Backpacks were shrugged off as we reached the end of the gravel lane. Bean declared to her brother, “I look on the left - you look on the right.”
“I always look right!”
Let’s stop this before it balloons. I interjected, “I will look both ways too,” and waded onto the domed center of the asphalt road. High stepping with the thrill of illicit I called out as I scanned the horizons for cars. “Why is it so much fun to go into the road?”
The crickets sang to us from the tree line.
“Because it is cheating!” A big grin split Dragon’s face.
I laughed. “It is cheating.”
He continued, “because you are breaking the law and nobody knows!”
“I hear a car, let’s go back to the side. Don’t run.”
We have a long stretch of straight road on either side of our lane where we need to meet the bus. At least half a mile on either side keeps us safe during the slow traffic times in the morning.
Apparently when George Eastman invented the Brownie camera people did not understand why anyone needed a personal handheld camera. So he created a marketing plan and here we are 124 years later. People take pictures of their food for others to thumbs up on social media. Who knows what Eastman would think about that.
I understand wanting to have evidence of your life, your doings, your thoughts. That is, after all, one of my motivations to write letters to my children - but then I realized that my website, my postings, all of this is predicated on huge servers being kept cold with fossil fuels.
I was once in the audience for a panel of diary farmers. ”It used to take 6 weeks to harvest hay and bring it into the barn. Now with machinery, it can be done in a day and a half. The funny thing is, it is not as though I am sitting twiddling my thumbs for the extra five and a half weeks that I used to take haying.”
I was thinking about this recently when mowing around bits of fern pushing forth in the grass. I will come back later with the grass shears and unveil the rest of them.
A park, I found a park!
Envisioning a morning walk among the shade to greet the birds and buzzing friends, I set forth.
To find the patina of nature, the bare minimum to check the boxes
Uniform green lawn, uniform plantings of adolescent trees along the road, rocks without snuggling flowers*
“Will I be on the same bus as Bean?”
“Yup!”
A huge grin split Dragon’s cheeks, “Oh good!”
And I get to take all of the alphabet letters off the wall and think about how to utilize the chalkboard in a different way.
About 14 years ago I purchased a “grounding sheet” for us to use to connect to the frequency of the earth. We used it until the silver fibers fell apart from the cloth and then life moved on. At the time, there was one place I could find on the internet that sold such things - and I am sure it was listed on QuackWatch.
Now you can purchase grounding bedsheets on Amazon. There are many many choices. Some of the companies also want to sell you red lights and infrared saunas. In other words, it is rabbit hole. You can purchase grounding shoes - which might augment your grounding efforts if you cannot walk around for 10-15 minutes a day barefoot.
Dearest Beloveds, as the two of you navigate the world of capitalism and your own want monsters - I want to reiterate a thought.
I just read Morgan Housel’s The Psychology of Money:Timeless lessons on wealth, greed, and happiness. My key takeaways are threefold:
#1 Compounding interest does its magic only if you give it enough time.
#2 The unexpected will happen and your life goals will shift.
#3 It is preferable to be wealthy than rich.
All three of these are important to grok as you grow. The first is a mathematical fact. The second is common sense.* It is the last nugget I want to expand.
Branches groan under soft tender flesh and hard pits
Can this be our life?
To wander rows, looking for a deeper color
Pick a peach warm from the tree
“The dance party was really great. When is the next one?”
“When do you want to host one?”
Ahhhh, not quite what I meant. But I can’t pretend that doing something useful didn’t cross my mind. “I don’t think we are up for a dance party - but a garden party to honor what is happening in Uganda - that sounds like fun.”
Dearest Beloveds,
When I was in my early tweens I came home from school after a parent presentation from Senator Al Gore about the J curve and global warming.*
I was very upset and Baba took me on a walk. “Dad! There are too many people on this planet and not enough resources! Did you know there is trash in the ocean? There is rain that has so much acid in it that statues are MELTING!”
I remember him taking a deep breath and turning to me. “Don’t worry, Corinna, technology will save us.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, there are very smart people out there who are working on this now and it will be okay.”
My beloveds, I am never going to tell you that technology will save us from the mess we have made on our Mother: the Earth.
There are three reasons why: 1) the physical needs of technology directly harm the earth 2) technology separates us from the present moment 3) technology is the latest iteration of human supremacy that created the schism in the first place.