Wednesday, October 08, 2008

Perhaps a Renaissance

Ripples on the Shore, St. Martins, Bay of Fundy, NB


Regarding what is happening in the world right now to the global economy, I found this article by Carole Brouillet based on Apocalypse vs Human Renaissance ... not a short article... but interesting reading ...

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65 comments:

Sharon said...

Thanks for that link Gwen. I'm going to have to read it a second time in order to try and absorb all that she said.

That is a GORGEOUS photo!

jo horswill said...

Thanks for the article Gwen, interesting read.
Love those ripples...

Ruth said...

I skimmed the article, more than my brain could focus on after work. I think she's getting at something though, that I think is true. With all this growing awareness that someone else is steering our course completely unrelated to us and and uncaring about us, we are being pushed to be more self sufficient and at the same time to turn to each other. I find good in this, and even if the world systems collapse (hey, maybe that would be a great thing!), we have our human connections, and they can get us through a lot.

Gwen Buchanan said...

Hi Sharon!!! You're welcome...
I'll tell the tide she did a fine job arranging the sand... quite a designer isn't she?

Your post today was funny.

Gwen Buchanan said...

Hi Jo, It is long and I still keep finding things John has been trying to tell me for a while now...

Gwen Buchanan said...

Ruth, I guess I have become more interested in what is making the world go round (or not).. hard to escape it these days..

As I read it over again, I am filling in more of the blanks... trying to balance some conspiracy theory with what probably actually happened... looking for balance... hoping for the best...

Serena Lewis said...

Thanks for the link, Gwen. It basically confirms what conspiracy theories have pointed to for decades. I just hope that, with the help of the internet, more and more people will become informed of the truth. The general populace are typically brainwashed and manipulated into a sheep mentality by the media who are controlled by governments who, in turn, are really just puppets for the banking families and corporations. It's scary to think that they have gotten away with it for so long despite the global mess they have all created in the process.

Ruth said...

Please don't think that by skimming the article I was not engaged with it. Au contraire! I too have been gobbling up this information, watching videos, reading, reading, reading. Watching what John's been posting. I feel that I have so much catching up to do, in order to give myself a foundation so that I can discern the truth for myself (as much as possible). As you and Serena said, the conspiracy theories have been out there, and more of us now are digging. It almost feels like an explosion of awareness is happening.

Chris Daly said...

I love the ripples in the sand. How appropiate for this post. I hope that our world and government can turn the tide and effect positive change. Little ripples lead to big waves.

Gwen Buchanan said...

Serena, so true!!..I agree totally! I appreciate your obviously well thought out comments.. looks like you have been aware for a long time...
Sure do hope we all come out for the better on the other side of this.

Gwen Buchanan said...

Oh Ruth I would never think anything of the kind.. I skimmed it too and skimmed it again and again.. she is saying a lot of things.. each one wanting its own consideration.

Ruth,you are one of the most aware and vocal people I know.. You want everyone to think.. wake-up, consider and realize we are all part of this and we all have to fix it.. I like that..

Thanks.. and I agree.. it feels like an explosion that we can't ignore.

Gwen Buchanan said...

Beautifully said, Chris!!!.. Very concise... Let us hope that we can all make it happen!

mansuetude said...

if i were here, which is impossible, for I am not here--i might say how beautifully like copper the rippled sand and water seems, and how etched like a tablet that will be erased and re-etched as days unfold, which would be a better way of living; better than holding onto the old etched ideas which stand rigid as belief (truth) inside us. The sea is wiser, than we...

If i were here, i might even say "thank you" for a wonderful essay.

I love the tone of the essay, the density of it--I admire the mind that wove it. Love the way it talks about history, fact, current events, spiritual consciousness raising as an essential tool of evolution/revolution. So many people, even educated, are educated Into this system of ideas and maybe in some small way, this crisis (if it hurts personally) might open a crack in them. {Leonord Cohen isn't the first person to say we need the crack to let in more light} :)

Society needs a huge nervous breakdown to open.

I could go on for days, I have been ranting for years, and its like all of a sudden its all OPEN, happening. Dare I say confirmed.

SO many people I speak to don't want to vote for either of these candidates. Though so much is obviously changing with race and sexism, its still not right. It would be a perfect year to boycott elections, or to take back power; first we need to remember that those "lofty individuals" really work for us. Its such a mental and emotional paradox of accepted/status quo Stealing.

I'll stop there. But only for now. Thanks for feeding me. :)

Gwen Buchanan said...

Ahh, Mansuetude, the Sea, She will always be here... she tells us stories that we don't always Listen to... She should know, she has always been here... She's seen it all!

I so appreciated your input.. so well put.. so observant are you! Thank you!!

This will be a time, we and future generations will read about in the history books.. we can imagine so many scenarios for the outcome from one extreme to the other and everywhere in between.. a time of change.. if only we can learn from it..

Are we ready for it?

Gwen Buchanan said...

Point of Interest:
Minutes ago I listened to an interview with Margaret Atwood on CBC morning radio about her Massey Lecture, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massey_Lectures ..."Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth"..
It will be broadcast on CBC Radio "Ideas" ( but not till November) www.cbc.ca/ideas/massey.html


She is a foreseer with wisdom .. always one to watch and listen to.

Ruth said...

Thanks for that about M. Atwood. I'll check it out. I get to hear her next month when she visits my university, can't wait. Am reading Cat's Eye at the moment.

If Mansetude had been here, I would respond to her/him that I thought seriously about not voting this election as protest. I even created a bumper sticker:
NO DEMOCRACY - NO VOTE

But my liberal-minded friends convinced me that if a lot of fed-up people didn't vote, it might make room for non-thinking individuals to claim our 'voting slot' making Bush III president. Not voting is a good consideration in places where there is not an iron clad two-party system, such as in India, or in Canada really, although I don't know enough about the history of which parties there have elected prime ministers.

Gwen Buchanan said...

Oh you are so lucky to have the opportunity to hear Atwood in person..I have never had the pleasure...I respect her very much...

I am hearing more and more often that people don't want to pick either candidate ..There is so much I don't know about it all. I just keep gleaning... It seems that some feel they are stuck between a rock and a hard place... Mansuetude and you, Ruth, need to start the revolution...

We also are at this moment ready to cast a vote for our new Prime-Minister and many feel the same way... liberal, conservative, Green, NDP, Bloc... hey we even have a Marijuana party and a Rhino party... The Rhino party may be the only ones that strangely tell the truth.. they say that what ever they say they will do... they are lying about it!!! ha.

Arija said...

Lovely photo of he rippling sand Gwen. It looks like red clay from a pug mill ready for working with, makes my fingers fairly itch!
Very thoughtful aricle and unfortunately only too true.
The anti-trrorist laws we have noticed are formatted to promote the rise of dictators. There are secrecy laws in place where people can disappear like pyramid selling. People can be detained for two weeks and may not tell even their family what the reason for their absence was. If you ask after then, you too can vanish.
In 1940 the Russians took my father inth street. He knew he would probably never see us again and gave my mother his wedding ring and watch. Under the last days of Hitler we again lived with the terror of that knock on the door in the darkest part of the night. There is a deal of talk about democracy while the little mans rights are eroded.
I am concerned for the world for my grandchildre's lifetime.

Serena Lewis said...

These are definitely scary times. The people are kept in the dark to the true motives of these power hungry banking families and they use fear to control us. 9/11 is a perfect example. You may find this YouTube video of interest too - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuBo4E77ZXo

In reading some of the comments here, I am encouraged with the hope that more and more people are becoming aware of the truth.

mansuetude said...

for a woman who doesn't want to use the "P" word on her blog--here you have a lot of "P" spoken ...wonderfully.

I laugh about you suggesting Ruth and I start a revolution--I am coming to get you to help... :) no more Ravens no more moonlight, no more sea... ! : (

I like Ruth's bumper sticker. I don't mean people should NOT VOTE when I say Boycott the election--i mean an organized collective group of "unwillings to choose from the offered mess" would have to publicly express themselves. For the first time, we are almost offered the opportunity to march against it all, offered it on a plate!

But its late to organize anything and I am so hermetic lately).

And yes, people are saying they are going to vote just for the Reason Ruth uses--which is a reason based not in the empowerment of the Vote they posess freely but in fear. (or apathy). It doesn't really give us a vote anymore.

We live in the system of the fear of the whole thing unwinding--so we don't tug away from the collective ball, i think, either.

The other night after the "Debate" i lay in a stupor unable to sleep--and not because of the two candidates. Its the MEDIA that made me ill. I don't know who is running for election and who wants to be the king of the biggest silly cheerleading squad. I watch the media elite and see Andy Warhol's prediction that everyone wants to be a pop star--they are all so clever and smart and vocal and opinionated (as am i capable of being, and maybe i am right now, which scares me too; i am not a perfect visionary of truth, just one voice)...

I think my mind is stretched, like your other quote, it hurts right now--but i am NOT afraid of what might happen globaly because I think change happens on the inner level... is happening; we are spirit and stuff evolves one person at a time--that is why your choosen essay is so good; it offers the ideas, it talks about Change... but are we ready? Shakespeare says, ripeness is readiness, is all.

My young neice opens her hands sometimes, hunches up her shoulders and says "I don't know" with her fingertips, without words ... i feel like that right now.

{ so yes, i want to, I should delete this (cause i am still thinking so much) but what the heck! I'll blame my grandmother's ghost, the murder of ravens, the moonlight, YOU for instigating me! :)

rauf said...

hahaha 'Ruth you need to start the revolution' We have discussed it many times Gwen.

i am not intelligent enough to understand what the lady says here Gwen, most of it sailed over my head. But i can see that she hasn't touched the problem

Slaves, obey your earthly masters with deep respect and fear. Serve them sincerely as you would serve Christ. (Ephesians 6:5 NLT)
its a cut and paste Gwen.

Islam says nearly the same with a little improvement 'treat your slaves as you would treat your own children'

Do you think we have no slaves now Gwen ? The rich may not own my body but they cleverly own my mind.
A slave was not a human but according to the bible a slave is a property.

Prophet Muhammed, Jesus Christ or even God almighty never had any courage to go against the rich.
God was pleased with Abraham and gave him many slaves.
Be kind to the poor says God but never says remove poverty by equal distribution of land. If you say that you are in big trouble. The giant corporates were controlling God even back then Gwen.

These guys like Jesus Muhammad talked about kindness and compassion everywhere but it never occured to them to say that slavery is inhuman ? slavery is a sin ?

Rich getting richer poor geting poorer is as old as Abraham Gwen. Its not new. God designed it so.
Will the pope talk now ?
No.
Vatican would go down like the twin towers.

People are drunk with religion, they are drunk with comforts, they are drunk with the idea of being the citizens of the most powerful nation, they don't care if their minds are owned. They will never take to the streets Gewn. There'll never be any revolution. They are very clever. They marketed and sold fear. They own the media, they own you.

Gwen Buchanan said...

Thank you Arija,, I love the way the ocean transforms the shore daily.. it is a wondrous gift.. You are a true creator... I would have loved to see what you created...

I am so sorry for the cruelty that happened to you and your family during the war... It pains me to think about the cruelty that some people can inflict on their fellow human beings... Why can't we all live in peace... why do people hunger after power...
My older childrens' grandmother who has passed away now lived in Holland during the second world war.. she worked for the underground...just a little woman.. the stories she barely would tell and the things she saw... the close calls... that must haunt a person for their entire life...She had a tremendous strength...as you have...

I believe your strength has been passed on to your grandchildren...

Gwen Buchanan said...

Serena you're right... Absolute power corrupts.. absolutely ..

The video is persuasive... I surely hope it never goes that far...

I too am glad that there are people who want a better way for our world and are speaking out to one another...

Keep spreading the knowledge...

Gwen Buchanan said...

mansuetude, I am so glad you did not delete this.. this should be shared .. So contemplative and thoughtful..... it's The Process... I liken that to the process when creating a piece of art... That is the most exciting part... yes when it is done and we like it, that is good but when IN the Process, is there any better feeling... the anticipation, energy, desire, excitement ...

This election, the financial crisis, global warming, trust, etc, etc, It feels like everything that we knew and took for granted has come to a head all at once and it is too much to accept... we can't accept it... we won't... There is a lot to figure out, and put in order.

It is like walking on the edge of a sword held over a flaming pit.... can we walk cautiously enough not to slice our feet, but keep our grip, not fall in and hopefully make it to the other side ... and hopefully the other side is a good place to be... maybe we all need to practice and become skilled with it

I like what Shakespeare said! Some are ready... some are far from ready... Desire is all it takes... But people are like sheep like Serena said... maybe we can make it work for the better.. when the sheep see the other people doing things that start to look like good ideas to them, maybe they will follow...

I really am not a Political person but this won't let me turn away... a huge challenge... I love Ruth's bumper sticker too.. It makes people consider... ..

...seems no matter what, always there is compromise ... but we can aim high and hope and work towards something better... Oh I so hope we can..

I am glad your mind is stretched to let all your thoughts out...and I am so glad you shared them.. thanks for (not) being here ...

The ravens are still flying...the tide is still rippling on the shore

Gwen Buchanan said...

Rauf!!! Ahh.. You are referring to the author of the article I suggested.. maybe a short novel would have been a better description...

You know your biblical quotes and chapters.. I am not so knowledgeable about church and religion in that manner.. I believe if there is a god of any kind or manufacture.. it is your own spirit.. I have never leaned on religion as a crutch.... or believed in superstition... just reality... I believe if the whole world paid more attention to the reality of the world we would be in a much better place now.. some people wait for their mighty one to come and save them and not take the bull by the horns and know that they and only they are the ones who will make things happen.. sitting on bended knees only makes sore knees... get-up.. get the exercise that is good for us all and do what needs to be done...We each only have one life... we must make the best of it for ourselves and everyone around us... This is it...

Hope that didn't sound like a lecture.. I didn't mean it to be.. that is just what I believe as far as that is concerned...

I like your enthusiasm, Rauf!! sincerely! You don't hold back do you? You see things I will never see in my lifetime so to hear about a way of life that is so far removed from me is enlightening... we all need to know as much about each other as we possible...

Oh how did we ever get in this deep Rauf? We were only babies that were born to our mothers.. lived that life however humble.. we were not born with fear or distrust... we learned love and trust and care... so when we are faced with the world that some power hungry people have corrupted we are assaulted... shocked.. we learned trust and this is what we get back.. I think the world is in the stunned stage just now... everyone is trying to get their bearings ... trying to stand up straight again... after the onslaught...

You are wise Rauf and I believe you are saying, we must not be afraid.. if so, yes. that is right.. we must not be afraid.

They don't own me!



Thank you for your views, they were thought-provoking....

Morna Crites-Moore said...

I haven't gone to the article yet - just want to say I love the photo - it looks like shibori. :-)

Morna Crites-Moore said...

Look here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gdolce/2674101685/

Morna Crites-Moore said...

* WOW * Now I HAVE gone to the article - have read about halfway through - it is 1:40 am so I will continue tomorrow - I am getting tired enough that if I continue reading now, I won't really be paying attention. What an article! What a writer! More reason to move to St. Martin's! :-)

Morna Crites-Moore said...

P.S. Did I tell you I have a political blog now - please visit - www.wrappedintheflag.blogspot.com

Ruth said...

Gwen, ayayayayay! There's so much going on here, and I want to get my head around it. I wholeheartedly agree with what Mansetude wrote, what you wrote. Then Serena's family, oh man. Then my brother rauf goes and tells us we'll never take to the streets - he should know, he's been watching us his whole life - but he makes me crazy sometimes! :D Because dammit I want to take to the streets. I don't want to be apathetic. But how else do you interpret our lack of action? Does anyone (besides my blog friends) know I'm sitting here screaming? Someone said Brouillet wrote about solutions. Well in my skim I didn't catch that, so I need to read every word of her essay.

So there's this small group of people who are waking up. Some have been awake a long time. If I could figure out what to do, besides rant, I'd do it. Maybe rauf is right, that we don't do anything because there is nothing we can do. I'm not quite willing to accept that yet. I don't lack the will to do something, I just don't know what. It seems like such a slow process to keep waking people up one by one, through words. You, John, rauf, Loring, Mansetude, Morna (cool blog!), Winter Patriot, me, there is no end to the ranting blogs out there and OpEds, etc.! When will words turn into fists on Pennsylvania Avenue?

This is what keeps me awake at night.

Gwen Buchanan said...

Hi Morna, Shibori.. holy cow! very much so.. thanks for that link!! beautiful work and amazing how similar these two line designs are, coming from such distinct sources...

Also thanks for your link to Wrapped in a Flag.. I have added it to my bloglist as well as your Bittersweet.. Excellent inspirational blogs, both of them...

Loved that you came over...

Gwen Buchanan said...

Ruth, such a gorgeous bright fall morning .. it is hard to stay inside... Bluejays crying and flying from one drooping sunflower to the other..

It is so encouraging to hear expressions of everyones' desire for a better world..

What to do?.. this is on every thinking persons mind... but this is good.. willingness and desire... planning how to carry it out.. If the solution was simple it would already have happened.. this is not too simple... it takes some head scratching.. I mean the world is expansive and there's so many people and we want what is right for everyone.. I think a solution will have be as gradual as it took us to get to this point... one person at a time.. I don't think there will be any instant gratification, even though this is what we want and wish for...
Gov't won't do it.. we can't look there for a solution... I think individuals have to be the leaders... slow but sure...

This is Canada's Thanksgiving weekend... and it is a magnificent morning with all else aside... we need to let some sunshine shine on our faces...

Thanks so much Ruth... I hear you!

Ruth said...

Thanks, Gwen. I feel your calming spirit from here. I need it.

Happy Thanksgiving, how lovely. It's beautiful here too. My thoughts are with you there, as you celebrate gratitude. We do have so much, despite these shadows.

Gwen Buchanan said...

mansuetude.. Thank you for your most thoughtful comments on my Picasa Album.. I wasn't aware till now...

Morna Crites-Moore said...

Ruth, et. al. read The End of America by Naomi Wolf (quick read) and read her columns at salon.com. These are scary times, and could get much scarier.

Gwen Buchanan said...

Thanks Morna, for the link..Looks like she saw it coming... I'll pass it on to John too..

mansuetude said...

You ... and the crows and the sea...

thanks for all this--for being like a teacher for me here this week (in all of it; all the voices)!

[i think you are political. everything personal is political--we just get stuck in our idea/image of the old definition. ]

have heard a sword image like that before--and reading it the idea that came to mind was a thread, that we sometimes walk a thread over fire and the thread is burning ... and i saw we were able anyway, to go either way (to stand still, go forward, or go back)...

and yes, we do live in a world marketing fear and desire... (that's why so many of us turn to the crows and the sun and the sea as balancing; to silence or meditation.)

You have a great gift... its in all your commenting. Happy Thanksgiving!

Ruth said...

I didn't see a link to the Wolf piece.

Am still reading Brouillet's, in pieces. :) Wow.

sandy said...

That is a MOST unusual photo, love it.

I'll read that article in awhile.

s

Gwen Buchanan said...

Mansuetude.. Thanks you... I have so much to learn ... everyday a bit more...


Ruth I found Wolf on YouTube and on Morna's blog...

Thanks Sandy.. I like that you think it is unusual...

Anonymous said...

Trying to muster the courage to click that link. The word apocalypse scares the s#@t out of me.

Gwen Buchanan said...

I think an apocalyptic event happens to someone, somewhere, every day, hour, minute, or second.........

but it is not what I wish...

Ruth said...

At last I finished Brouillet's essay in fits and starts, letting my mind absorb some things before moving on to another section. I appreciate how she has covered a lot in one spot.

I was confused for a bit about the gold standard bit and Nixon, since I was pretty sure the monetary system had been disconnected from the gold standard in the '30s. But I went to wiki and saw that is was the Bretton Woods Agreement, which was similar to the previous gold standard, which Nixon eliminated.

I found the Naomi Wolf piece on Fake Patriotism, thanks. Reading that now. :|

I really need to revise some poems, but I can't seem to do anything besides read more about the state we're in and how we got here.

Gwen Buchanan said...

Ahh.... Ruth, I love how much you care!!!

mansuetude said...

i love that corrine can admit she is scared of a word... i think it is so important--

acorns are falling
all over Obama...
poor squirrels, we :)

Gwen Buchanan said...

isn't that so.. about a word creating an emotional reaction... a fear.... but only if we speak that language...

mansuetude said...

the language of fear...?

a word can carry a whole civilization--"apocolypse" for instance; What world, what world view, or personal life "crashes or falls" within that word as a concept (its huge) .

fearing one word, it can build such a shadow to lean against the soul, against freedom... we all have some of them. maybe> .

STOP making me think. ;)

Gwen Buchanan said...

if we lived in a cave far away from all, would we be in fear.. or would we pick berries and milk our goat... and sit by our little fire and think what a lovely day this was...

Morna Crites-Moore said...

Gwen - what a BEAUTIFUL comment. I think I will quote you on my blog! You are a poet. :-)

Gwen Buchanan said...

Oh Morna, you are too kind to say that.. I have so far to go to ever be a poet... I will never reach it in my lifetime...

Morna Crites-Moore said...

As of now, you are a famous poet on my blog! Go look - right column! :-) And, you are so a poet - you are a poet even in the way you live. An artist and a poet.

mansuetude said...

what do you think?

i say we would be exhausted, no bath, grumpy. :) I am laughing wildly, i mean it!!! (i just answered you about the moon over there--wherever there is)

YOu can have the goat, my first thought was, oh no NOT goats milk, but who knows... then i thought, my comforter... i like it soft, in a cave! :)

the fire sounds nice, but ... what would the language we owned consist of then and there? They say a culture is known so much by its words...

there would be other fears, would they be named? Would we scratch images on teh walls? We would sing, a language... make a myth,..

Would we be afraid of the shadows or like a mystic, so saturated with silence we would be one with the whole thing, and alert to all of it>? Able to attract what we need or sense what was out of balance....

it would be so wonderfully silent at night! i would like that silence.

poet... or dust mite... in the cave, which will you be?

Its a great question... what i always wanted to know is who conceived of grinding wheats or rye and making a formula for bread.... how does that happen>? we are inately so smart, and grown so dull too... i could say anything on anyday, we should all answer this new, once a week for a year. It would be interesting.

Gwen Buchanan said...

I have always felt I was born into the wrong century as if transported by accident many centuries ahead of really where i should have been.. even as a child, although I am not superstitious.

I think I would have preferred the cave, the goat and the berries... by a brook.. some chickens and a sheep thrown in for good measure.. give me simplicity... a bit of fire..too

...shut out the noise... I think i would rather be with the animals...

mansuetude said...

i was thinking, can people sit by the fire and say what a lovely day it was, even With some fear?

(different levels of fear manifest, maybe, but still...) can't we still say it was a lovely day? Not that it always will be, but...

--
three men i asked this question said pretty much that there would be another tribe, throwing spears: an OTHER we would need to protect ourselves against... that is a fear(very man in the woods idea, i guess). :)

can't ask this without asking, are we going back to the cave, from here! What is the context? It brought up good talk.

--
by why a cave, is there a place, specific in time and space that you feel drawn to?

--
I so agree about the rushing, since I was little, always trying to find place to just "be" ...

Gwen Buchanan said...

makes me smile.. funny... I first wrote "cow" but then I remembered how clumsy and difficult to manage, cows are... too big ... too slow and they eat too much... must conserve... I never had a great relationship with a cow... they have lovely eyes though....

goats are so entertaining.. they make good friends... they are clean... give milk..(as long as it is fresh.. i like it) I used to have a few Alpine Milk goats in my other life... I wasn't the best milker but I could have become better if I had stuck with it... funny when someone else volunteered to do the job for me then I failed to stick with it and become proficient.... hummm, is that human nature? to take the easy way out.. is that evolution.. find the easy way? humans have so much ability if we only had the will..

now the Angora goats have the most fabulous fleece.. ahhh. so long and soft and strong.. and they need sheared twice a year as their fleece grows so fast.. so even a small goat can provide a lot of fiber... I loved my 3 Angoras.. yes they would chew my clothes... but they had such personalities... and I miss them.. they would go for walks with me in the woods just like a dog and they were so intelligent... pretty little faces... and they trusted me..

As far as a mans opinion john is always of the mind that something is up somewhere... men have warlike tendencies and thoughts...

No we aren't going back to the cave.. I thought of a small cave as one can stand with their back to the inside rock wall looking straight out knowing no one can sneak up on you... not fearful, just watchful .. I was just thinking of a peaceful place.. but if those damn men are going to raise a raucous.. we'll have to find some other spot...

I was thinking of a place to feel calm and safe...and that came to mind... i guess there is no going back... I do feel safe right here...I don't have fear here...

I am a hands on person so I naturally think in a manner of self-sufficiency where we can prove we can actually take care of ourselves and each other.....

Morna Crites-Moore said...

Remember the wonderful, magical woods woman in the movie, Cold Mountain? That's what I picture. And she had her lovely goat - - - and then slit its throat. Oh! That was difficult. I don't think I'd do that with my goat!

Gwen Buchanan said...

I have to admit, I rarely watch movies and stay away from TV, like the plague, most of the time... But I do get coaxed in every now and then, when John or Max are watching something that seems to appeal to me... (they like Zombie and horror shows fairly often... yuck!, can't do those) but once in a while they take pity on me and get something we can all enjoy...

I think I would like to see Cold Mountain... from your description and from what I read about it when I googled it... Thanks!

mansuetude said...

Well, you are all mind, all planning and mentally prepared. :)

It sounds like a strange love story, saying, "I never had a great relationship with a cow... they have lovely eyes though.... " made me smile. Its beautiful. Looking in the eyes of an animal was one of the things that came up in conversation about this, that we would possibly be vegetarian for sure, unable to slaughter...

Your goats sound wonderful, you must have lived in a storybook--did you know how to make the angora into thread, then, too? I never knew goats were so kind, friendly--or able to chew our clothes (but that sounds fair, if you take theirs) :)

When you said caves I thought stone, and it gets cold, like a reptile a stone needs to drink in the sun, to radiate...

how long since you knew your goats... its a wonderful story. Maybe you don'[t want to go back to live in a cave, maybe its the feeling of the place, of locating an inner knowing of something possible. (the transcendent)

I have places inside me, and very like movies when strangly they open up visually inside--its an emotion or a knowing i bring back from there (like a dream) and it IS real; the sense of whatever it is (something old and honorable) it knows it exists, its old, wise (as we) and it pulls me sometimes, maybe like a bird, asking to be noticed and followed...

Cold Mountain...i don't remember it hardly, but it seemed good, once... love and war... i have a bad movie memory.

I think you might like the movie, Off the Map. But I never can tell... you might like the crows better, or the moon.

Gwen Buchanan said...

yes that is it... an inner knowing of something possible... I think that is it...

Medieval or the Renaissance... either one.. or maybe with the Druids or the Celts... but then there was the plague.. always something.. hard to escape problems , diseases and troubles of the world.. no matter what time we live in...
Do you have a time that draws you... that lures you.. somewhere you can see...or feel... or know.. where is it... what makes you think of it...

as much as I hermit myself away.. there are times even when hermits have to get out and mingle..
...the only caves here fill up with water when the tide comes in.. that would never work!! No going back, I guess..

18 yrs. ago now that I last had my goats... feels like yesterday... Angora goats give the finest mohair and yes it is quite easy to spin as it is so strong .. never wears out.. easy to spin thick or fine..(i use an Ashford wheel, I love spinning, but haven't spun much lately) and so warm.. but not as warm as dog hair.. I used to spin my dogs hair too (more difficult to spin) a long time ago (no it doesn't smell doggy when it is rinsed in vinegar).. she was a Keeshond, and had a downy undercoat that had to be combed out .. it was so soft.. dog hair is 7 times warmer than sheeps wool.. I knit a sweater from it ... Now I know why they pant... hot dogs... have much pity on your beagle bunny when he pants from now on ..

wispy clouds are camouflaging the moon ... hope it is clear in your sky. take care.

mansuetude said...

this is all so wonderful.

i have to come back, in a bit... love the day!

mansuetude said...

this whole comment section should be hung up like a long talking wallpaper somehow... :)

yes, we should stay away from the plague, though a friend and i used to talk about that time, alot; asking ourselves about who was left behind, why some survive, etc... trying to imagine if they (we) could survive that now...


Love your idea that a hermit
living in those local caves would be forced out into the world by the flooding-- :) Its a perfect image! To be washed in and out of solitude, forced to rejoin the flow of the living; to share whatever happened there, twice a day... that's one way to get a bath, too!

So many people engage in living actively, but without any silence, often going about without any real connection to the fire inside --I think they do what Thoreau spoke of, "live lives of quiet desperation" maybe ... looking at busy people from the outside it is easy to think they are so active in the world... its hard to tell who is where or what. :)

There is a large link of longing in humanity, i think--that's why we run around tasting this and that, still not satisfied... desire threaded through it all... (maybe that is where greed comes in)

Meditation helps me balance that--like reading your Desideratum poem...to re center... and i am thinking that maybe all those little hints of other times, old places, those are on a line of fire our soul's purpose asks us to live on...
If we can, or dare...

(this has all made me think a lot...so i am babbling like a brook, or like the rain outside falling so slowy into the dry russet leaf stewn world...)

can you weave human hair too? makes me imagine all my soon to be white hairs be could be a big white hat... ha ha..

do you wear that sweater or .. or is it an art object(or both)? i vacuum up so much fine resource of my beagle bunny's warmth, and never valued it... never knew anything about dog hair being 7x warmer or anything ... you know good things...knowledge has many sides... to be useful in a physical way, or to just fill the head with so much info -- it makes me think about how unbalanced some of what i know is, how un-needful to really use in life...

talks here have made me think miles worth of things...
thanks, you!

--
mr beagle bunny wants to know if you have danced down the driveway, all the way down and back, going to and fro, wiggling and shaking about from your toes to your ears... singing with the moonlight. (you might need wine to achieve this) :)

Gwen Buchanan said...

Love the idea of a talking wallpaper.. what a clever description! Nothing like a wallflower at the old school dances...

So true about human longing.. forever searching... I think that is only natural.. evolution ... trying to make our existence on earth better.. that is probably a good thing.. although taken to heart can make a soul suffer... but usually in time silver can be seen in the clouds.
That poem always brings me back to level & I know when I need it.. most often I find people of similar mind are scattered far... not close enough to satisfy the need of intimate conversation over a cup of tea... or to share ideas and thoughts with eye contact... humans can live very lonely lives without many people noticing...
.. words flowing are very good.. I am glad for this...

oh yes human hair can be spun .. I haven't done so but it would be like working with horse hair.. very strong...
the dog hair sweater ( incidently called "Mans Best Friend" was in a traveling Fine Craft exhibit quite a few years ago... When my house burned to the ground my sweater which had just returned from the show was in it.... as well as my sweet little dog that gave me her strands.. also our sweet cat... luckily all the children were at school... a very cold Jan. 15 even with the roaring flames..... and everything was gone... just a tall brick chimney standing up tall and straight in the midst of everything we had worked and built for 15 years, destroyed and gone.... strange that 15.. Hope is killed for a long time after such an event too.. took me 5 years to ever feel attached again... was it cleansing by fire.. turning point... nothing ever stays the same...
it rather feels like when new born babies wildly fling their arms outwards and scream madly... and take to no comfort... and everything is a blurr and words have no meaning... as foreign language... and you think you will never find anything to make you smile again..
well that is getting depressing!!! ... never mind that... the past is over and Looking and pushing forward is all we can do..

We learn from those times and times like this uncertainty that is spreading and trickling down from the world wide economic crisis.. we will learn or we won't be able to survive ... well that is depressing too!!!

funny... things we store up in the gray matter...

Wine is good!!!

mansuetude said...

Not depressing, not at all... my mother gave me wonderful sisters-- sitting and taking turns talking/crying/bitching is one of the great treasures of it; listening... challenging, nudging, etc... its all so natural.
My best gift in so many ways (the good and bad) ,, we are so different it forces us to stretch and "understand". (Plus, they are stuck with me!)

I think we store up
everything in the whole body somehow--not just the grey lump of cells; unless it is true we are New every seven years. But if we are new why do we age? Ask the sea, please, cause i have a suspicious feeling she doesn't age.
Why do we remember long ago and not what we did an hour ago...

i had a housefire too. i was so young and yet, it does linger in me...I went into the kitchen and it was blazing fire ... one minute sitting cozy with my father and brother watching cartoons and next out on the pavement in socks ... it was so cold. Fire men smashing everything, pouring water into it... Everything gone.

I never really asked what that did to my mother, how it changed her heart--but it gives new insight to me, to think of it again now. A fire is a wipe out...and there are many kinds of "house fires" in a life... forced rebirths which hurt...yes. yes. yes about the inconsolable aspect of THoSe...I can attest to that!

The same with that Thoreau quote, you give it a new perspective...i was thinking the lonliness of a crowd--how people are on a cog in a huge turning economy and don't often get to take the time to find what is inside them... (but now it seems tipped over a bit... in need to be re-seen.

i don't know anything... that is what comes to me more and more. discovery and wonder, always..

the economic crisis is beginning to show in some people we know, jobs and financial losses etc... the next six to 12 months should show us the real skeleton under the flesh of it ... how long has he been starved or propped up to look like he was alive... when they knew he was dying... or they took all his blood out of greed.

Now that's depressing!

the sun is about caught in the trees, still quite a bit of light, but if its dark in New England its probably already moonlight where you are... enjoy.

Gwen Buchanan said...

Mansuetude, I don't think anyone would be "stuck" with you.. This must be a wonderful experience to share and cajole each other .. I fear i do not ever see my family very often.. I would love to sit down face to face with no thought of time... and communicate on a deeper level with them... This world coaxes them all away...

You had a fire too! you know its power... When I was almost 2 our first house burnt down too and almost took my father with it... if it wasn't for our dog, Tippy, who woke him up... my mother and I had been visiting our grandmother and when we came back... and there was no house.. dad said a Moose took it..

we then had to live on the upper floor of a country store and all I remember about it were the many huge circus posters plastered to the outside walls... so many pictures, so many colors and animals and clowns... they distracted me..

I remember missing the old man that lived beside us .. his name was Johnie Darling... what a name huh? and he was a darling...

I don't want to have strike three and you're out!!

I love your visual description of the economic crisis... exactly!

and the sun came up with excruciating beauty... take care

mansuetude said...

Super glue! I tell you, they are stuck with me!

... johnie darling...

hmmm.