‘Nuff said.
2008
OK, one more for today. Found a wonderful Wendell Berry poem, “The Mad Farmer Liberation Front” courtesy of Slacktivist. In light of current circumstances, the last stanza particularly resonates:
Go with your love to the fields.
Lie down in the shade. Rest your head
in her lap. Swear allegiance
to what is nighest your thoughts.
As soon as the generals and the politicos
can predict the motions of your mind,
lose it. Leave it as a sign
to mark the false trail, the way
you didn’t go. Be like the fox
who makes more tracks than necessary,
some in the wrong direction.
Practice resurrection.
Wow, two in one day? What did they put in my latte this morning?
I could go into a long ramble, but since I already did that once this morning, I think I’ll just post the best summation of the McCain campaign I’ve seen so far . From The Confabulum:
Presented with the possibility of being a little short on the beef, [McCain's] campaign has determined to utterly void itself of beef, and run on cow farts instead.
This will be a rare long one…I’ve been thinking a lot about apocalypse lately.
It’s not quite what it sounds like.
What I mean is that all indicators seem to be pointing to a time where a lot of the way I (and most of the Western world) live is going to change due to outside factors like peak oil, economic unrest, and so on. The American lifestyle in general seems headed for big changes, and I think ultimately it will be a good and necessary thing, although the transition is likely to be painful (and it already seems to be underway).
I read a novel about 12 years ago that really shaped my view (Into the Forest). It’s a post-apocalyptic story, but the end of the world as the characters know it doesn’t come in a big explosion or disaster. Instead, infrastructure and society gradually fall apart: energy runs out, food supplies become exhausted, disease decimates the population, but in pockets. This seems a far more likely scenario to me at this point than the nuclear fireball.
I also recall seeing James Burke’s Connections series a few years before that, in which he outlined how distant most of us have become from practical skills of living. I could go on, but it’s easier to link: here’s the video and the relevant bit starts at about 6 minutes in, although I’d recommend watching the entire series if you can find it.
All of this is a long way of getting to what was on my mind this morning. Deb and I have been doing a lot of canning this summer, and it got me thinking about how that used to be a summertime ritual for most families. The reaction I get when I tell people I can seems to indicate that it’s something of an exotic hobby in my urban environment, although like many of these practical skills it’s making something of a DIY comeback these days. That and going to Slow Food Nation a few weeks ago led to thinking about victory gardens and World War II, and sure enough there were propaganda posters about canning and gardens in that context.
And thinking about that made me kind of sad and angry. We used to know all of this stuff, about why and how to save food, use less, care for things…and as a culture we have forgotten so much. I’m glad we’re starting to remember, but the cost of having ignored these basic principles is huge and it’s hard to overcome. As the news starts using words like “Depression” again, hopefully we’ll pick up the pace.