 |
|
have abut 80 pages of Native American Studies reading to finish by next Saturday. Means I must concentrate on this.
Car needs to be smogged (for my EU/UK friends- have its biennial government-mandated check-up and [pray] pass California's emissions standards). This is going to take a bit of finagling of both time (I can't get to work without a car) and money (please, please let it pass without needing major work, or worse).
I really have to not spend too much time with news of politics, the economy, and world events. It's too easy to fall from 'have to get the car taken care of' to 'I'll be homeless living on twigs' if I read from the debates to the bail-out to Zimbabwe. That's false reasoning (or no reasoning, really), doesn't illuminate anything, steals energy I need to do the actual problem-solving required to be a good citizen, and prevents me from having any real understanding of just how dire things are in other places, like Zimbabwe. Not that that couldn't happen here- history proves anything can happen anywhere, as the very good book for Native American Studies is proving (well-researched and well-written, Indians in American History by Hoxie and Iverson). But it's not happening right-this-minute. I do not need to buy up 50 gallons of water and 10 gallons of gasoline (all I have storage for, myself) and curse myself for not drying 100lbs of apples this fall and burying nuts for winter. That's insane.
So, not too much of the 'news' (or as it should be more accurately called, bread and circuses). Concentrate on finishing uni, on staying (getting more) healthy, on saving money for summer.
Back to the book while my girl is still sleeping. She continues to slowly slip; progressive diseases are unforgiving. But her family loves her, and I'm amazed that it's two years I've been working here with them. It's an honor.
Post A Comment | Add to Memories | Tell a Friend | Link
|
|
This from the NYT- Shipping Costs Start to Crimp Globalization.
(prior links dump Here.)
What can you do about it?
City Farmer
Community Gardening and Kids
Community Greens
Moss in the City: Urban Gardening
Urban Gardening Magazine
ETA Pick Your Own gardens and farms in US, UK, Europe, Canada, Italy, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa</a>.
Perhaps you and some friends get together and lament not being in better shape. Can one of you donate land to a group project garden? Maybe all you have is a balcony in a climate with a short growing season. Can you grow herbs? sprout seeds?
Maybe you think it's inefficient to grow any of your own food. Well, maybe it is from a strictly commercial business point of view. But in terms of best use of the calories you take in / the calories you expend, which is more worthwhile? the giant pack from Costco or Tesco? or the oxygen-producing, carbon-dioxide reducing pot of chives or basil on your sill? The tomatoes you get from the pot on the balcony? the lettuce from the box on the verandah? Remember, even some flowers are edible. (I use nasturtiums in my salads. mmm, peppery!)
I dunno if the problems caused (to some extent, unwittingly) by globalizing trade and industrializing farming are all curably by home food farming. I do know that even if you have a 'black thumb', over time you can learn to listen to plants and come to recognize what it takes to have an honest relationship with sun-converting chlorophyll-using beings, and that in itself can be balm to a wounded soul, and help right some of the imbalance in the world.
Post A Comment | Add to Memories | Tell a Friend | Link
