Something to Think About

The following is an excerpt from an article by Jerry Mander. I found it interesting and a bit frightening.

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There's a missing link in the discussion (on ecomomic growth), ignored by nearly everyone in the mainstream debate: nature. They speak about our economy as if it were a separate entity, its own ever-expanding universe, unconnected to any realities outside itself, not embodied within a larger system from which, actually, it emerged and can't escape. Nature cannot be left out of the discussion. It may be the most important detail of the entire conversation. Leaving it out of consideration is, well, suicidal. Here's the point: never-ending growth on a small planet with finite resources is a profound impossibility. It's an absurdity. A fantasy. It's time to wake up.

The whole situation is something new for capitalism, a shock. For two centuries it's been like a closely guarded secret that the entire economic system we live in, and assumed was forever, is actually part of another larger system, but with only so many resources and dump sites. But the secret is out. We are eating up the materials that sustain us, and the feast is almost over.

During the great heydays of capitalism – the last two centuries of spectacular development and growth – we lived in what the great ecological economist Herman Daly called a "full world" of resources. We thought they were unlimited, some kind of permanent gift to the human race from God, so we could display our stewardship, or something. But it's not a "full world" any more. Somebody should tell our leaders.

Watch for the big announcement: THE PARTY IS OVER. Without ever-expanding resources, ever-expanding production and consumption, our economic growth model becomes a relic, instantly obsolete. But so far, no one in leadership roles is admitting to that. If they know it, they're too scared to say so.

So, we are left with a profound dilemma: do we serve the short-term interests of profits and growth? Or do we face reality and serve long-term planetary survival? How to solve one problem without exacerbating the other? So far, the decisions have favoured the corporate side, as usual. But circumstances may change that.

President Evo Morales of Bolivia, the only head of state from an indigenous heritage, made his position clear, first in Copenhagen, and then in Cochabamba: "We have a stark choice between capitalism and survival," he said. "The countries of the world have failed in their obligations … Either capitalism lives or Mother Earth lives."

The conclusion is clear. From here on, no one gets off easy. Everyone's in the same boat, caught in the same systemic conflict. The conundrums apply as much to Morales as to Obama. Growth is over, and they need a real, clear vision of a way forward. That's true for all of us. Surely it's time to agree that the first step is to start drawing curtains on an obsolete, out-of-date system that could kill us all, and to shape a new one. Which brings us to the good news.

The universal quest is to define systems that that can deliver economic sufficiency and equity, permanently, while remaining within the carrying capacities of the planet. Most accept that systemic economic growth will soon be over, though growth is encouraged in specific timely activities – for example, certain renewable energy forms, local agriculture practice, sustainable building and the arts. Other ingredients of a new economy that some groups advocate include:

• Adoption of an international "oil depletion protocol" for an orderly, equitable decline of fossil-fuel use and a transition to less total energy use; a commonly used term for this is "powering down" – that is, aiming at minimum energy for sufficiency and equity.

• Universal emphasis on conservation and efficiency in all activities.

• Emphasis on localisation not globalisation (thus reducing negative impacts of global transport). Local production for local consumption, especially in crucial areas such as food, housing and energy. Restrictions on the conversion of food-growing lands. Emphasis on the revitalisation of sustainable local agriculture systems. On national levels, revival of the "import substitution" model; an emphasis on local production for essential needs, rather than trade. Greater regulation and less movement of capital across borders.

• Less long-distance shipping, not more.

That is the tiniest sample of what thousands of people are now discussing in various forums, including Cochabamba, World Social Forums and many others. For more information, I suggest internet searches of some of the following: Post Carbon Institute, Transition Towns movement, Center for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy, New Economics Institute, Global Footprint Network, Ecosocialist International Network, New Economy Working Group, ETC Group, The Story of Stuff, 350.org, left or green biocentrism, Dark Mountain Project, Indigenous Environmental Network, Tebtebba foundation, Food and Water Watch, Navdanya, Third World Network, International Center for Technology Assessment, Global Alliance for Rights of Nature, Rainforest Action Network, Institute for Policy Studies, International Forum on Globalization. These will doubtless lead to dozens of others.

Read the entire article at http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/oct/15/climate-change-economic-growth-capitalism

It makes me cry...but gives me hope.

For Sam ....our Superman

Our boy is in Louisiana this month being the 'bad guy' (training) for a battalion that will deploy to Afghanistan in the next few months. Prayers to all our brave men in uniform.

Going to Church

Maybe it's just me that needed to read this....but I just had to share.

(seriously....go read it!)

Garden Talley

I've been a bit remiss (don't you love that word?) in posting the garden totals this year, so here's a recap of what we've harvested from the garden(s) this year...

...so far.

January – 32 lbs.
4 lbs. broccoli

3 lbs. cabbage

2 lbs. lettuce

23 lbs. pecans

February - 47lbs.

21 lbs. broccoli

8 lbs. cabbage

5 lbs. lettuce

5 lbs. cauliflower

2 lbs. snow peas

6 lbs. oranges

March – 22 lbs.

1 lb. broccoli

2 lbs. cauliflower

4 lbs. lettuce

4 lbs. snow peas

5 lbs. potatoes

6 lbs. spinach

April - 89 lbs.

4 lbs. broccoli

3 lbs. cabbage

3 lbs. lettuce

1 lb. snow peas

35 lbs. potatoes

43 lbs. peas

May – 76 lbs.

43 lbs. potatoes

28 lbs. onions

5 artichokes

June –68 lbs.

8 lbs. potatoes

2 lbs. onions

3 lbs. carrots

37 lbs. beans

18 lbs. zucchini

July – 232 lbs.

13 lbs. onions

21 lbs. carrots

13 lbs. beans

7 lbs. zucchini

27 lbs. cucumbers

7 lbs. peppers

5 lbs. peaches

139 lbs. tomatoes

- 81 lbs. slicing

- 58 lbs. paste

566 lbs. total


So for the first 7 months of 2010 we have harvested a grand total of 566 lbs. In comparison, at this time last year we had a grand total of 319 lbs. ....but we hadn't started our sharecropping garden so that's not really a fair comparison. The tomatoes have actually been a disappointment this year. Despite harvesting more overall (in July) the production per plant was lower, and August totals will be significantly less than last year......sigh. But I've not quite given up hope yet. A lot of the plants are getting new growth and there are flower buds on them. We'll see if we can leave them in the ground long enough for fruit to develop. We have until the first few weeks of Oct. before we'll need to clean out the beds for our winter crops.

The race is on :)

Truth

You have to work hard to offend Christians. By nature, Christians are the most forgiving, understanding, and thoughtful group of peopleI've ever dealt with. They never assume the worst. They appreciate the importance of having different perspectives. They're slow to anger, quick to forgive, and almost never make rash judgments or act in anything less than a spirit of total love. . . . No, wait—I'm thinking of golden retrievers!

- From today's reading in "Our Daily Bread"
(thanks for sharing this Jean:)

Summer in the Kitchen

I love walking into the kitchen in the morning when the counters are covered with produce and cooling jars.

Tomato sauce, catsup and relish.

Everybody's Shot

-by Peggy Noonan, 2002

There's a small but telling scene in Ridley Scott's "Black Hawk Down" that contains some dialogue that reverberates, at least for me. In the spirit of Samuel Johnson, who said man needs more often to be reminded than instructed, I offer it to all, including myself, who might benefit from its message.
The movie, as you know, is about the Battle of the Bakara Market in Mogadishu, in October 1993. In the scene, the actor Tom Sizemore, playing your basic tough-guy U.S. Army Ranger colonel, is in charge of a small convoy of humvees trying to make its way back to base under heavy gun and rocket fire. The colonel stops the convoy, takes in some wounded, tears a dead driver out of a driver's seat, and barks at a bleeding sergeant who's standing in shock nearby:

Colonel: Get into that truck and drive.

Sergeant: But I'm shot, Colonel.

Colonel: Everybody's shot, get in and drive.

"Everybody's shot." Those are great metaphoric words.

Let me tell you how they seem to apply metaphorically. An hour before I saw the movie, I was with friends at lunch, and they filled me in on the latest doings in our beloved country while I was away. Cornel West is very, very angry at Larry Summers for suggesting that Prof. West shouldn't essentially perp-walk his way through the halls of academe. A Secret Service agent--a presidential Secret Service agent!--had a hissy fit when an airline pilot refused to let him board a plane carrying his gun with dubious paperwork. The agent is not only threatening a lawsuit, he says he doesn't want money when he wins. He wants the airline to be forced to give sensitivity training. I thought: I think someone needs sensitivity training all right, but I don't think it's the airline.

Just after the movie, I picked up Ellis Cose's latest book, "The Envy of the World," about the "daunting challenges" that face black men in 21st-century. I read and thought, Earth to Ellis: Everyone faces daunting challenges in 21st-century.

Because everybody's been shot.

What does that mean? It means something we used to know. It means everyone has it hard, everyone takes hits, everyone's been fragged, everyone gets tagged, life isn't easy for anyone.

I turn on morning television and see Rosie O'Donnell referring again to the fact that her mother died when she was young. This of course is very sad, and Rosie has spoken of its sadness very often, and with a great whoosh of self-regard. Her sympathy for her loss made me think, the other day: She doesn't really know that other people lost their mothers when they were young. She doesn't really know that some people never even had mothers.

She doesn't know everybody's been shot.

I put on HBO and see their new young poet's show. Young poets--well, they say they're poets; I guess they're more like performance artists--come on and sort of strut around a stage and yell, and the more authentic their anger seems, the more the audience applauds and hoots. These poets seem attached to their separateness and in love with their grievance. "I am one angry Lebanese lesbian," "I am one angry NewYorican mother-lovin' whatever." They pour out their pain. But they don't actually seem to be in pain. They all look like they went to Brown and hang out downtown and have invested fully and happily in the Misery Industrial Complex. They look like they want an agent.

They're not old enough or, in spite of Brown, bright enough to know: Everybody's been shot.

A young friend of a friend is still so depressed by Sept. 11 that school and social life and going to a show are now out of the question. "I'm staying home. I'm hurting."

I know, I said a few days ago when we talked. But everyone's hurting, I explain. Then I thought of Tom Sizemore. "Everyone's been shot," I said, "ya gotta get in and drive anyway."

When I was a child in the old America, people said things like, "It ain't easy." Then they'd shrug. Or, "Whatta ya want, life ain't easy!" I think people actually sighed more in those days, issued forth big long sighs that said: Life is hard. There was a sort of general knowledge that each day would not necessarily be a sleigh ride, and that everyone hits bumps along the way, and some of them are really hard, and everyone sooner or later hits them.

But now, more so than in the past, something has grown in our country, grown perhaps because of good things like psychotherapy and bad things like group-identity politics. And that something is an increasing tender regard for one's own sensitivities and quirks and problems and woes--twinned with a growing insensitivity to everyone else's quirks and problems and woes.

This is not progress. If we became more aware of others instead of demanding that others be more aware of our needs, we would probably get a better fix on life, a better perspective, a better sense of everyone's context. We'd wind up more patient with others, more sympathetic. We could actually wind up sensitive to someone other than ourselves.

I sound earnest today. I am earnest today. But I will make this more fun. The week included the story of a congressman, who through no fault of his own, was humiliated, treated with great insensitivity. I am speaking of John Dingell, the Democrat from Michigan. Mr. Dingell, as you know, is an important veteran congressman who has grown used to--how to put it?--asserting his needs and seeing to it that they are met.

John Dingell was trying to get on a plane the other day when his artificial hip set off a magnetometer. He pointed out that it was an artificial hip, and I suspect he pointed out that he was a member of Congress who does not fit the prevailing terror profile. But you know what the security guards did? They took him into a side room, made him take off his pants and wanded him. John Dingell had to stand there in his underpants proving he wasn't carrying a gun.

When the story became public, the secretary of transportation called him and apologized. Mr. Dingell waved him off and told him it was OK, he understands, everyone's doing his job.

Now that's someone who knows that everybody's been shot.

Lay down softly in our sorrow
Lay down sister to die
And cover over, my sweet Father
Cover over her eyes

Your broken body, it cannot weather
The years your youth still longs to spend
So go down graceful, sleep with the angels
And wake up whole again

Cause it was not your time; that's a useless line
A fallen world took your life

But the God that sometimes can't be found
Will wrap Himself around you
So lay down, sister, lay down

Slower passing are the hours
To tell this tale that takes its time
But the finest moment, no man can measure
Is to look your Savior in the eyes

So take her tender to Your table
Take her from this killing floor
To taste the water that is forever
Let her be thirsty no more

It was not her time; that's a useless line
A fallen world took her life

But the God that sometimes can't be found
Will wrap Himself around you
So lay down, sister, lay down

And the God that sometimes can't be found
Will wrap Himself around you
So lay down, Rita, lay down

---Rita by Bebo Norman

First Day of School

Annie and Steve head off for their first day of another year at the High School.

:)

One time a cop pulled me over for running a stop sign. He said, "Didn't you see the stop sign?" I said, "Yeah, but I don't believe everything I read."

-Stephen Wright

Tomato Sauce....

....Finally!!!

This has not been the best year for tomatoes at the Garver home. The plants in our yard look great but because of the amount of shade they get are not as productive as they could be, and the ones in our shared garden look horrible....sickly and partially dying (the bottom half) so that the fruit is exposed to the sun which burns the skins. We've only been harvesting around 5-10lbs. a day which makes it kind of hard to do anything with them other than make fresh salsa. So I've been freezing them as they ripen and then I saved a few days worth on the counter. I think I ended up with 50lbs. total.

Dropped them into boiling water to loosen the skins....

...then cooked until softened.

While the tomatoes were cooking, I chopped our green peppers and onions...

....and sauted them with a bit of garlic and dried basil.

Pureed the tomatoes in the food processor....

...and used the food mill to get rid of the seeds.

Then the sauce is cooked some more...

...before being poured into hot quart jars.

Leaving a half-inch head space, the jars are wiped and sealed...

...before being carefully placed in the boiling water bath.

These boiled for 35 minutes....

...and Ta Da...13 quarts of organic tomato sauce....yippee yahoo! Now I just need to do this about 3 more times and we'll have enough for the winter:)

Carrot Juice

Because we actually harvested carrots this year, and are continuing to do so, I was able to juice the 8 lbs. we picked yesterday.

Steve is trying to hide the sweat on his shirt.

...note to self - garden chores need to be done in the morning!

Our kids will drink carrot juice in smoothies and with our handy dandy (Ebay purchased) juicer, it's a breeze to make.

Tho I am always underwhelmed by the amount of veggies it takes to make juice, we at least fed some of the pulp to the chickens, mixed some into our homemade dog food and the rest went into the compost pile....nothing wasted :)

Oregon Bound

We have relatives who live in the most wonderful places.....we should get out more! Last week on our way to Eugene, Oregon to scope out the place that Wilson will be spending the next 4 years (Lane JC, then UofO ) we spent the night at my sister and brother-in-laws house in Mt. Shasta CA. It's an absolutely beautiful setting and their view is breath-taking.

In the morning we ate breakfast on their deck.

The kids were...ahem... enthralled by their surroundings.

Happy 4th of July!

Spent a wonderful evening with friends watching the fireworks from the comfort of our lawn chairs (well....their lawn chairs).

Good food, good conversation, and teens lighting fires....good times!