Tom’s Year-end Report - 2007…Monetary expert Tom Greco is back home after almost a year of traveling the globe. Greco’s message on private currencies and how the barter industry could influence the world, if coordinated and structured as a single currency, was shared at the 2006 International Reciprocal Trade Association’s annual convention. Welcome home Tom!

The nomadic life has much to recommend it, but it can wear you down. By the
day after Christmas I will have been back in the U.S. a full month. I hadn’t
realized how tired and run-down I was from my travels until I got settled
into my temporary home. Fortunately, my good friends, Sergio and Gaye Lub,
graciously provided me a “landing pad” at their home in the East Bay where I
was able rest and recuperate for a couple weeks, enjoying their company and
the comfort of a quiet, peaceful, and beautiful place.

Staying there in the San Francisco bay area also afforded an opportunity for
me to meet more great people and see some old friends. Sergio is without a
doubt the world’s greatest networker and event organizer. Besides being an
artist and successful entrepreneur, he is the founder of the Living
Directory, a free social networking utility that is used by tens of
thousands of people in dozens of organizations and groups around the world
to build their “networks of trust.” You can check out the Living Directory
at: DIRECTORY

The evening following my return we went to hear Frances Moore Lappé speak
in Sonoma, then afterward a few of us accompanied her to the home of
harpist, Georgia Kelly (< href="http://www.georgiakelly.com">KELLY) for conversation and refreshments. That also provided occasion to hang out with the very funny
and much admired Swami Beyondananda (Steve Bhaerman). In case you’re not
aware of it, Frances Moore Lappé has been working for 30 years on politics
of food issues. She achieved considerable fame with her book, Diet for a
Small Planet. Her latest book is called Getting a Grip (see:
PLANET). Swami Beyondananda is a syndicated humorist.
His website is at: WAKEUP

The day after that event, Sergio and I visited a mutual friend at Google
headquarters in Mountain View where he has been working for the past couple
years. As you might expect, the Google operation is quite impressive in a
number of ways. First of all is the campus and buildings which are
extensive, nicely landscaped, and well maintained. Many of the buildings
have their roofs covered with solar cells that, we are told, generate about
a third of the company’s electricity needs. Then there are the various
employee “perks,” including free meals throughout the day at several gourmet
level company dining rooms, gardens and cafes that are scattered around the
campus. There are a number of plug-in hybrid cars that employees may borrow
to run their errands, and for getting around the campus, employees can pick
up one of the many light blue bicycles that can be left at their
destination. Added to all that are a swimming pool, several gymnasia and
readily available massage.

For obvious reasons, we were not told much about the inner workings of the
company or their current projects, but it seems that the various work teams
have a lot of autonomy within an organizational structure that has very few
layers of hierarchy. The subject of compensation was off-limits to our
conversation.

The weather in the east bay for most of my stay was on the cool side, much
like that I left behind in London, but that helped to put me in the
Christmas spirit when on the weekend Sergio and I ventured out to buy a
Christmas tree that I later helped Gaye to decorate.

I took a couple days to drive to Arizona, arriving in Tucson on Wednesday
the 12th of December. I stayed with friends for a few days then moved into a
house-sitting gig for a couple weeks while Bob and Frederika visit family in
Europe. It’s been a pleasure to reconnect with many friends here in Tucson.
The Holiday season has made it feel all the more welcoming — I went to
three parties in the first three days, including the holiday dinner of the
Sustainable Tucson core team, and there are more social events upcoming.

I’m pleased to see that Sustainable Tucson
(TUCSON) is growing and thriving, with many energetic new people on the core team. ST has so far managed to remain open
to a diversity of views on what sustainability means and approaches to
achieving it. That is the nature of a coalition, isn’t it? to be inclusive,
promote dialog, and emphasize the things that are held in common.

I’ve finally gotten around over the past couple weeks to start posting my
photo galleries on the web. They are on Picasaweb at
PHOTOS My most recent photos in California and Arizona are there, including pictures of the ST core team holiday party and
the Winterhaven Christmas walk. Many of my Asia pictures have also been
posted, but more need to be added as time allows. Enjoy!

People have been asking what my plans are. At the moment, I’ve booked only a
couple things over the coming weeks. In mid-January I’ll fly to South
Carolina for a few days to visit my son, daughter-in-law, and grandkids,
then a few days later will go to Oregon for a series of meetings and
presentations. It is my intention to return to Asia sometime soon, but
whether that will be within weeks or months is still not clear to me. As
Castaneda’s Don Juan advises, “A warrior cannot plan, but a warrior must act
as if he has a plan.”

My best wishes to all for a Happy Holiday Season, and may we hope that 2008
will bring lots of love and peace and joy into our world.

Tom Greco


To view all 15 posts of Tom Greco on our site, see: GRECO

Editor’s Note: Greco’s blog, Beyond Money: GRECO

This entry was posted on Friday, December 21st, 2007 at 10:26 am and is filed under Tom Greco. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.