmental destruction there are people making decisions. If you want to reach those people, and help them make better decisions, well, it helps to be friendly.
To move beyond outrage to a point of acceptance, to embrace the power of technology, and to use love and positivity to foment change are the defining characteristics of New Environmentalism.
SuperForesting has brought me to a point where I’m beyond looking to assign blame. People are people, they make mistakes. Let’s help one another learn from those mistakes and grow past them, thought I.
Through the end of 2007 and the beginning of 2008, the SuperForest philosophy began to firm up: Have fun. Be interested. Post interesting and post often. Reach out to people and connect them. Move beyond blame, beyond right and wrong. See the good in everything. Promote that good. Make everything a victory. Set up victories for people. Seek to create win/win/win scenarios. And above all, make it about the people. Who are the people that are creating the most wins? Find them. Promote them. See the world as an interconnected whole. No “us vs. them.” Just different shades of “I”
It is by doing this that SuperForest has grown into the site it is today.
SuperForest began with just me writing, then Superforester Niki joined and began posting. Then SuperForester Taylor. Then SuperForesters Julius and Jaell. One by one, we’ve all joined up and begun the journey of learning how to SuperForest in our daily lives. That is what the site truly is. It is the document of our growth as SuperForesters.
For those of you who have been reading SuperForest since 2007, the growth that we’ve undergone must seem amazing. It’s amazing to me. The site has been visited a quarter million times by people all over the globe, and now there are 17 members of Team SuperForest, all posting the things that they love and that excite them. This is my wildest dream come true.
When I began SuperForest, I never thought about the power of positivity blogging. The term positivity blogging wasn’t even a part of my consciousness. I just knew in my heart that I wanted to help influence positive change, and that I had to do it my own way.
SuperForester Jackie made an excellent point over lunch the other day. He asked me if I felt as much negativity inside as I express positivity outside. The answer is yes, and no.
I had a very difficult time growing up. I always felt alienated and lonely. I felt angry and enjoyed using that anger to hurt others.
For many years I made a careful and calculated study of negativity. I explored destruction and hatred very thoroughly. In the end, I found them to be dead ends. When you are constantly destroying, the end result is that you’re left with nothing.
I wanted desperately to leave something good behind, but I needed time and space to decide what and how.
I am very fortunate to have two loving parents who have supported me my entire life. Their support has allowed me to spend the last three years here in NY working on SuperForest full time. They pay my rent, so that I don’t have to get a job and can focus my energy on creating what you see now.
By having space from the demands of capitalism, I was able to see a lot of things clearly for the first time. The Humanifesto speaks about providing everybody with food, shelter, open-source communication, freedom from fascism, which is exactly the gift my parents gave me. Now, my work is to extend that gift to as many people as I can, and simultaneously work to spread the idea that providing for your fellow man is not only wicked cool, it’s a lot of fun. Perhaps the most fun thing there is. All upside, no downside, and you can put your head on your pillow at night and feel good.
Positivity attracts. Negativity does as well, but is harder to sustain, as it doesn’t feed you. Negativity is like junk food, all rush, no sustain. Positivity on the other hand, is like a long, filling meal. It will feed you and allow you to pursue still greater acts of positivity for as long as you wish. That to me is pretty miraculous. Positivity is sustainable.
In freeing me from the stress of capitalism, my parents gave me the greatest gift: The knowledge that to do what I most loved (SuperForesting) I didn’t need much. I live in a nice apartment in NYC, but I could just as easily live in a mud hut. So long as I have internet access, I can pursue my bliss. My needs are minute. I could very easily be a janitor by night and a SuperForester by day. I could just pick up and recycle cans. As long as I had a roof over my head, some food, and time to check and reply to emails, and post, I’d be content.
That said, I’d like to give you all the recipe for starting a SuperForest of your very own, that you may feel the same thrill I feel every single day. The recipe is also on the top left-hand corner of the blog, free for all, take it and do with it what you will.
How to grow your own SuperForest:
Start a blog. On this blog you will do two things: Only post what you love. And, post every day. This is harder than it seems. In the beginning, no one will be paying attention. Most blogs only last a few months, but then after no one comments, the bloggers give up. Understandable. A blog without comments is just a monologue. It’s getting to the crucial stage where people start commenting that is the hardest part.
But here’s the thing: If you post only love and excitement, and you do it every day without fail, two things will happen. The positivity an excitement in your words will begin to attract readers, and readers comment. If you ask your readers to send in ideas, they will. Some of those readers will send you lots of great stuff!
Ask those readers if they’d like to blog alongside you. The snowballing power of positivity now rears it’s golden head.
The second thing that will happen brings us back to SuperForester Jackie’s question about the negativity I felt inside, and that is: The transformative power of positivity. Since I began SuperForesting, my life has changed completely, and for the better. For me, seeing the silver lining in unfortunate things has gone beyond second nature and has become the norm. I have learned that everything and everyone is here to teach me. I have learned that when I get mad, to forgive myself for my anger and to thank the person (or situation) that angered me for providing me with the opportunity to not react negatively.
Simply by writing down positive things, day by day, post by post, you will begin to feel more positively about life. You will feel more stable and even tempered. Things won’t upset you needlessly. You will be able to think clearer and faster.
You can totally hack and rewire your mind using this technique. I should probably patent it and sell it in a late night infomercial. No, the world should have it. You should know this. This info has value.
There is powerful mojo going on in the world right now, and I am struggling to keep track of it. Everything is changing so fast, and the changes mean so much, that I cannot fully comprehend or anticipate what could possible happen next. This uncertainty is stressing the planet out. No one knows what tomorrow will bring. Salvation in the form of an answer to how we’re all going to keep on living? Destruction and chaos in the form of yet another war? Who knows?
But I do know this: Our shared enthusiasm and joy, coupled with the internet, makes it easy to link together. To form a community based on shared interest.
With enough of us doing it, we will soon find our species totally connected up!
Everyone will be linked together, in a technological, six-degrees-of-Kevin-Bacon, web, that will finally visually illustrate how we are but one organism.
Much love,
Jackson
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