Thursday, August 6, 2009
Good Chicken News!
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The School of Pam
The Project
Like many of us, I've spent years in denial, depression, repression, hopelessness & fear regarding the sorry, sorry state of human social justice, consciousness, & our egregious gobbling of natural resources.
The usual discussion revolves around outrage or head-shaking, & most often, especially during the Bush years, alarm & dismay that "people don't get it". Possibilities for change are generally broken down into working for change within the Man's system- voting, organizing, marching/demonstrating etc- or revolution, tearing down the Man's system. My issue with those possibilities is that either one requires close engagement with the Man- either changing the nature of or dismantling the global corporate-government hegemony. The conversations generally end with something along the lines of "well, whatcha gonna do?" followed by a change of subject.
The questions I ask myself in response are well, what ARE we going to do? and How are our own actions/relationships essentially any different than the Man's? Isn't giving up our little pennies to the corporate, our time, our personal resources, our imagination, to maintaining a roof & transport & light & heat & food- all dependent on the Man- another way of supporting the system we despise? If the emperor truly has no clothes- and we know that- why are we still standing in the crowd, watching the parade?
Another common subject is the Crash, generally defined as a time when the resources run out, the government collapses, civilization as we know it is over. Sort of like The Rapture, only no one gets to fly off to Heaven. The thing is, I realized, the collapse is happening right now. We're sort of like the proverbial frog in a heating pot of water- as it gets slowly hotter, the frog adjusts & thinks it's fine. Finally the water boils & the frog dies- never having noticed what happened.
The School of Pam is my personal attempt to learn to step away from the parade. Step away with compassion for my ignorant limitations. Explore & practice what I will & can do rather than what I should do, or theoretically could do if I wasn't too lazy, too poor, too tired, too hopeless. Well, I'm definately too human, with all the personal versions of cultural hypnosis and short term comfort- seeking that implies. So I'll work with what I have, instead of waiting till I'm "ready", better educated, better able. I'll live with my outright failures and mistakes. I'll just keep trying to step away from the dreadful parade, whatever my perceived limitations or foolishnesses. I'm doing it anyway.
The usual discussion revolves around outrage or head-shaking, & most often, especially during the Bush years, alarm & dismay that "people don't get it". Possibilities for change are generally broken down into working for change within the Man's system- voting, organizing, marching/demonstrating etc- or revolution, tearing down the Man's system. My issue with those possibilities is that either one requires close engagement with the Man- either changing the nature of or dismantling the global corporate-government hegemony. The conversations generally end with something along the lines of "well, whatcha gonna do?" followed by a change of subject.
The questions I ask myself in response are well, what ARE we going to do? and How are our own actions/relationships essentially any different than the Man's? Isn't giving up our little pennies to the corporate, our time, our personal resources, our imagination, to maintaining a roof & transport & light & heat & food- all dependent on the Man- another way of supporting the system we despise? If the emperor truly has no clothes- and we know that- why are we still standing in the crowd, watching the parade?
Another common subject is the Crash, generally defined as a time when the resources run out, the government collapses, civilization as we know it is over. Sort of like The Rapture, only no one gets to fly off to Heaven. The thing is, I realized, the collapse is happening right now. We're sort of like the proverbial frog in a heating pot of water- as it gets slowly hotter, the frog adjusts & thinks it's fine. Finally the water boils & the frog dies- never having noticed what happened.
The School of Pam is my personal attempt to learn to step away from the parade. Step away with compassion for my ignorant limitations. Explore & practice what I will & can do rather than what I should do, or theoretically could do if I wasn't too lazy, too poor, too tired, too hopeless. Well, I'm definately too human, with all the personal versions of cultural hypnosis and short term comfort- seeking that implies. So I'll work with what I have, instead of waiting till I'm "ready", better educated, better able. I'll live with my outright failures and mistakes. I'll just keep trying to step away from the dreadful parade, whatever my perceived limitations or foolishnesses. I'm doing it anyway.
Life Goes On, by Barbara Minor
When a friend said, "I'll be glad when this is over
so I can get on with my life"
I smiled.
Life is never on hold. There is no
"time out."
Now, in what seems to me a prolonged illness
I hear myself say, "If I had more energy I'd..."
And I remember
There's no room for
"if only's" in life.
It goes on.
Life is not a cautionary tale.
It's a gift. Enjoy it.
so I can get on with my life"
I smiled.
Life is never on hold. There is no
"time out."
Now, in what seems to me a prolonged illness
I hear myself say, "If I had more energy I'd..."
And I remember
There's no room for
"if only's" in life.
It goes on.
Life is not a cautionary tale.
It's a gift. Enjoy it.
The Library: Public Health
- The Coming Plague, Laurie Garret, Penguin Books, 1994
- Betrayal of Trust: the Collapse of Global Public Health, Laurie Garret, Hyperion, 2000,
The Library: Wildlife and Insects
- Insects Through the Seasons, Gilbert Waldbauer, Harvard University Press, 1996,
- Your Backyard Wildlife Year, Marcus Shneck, Rodale Press, 1996
- Peterson Field Guide: Insects, Donald J. Borror, Richard E. White, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1970
- Bugs, Beetles, Spiders, Snakes. Ken Preston, et al, Quintet Publishing Limited, 2004
The Library: PLANTS WE LIVE WITH
- Identifying and Harvesting Edible and Medicinal Plants in Wild (and Not-So-Wild) Places , Wildman Steve Brill, William Morrow/Harper Collins Publishers, New York, 1994
- Who Named the Daisy? Who Named the Rose? Mary Durant, Congdon & Weed, Inc., 1973
- Wayside Wildflowers of the Pacific Northwest, Dr. Dee Strickler, The Flower Press, 1993
- Natural History of Vacant Lots, Matthew F. Vessel and Herbert H. Wong, University of Californisa Press, 1971
- Edible and Useful Plants of California, Charlotte Bringle Clark, University of California Press, 1971
- Common Weeds of the United States, United States Department of Agriculture, Dover Publications, 1971
The Library: MEDICINE
- You Are Being Lied To: The Disinformation Guide to Media Distortion, Historical Whitewashes, and Cultural Myths, Editor Russ Kick, The Disinformation Company Ltd., 2001: see esp Poppycock, Jim Hogshire, pg 245
- Medicinal Plants of the Mountain West, Michael Moore, Museum of New Mexico Press, 1979
- Making Plant Medicine, Richo Cech, Horizon Herbs, 2000
- Where There Is No Dentist, Murray Dickson, Hesperian Foundation, 1983
- Where There Is No Doctor, David Werner, Hesperian Foundation, 1980
The library: Gardening
- The Gardener's Guide to Common-Sense Pest Control, William Olkowski, et al, The Taunton Press, 1995
- Gardening With Nature, Leonard Wickendon, The Devlin- Adair Company, 1953
- WEEDS- Guardians of the Soil, Joseph A. Cocannouer, Devlin- Adair Company, 1950
- The Backyard Orchardist, Stella Otto, OttoGraphics, 1993
Labels
- Building (5)
- Chickens and Eggs (1)
- Chickens and Eggs (3)
- Compost (1)
- Direction (1)
- EARTH (5)
- Energy (2)
- Food (10)
- Gardening (16)
- Heart and Spirit (12)
- Home (4)
- Medicine (4)
- Water (4)
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