This introduction thread seems to be dead but I'll give it a shot to see if it
comes back to life. I've been on this list for a little while, mostly quietly
reading. It seems a good time to share a bit about who I am, where I am, what
I'm up to, what I dream of...
I'm Carl Karasti. I live in the home where I grew up here in Winton - which is
3 miles NE of Ely. I served a term on our city council and two terms as mayor
before I retired from politics in '98 so I could spend more time on other
interests. Each time I ran for office, I paid my little filing fee, filled out
a simple form, never asked a single person to vote for me and never made any
promises. Others ran against me but I won election anyway. Political life in a
small town. I've visited most of our contiguous 48, and Canada too, but long
ago decided this is really where I want to be, and I've never, ever had any
doubts about that decision.
I tend to be rather strongly liberal and progressive, and a little bit
libertarian, as well as deeply spiritual. I feel that spirituality must provide
our ultimate guidance in life and politics, and that spirituality is strictly
personal, meaning no one has any right to impose their spiritual beliefs,
values or practices on anyone else. My inner voice of guidance tells me that we
are all in this together - in this life, in this world, in this environment
together - and that in our greatest depths we are inextricably united,
interconnected and interdependent, with Love as the essential force that binds
us together. As such, every superficial, mundane position I might take in my
daily life, every thought, feeling and action, must be evaluated in terms of
how faithfully it reflects this inner guidance in the face of the challenges
and opportunities we face each day, individually and collectively.
I'm married and have been for 32 years, which is half my current age. Our
daughter and grandson live with us, and we are schooling our grandson at home
through a virtual school, Connections Academy. I went through the Ely public
school system, Vermilion Junior (Community) College, and UMD. I'm a geologist
by education, and worked in copper-nickel exploration in NE MN in the late 60s
- early 70s. After some odd jobs, I got into construction and worked primarily
as a carpenter for over a decade, including a few years as a union carpenter -
in the same union as our Rep. Tom Bakk. Then I became a self-trained,
self-employed architect and have been working at that for three decades -
primarily residential but also light commercial - although with the economy
being what it is, things have been rather slow for a while. My wife has been
self-employed in her yarn shop in Ely for 30+ years. We heat her business and
our home only with wood, which I cut myself as much as possible - part of my
physical fitness program, and it helps keep me out of mischief.
I greatly value the richness that diversity provides in our lives. I've always
been very interested in other people, what they think, how they feel, what they
do, and why. In other words, both a caring listener as well as a dedicated
student of human nature. But I like to consider our frailties and imperfections
not so much from the point of view of our inadequacies and dysfunctional
behavior, as from the point of view of our highest ideals and potentials.
Everything about us that can be viewed as a negative can also be viewed as an
unskillful manifestation of a quality that could become a strength, a positive
attribute, if only we could become more skillful and masterful. To become more
skillful and masterful is both an elusive challenge as well as an inviting
opportunity to fulfill our true potentials.
Politically, it would behoove us to embrace this view by inspiring, encouraging
and helping each other along our individual paths of becoming, while also
staying out of the way so as not to discourage or inhibit anyone on their
journey. We and our country and our world would benefit greatly if we could
figure out how to do this cooperatively and harmoniously. We would flourish
personally, communally, culturally, spiritually, economically, socially,
scientifically, technologically, artistically, etc. But we, as a whole, are not
ready for making any huge leaps into what will ultimately be best for us and
our world. Instead, we can only make small steps, in fits and starts, so I vote
for the Democrats because, in our essentially two-party system, they are the
ones who represent the direction in which we need to progress and who actually
stand the best chance of getting elected, unlike some of the better but less
known and supported alternatives.
"You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one..." I'm interested in how
to make this work in a practical way in this messed up world we've created,
because we can eventually re-create it. It will take time and great patience,
but it's a dream worth striving towards, is it not? I invite you to join me.
We've got a lot of work to do, even though it's not going to be accomplished in
my lifetime. We can each start, though, by at least pretending to treat
everyone here, and in our lives, as though we're already well on our way. "Fake
it 'till you make it," as the saying goes...
Carl Karasti