Kalu Yala has always been difficult to describe. It doesn’t fit into a neat description, I guess that I spend so long coming up with little slogans for it, “Kalu Yala, come and see.” It’s my little way of wrapping my head around just what an adventure I have gotten into. But the more time I spend trying to tie a bow around it the more I realize Kalu Yala doesn’t exist in quantifiable terms. What makes Kalu Yala so different, so indescribable, so “je ne sais quoi” is the part that can’t be put into the brochure. What makes Kalu Yala is its indomitable positive spirit, its drive, its love. Asking me to describe Kalu Yala is like asking me to describe blue to a blind man; words fall short. Having said that I will do my best to convey what Kalu Yala is.
Kalu Yala is a revolution of sorts. Within minutes of meeting Jimmy Stice, it’s plain to see the wheels of social and cultural change spinning and turning, propelling this dream to fruition. But unlike most revolutions where the end is used to justify the means, for Kalu Yala the means are the end. There is no president to over throw or dictator to imprison…there is only a blank canvas on which to paint, and that idea is revolutionary, a community of thinkers, artist, craftsmen, farmers all shaping their futures together, building a society together, revolutionizing the way ideas flow.
Kalu Yala is a table. It was crafted with the utmost care and position. Each mitered corner matching the others. Each board polished to showcase its individual grain. Every inch perfectly level. As with all tables though, it is not the dinner served upon it or the invention created on its surface. A table merely facilitates the activity. It provides a forum for creation, for sharing, for community.
Kalu Yala is the day an astronaut came and talked at your school. Before that day, you knew they existed, but in the great scheme of things their existence was as real as Peter Pan. But then she came and you saw an astronaut, in the flesh and blood. Hearing her talk of the awesome power of take-off, and the serenity of weightlessness brought the stars to within an arm’s reach. The day she talked marked the day all limits to your abilities disappeared.