Ya'll knows that Aunty Belle is is a fan of Wendell Berry--a poet, novelist, farmer, who lives in Rabbit Hash Kentucky...can it git better'n that? Been readin' his most recent essay. He makes an interestin' point on cheap oil.
Imagine any industry we got and then try ter(to) think of it wif'out cheap petroleum...the oil that runs all that farm machinery, or provides the plastic bags stuff is shipped in, medicine is stored in, etc.
'Course he is makin' a play fer local sufficiency, and he wants us to notice how important each job in a local market is. We's all links in our local chain of life.
So I went downstairs after lolly-gaggin' in the baid (bed) ter make some cawfee (java)and thought of how mad I gits (get) when cawfee is 10 slams a pound! But...mah (my) goodness, iffin' (if) we didin't have oil powered ships ter send Aunty Be her mornin' java, why...I'd be sippin' chicory, I reckon. We doan (don't) grow no cawfee in USA.
Then I'se unloadin' the dishwasher and puttin' purty (pretty) glasses away...sparkling lil' rainbows across the ceiling....old timey folks saved glasses fer weddin's or christenings....otherwiswe they drunk outa stoneware mugs...glass meant a glassblower an' thar (there) warn't many of 'em....I guess we still make glasses in the USA, but Berry has warned us that we ought be thinkin' of how we gonna manage if we cain't import ever'thang we need or want. Ain't so much manufacturin' goin' on no more round heah (here).
Then I took mah lady-like porcelain cup into the dog-pen garden ter check what was still alive in this July heat. (onc't had a dawg, a black lab, but he got his wings and now I got his dog pen fer mah container garden)
Basil and parsely doin OK, the tomatoes is strugglin' and look real weary, (see above) strawberries is fried on edges of they leaves, morning glories lost they glory now--all leaves no flowers, the weeds is gettin' a toe-hold. This is partly mah(my) own fault...been a mite busy, but mostly it is mah tryin' ter make things perform beyond they natural design. Local growers know that july and august ain't a good time ter grow much in Florida heat. Time to let the dirt rest.
Berry says that we over educate folks in book learnin'; under educate in real life. We take a kid interested in the outdoors and animals and plants and turn that kid into a molecular biologist who spends her days lookin' at computer models and never gits outside. Mah kids tell of new designs in virtual realities whar the phone is gonna be a hologram of the person youse yakkin' wif...no need to go "see" Uncle Aloysius since ya kin jes' (just) dial up his hologram. Ya kin even leave a pre recorded visual fer ya kin & friends.
One question is this:would ya rather have a real peachy peach however infrequently or a chemically simulated fuzz ball tastin' similar to a peach anytime ya want?
What about relationships? Rather have a real relationship wif all the thorns as well as the roses, or one you control completely, those japanese programed life sized dolls fer instance? She can be programed to respond to yore (your) key in the door: "OOOh, darlin' was it rough day for you? C'mon over here and let me soothe you."
Ya' never ever has ter hear "thank goodness you're home, the sink is stopped up and I have a headache, so supper is leftovers."
Well....them weeds in the dog-pen garden is lookin better..they's at least real weeds and it does mean that the dirt works. I'll take the real garden, even in the heat, afore I give up and resort to plastic flowers sprayed wif' rose scented air freshener.
3 comments:
/bark bark bark
i agree with the idea that we have lost a certain knowledge that knows the earth and the seasons, the creatures. you watching your garden and the seasons of birth and youth, vigor and death, regeneration...the cycle of life and the order of nature. were too removed from our natural self; our world is too anteseptic.
aunty, you KNOW i am doing all i can to put my $ in order, cash out and go "back to the land" as soon as my four paws can get there. Im about 2 years out.
God willing i will be part time farmer K9 in the near future. God bless wendell barry. how many can hear his call?
/grrrrrrrr
i'm all for local sufficiency. i believe the problem lies in the fact that we all live such hectic lives these days that we have just plumb forgotten what makes nature tick, much less, to get anything to grow in it. we are so much into our easy conveniences. for many, it is just so much easier to get that hot house tomato from that giant air conditioned supermarket. many of us are such air conditioned folks it's pitiful. and i am just as guilty.
of course, all this makes me think about global warming. pretty soon, we'll be able to swim down many Manhattan streets if all are frigid spots in this world keep on melting away.
Yeah...give me the real peach every once in a while, and the relationship with roses and thorns-
So much wisdom in that.
Life can't be sweet and wonderful all the time- no matter how hard I try to make it so.
The thing that bugs me most is how we run when we ought to stop- in the rain, or in this heat- people go and go and go, not because they should, because they can.
I'm guilty of it too.
But trying to change~
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