"The standard of the exploiter is efficiency; the standard of the nurturer is care. The exploiter’s goal is money, profit; the nurturer’s goal is health – his land’s health, his own, his family’s, his community’s, his country’s…The exploiter wishes to earn as much as possible by as little work as possible; the nurturer expects, certainly, to have a decent living from his work, but his characteristic wish is to work as well as possible. The competence of the exploiter is in organization; that of the nurturer is in order – a human order, that is, that accommodates itself both to order and to mystery. The exploiter typically serves an institution or organization; the nurturer serves land, household, community, place. The exploiter thinks in terms of numbers, quantities, “hard facts”; the nurturer in terms of character, condition, quality, kind."  ~Wendell Berry

What I want to be when I "grow up"

"I wish to be
an inspector of volcanoes.
I want to study cloud formations
and memorize the wind
and learn by heart the habits of
the ponderosa pine."
~Edward Abbey

Nothing

The Farmer with 84 Problems

(Excerpted from the book Wabi Sabi Simple: Create Beauty, Value Imperfection, Live Deeply By Richard R. )

Once, a farmer went to tell the Buddha about his problems. He
described his difficulties farming - how either droughts or monsoons
complicated his work. He told the Buddha about his wife - how even
though he loved her, there were certain things about her he wanted to
change. Likewise with his children - yes, he loved them, but they
weren't turning out quite the way he wanted. When he was finished, he
asked how the Buddha could help him with his troubles.

The Buddha said, "I'm sorry, but I can't help you."

"What do you mean?" railed the farmer. "You're supposed to be a great teacher!"

The Buddha replied, "Sir, it's like this. All human beings have
eighty-three problems. It's a fact of life. Sure, a few problems may
go away now and then, but soon enough others will arise. So we'll
always have eighty-three problems."

The farmer responded indignantly, "Then what's the good of all your teaching?"

The Buddha replied, "My teaching can't help with the eighty-three
problems, but perhaps it can help with the eighty-fourth problem."

"What's that?" asked the farmer.

"The eighty-fourth problem is that we don't want to have any problems."

"To attain knowledge, add things every day. To attain wisdom, remove things every day."

~Lao Tzu, from chapter 48 of the Tao Te Ching

Those who know do not talk.
Those who talk do not know.

Keep your mouth closed.
Guard your senses.
Temper your sharpness.
Simplify your problems.
Mask your brightness.
Be at one with the dust of the earth.
This is primal union.

He who has achieved this state
Is unconcerned with friends and enemies,
With good and harm, with honor and disgrace.
This therefore is the highest state of man.

Chapter 56, Tao Te Ching (Feng and English translation)

We are not unique

"Strangely enough, even as a population mass operating under unified corporate management machinery, most Americans believe they are unique individuals, significantly different from every other person around them. More than any other people I have met, Americans fear loss of uniqueness. Yet you and I are not unique in the least. Despite the American yada yada about individualism, you are not special. Nor am I. Just because we come from the manufacturer equipped with individual consciousness, does not make us the center of any unique world, private or public, material, intellectual or spiritual. The fact is, you will seldom if ever make any significant material or lifestyle choices of your own in your entire life. If you don't buy that house, someone else will. If you don't marry him, someone else will. If you don't become a psychologist, lawyer or a clergyman or a telemarketer, someone else will. We are all replaceable parts in the machinery of a capitalist economy. "Oh but we have unique feelings and emotions that are important," we say. Psychologists specialize in this notion. Yet I venture to say that none of us will ever feel an emotion that someone long dead has not felt, or some as yet unborn person will not feel. We are swimmers in an ancient rushing river of humanity. You, me, the people in my Central American village, the child in Bangladesh, and the millionaire frat boys who run our financial and governmental institutions with such adolescent carelessness. All of our lives will eventually be absorbed without leaving a trace."

~Joe Bageant, from "Escape from the Zombie Food Court"

I have been thinking a lot about...

..."self-sufficiency" or a more self-sufficient, sustainable lifestyle...and how far one can take that...how far I would want to take it...how far I am even capable of taking it....  This excerpt touches briefly upon what I see as the problems of modern non-self-sufficient life, as well as some of the reasons why one might entertain the idea (freedom, etc....).  Also, it touches briefly upon the real and sobering difficulty of actually entertaining seriously the idea that one might opt out of the bullshit that the modern society has become....

"Self-sufficiency by definition is a state in which someone or something can self-sustain oneself without using outside resources. If you take that statement literally, it is impossible to obtain. Each and every living creature on this planet is dependant upon outside resources in order to survive. For instance, all animals need food to live. Most animals (excluding humans and the animals we feed) hunt and gather food as they did thousands if not millions of years ago. The majority of humans on the other hand, rely on others to produce food. We are no longer hunters and the gatherers, but rather consumers. This interdependency for the most part works. Most people buy their food instead of foraging for food themselves. Of course, buying food means that we must have money. And in order to have money, most of us need a job. Thus starts the vicious circle that has gotten most of us removed from the basics of being self-sufficient.

Besides food, we need other things too - water, shelter and warmth. Again, most people today rely on outside resources to provide these things. People get their water from a faucet, live in a mortgaged home or apartment and rely on heat from an electric or gas utility company. So what does being self-sufficient mean in today's society?

We can be self-sufficient by using our own physical and mental skills to produce food, shelter and warmth in order to sustain one's own existence. It means not relying on others for things that you can do yourself. It is a way of life that reduces our dependency on external resources in order to live. Self-sufficiency for most homesteaders means rekindling the skills once commonly used by past generations: growing, raising and preserving food, making and repairing tools, cutting and drying firewood, mending and/or making clothes and even building a house or a barn.

This is by no means an easy feat. It requires a ton of self-discipline and a determination not found in most people. Especially in today's society where over the years we have grown accustom to depending upon others to provide for our basic needs. As technology makes life "easier", we move further and further away from the basics and lose the skills that once sustained us.

What is gained by self-sufficiency? A greater sense of freedom and greater control of one's life. You will also eat healthier knowing what went into growing and raising your own food. You will reduce your dependency on money and reduce your need to work a stressful, 60 hour per week (or more!) job. Instead of paying a repairman to fix something, you take pride in fixing it yourself.

How self-sufficient one becomes is entirely a personal decision. There are plenty of things to consider and weigh. It is up to each of us to determine how self-sufficient to become."

From here.

Self-sufficient, self-reliant, self-sustainable (whichever name you want to call it by) living is certainly not for the lazy or faint of heart.  I might add that it is also not for those who truly do give more than a rat's ass (which is most of us, myself included, I am afraid) about what society (in the form of neighbors, friends, family, those we may meet socially...) thinks about us.

Silence

This is the seventh of seven poems in a series.

Silence

Nothing is quieter than the Abbey Church
in the middle of the day when all the monks
are at work. Nothing is quieter and more still,
even when the footsteps of a passing monk
echo off the stone walls, and
the lawn mower is heard outside in the distance.

Nothing is quieter than the meditation hall,
even though full of lotus squatting bodies....I hear
the breathing of the bloke beside me.
And the city bus screeches to a halt
at the bus stop outside the window.

Nothing is quieter than this room at 3:00 AM,
even though the dog snores and
the fire crackles and pops in
the fireplace beside me, and
I hear the tires of a car on
the rain soaked pavement outside.

Nothing is quieter than these woods.
An airplane flies over, and I look up.
And then back to my footsteps on the trail,
and the crunching of leaves and twigs
Under my feet. And the wind in the branches,
and the chipmunk squeaking on the log
as I pass by.

Nothing is quieter than the lake at dawn
when the mist rises....
Even though the mourning doves coo
and the woodpecker makes his racket,
and my companion is still snoring in the tent.

Nothing is quieter than silently holding in my arms...
and stroking the hair of my wife...or my daughter....
Nothing is quieter in my heart than this.

Its all silence

Silent night, holy night.