you sound upset

A message to my family.  A message to share.

---

So I wanted to write this email to y'all (and please feel free to forward
this on to other family members for whom I don't have email addresses)
because I think it's important to share my feelings about the direction of
change in this country, on this planet.  With the bail-outs of Fannie Mae
and Freddie Mac, AIG, Bear Stearns, and who knows who else tomorrow, each
family in this country could owe something on the order of maybe 70,000
dollars- to whom, I'm not sure.  There is a toxic debt pile building up
that I hope you are all aware of, and this is very dangerous.  From what I
understand, there is little to no precedent for this kind of economic
irresponsibility.  Banks are collapsing, being bought out by larger
corporations (thanks JP Morgan) who are then being subsidized by the
Federal Reserve, which prints up so much unbacked currency it's
disgusting.  One friend of mine wants to call and ask for a pittance, a
million and a half, from the Fed- you know, just to pump up his bank
account.  Another good friend has pointed out that property, at least in
her neck of the woods, is at ridiculous lows, and she can't understand why
money isn't being put into land trusts for growing food, especially in
poor areas, where the houses are being knocked down as we speak.

This is a very precarious moment, economically, socially, and family-wise.
Our country has been sucked dry, our fields planted in soy and corn, if
planted at all, our food filled with palm oil and corn syrup, our banks
inflated like floats in a parade, our legislature packed with corporate
ambassadors, filling our ears with backwards talk about war and terror,
our televisions flashing us with images of beautiful mountain streams
before inundating us with meaningless names like DOW, BP, HUMMER,
MICROSOFT, SPRITE, etc, etc, etc.

Our children will have no future here.  That is the truth.  At least not
the way things are right now, and the changes to bring things more into
order are not easy, by any means.  We have little infrastructure for the
rapidly approaching time when food must be grown locally- fortunately, we
have movements like Food Not Lawns who are at least trying to remind
people that we planted this earth for thousands of years before industrial
agriculture decided to start poisoning us, draining our aquifers, and
destroying biodiversity.  It will become very necessary to grow our own
food, or participate in local cooperatives who produce enough natural
foods to sustain us, specifically our children whose brains depend on
healthy food to make the kind of decisions and leaps of faith into more
sustainable alternatives that their parents simply did not realize they
could make.  Our energy, our fuel consumption in electricity, heating oil,
gas, all of this energy will soon be so scarce as to hardly be available
to the vast majority of folk (not just the desperately poor).  Again,
fortunately there are poor people the world over who depend on Drastically
less energy than do we and whose example is more and more being turned to
by people (hopefully myself included) to live more sane, more connected,
more simple lives, without the beeping, humming, vibrating,
compressor-kicking-in -ness of modern homes.

So I'm writing this hopefully not to sound preachy, but to express that I
am genuinely worried.  As someone who spends much of my time exploring,
learning, researching and paying attention, I am telling you, my beautiful
family, that I am greatly concerned about the very-near future.  We are
looking toward a sea-change, and which direction we take it really depends
on how informed we are.  Are we capable of making decisions about our
lives, about the lives of our children, our grandparents, our mothers and
fathers, decisions that will allow us to enjoy the time we have here and
hopefully leave at least Something for the next generations?  Or will we
simply continue to flow with this current, to accept constant corporate
branding, a culture that is not our own being pumped into our brains by
the television, education that preaches irresponsibility, permanent
adolescence and selfishness?  Are we willing to continue to accept our own
discontent and hollowness, our own loss of soul, because we want to keep
driving and working like slaves, and owing more and more debt to
institutions that themselves are being bailed out by the federal
government (that is to say, by us)?  We are in control of every aspect of
our lives until we give that away, which we are generally forced to do
quite early- but we are adults, highly capable human beings who have the
most to fight for, our lives and the future.

I realize that you all know the worst of it because we all operate in a
cash economy where we must pay for everything, even the most basic human
rights (water and food). We all know things are bad because it's so
blatant, I mean the price of everything is rising rapidly.  I'm just not
satisfied accepting that I Must pay to drink, to eat, to travel, to exist,
to stay alive.  I mostly can't accept that because I have had too much
exposure to low-budget lifestyles.  I know that I can take care of my own
food and water needs without money- I know this because I do this.  I want
you to realize that your life is profoundly beautiful and complex, it
includes every moment, and our souls have longed to be here, to occupy
these bodies which are capable of so much more than any of us realize.
Our bodies were not meant to be given away from birth from one institution
to another, to be traded, made into a commodity, beaten into submission
(http://www.submedia.tv), jailed (through school, work, prison), and
confined to our fancy boxes filled with heat boxes, cold boxes, water
boxes, wheeled boxes, etc.  We live in completely unnecessary confinement,
and it's making us completely insane- why else would be disagree with but
accept a military-industrial complex that is costing us trillions?  Do you
even know how many zeros that is?

I wholeheartedly invite each of you to try to be aware, as you move
through your day, of the feeling you get each time you fill your tank,
write a check, pay your bills, hand over your card at the grocery store,
or deposit that check that can't possibly be worth what you put into it.
The only way we can move forward is to turn off our televisions, to focus,
to put our own immense energy (physical and mental) into our own
happiness, our own joy, our own children.  On a planet that might not
allow us to live here much longer, we have to enjoy ourselves now.
There's no more time- our stock market will crash, our jobs will be lost,
our planet will change.  Get to know your neighbor- you might be more
dependent on each other than you think.


With as much love as I have, and as much heart as I can give, I am yours,
each of yours, through and through.  Let's stop trying to put up with this
crazy world and start envisioning our own lives becoming fulfilled and
abundant.  I promise that we can do this, we can truly build our lives
differently, and it doesn't take change from the top down.  Change You,
and the world changes.  Remember the sun, the moon, the plants (who all
have names), the face of your mother, your daughter, your son, anything
that is authentic, is real.  Forget your car, your TV, your microwave,
your refrigerator, your couch, your computer- these are no good reason to
give your life to any one or thing else.  What is more dis-heartening than
being on your deathbed and realizing that your grandchildren may never
know they had a heart because they are born in well-organized,
concentrated urban centers, where there is nothing clean and they are told
every move they can make in order to be fed and watered, like cattle.
Please, let's not let this planet become a farm.  We are not captives,
yet.  Talk to each other.

OK, I'm done because I think this took an hour, and I really should go
eat- I made apple scones from the yummy apples getting super-sweet
everywhere up here.   I mostly want everyone to move up to the mountains
with me and grow this garden with me.  Do y'all know how good food is when
you have to wash off the dirt first?  :)