Really Want To Be Depressed?

Look at this. I stumbled across this rambling around the web. Just more debris in the Information Age.

On the Eleventh Day. . .Shorthaired Hippies

hippie

A member, during the 1960s and 1970s, of a countercultural movement that rejected the mores of mainstream American life. The movement originated on college campuses in the United States, although it spread to other countries, including Canada and Britain. The name derived from "hip," a term applied to the Beats of the 1950s, such as Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac, who were generally considered to be the precursors of hippies. Although the movement arose in part as opposition to U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War (1955-75), hippies were often not directly engaged in politics, as opposed to their activist counterparts known as "Yippies" (Youth International Party)

Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.

hip·pie also hip·py (hĭp'ē)
n. pl. hip·pies
A person who opposes and rejects many of the conventional standards and customs of society, especially one who advocates extreme liberalism in sociopolitical attitudes and lifestyles.

[From hip2.]
hip'pie·dom n.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.

This is what our kids think we are:

Heck, I even use the term to describe myself at times. But how often do you stop and think what you really are saying when you use the term, hippie? I've been thinking about it quite a bit lately, as with many things having to do with language and what citizens are trying to describe when they speak. Couple that with how each person chooses to live and you have a wasp's nest to try and figure out.

I guess through the years I have focused on the following part of the definition more than others: A person who opposes and rejects many of the conventional standards and customs of society. Much is made of the parts that I choose to ignore, but think about what I'm focusing upon and think of what has happened this past year. Does an reasonably intelligent person think the standards and customs of our society are working for the common man? Does government and big business care about anything but themselves, profits and preserving the status quo? Maybe Thomas Jefferson was a hippie before the term was coined. He advocated abolishing government and the constitution every 19 years and starting over because some people would think of themselves before the good of all.

I'm not thinking so much about government and what it does or doesn't do for and to me. I guess I've given up on them and will "render unto Caesar what is Caesar's." Concerning the rest, I'll be a hippie.

I'll drive an old car with dents and rust because the people in the car are more important. A car is a tool, not a lifestyle statement. My ego isn't built by the size or cost of the car I drive. Point A to point B with a task.

Better yet, I will ride a bike. To feel wind and rain in my face. Not because I'm trying to be a hipster messenger cool cat. Because I like to ride a bike. And maybe I don't have to assuage my ego by driving a jacked up 3/4 ton piece of steel and aluminum that helps keep the Saudis in Bentleys and caviar.

I'll eat food that I have helped my family raise or someone locally has grown. Not food imported from across the country or hemisphere. And if I want strawberries, I'll buy them in May from the fruit stands around my town and not go to Savemart and buy them in January, even if the store has them for sale. I will have omelets with the eggs laid by chickens I feed each day.

If I see my fellow man in need, I will try to help to the best of my abilities. I will help with what I have, not from what I can buy.

I will wear used clothes when possible, from a variety of sources. The clothes will be worn until unusable, and then re used in a new way.

I will get every use from a foodstuff, product or object that I can. Egg shells will be used in the garden. Orange peels will be sliced to deter pets. Coffee grounds will scrub body and be composted for worms. Leaves and table scraps will make new soil.

I will try to make Reduce, Reuse, Recycle a truth and not a slogan.

And I am fortunate to have someone who not only wants to do the same, but shows me the way many times.

And I am thankful this is who my family is:

On the Tenth Day of Vacation. . .

These titles are starting to sound somewhat like I am decadently lazy, but anyone in education knows that's not entirely true. I claim no privilege for what I am about to say, but I think because I teach six weeks of summer school I have a better sense of what a working man lives through in a year than many teachers. We've all heard the old story about becoming a teacher to enjoy the summers off? Not this bloke. But we teachers do live in a different environment than many. Not better, not worse, just an alternate.

My "vacation" has been spent with family, reading for pleasure (English teachers don't get much of that during school; nature of the job.), working around the house. This manual labor is welcomed by me, but can get a bit overwhelming. At this time I have repaired some drawers. I'm getting pretty good at this and have a system that staves off the broken beasts for a while. I also attacked the creeping fig which is growing like kudzu on a few fences. One fence partially clear, filling the green waste dumpster, another to go.

This is also the time of leaves and moving them to the compost areas. I enjoy raking leaves; there is something visibly accomplished when done. The garden is growing again and the leaves will be a part of the replenishing for more gardens.

The book I'm reading now is Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer by Novella Carpenter. Novella lives in Oakland, CA and we discovered her blog, Ghost Town Farm, about a year ago when we were starting our Suburban Sharecroppers garden and blog. The book seems to be a detailed explanation of what she calls urban farming, farming on a personal scale on a vacant lot in inner city Oakland. It is a gritty look at farming in the city as well as other trials and difficulties. I expect to finish it too soon. Too soon meaning I wish it was longer because I'm enjoying it and have become engrossed in the subject. Wish I had more time to read such books. Just a look back at the last few days.

On the 5th Day, Part Dos. . .

What a day! God leads us in mysterious ways and today was no exception.





But this time is about God, Christ and family.



And praying/thinking of those in need.



Feliz Navidad, Vaya con Dios!

On the Fifth Day of Respite. . .

I'm going to engage in some work on the house that might finally bring us closer to finishing the back splash on the kitchen sink. I really dislike cutting Hardibacker and Durock. Nasty particles set in motion in the air to breathe. Great product for its application, but not easy to cut with the tools I have, especially cutting holes out for the multiple outlets I put in the wall and too cheap to purchase better tools. I am truly happy to be near finishing something though.


It'a been fun to have all the children around, especially to see them interact with each other. I'm sure some new stories are going to be created this two weeks.


Some of the Derrs are due in town today. I'm sure that will be a smashing time. All of these ladies work hard and it would be nice to see them rest a bit. Well, maybe Annie could work out a bit more.

On the Third Day of Vacation. . .

Sam is home, and his clothes followed a day behind.




Because of Maureen's work the patio is cleaner than it's been in years.





I followed Sam's lead and did the out of ordinary. Sam jumps out of perfectly good airplanes. I cut and scraped the grass off of a baseball infield. Though the grass wasn't perfect, nor good.





Mostly I took pictures of Darren, Marshall and Mike working. I was the gopher, did some sod cutting with the cutter that vibrated like a jack hammer, and ferried the Bobcat like tractor. I had a hankering to spin a donut with it in the middle of what will be our infield, knowing that the laser leveler will mask my fun. But I thought better of abusing borrowed equipment.

On the Second Day of. . .

Have I said before that teachers relish vacations as much or more than students? Two more semi-regular days, plus two more Finals Testing days and the Mid year feast we teachers call "The Grading of Huge Amounts of Papers" commences. That precedes the onslaught of Christmas.

All in all, a great week ahead.

What Comes First? Knowledge or Wisdom, or Age?

Do we weep in old age because of what is lost?

Or that we finally have wisdom and can understand what is lost?

Or what might be lost?

And what is really important becomes evident to oneself?

'Tis the season!

In more ways than one.

Woody Guthrie With a Question

Borrowed this from a blog friend of Maureen's, Pampered Mom.

Reminds me of another Guthrie song, "Taxes Upon the Farmer Feed Us All." I've shown this one before, but its still good.