Sometimes it is enough to know we can survive with far less than the standard american lifestyle, and how to do it. There is no reason not to keep a supply of escapist literature and a bit of chocolate on hand as well as extra underwear and socks! I shall not admit to the amount of yarn and fabric I have tucked away – it does make good insulation when stored in drafty corners. Going through older stored items can be as much fun as shopping if your memory is bad enough!

Like you, I’m susceptible to the momentary satisfaction of “shopping”…orgasm is, also, momentary—have you seen Rev Billy and his Church of NOT SHOPPING?????? But I do love to shop………….at my local gun shop!

These days, I’m putting my limited resources into garden tools, guns and ammunition. I aim to protect myself and my loved ones. Isn’t it amazing how many folks are beginning to feel this way? I long for the days when things seemed slow, long and peaceful. My fear is that those days are long gone. I can’t imagine any thinking person who isn’t trying to prepare for the change(s) to come. They will come, no doubt and no argument. Your degree of readiness and willingness to accept the change will pretty much define the scope of your life from hereon.

I wish I was more aware and ready. In fact, I’m scared shitless. As much as I thought I “knew”, I’m finding I don’t know near enough.

Thank you, Sharon, for broadening our knowledge and awareness.

Bill

You need some better fantasies!

For me, it’s a cold beer, and put the headphones on and pump some live Grateful Dead through them.

The Place of Wild Things

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the place of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world and am free.

I hope its okay to print someone else’s poem…it has brought me back on a dark, dark day. I hope it does the same for you and your readers…

You ask, “why is it that everyone I know in Real LIfe or the internet is really down down these days?”

I can imagine one reason – many of us feel abused by the President and Congress. They seem to be deliberately doing things to hurt us, they treat us as if we were stupid – they clearly have no respect for us. They ignore what some of us feel is important.

The lunch I bought at the local store for $4.50 last year is $7. Even without a soft drink tax, prices are up from 40 to 60 cents a 12 oz bottle or can. Including bottled water.

Working part time at the movie theater had few perks – free movies, movie passes for friends and family, free popcorn and drinks. That came to a halt last week.

Congress is apparently letting Obama’s union guys take over – and override the Right To Work laws passed by some 22 states.

The local veteran’s counselor at Job Services started a newsletter for veterans. Jobs dried up, retraining programs are oversubscribed, and Congress responded by making states pay another 14 weeks unemployment. States, I should note, that are already adjusting to reduced levels of revenue. Too bad that isn’t hampering our First Family.

Crop reports are mixed – some good, some bad, lots of corn and beans picked wet and dried – that is, consuming large amounts of fuel gas or electricity to do what might have been accomplished in the sun in the field – or the crop lost altogether to vagaries of weather. So, if farmers are often going broke, corn seed set to rise from $220 a bag (bushel equivalent for planting purposes) to $300 a bag for GMO/patented seed – the Big Three have bought out and closed down almost all their competitors, and credit of all kinds shrinking – how can we not presume that next year will see fewer farmers able plant fewer acres? Which means less food in the world.

Yes, open pollinated corn and other heritage preservation sources are still available for small scale use, that could expand in time to replace GMO seed. But the market and distribution channels have already been reorganized to handle all seed as if it were patented . . by the big three.

We have major disagreements of truth, belief, and policy being played out on national drive-by media. Diametrically opposed beliefs have most everyone being ridiculed by someone.

At the same time that the USDA is touting their “Get to know your famer” localization program, Congress proceeds with the Food Safety Enhancement Act to strangle all food production, transportation, and storage entities – including farm side and road side stands, farmers markets, grocers, and anyone selling candy for people or animals.

Perhaps you have hear the (tasteless) one-liner, “Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you enjoy the play?”

We have people distressed because others aren’t preparing for the coming troubled times, at the same time that others are peeved about doom-sayers and survivalist militia anti-capitalism tree huggers. We have people being called racist and bigoted because they criticize deliberate disrespect and untrue statements from others.

Thank goodness Sharon is already feeling better – she know the breadth and depth of the troubles facing America and the world, and the disarray of those that should be responding. Maybe she was just distracted by that “Easy on the eye” picture on PeopleOfWalmart.com.

Now I just finished reading an article on Wired.com that hard boiled eggs are getting tougher to peel. (It seems they get to the store fresher. Eggs peel easier after a few days.) I mean, the world seems to be falling apart, except it also looks almost like it has. But not like last year. Last year my thermostat was set at 62. Today it is set at 58. Will that last? I shudder to think it might get set lower. Shudder, lower, get it?

And, cloudy seasons like the last little bit, along with shorter days, shift our attention from building and growing to hibernating and waiting. Depression, especially fall-to-winter seasonal onset depression, might be an unrecognized natural response to the changing seasons. As more people retreat from the artificial brights and hots of the high-tech, single family dwelling, Double Income No Kids type of ideal life – we may need to find again what we should be adapting to, and not lamenting – or drugging ourselves – about not being “normal”. Normal for what, at this time of the year? I am not convinced we know anymore, as a culture.

Perhaps Sharon was nesting and adapting naturally yesterday, and today has retreated to the season-insensitive norm we have told, since the industrial revolution, is expected.

But if I had to guess about why your friends have been down – they had to pay their utility bills.

Thanks for this place, Sharon and you and your readers!

Peace to Us All,

Shamba