Objective hazards are part of the language of mountaineers, explorers, adventurers of every ilk. Nature is objective in the extreme (neither for nor against).
Utopia is a wonderful idea - ignoring harsh realities serves no one.
Works is an exercise in seeking balance, the ever elusive and changing nature of Nature. And where the farmer in me exposes his soft underbelly, allowing the spirit of the Agrarian to speak.
Anyone will recognize hardship; some are shadowed by it; some seek it out; some deny its’ existence; some will deny anything. Some are just waiting for it to end.
The Kingdom of the Father will not come by expectation, the Kingdom of the Father is upon the Earth and men do not see it. Joseph Campbell from The Power of Myth.
This is more than an ideological quip - it is a searchlight for living and a good mantra.
Seek it out and it will find you.
Barely on the Grid:
Backcountry skier, hiker, cyclist, winter traveler (snowshoes, crampons, arctic gear), outdoorsman and risk taker all my life. Survivor from childhood abuse, gnawing poverty, scarcity, violence, rags to riches and back again. All of this led me here.
If you truly want to reduce your carbon footprint, try this; but you had better bring your spirits along because you’re going to need them.
This doesn’t make me a survivalist, armchair mercenary or any other thing for that matter. Barely on the grid simply means preferable to living in a cardboard box, under a bridge, the pallor of decrepit cities or sterile environs of our institutions.
A science experiment:
in the form of a competition held in my elementary school days. My choice was mice, since they were abundant in my childhood home (a blessing since rats and mice will not occupy the same niche) so catching a pair was fairly easy. Sequestering them in a box, they did what one would expect. Multiply (rapidly). By the time Show and Tell arrived there were dozens of mice in my exhibit. It didn’t win me an award but got me some attention (mostly out of a fear of accidental release).
Lacking the fortitude to release or destroy them resulted in doing my best to support this burgeoning population until day by day there were not more but fewer mice in my box. Their numbers curiously continued to decline until finally there was left but two, and then one.
That is when the lesson came home to me that overpopulation comes with consequences. Eating the babies is a thing commonly done in the animal kingdom when populations overwhelm resources. Eat the Babies became a slogan and metaphor for the heedless progresses of humanity. It even went global for a time in reference to some political rant or other. Not mine.
Objective hazards. Part of a natural order of things. Balance.
The particular world this one inhabits has shown me a way to reduce my impact, break the cycle of abuse and partially abate the lunacy; even balance to some degree a trajectory seen as unsustainable.
It is not always romantic. Being firmly grounded, aware of objective hazards, exposed to the elements. To me it is living fully. Convenience is relative. Paring down and simplifying has its’ merit. Consider the alternatives.
Is it any wonder people cannot see a paradise on Earth?
There’s a reason we don’t wade into the morass of current affairs here. There’s simply nothing to add to it. Nothing to be gained.
Evergreen:
a new to me term. Means the content is timeless. Seems a rarity. History is where the present is not.
Being unapologetic means what it means: the Spellbinders are real and when they wave their arms with politics they want to indoctrinate. They will not do well here because we prefer the timeless approach.
Adaptability is the mark of intelligence. All of their connotations will not save them in a blizzard. All of their technologies will not feed them if they irradicate the farmers.
Farmers adapt because it is necessary, not because of some grandiose ideal. From the moment the first seed was sown our destinies were joined. We will all be farmers, or we will all face a prospect of extinction.
Objective hazards:
they don’t care about our politics. The harsh realities of living kind of come with the territory. Paradise lies at the crossroads.
Here at Works we reject all notion that we are anything other than human.
Country Wit and Wisdom
Maybe some farmers don’t think a lot about the metrics; but they know a thing or two about culling the herds.
Living is good. All life is sacred. Nature will always seek a balance.
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Eat the babies! The term was foreign to me the first time you ever said it, but I have come to understand it more and more as time progresses.
Just couldn't get happy with this post. Eat the babies just seems too radical; in the end we shouldn't be held accountable of forces beyond our control. Objectivity (or the lack thereof) has a definition, scarce as hens teeth among people, but not nature. Objective hazards are taken literally. That leads us into the realm of harsh realities, things maybe best discussed around the fire among trusted friends. So what's a fella' to do? Well, mice are a thing, and they'll eat one another when necessary, and they're not alone in the practice. Me--not a mouse.