Tuesday, September 30, 2008
One Person's Future Is Another's Past
I belong to an email group in the Nashville area that is titled "ecology". I joined the group because I wanted to meet other people who are also interested in the environment. (The group has monthly, in-person meetings, but unfortunately they are usually in some far-away destination like Lewisburg or Humphreys County. The one time there was a meeting close to us, were were out of town).
Anyway, as I read the email posts, I find I am not quite in harmony with these good folks as to what constitutes living in harmony with our environment.
For example, a recent thread contained lots of information about "How To Get Ready for the Future". I guess this is in light of recent economic events.
I expected to see the usual stuff about reducing energy usage and so forth.
And while I do agree that we are sometimes too interdependent on each other for goods and services, I was very amazed to see the following information posted on the group. Some suggestions are good, like growing protein crops, making cheese, and raising chickens, while others are downright weird, imo.
Here's the downlow:
growing protein/carb rich crops like sweet potatoes, white potatoes, beans, and grains
caring for dairy animals and making cheese and yogurt
raising chickens/other livestock/hunting wild game and knowing how to dress and preserve it
knowing how to care for, ride, and drive horses, and how to make tack for them
knowing how to use simple tools to work wood and metal into everyday useful items like hoes, hair and toothbrushes, buckets, bicycle parts (good luck on handmade bike chains!)
knowing how to make/fix acoustic musical instruments, including how to make guitar and violin strings from gut
knowing how to make shoes and buttons
knowing how to make matches, or bowdrill skills to make fire
knowledge of medicinal plants, how to grow/make/apply them, including that basic preventive medicine, SOAP--not gourmet soap but simple, everyday soap
skin stitching and bonesetting skills
making/mending clothing--how to darn/knit/make socks (there are enough clothes around right now to last us a decade or so, but sooner or later we're going to need something new to stay warm/keep the sun off our asses)
knowing how to build a house in the old-fashioned, pre-stick framing ways, including hewing timbers and cutting planks by hand, making and sharpening saws, chisels, and files/whetstones, chimney construction, how to make your own mortar, thatch/wood shingle roofs that reliably shed water
how to make writing implements and paper---as with soap, not gourmet paper but something that will work for daily use--as our old clothes start to wear out, i guess they will come in handy for this!
improvising fixes for solar electric systems from old car parts
I guess the main ones I think are weird are, making writing instruments and paper, "as our old clothes start to wear out"!!! yikes; handling horses, ok, that's find but making tack???? I don't plan on riding horses anywhere for transportation, especially not to a meeting of this group in Lewisburg, and finally...making shoes???? Get real! I am not a woman who accumulates vast amounts of shoes, and Jimmy Choos are something I only know of from Sex and the City, but come on...making our own shoes??
This is one person's vision of the future, but imo, it looks too much like a vision of the past.
What are your thoughts?
Anyway, as I read the email posts, I find I am not quite in harmony with these good folks as to what constitutes living in harmony with our environment.
For example, a recent thread contained lots of information about "How To Get Ready for the Future". I guess this is in light of recent economic events.
I expected to see the usual stuff about reducing energy usage and so forth.
And while I do agree that we are sometimes too interdependent on each other for goods and services, I was very amazed to see the following information posted on the group. Some suggestions are good, like growing protein crops, making cheese, and raising chickens, while others are downright weird, imo.
Here's the downlow:
growing protein/carb rich crops like sweet potatoes, white potatoes, beans, and grains
caring for dairy animals and making cheese and yogurt
raising chickens/other livestock/hunting wild game and knowing how to dress and preserve it
knowing how to care for, ride, and drive horses, and how to make tack for them
knowing how to use simple tools to work wood and metal into everyday useful items like hoes, hair and toothbrushes, buckets, bicycle parts (good luck on handmade bike chains!)
knowing how to make/fix acoustic musical instruments, including how to make guitar and violin strings from gut
knowing how to make shoes and buttons
knowing how to make matches, or bowdrill skills to make fire
knowledge of medicinal plants, how to grow/make/apply them, including that basic preventive medicine, SOAP--not gourmet soap but simple, everyday soap
skin stitching and bonesetting skills
making/mending clothing--how to darn/knit/make socks (there are enough clothes around right now to last us a decade or so, but sooner or later we're going to need something new to stay warm/keep the sun off our asses)
knowing how to build a house in the old-fashioned, pre-stick framing ways, including hewing timbers and cutting planks by hand, making and sharpening saws, chisels, and files/whetstones, chimney construction, how to make your own mortar, thatch/wood shingle roofs that reliably shed water
how to make writing implements and paper---as with soap, not gourmet paper but something that will work for daily use--as our old clothes start to wear out, i guess they will come in handy for this!
improvising fixes for solar electric systems from old car parts
I guess the main ones I think are weird are, making writing instruments and paper, "as our old clothes start to wear out"!!! yikes; handling horses, ok, that's find but making tack???? I don't plan on riding horses anywhere for transportation, especially not to a meeting of this group in Lewisburg, and finally...making shoes???? Get real! I am not a woman who accumulates vast amounts of shoes, and Jimmy Choos are something I only know of from Sex and the City, but come on...making our own shoes??
This is one person's vision of the future, but imo, it looks too much like a vision of the past.
What are your thoughts?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
