IF YOU ARE EVER FEELING DEPRESSION, despair, regret, dread, hopelessness, helplessness, or gut-wrenching concern for our very lives, our children’s lives, our species’ future, our health, our wealth, our safety and well-being, and this tangled feeling sweeps over you later in the year — say June to early October — then book yourself a ticket to the annual three-day Bioneers Conference in Marin County. It will lift you up.

I suffer from all those ailments. That’s why I go. I’ve gone every October since 2009. I look forward to it all year long. It’s better than therapy. No matter how bent, bowed, and bedraggled I am going in, coming out I’m always bright-eyed and bursting with hope and promise, ready to tackle life’s next ball carrier.

A few topics that sparked my interest — a solution for the honey-bee colony collapse disorder, an end to climate abuse, and a new spin on women. But first, a sob story.

On Friday morning when the Veterans Memorial Auditorium filled to the back row with fellow Bioneers and drummers Deb Lane and Afia Walking Tree came onto the stage, as they do each year to start the show, and created a fast-paced thumping, bumping rhythm with a variety of drums that got everybody pulsing and many standing and dancing in place, I didn’t stand, but I did tap my foot. I found I was weeping. It wasn’t just misty eye. My cheeks were wet. Tears trickled into the corners of my mouth.

I’m looking down at my notes now a week later. I wrote at the time on my yellow tablet, “Why am I weeping?” Then I listed some answers. “I’m happy to be here. I feel a vicarious thrill for the new people experiencing this for the first time.” Under that I wrote, “Maybe because I’m here alone.”

This gig is $475. It’s no cheap thrill. I get in on a press pass, but not so for the wife, and she refuses to spring for a ticket no matter how much I effuse. I wish she could see this. I wish she could hear the women talk about women. It brings me to tears. It would bring her to her feet. I can see her now, standing tall, both fists in the air, yelling “Woo hoo!” and wagging her finger at me. “That’s right, buster.”

Ken Ausubel, founder, opened with glowing remarks about California’s efforts at designing zero-net-energy buildings, cars, and rooftops. He wove details of our efforts with those of speaker Naomi Klein. Her new book, “This Changes Everything,” pits capitalism against climate change. She sees this violation of our atmospheric commons as an opportunity for people of the world to stand united against destructive interests and effect a radical change in capitalism.

Ken then told us how the war on women began. It started shortly after the Black Death wiped out about half the world’s population in the 1300s. Up to 200 million died. Before the BD, people were plentiful and enslaved at starvation wages. After the BD, workers got rights, better pay, and better working conditions. A global push began to make babies as fast as possible. The church pitched in. Women were defined and confined as baby makers. Abortions and birth control were banned. It took 150 years for the population to rebalance, but by then the view of a woman’s primary role had been cemented.

Eve Ensler, creator of “The Vagina Monologues,” spoke on the topic of Eve’s Revolution. She was finished with the ancient myth of woman as temptress, a tale as old as the Garden of Eden. Ensler’s fed up with the role of innocent Adam as righteous man trying to do God’s will until woman corrupts him with temptation disguised as an apple.

Ensler shared her new interpretation, which was well received. Eve ate the apple because she embraced her mother and fed of her bounty and was strengthened by the earth’s nutrients without the father’s involvement. She connected with the animal kingdom by talking directly to the serpent. When she tried to enlighten Adam to this new garden of Eve’s that wraps around the planet, he choked on the apple. Women in the audience were cheering with delightful enthusiasm. I feared for my life.

Paul Stamets, mycologist, made a recent serendipitous discovery in his backyard, growing mushrooms at opposite corners of a box and letting the mycelium form between them. One day he noticed that a cluster of honey bees were huddled in the dirt over the mycelium, drinking its nectar. They came regularly for 40 days. He noted the many little moisture droplets left behind where the bees had pierced the fibers.

It was obvious the mycelium contained nutrients the bees needed. Urbanization has made mycelium scarce. Stamets began testing with bee colonies. Hives that supped on mycelium showed a significant viral load decrease. Their hives became stronger and fought off the mites that are plaguing our bees. He has developed a concentrate to help bee keepers.

He noted another lost relationship between bees and bears. Winnie the Pooh climbs a honey tree for a purpose. Bears eat migrating salmon. They get into their paws and claws minerals and nutrients from the oceans. Then they scratch trees and deposit these goodies in the claw marks. Guess who shows up at bear-clawed trees? Bees. They love to form nests in the claw wounds. Bears come back later for the honey. Foresters thought bear claws were bad for trees and killed a lot of bears. River access has narrowed these days. Salmon and bears are scarce.

That’s next on the fix list.

Steve Gibbs teaches at Benicia High School and has written a column for The Herald since 1985.

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