dreadfully grateful

Honestly, I hate technology. I started blogging a long while ago but then got sidetracked by having another baby, something I consider as the real stuff of life. A few years later when I went to check on my blog again there had been so much traffic and comments on it that for a moment I thought I must have become famous, though I was baffled because I realize that I do not write the kind of content that garners fame. Of course, I had been hit by porn-bots. Well, my dear husband blocked the bots, but really....I kind of lost my desire to try to connect with this mess called humanity. It is just so unpredictable. It may be pointed out that the experience gave me more power to predict, because after that experience I'm not often so shocked. But the bot experience did crush my naive little hopes, I don't really much care about blogging and I don't expect to be famous or even make a buck from it. My naive little hopes are much less concrete. I hope that humanity is evolving in a way that can allow for everyone to participate, and that people would avoid hurting one another as well as themselves, avoid hurting other life, the ecosystems, the planet, that they would learn to consider the future not just immediate profits and gratification. But the preponderance of evidence just doesn't point in that direction. Certainly there is some evidence, however it is mighty lean. I have always been aware of the dark underbelly of society, but it seems now that it is glaringly obtuse, especially while watching so much of our collective efforts at a better society all go belly up. I suppose only 'Trump despisers' are in my camp on this assumption. These dreadful times really are only a harbinger of change, but I am not so smug in my certainty that humanity has the capacity to solve the socio-economic problems facing the planet and ourselves. I have to admit that impressions are subject to whimsy and tomorrow I may not feel so dour. Therein lies my hope and the capacity to get up in the morning and march through my day of self-rationing plastic enrobed conveniences and carnal comforts, while sending existential dread to the back seat. Though it will never be silenced, at least I can keep it a lunge away from grabbing the wheel from me and careening off the tarmac.

January Blues

We have coined a new Month at our house. It is Suanuary. pronounced like Swan...uary. I have sunbathed twice and we aren’t even halfway through the month yet. I live in zone 3-5 according to the gardening maps. This would have been completely impossible even one year ago. Do I need to articulate what I think the significance of this is for the planet or shouldn’t it be obvious? At what point do we decide to alter our behaviors? and what would it really take? Everyone is waiting for politics to do something, but the current regime is taking things in the worst possible direction all while manufacturing multiple diversions. I know you have heard it, but it up to us, all of us, each of us. Yet, the kinds of solutions that are being touted do not go very far, are not very imaginative and certainly aren’t encouraging participation in the problem solving process. We must maintain a business as usual mindset and not create too much unfathomable disruption, I agree. Yet.... So, you recycle, you walk more often, you take public transportation, eat local, buy less, support your community, donate to conservation. Would this be enough if everyone did it? First of all, dream on and secondly, isn’t that pretty much how people’s lives used to be and we called it Culture and it created the beauty and intriguing diversity of the world. But, going back is impossible and what is destroying culture in the first place is the human penchant for convenience (ask the French how their authentic baguette is holding up against the supermarket persuasion). Okay let’s add another layer: how about if everyone decided to mind the mycorrhaeza, truely conserve water, quit buying things that do not decompose in the first place, and converted to solar, not just solar, but passive solar? Would that be enough? I am not a scientist I am a philosopher so my pursuit is asking questions not so much as answering them, but I ask you to use your imagination and do a thought experiment. It would be even more inconvenient and it would take some concerted research. Research could become a favorite diversion. Or imagine if we actually heeded the words and ideas of those “backward” original peoples and brought them into the conversation to examine what kinds of societies and Solutions are possible. experimented with differeing underpinning and structures of society, lifeways. What if instead of looking for the best answer or a product or the right engineering or waiting for a savior, what if every one just Began taking this more seriously in whatever way appealed to them, started diversifying our perception of resources. Wait a minute I am seeing alternative solutions quite a bit, what would it take to puncture the popular monoculture media bubble? There are so many ideas and solutions, but they just aren’t connecting with critical mass. Could it be that our delivery system of the economy just can’t deliver such simple things? There would have to be patents and sleek products and celebrity endorsements and monopoly markets. Sigh

Permaculture update!

While browsing for light in January this morning, I finally found a Perennial-based Short season Permaculture website called permaculturenews.com. Looking good, but I’ll go with hope, for now.