We had the most remarkable days yesterday--perhaps one of the most complete days ever--continuing today--just wanted to share--Which isn't far from the way I feel most of the time, too, despite all reasons to the contrary, considering the shadows emanating from the balloon edging ever closer cloaking all our precious fantasies in doubt: "Will we ever again ... ?" and "When will it go away ... ?"
It has been the way life is supposed to be...
It looks like there are at least two groups within the larger group of the sentient. There are hard core negativists whose words and lives are united in negative anguish. These are the protesters, the angry, the wild cards, well-intentioned, but potentially incendiary. There exists another group remarkably tolerant and in sympathy with the negativists, but leading double lives, one life given to balloon observance - gotta keep an eye on 'em - and the other life knowing the Universe is in charge, the balance is perfect just as always, fear is an ignorant construct as is money, as is the balloon, i.e.; the Illusion.
I won't go into details about the remainder of humanity, they are literally a world unto themselves. They have their own burdens. Of course, they are sentient beings.
It must be highly engrossing to fashion one's reality out of fables, blood and torture. That is not the behavior of sentient beings, is it. We don't really know if these non-sentient beings are of the human species. We may never know.
As our own corners of the globe melt away and the gross spread takes down the remainder, the sentient optimists as I will call them, will be the last ones standing. Its only natural, we haven't the investment in blame. Knowing the truth hasn't hardened us, truth always makes us stronger. Strength is powerful that way, its an unbeatable formula for survival. Truth is understanding what has happened to us and truth shows us what exists. We can be calm in our approach to making rational decisions in confidence these decisions are the right path for each one of us.
Lately, the discussion has centered on violent war crimes, crimes against humanity, depravity wrought by evil, TEOTWAWKI, corruption, the end of' Happy Motoring and dissolution of beliefs. Its hard to get away from and find the person you really are or were knowing someone else is suffering, but it is possible. I will tell you why.
Because the worst is yet to come, that's why. Your mission then, as a sentient optimist, is that of saint. Do you read me? Survivalist is another word for first responder. You must do this by example since belief and trust are worthless thanks to our leaders having sold us out from under. If you've been thinking you are going crazy with suspicions then add up the total picture you are receiving in your analysis of what it is exactly that is going on. The whole equals the sum of its parts. Why are we witness to this preponderance of stupid, obviously rash, ill-conceived and backfiring information spreading its death round the world, round the clock, year-round, year after year? Should you be caught up inside of it to the point of despair, you will lose sleep and sicken your immune system. When you cannot experience the beauty of the life you are leading and the joy abundant in interacting with your fellows, you might as well abandon Gaia in surrender to the Illusion's hollow legs. Have they already won? Not hardly. Not when we lead our double lives, dedicated to our love of one another and gratitude for the extraordinary pleasure having found our parts in the Universal balance. Its okay to be whom you naturally are and always were. It shows the greatest durability resident in the core quality of survivors.
Bulletin Board:
. Many thanks to usxp of After Armegeddon who honored this blog by posting Dancing with werewolves in its entirety. Excellent Calvary art, too. This was then picked up through AA on the LATOC Forum as well.
. Those of you who are friends with Charles Hugh Smith will want to see his post of today, May 25, 2009. Memorial Day: A Passing in the Family and send your comforts. In the likely event some of you see this notice after today, it could be archived lower down his page under "This Month's Entries" if he's up to posting.
. I am very fortunate to have such special and insightful people visiting this blog AND commenting. This goes for all of you. You make it a better experience for not just me, but everyone else. Thank you.
47 comments:
Wow, Nina.
Great post. I should really refrain from commenting until I digest it, but I'm a rash commenter.
It's a real struggle, isn't it? But why shouldn't it be?
Whoever said that "being human" was going to be easy? Did the doctor tell us that when we were born? If so, I have no memory of that, or anything else from that day.
You have taught me something today. Enjoying life, beauty, and my relations with others is a part of the resistance. It's an affirmation of life. It's reality - the reality that is actionable and concrete.
I gardened hard this past weekend, and my muscles are sore. But I feel better in every way than I have in months.
My knack for finding useful items continues: while walking home from the garden, I was looking down into the grass in a park (which really helps in the quest for treasure), and found a pricey high-powered LED bike headlight. That's the second one I've found in a month. I also found a pair of crushed ear-bud headphones: I used my little leatherman knife to dissect out the small circular magnets inside - they are amazingly powerful, and make incredible refrigerator magnets for mounting photos of children and plants and beauty. Someday I may use them to construct a motor or generator.
Now to read Charles Hugh Smith...
I had to share with you a Jj perfect day as well.
For unschooling today we painted and drew and then the kids were free to do whatever.
My energy was low and I went to my couch under the vines and spent hours there.
The birds calling, singing, feeding right in front of me.
The sun the most beautiful light filtering through this magnificent green foilage.
For hours I just lay there completely absorbed by this world.
Just before sunset I was moved to go for a bike ride.
I went on a route that is rare for me. And pleasure upon pleasures I found an open gate - and landed up on an hours ride into a completely new space. Landed up at a dry river bed with a huge blue gum tree to lean against.
Again birds and sun sang to me.
The perfection of being.
Came home back to my couch and one the remaining chickens was walking past I clucked to her and for the first time ever she jumped onto my legs, nestled flat and spent a while gazing at me.
This is as good as it gets.
Had to share the joys.
Your painting on top captures that light and luminescence that has been present today.
I think of the final scene in "King Rat" where the prison camp is liberated and the prisoners rejoice together but none of them rejoice with King Rat-- the master entrepreneur/hustler/embodiment of the "Yankee Ingenuity" that all American chidren have been taught to worship-- who had thrived at their expense. They walk right past him without acknowledging him any more than they acknowledge the barbed wire they are moving beyond. He used his talents for himself only, he created no community. The "human stuff" of relationship and culture did not exist for him, he was a commercial machine only. Now that the era of "Happy Motoring" is coming to a close, the consumers are walking out of the malls, and starting to plant their gardens. There will be culture again.
I live by Clearlake, Ca. which is a boating place. Normally the hot weather and holidays would have combined to attract a huge number of boaters. Yesterday was very quiet. There were boats and jetskis, but nothing like the usual crowds. It was noticeably, dramatically, dead. I am sure none us us believes the mass media "picture," but if anyone needed to see it for real, you could see the end of "happy Motoring" very loud and clear up here this weekend. Happy Gardening!
"PUBLIUS Said:"You have taught me something today. Enjoying life, beauty, and my relations with others is a part of the resistance".
The word "resistance" tells me that you are fighting against something negative--and if you fight against something "with" negativity, you add power to it--and suck the life out of yourself at the same time--
Detach yourself from it--let it whistle right past and after a while you won't even notice much of it--unless you want to, or better yet, want to see the accident on the side of the road-that morbid curiosity-and, by watching it, the chances of having your own accident multiply--
Wonderful post Nina--
Jj
Jj:
Good point. I read too much Camus when I was younger, and he made a big deal of resistance, and what it is and isn't. He did, however, "resist" the American tendency to pretend that tragedy could be ignored or transcended, or that (fake?) innocence was a modus vivendi that is viable.
Remember his book, "The Plague"? It was a metaphor for the Nazi occupation of France. The sense of futility, despair, and denial in that book is amazing... it is also a great metaphor for the processes going on today.
However, 20th century existentialism and sense of the absurd might not be the way to go in order to develop resilience and vitality.
Point taken, Jj, but I haven't claimed to have yet joined the ranks of those who have learned to dispense with negativity as this thing unwinds or goes on. I'm still in the aspirational phase. I've at least given up harping on the actions of the Wall Street and Washington nexus, and have attempted to focus almost exclusively on actions and thoughts that can add to quality and texture of my life and the life of my family and community. But I can't help gawking once in a while... this blog is one of my teachers.
so it goes.
I wonder what Kurt Vonnegut would think of all this?
These are the best comments ever. I didn't need to make the essay, you all are already there.
I am learning-no more, no less-through that learning, I am gaining wisdom--mostly about myself and where I am now and what my self-imposed limitations are--basically, the stuff I don't know enough about, or have enough experience with I don't avoid, but don't push it--that has been a constant message to me--"don't push it"-so, I self-impose not going in that direction until there is clarity of purpose--It doesn't happ0en all the time--but much less that it used to--I catch 99% of the bullshit but sometimes sooner, sometimes later--most of the time as it is happening--I don't feel the need to make a snap decision as much--
I don't believe in levels, ladder rungs, etc.--Those "measurement tools" are simply comparisons to either pigeon-hole us, or make us feel unworthy--I compare myself to no one (directly)
So much through these blogs--the few I go into, and some books along the way-- I used to hope for the lightening bolt experience but have found that for something to truly make a difference for me that it needs to kind of trickle in--and then keep trickling--but I have to go to the shelf for the pitcher-it is there for me but won't pour out until I go to it--with gratitude--most of the gratitude comes from the simple awareness of those moments--a simple smile, chuckle, laugh--just being able to be aware of those moments I used to think I deserved due to some kind of fairy tale divine right--
Jj
Trout Clan has a goody up today.
Publius, your rashness is your spontaneity. It is a wonderful quality.
Su-nami, I love the way you write. If I could show you an aerial photograph of Quail Landscaping, you would see the foreground is criss-crossed with tiny little lines which are animal paths. They have a huge network going on. That plumpy bush in the middle is their hideaway thicket. When I pass by there are always lots of noises. Likely danger signals a human is too close.
Just returned from a long, long walk w/little Louis. Besides emeshing ourselves in the glory of Nature, we stopped by to visit my favorite horses, an Appie and a Mustang, who were not there. It turns out a pack of dogs took them down at night around 6 months ago. When the owner found the dogs he shot four of them. He pointed to the neighbor up on the hill to show me where the others in the pack still reside. While he was explaining his court battle, he kept saying "That was the least of my worries" and wanted to talk about his failing health instead. He's got Cancer now.
I just listened. I wanted to tell him he has Cancer because his horses are gone - all their stuff is still around the place. And he owns big dogs too, so it all must have blown his mind so badly he allowed himself to succumb to disease that very well could cost him his property and his life. But I didn't say that to him.
Would any of you have said it?
Brian, the exurbanites out here in the sticks with their SUVs and crotchrockets, have not gotten the message yet. They STILL think they are immune on the Ventura Freeway jaw boning on the cell. But in the low valley of the flatlanders a pall is cast. Every other cheap crackerbox on a postage stamp lot has that "look". You know that look? Padlocks on the doors, grass and weeds out of control, form letters taped on the window panes, blinds askew, a broken bike lying on its side, no car, no lights, various toys scattered as someone was hurried out.
I like your taste in books BTW. Do stop by Honjaku blog, he's going through various chapters of Siddartha and relating them to the present.
Jj said ... if you fight against something "with" negativity, you add power to it--and suck the life out of yourself at the same time--Yes, yes! This is exactly what has happened to the man I mentioned earlier who has Cancer. There is a very important lesson here.
Its also how the Bush administration was able to get so many kids to join up and their families to patriotically give them away.
Had dinner with a wonderful couple on Sunday--Both in their upper 70's and more energy than I currently enjoy--he had basically built the house with no formal training--simply an oasis on a country cul-de-sac with a farm field to their south--what a journey these two have been on--he also writes, quite well, and publishes his own books--3 of which he was kind enough to give me after the one and only Tea Party meeting we both went to-he was looked down upon and snickered at as a crazy old man by those you will know by their love, by their love---He not only nails it in these books but offers his solutions to the problems we are facing--we sat in the back yard and had dinner while the hummingbirds fluttered about--they have their own greenhouse, now half converted to a wood shop and vines, plants, cold boxes, etc.--I could see Juli and I years from now in a similar place although we are there now--Almost every sentence about how the world is now, came with their solution--a simply brilliant man who never went to college and a wife who takes no prisoners when it comes to "her man"--soulmates, as he writes in the dedication in one of his books--
Perhaps they are one of the reasons that I went to that meeting (Tea Party) of intolerant christian fucks--oops, was that negative?
Also, another couple has stayed in touch and had backed me in the forums which for around here, took a lot of guts--We never know when someone else has entered our lives, or us theirs, for a time because that "something" clicks--
Had some nice rain last night, we needed it pretty bad--more on the way today--we hope--
On your point Nina, our new friend and I kept saying at the Tea meeting that it should be a rally for freedom and not a war on this, war on that--they decided to go with "protest"--I knew then......
ps,--I wouldn't have told him--don't think it would have mattered, and even if he did get it on some level, he probably would have done the american thing and eaten himself up the rest of the way with guilt--but, then again, sometimes you just have to say what you say, and then walk away--
Jj
Nina:
Reminds of the friend I just emailed this morning. A fine, loving woman and mother named Judy. And a grandmother!
She has cancer... it seems to be getting worse, spreading here and there. In her case, her husband is the problem: he's undermining, retired, sits at home and drinks and smokes all day, telling her how fat and unattractive she is.
Yet she stays. Doesn't leave.
I just invited her over to our place for coffee or dinner or something. I plan to suggest that she leave all negativity behind, including her husband, if she has the strength. Buy a mobile home if she has to, and just "light out for the territories" of freedom.
I'm afraid to see her, though, because I've heard she's been affected pretty heavily by the disease. I'm not good at this stuff, but being able and willing to be a comfort to those in need is something I want to embrace. I fear the suffering of others more than my own.
Book suggestions: anyone here like Henry Miller? I like the old rascal. The censors decades ago focused on the sex, but he was really a writer who embraced life, in its color and glory.
He was also an artist:
Click her for a Miller print!
Re Cancer: There is an Italian doctor successfully treating cancer with bicarbonate of soda. Google" Italian doctor cancer cure." and maybe save your neighbor. Youtube has a video of a woman who emailed him about her bladder cancer. He told her how to treat it free of charge and she did and was cured in about six weeks.
There is, as one might expect in this world, a huge fraud about cancer. I met a doctor in Reno who was head of Oncology at Highland Hospital in Oakland CA for twenty years until they ran him out of the state for having the temerity to use alternative therapies because they worked. His name is Dr. Brody and his clinic is now in Reno.He has treated his own wife and kept her going for twenty years. I met him personally when I brought a friend up there and he impressed me as a real human being.
Here's the deal, suffering is the great teacher, we all know this. How many times and from how many voices and in how many experiences, including those within our own lives, have we been reminded All suffering is caused by false desire? If someone suffering now has not realized why they are suffering, it can only be they desire their suffering.
Their self-representative (the imaginary person they desire to project) is "A Sufferer".
This is what I referred to in the essay as responding by example. We are at a point where words are useless and sometimes dangerous. Our actions and living as example are all we've got in our New World first aid kits - at this time anyway, the more suffering that comes down will present a situation where self-representatives have no value anymore as The Sufferer is forced to confront his situation.
Thanks Brian. I will carry this information in my good neighbor kit when I stop by to "check in" on him this weekend as I promised I would. We'll see how the wind blows, won't we.
Brian,
I was reading some testimonials on the bicarb cure the other day.
Truly amazing , and I believe it is only effective if injected into the diseased organ.
I personally swear by the Breuss Method. He cured thousand of people even in final stages. Basically cancer lives off protein if one starves the body of protein the cancer dies. This Breuss treatment is basically a fast where you drink minute amounts of highly strained vegetable juice (predominately Beetroot) throughout the day interspersed with a few sips of some powerful herbal infusions.
I have had a niggle in my right ovary for some time and dreams that relay to me the fact that I need to address it. I am gearing myself up for this diet but in Winter it is really not appealing.
http://www.alternativehealth.com.au/Books/breuss.htm
Thankfully I live in a country where alternative treatments are welcomed as it takes the strain off the State.
Apricot kernels are also an excellent cancer fighting substance, but because they contain small amounts of arseninc they are banned in the states. Uh duh like chemo has no toxins.
Cheers and thanks Nina and hello everybody. Lots of very interesting comments here.
I try not to worry too much about the future as there are things that cannot be prepared for and which will have to be dealt with as they arise and if I fail then so be it. The experience of the present becomes important to me.
I think that the future will be a good place for those that make it but there will be much trouble on the way. It is the things that do not have a monetary cost that are of value to me, material possessions are worthless unless they are tools and I own nothing that I wouldn't happily walk away from.
We like to give help when help is needed but I remember that even our humanity and empathy can be used as a weapon against us as is the case of the first responders. After a bomb goes off the human response is to give help, evil people will arrange a secondary device to kill and mutilate this response. Should we stand back and do nothing because of this?
Keep up the good work folks.
jj,
Re your comment about the energies of the 70ish couple, I recall hearing a story about Pablo Casals playing the cello in his ninties. The observer claimed that Casals hands would become looser when he played, seeming to throw off the effect of the arthritis that had set in in his later years as he entered into the music.
The other story about Pablo is that he expressed opposition to Facsism that was rising in Spain. He was too famous to assassinate, they figured, but Franco said he wanted to cut Casals' arms off at the elbow. Franco had a funny, high-pitched voice. A man once imitated it mockingly and Franco shot him through the head.
Publius,
I enjoy Henry Miller too, Anais Nin would have been an interesting companion. His description of Amerika as "the air-conditioned nightmare" is awesomely well-aimed.
Su, winter on broth-fasting is not fun. I reccommend "Green for Life" www.raw family.com and "80-10-10" might give you a great cleansing effect without fasting until the weather warms up.
John asks: ...Should we stand back and do nothing because of this?This is the question of our times! The answer is probably based on the scale of the situation. I've heard lately that a slow motion disaster is the the worst, and that seems to be how it is playing out. It could go on indefinitely, increasing in magnitude while the innocents remain unaware. Then, we are literally forced into doing nothing as doing anything is endangering to everyone else.
It is complicated to explain within our limited language, but ancient Chinese wisdom applies perfectly to the present. "Know your enemy" and "It does not further one to cross the Great Water" speak of this paradox.
It all comes down to values. When we examine what we value, the answer to how we will respond is evident. We are already responding.
In defense of the virtue of patience, found via antiwar, here is additional perspective on the same theme.
Then we have today's Survival Acres small but mighty post, One Minute Update, one paragraph, eight links, proving in stark black and white, this time in the here and Now is a brand new time.
It all makes you think we're evolving faster despite the balloon fighting enlightenment. Is there a war? The real war, the only war is the war against spiritual enlightenment. Everything springs from there.
Regarding what to do: I ran across the story of a young Dutch woman who joined the FARC in Columbia. Her diary was discovered and part was published. She was disgusted by the hypocracy of the people she associated with, because the class system had reappeared right in her unit. Commandants got the most desirable women, those women got the candy and favors...etc. etc.
Observe, understand, and transcend the activity of the ego is the fundamental and only Real revolution imo--sure glad I haven't killed anybody over politics so far.
"History Collapsing"
Looks like an old western movie set- the cowboys, and John Wayne are gone--along with the good guys always winning with nary a scratch--
Is there a new sheriff in town or has it always been just a movie script full of lies and deceit written by the same people who write the scripts people stick to every day--Leave It To Beaver, or Beavis and Butthead--
Write your own and let it flow--
Jj
Man, those boys at Survival Acres really go for the jugular!I am somewhat or sometimes ambivalent about the posts there. Is the anger useful, even if justified? The vitriol? The anger is certainly directed towards the right target mostly, but the diatribes don't really motivate me to focus on what I can affect. And I certainly bug my wife with my dourness for a while after reading them.
But maybe this "negativity" is a counter-weight that I need to balance something else, and which, once the perturbation is over, sends me on a better course.
The hardest thing of all is finding one's own North Star, as Thoreau talks about in Walden.
I can handle Survival Acres, but boy, it is pretty darn intense there... very different from this place, or the Archdruid Report, etc.
Watching bambi again with my son before bed... No Disney after about 1960 will ever be shown here. And we do eat bambi's in this household. It's free-range.
Publius, Brian nails it here Observe, understand, and transcend the activity of the ego ...That's what "admin" at SA is all about. It is at once a work of love and a work of sorrow. I can't speak for his commenters, just like anywhere on the web, there is some unwritten guarantee bloggers will be misinterpreted, even with all the preventative tools we have at our disposal, you never know what you will get and the spoken word has nuances the written never will. Did you know "Admin" is planting 600 trees by hand and cleaning up the slash by hand over a huge region in the NW that was practically made naked by corporate lust? He is living the life, of this I can have no doubts. He was the first one confirm my suspicions that protest is futile. You can't know that with absolute certainty until you've been there yourself. He doesn't need me defending him, I just want to say his words give us a real, physical and more horrifyingly truthful portrait than you'll find anywhere else. You'd have to be very strong to raise a family, run a business, reroof your home, restore the land on such a massive scale, raise your own food and animals and blog informatively. Not only do I admire his efforts, but I see his blog as a vital resource uncovering details we might easily miss in the information deluge. There is an urgency to his message that would be ignored if he did not make it public. He's probably one of the most, if not the most widely read blog on the web, but you wouldn't know it. What I am saying is there is incredible compassion there integrated with 100% honesty and unabashed anguish. We have to face it Publius, we're in a terrible situation. I went into town today and discovered that everybody I spoke with knows it. Let me tell you, this is new. I don't think they will grab weapons, but they will not tolerate being hustled.
Nina,
You spoke of your neighbour who has cancer due to the death of his horses.
I can totally understand how such shocks on the physical plane impact on the body.
Yesterday I drove into town.
On the way in by the river bank there is a huge pecan nut tree. A giant. And as we pass we always notice and acknowledge this most beautiful of animals. It was dripping with nuts. Guess what, they cut it down. They cut it down to plant yet more fucking grape vines (they already can't sell the wine they have) and instead of thinking well let us plant around this sentry of our lives they chop it down.
I felt sick and my pain body just rose up and ate me whole. The kids could not believe it.
The value of those nuts are so much greater than any amount of vines and secondly it was such an old tree that whether it rained or not it was going to produce, unlike the fragile vines.
Anyway, Scotty should be coming around soon to beam them up. I figure we should stay here. Let them killers go where no man has gone before.
It getting like clock work now, my neighbor hired some tree people to cut down at least a century old gnarled dead Oak that bothered no one, beautiful and mysterious to behold and was home to easily a thousand woodpeckers who buried their acorns in it for winter's food stores and home to the borer beetles who would otherwise chew into people's dwellings. When I saw what happened, I felt the distress you felt at seeing your Pecan gone. These trees are not just unproductive landscape taking up space, they are habitat and taking them down is habitat destruction. Unlinking even one chain in the Ecosystem has untold consequences. Where did people ever get the idea that humans are immune to consequence? Wait, I can guess.
Your story with its special emphasis on the African village says the IMF has its hand in there somewhere.
Jj, having lived next to a movie set of an old west town I tend to think you are onto something. It got so weird in Nevada, they made maps of all the Gold Rush towns and labeled the more obviously silly ones "for tourists".
Maybe it was all another zeitgeist illusion for tinseltown.
I saw some real looking ones in Colorado, but they had become ski resorts.
I was heading home from town the other day, on the road I take back 80% of the time and actually stopped the car--I was looking at the most spectacular oak--The light was no different than usual at that time of day, the angle of my vision to it the same as a hundred times before--but there it was stretching in a massive, powerful, yet calm strength--one of the giants--did it call out to me, or did I just notice what had always been there--to me, it was as if it had traveled a great distance to rest there a while before moving on--a Halleys comet come to earth--
There was such wisdom, such resolve, in what can't even be described as simply, "a huge tree"--It was the arms of the universe--as Su said, it didn't matter if there was a drought, these roots held the earth together--they had to. This wonder could call in the rain any time it felt like having a drink-- The weight of a thousand sparrows was not a burden but a blessing to the tree as if being massaged by thousand of little fingers--one of those things that can't truly be described--
I was on the tractor and looking up from down in the lowland and another tree--like a peacock with the most incredible display of green-yellow leaves was dancing in the sunlight--an unnatural glow in defiance of the chemtrails and acid rain--a last Hurrah, or giving the leafy finger to mankind?--I think the latter--but sending out compassion to those who took notice--The leaves seem more abundant, the underbrush color more alive this spring--very cool
"Should we stand back and do nothing"--As you said Nina, protests will not work--as the diary said, the same thing happens, just on a smaller scale--
All "they" have to do is point in our direction and say that we don't go to church, don't support the troops, refuse to waive a flag, and don't support the republican party, and you might as well paint a bullseye on yourself for the bible drones to aim at--and we will lose, because god is on their side--like korea, vietnam, somalia, iraq, afghanistan---hey, wait, maybe we do have a chance if we don't come out of the woods and just go on about our lives--they will cling to their religion to save them or blast non-believers into the stone age--
For me, I think I'll just take up residence in that oak and watch the traffic pass by underneath--they'll never look up, they never do--
The sides are already drawn, and they wouldn't even have to send in one soldier--just crank up the propaganda machine and start the next inquisition/crusade--
I saw first hand the mind control at those tea party meetings--it is DEEPLY ingrained in a lot of folks around here--then again, they are so apathetic and desperately need someone else to make all their decisions for them that I think besides a few, they will be totally impotent--they will be praying for god to feed them and never look at the abundance that has already been provided--if you know where to look--
Jj
Wonderful piece from Joe Bageant, or rather a guy who wrote a letter to him (excerpt and link below):
No one can claim righteousness. The very claim negates the truth of it. I'm not saying I know anything you don't, or Americans don't, but I am saying that my life, my voyages (I own and sail a Nova Scotian schooner), and my experience have given me an angle on things that might be useful to the conversation. Let's get down to essentials. When the shit hits the fan, it's the poor who will survive. They're used to deprivation, they know how to live on sparrow farts and dirt. They've been doing it forever.
jj-I like your "fruedian slip" about refusing "to waive a flag."
"Flag waiving." Sounds like a good idea ha ha!
I like your appreciation of the great Oak. We have them around here too.
"sudden Oak Death" is being countered by a man who has a website findable, I believe, by googling "sudden oak life." He publishes his treatment there, and there is evidence that the Indians used to treat the Oaks as well. We got a lot of acorns around here, people have been munching them for 12,000 years in my neighborhood.
There's a book out on giant trees of the Pacific Northwest. I read the short version in the New Yorker. All about research into the mysteries of these great trees. Speculations were that they interlink root systems and pass water to each other. "Trees" are not necessarily "separate beings." Who knew? Ha ha. My recognition word below here is "addlife."
OK! Here goes...!
Our files probably have charts stapled on the front with items listed that are rated numerically 1 to 10. Tree-hugger 10. Ocean-hugger 10.
My friends:
I love the waters AND the trees...
My brother and I have been planting trees on our family acreage up north. A lot of them have survived, and are really taking off. The funny thing is, my brother is in complete denial about the state of things. He believes in infinite growth, recovery, modern industrial civilization. But at some unconscious level, I think he realizes something is amiss. I still have hope that he and I may be able to meet somewhere in the realm of mind/spirit someday. But with him, only my example and actions will have an effect on him. My words - any words at all about economics or politics or ecology - have the opposite of their intended effect.
Nina, I got my book in the mail, the one on building birch bark canoes. One step at a time. The tomatoes are doing well. The beans haven't yet sprouted, nor has the corn (well, at least they haven't surfaced). The lettuce is coming up nicely. The scent of lilac is already fading... it's the time of the year when the thought that I may be a cubicle dweller for another summer really almost kills me.
I may quit. I have a business idea. I was hoping I'd be fired in a downsizing, but strangely, my company is busy right now. I may be forced to take responsibility for my own life. Fancy that.
From Thoreau's Walden, Chapter 7, The Bean Field:
"We are wont to forget that the sun looks on our cultivated fields and on the prairies and forests without distinction. They all reflect and absorb his rays alike, and the former make but a small part of the glorious picture which he beholds in his daily course. In his view the earth is all equally cultivated like a garden. Therefore we should receive the benefit of his light and heat with a corresponding trust and magnanimity. What though I value the seed of these beans, and harvest that in the fall of the year? This broad field which I have looked at so long looks not to me as the principal cultivator, but away from me to influences more genial to it, which water and make it green. These beans have results which are not harvested by me. Do they not grow for woodchucks partly? The ear of wheat (in Latin spica, obsoletely speca, from spe, hope) should not be the only hope of the husbandman; its kernel or grain (granum from gerendo, bearing) is not all that it bears. How, then, can our harvest fail? Shall I not rejoice also at the abundance of the weeds whose seeds are the granary of the birds? It matters little comparatively whether the fields fill the farmer's barns. The true husbandman will cease from anxiety, as the squirrels manifest no concern whether the woods will bear chestnuts this year or not, and finish his labor with every day, relinquishing all claim to the produce of his fields, and sacrificing in his mind not only his first but his last fruits also."
Such an exquisite passage, Publius. I've seen your file, its got Walden at 10. This is an indication of extreme intelligence, high awareness, compassion, all that sort of great stuff. Earlier today I went over your dialogue in detail at SA and I think you are also very brave. Thumbs up, back pats, good job.
SO many who have gone before us--and who are with us now--lighting the way with the words of sharing the great abundance--worry will have to darken someone else's door tonight and fear haunt another's dream--this is a safe and wonderful woods you have here Nina.
We don't see each other, but we know kindred spirits will dance delight in the fires of the night and the dawning of the sky fires morn.
Publius--you rock--softly
Jj
Jj:
You are a poet of a unique kind - ecstatic, I think the word is, but ecstasy for the "right" things.
I hope this isn't too much of what my mom always called a "mutual admiration society."
But the ideas, prose, poetry, art, and inspiration is pretty darn good.
Back out to the backyard for my son's birthday party. He turned 3. He's hyper-curious about plants, animals, machines - the whole works. And he's not a bully. What more can I ask for? He even helps to vacuum and scrub the floors... He'll be a good future subsistence farmer and bountiful thinker.
Publius Said: "But the ideas, prose, poetry, art, and inspiration is pretty darn good".
Boy, isn't that the truth--One needn't worry about it becoming a mutual admiration society--Things can get very real at Nina's place as well--I guess it helps all of us keep it real and honest--Just the right fit so to speak--
I smiled when I read your post about your 3-year old--I have one of those too who is now 18--wow, that went fast--lol
Being able to think outside the box, or not even accepting that there is a box is where life is going to take a creative turn now, and in the future-I am going to be refinishing a piece of furniture for our 18 year old who is looking for an apartment in the next city north of us--kind of a dinky college town, but much more to "offer" than a Wal Mart and a few fast food places like our town--Made a few pieces to keep the drawers sliding--just took one off that hadn't disintegrated matched it up- and cranked up the table saw--that feeling of accomplishment instead of going and buying a new one--welded a simple hand trowel back together instead of buying some cheap piece of crap somewhere even though I knew I was breaking the law by not buying, buying, buying--everybody sing along now and waive the flag!!!
Our younger son has his bands first paying gig for a high school graduation on Sunday--the kid can play--one look at the tabs and boom--his father on the other hand picked up a guitar for the first time 2 years ago--I plod along with my chords but I'm making music!!!! The guitars I have are just the most amazing works of art that have functionality and beauty--just looking at them hanging on the wall makes my mouth water--I just want to caress them--magical!! It just took the right time in life with the stars in alignment I suppose--my little world. I have such a greater appreciation for all things musical now--but it extends further to writers, artists--I see so much more now--I feel it which is wonderful--a small part of "it", but a part nonetheless--I don't know how much of a contribution I make, but I don't take away either--the garden is mine this year. Not relying on maybe's from others--just going forth and doing it--Juli does so much that this is just one of those things that I have taken on--gladly.
Oh well, guess this has gone on long enough.
"glacial erractic vacations at sunrise mountain"--probably my favorite Nina--it's like you spent an afternoon with Gary Larson and, minus the cows, that's what you came up with--it just has some smart ass in it which I can relate to!!
Your Friend,
Jj
Jj:
well, the party's over. I'm so happy to hear about your son's musical gifts and drive... the drive to create beauty, rather than to destroy it (as an infantryman or trader in commodities, etc.).
Guitars: I have a Gibson myself, and someone just gave me a cheap guitar that I will fix up. It's good to have a beater for camping.
I desire nothing more than more free time so that I can improve my playing skills, which are not very advanced, although some years ago I was actually into writing songs, was in a band - until they kicked me out. For good reason: I was about to take off for Europe, but then didn't due to a love affair, and besides, they were going techno-pop, and I was folk.
One of my good friends (who just survived a major pulmonary embolism/blood clot that completely blocked his pulmonary artery - he's a miracle) game my son a set of musical instruments. And tonight we all danced in the livingroom to the beat of that Casio keyboard I mentioned finding in the trash. My three year old managed to get it playing a rhythm, and played the keyboard, dancing and gyrating his hips... he ordered us all to dance. How could I refuse? He's the band leader, for sure. Finally, the band leader exhausted himself despite the sugar from the cake, and I got him to bed. I didn't even have to tell more than two sentences of a story before he fell asleep. Normally, I have to tell multiple stories off the top of my head... it used to be a chore to invent stories, but it's kind of fun now.
We will all be inventing and living new stories as old myths die, and even older ones are reborn, and new ones arise.
For some reason, I really want a horse. I probably won't be getting one for a while. As Bob Dylan sang, to paraphrase, I can walk around the block anytime I want. And you don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.
After an open mike night at the Artist's Quarter in St. Paul last week, people were jamming on the sidewalk, including two young free-spirited women... they have made a habit out of sneaking into Bob Dylan concerts, and even a Joan Baez concert. They somehow met Joan's stage manager, and got to hang out with Joan before a performance, while she did yoga.
I don't know the connections between what I wrote above.
Non sequiters happen when one is tired. Oh yeah, while people jammed, I used a socket wrench I had in my pocket as an instrument - rubbing keys along the hatched grip made a great washboard-like sound.
My wife got me an electronic drum set for Christmas that I don't use as much as I should--If I am to become a musician, instead of someone who plays guitar, I probably have more talent in that direction--I also sing in the shower and anywhere else for that matter--working on a waterproof guitar and expanding the shower--lol
Your comment reminds me that so much culture, history, etc. is passed down through art, song, and story around the campfire--so much of Nina's stuff lately could be found in the late 20's and early 30's if done in black and white--the story of the wrecks of economy--sad houses abandoned--I look at them as fixer-uppers--the landscapes hold the promise if we can avoid hacking into them--
I was just thinking last night that I should get some of my old writing out and set it to music--
As the boys were growing up, I would use the music from songs they knew and improvise my own twisted, usually funny lyrics--nothing was better than an "oh, dad" and that head tilted look--
I do miss real quality music, original, or stuff that tells a story beyond "slap da' bitches and da ho's"
Check out a guy named Frank Morey, pretty sure you can listen on myspace or maybe he has a web page now--Tom Waitts style stuff--no frills.
Enough for today, I'm the only one up--love that sunrise, and got some wonderful rain last night--seizing the day--
Hug that little one and gaze into those eyes of wonder and promise and know that you have the same--
Jj
Hello all, glad to see the continuance of the good stuff that happens here. I really needed a dip in these cool, calming waters and was not disappointed. So many times reading the words of the poster and comments following is akin to being held and comforted during a time of uncertainty. What happens here and at many other blog sites is sooo beyond just words that it seems like magic sometimes.
Rolling around in the negative is pretty easy. There is no shortage of material to help reinforce the notion that all is lost and it is simply to sit back and wait for the end of.......whatever is ending. It is also extremely tiring, and like much of what we are shown and encouraged to embrace is completely unsustainable. Gloom and doom seems to have a shelf life!
Words have served me well at times (although it seems the time has passed for me to employ them to try and make any sort of contribution) but there is still use for them as I say to one and all here - thank you for sharing those seemingly small aspects of the day-to-day and the joy derived from them. Appreciating a tree or guitar on the wall, or showing real compassion for others around you - that is the real stuff!! 3 year-olds jamming and commanding those around to dance? It doesn't get any better I think and all it takes is the ability to see and connect with it.
Publius, if I read your post correctly it seems we are neighbors. If you ever want to get together and strum Gibsons or write a song, I would be most pleased to meet up and share. I am finishing up an album of material written 20 years ago and have lost myself in music again, and any opportunity to share with other players is eagerly pursued.
Great writing, Nina. I have some catching up to do here and over at Les Visible's sites. Your painting is beautiful by the way - such joy in those critter's faces.
Z
To Z (mainly but not exclusively):
Wow - there's a guest/denizen/contributor of Nina's blog nearby?
Well, I will admit to living in the village of Minneapolis, near the Mississippi River...
Are you really nearby?
I'd LOVE to meet for coffee, and/or jam or listen to your music.
I was also reacquainted recently with an old friend who is an extraordinary musician, who has and is good with everything from a harmonium (made in India), to sitar, to guitar and keyboards - if you need some serious backup or collaboration. He's basically on the same page with those who frequent here, though maybe not quite as cognizant of the extent of the discontinuity approaching us.
Regardless, my electronic mailbox can be reached at:
bread_at_denizen.net
If that attempt to obfuscate my email from spammers confuses you, let me know. Or reveal your email or phone or whatever. If the email thing doesn't work, I can even reveal my phone# next, in pig latin.
off to the garden
Nina, after a re-read, I have to say I agree with the notion of at least 2 groups, and feel like a recovering Hard core neg. It takes a considerable amount of energy to maintain that posture and it is, indeed, quite toxic. Being generally a lazy sort, and reaping the side-effects of immersion in that stew, it finally became necessary to go all in or try another approach. Stepping away from the blogs and the MSM for a time and feeling like Jj's opening quote a couple times really started something. I hope it continues.
These words startled me. Straight to the heart - thank you so much for this. It is bulletin-board (hell, maybe tattoo) material.
"Should you be caught up inside of it to the point of despair, you will lose sleep and sicken your immune system. When you cannot experience the beauty of the life you are leading and the joy abundant in interacting with your fellows, you might as well abandon Gaia in surrender to the Illusion's hollow legs."
Publius, we are, indeed, neighbors, and this little nugget made me laugh out loud.
"if you need some serious backup or collaboration."
Heh.
I have looked at some of your blogs and we have much to discuss, I believe. You have my phone # and Email.
Z
I see a friendship made in heaven coming up. Go for it.
Post a Comment