Waking up

I used to get angry at individual people for their ignorance; sometimes I think I would even get frustrated at their lack of insight on issues of sustainability.  I've finally gotten to the point where I understand the time that it takes to move through life toward enlightenment of a sort--seeing things for what they are without all of the rhetoric and advertising that surrounds them.  You have to wake up and start the journey to this place, and that is not easy to do.  First you have to wake up when everything in our American culture works to keep us sleeping or not thinking about the issues that really matter:  Television, hollywood, keeping up with the neighbors, advertisements that tell us who we are or who to be, thoughts of getting ahead/racing to the top, buying more stuff, all of these work to pacify us and lull us into a false security.  Even if a person manages to wake up, she has to sift through all the clutter of this American shattered dream to figure out what really matters.  That process could take years.

While I am angry still at our systems and processes and the propaganda of those seeking to remain in power,  I have some empathy for the Americans who are still trying to wake up.  I also realize that we can't always stop our government from creating wars and making terrible decisions about the welfare of our own people or the people of other countries.  We can speak out, but that isn't always enough.  We can demonstrate that there are other ways to live.  We can start change in our own communities.  We can create a sense of real community and caring based on things that truly matter to those living here.  We can choose to be done with the things that someone else says should matter to us, and instead we can reprioritize.  I'm not really sure what this might look like but maybe it means we need to tell the schools what we want them to teach instead of listening to some test designer in Washington D.C.  Maybe we need to create a community garden or some other shared cooperative.  Maybe we need to demand better work hours so that we can contribute to our local communities rather than being a slave to a company that doesn't really care about us or our neighbors.  Maybe not participating in the traditional economy that benefits stock market gamblers is the best thing we can do to regain our sense of self.

Shopping Local

With all of the talk about buying local food,  I began to think beyond that and to identify other ways that we shop local and support the real local economy.

I was overjoyed to realize just how local we really are.  I mean we try to shop the farmers market and we get a farm box from Farm Fresh to You, but other things are really difficult to buy local (or so it seemed).  Here's my list after I thought about things for a few minutes:   We get our haircut less than a mile from home at locally owned and operated Silver Star Salon--Tammy and her sister are great!  Thanks to my friend Colleen for the referral.  We get our exercise locally at Cerezo's martial arts ( the guys take Karate and I do cardio kickboxing with a great bunch of women).  Our daughter takes dance at Encore Studio of Performing Arts.  We have our car serviced at Hal's Auto Care.  We shop Green Acres Garden Supply.

When we were thinking about buying a new car, we finally came to the conclusion that we would have to give up all of our activities in order to make the car payment.  If I think about things beyond just the activities, those local business that we are supporting have employees who are supporting families, so we are giving up more than just our activities and interests.  I'd much rather keep the old car (at least until someone comes up with a better fuel option) and support my local economy and get the great personal service that goes along with using a locally/family owned business!

Now I've just got to find some good local places for clothing, shoes, etc.

some news this morning: "Iran has 'proof' scientist US killed scientist"

link to news article scientist in Iran assassinated

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2012/0114/breaking6.html

There was no doubt in my mind that either the United States or someone close to them had done this.  After all we assassinated Osama Bin Laden, why wouldn't we take out another threat?

This callous disregard for reality (we are not the good guys and they are not the bad guys) is disgusting.  What right do we have to take this man's life or set up for someone else to do our dirty work.