AncienTrails

Green and Gone

Imbolc          Waxing Moon of Winds

This guy, Edward Abbey, is an American original.  His ideas about the end of life make sense to me, even though they may appear strange in our death avoidance obsessed culture.  If you have not read his The Monkey Wrench Gang, you’ve missed a landmark piece of eco-resistance literature.  It’s great fun, too.

Here’s a bit I found about his last days.  It comes from a site called natural burial.

“Ever since reading about the strange last request of iconic environmental writer Edward Abbey, Bob Butz has quietly wondered about how he might like his own burial to one day play out. “I want my body to help fertilize the growth of a cactus or cliff rose or sagebrush or tree,” he wrote. Abbey wanted no undertakers, no coffin, and no embalming fluid. In 1989, Abbey died at home surrounded by family and a handful of close friends who later wrapped his body in a blue sleeping bag, loaded it into the back of a pickup truck, and—after stopping for five cases of beer and a bottle of whiskey to pour on the grave—buried him in a secret place in the Arizona desert. This intriguing last chapter of a man seen as the father of modern environmental writing also serves as a model for an increasingly popular alternative to the expensive, environmentally unsustainable practices associated with conventional burials.”

This Book Frustrates Me

Imbolc       Waxing Moon of Winds

The temperature has gone up by 16 degrees already today.  Still sunny, bright and cold in spite of that.

I spent this morning reading Samuel Huntington’s book, parsing chapters and reading first lines, getting the gist.  In one respect it reminds me of Hegel who discovered after vast historical analysis that German civilization just happened to be the pinnacle of human culture.  Huntington writes from the bastion of America’s oldest university, Harvard, wedged into that most New England of East Coast cities, Boston, and discovers that the Anglo-Protestant deposit left behind by the pilgrims and their progeny just happens to be the apotheosis of American culture.

This book frustrates me.  Huntington has compiled an impressive amount of research both historical and contemporary, but he deploys this learning in service of an incredibly narrow perspective.  Odd.  He has nailed the key points of tension within American identity, yet insists on following a vox populi est vox dei form of argument, a sort of populist obesiance that seems strange in such a patrician.

In essence he acknowledges the multiple strands of national and cultural specificity within the American population, but says that it all must be dyed and patched or the fabric of our culture will rip along those very seams.  Even if he is correct, so what?  Nations, as he points out time and time again, are constructs, not given realities.  What if it simply is time to re-construct oursevles in a different form?  He sees deconstruction of the American ethos as bad, I see it as important and hopeful.  More later.

Our Birth Came Natural, With Blood And Pain

Imbolc      Waxing Moon of Winds

The weather today is doing a pretty fair imitation of mid-January:  0 degrees with -2 windchill.  Bright and clear.

Kate’s gone off to work with her TENS unit, her Tramadol and her neck warmer.  She gets up and she goes to work, in spite of whatever bugs her.  I love her and I admire her.  How long she can do this, I don’t know.  Only time and her cervical vertebrae will tell.

An Immigrant Patriot

An interesting aspect of national identity lies in the relative youth, human history speaking, of the nation itself.  In Europe nation building most often consisted of convincing somewhat homogenous people:  France, Germany, the Netherlands, for example, that they owed allegiance to each other and to a particular geographic locale.  The uncertainties of that process have led to many wars in the last 300 years.

From its beginnings the USA has had a diverse population consisting of persons from many of those European nations and Great Britain, the enslaved and the native inhabitants of the land which generation after generation of Americans identified as the frontier.  We have never had the obvious ingredients of a nation, European style.  We share no common country of origin; we share no ancient homeland (save for those afore-mentioned First Nationers).  We have had a mostly common language, English, though at various times large numbers of our citizens have spoken another.

We also came into existence as the result of a revolution, a real revolution and a violent, bloody, long one at that.  That means our birth came natural, with blood and pain.  The creature we have become, whether lovely or blasphemous in the eyes of the world, is ours and ours alone.  We who share the flag, this flawed form of government and who claim our history, all of it, unblinking can both call ourselves Americans (I know the problem, but it is, too, the word we use to describe ourselves.) and lift upon our shoulders responsibility for this nation’s future.

It is a burden that patriots embrace and remember the price the first patriots paid for this land.  Should we pay less for a country infused with justice, marked by economic fairness and proud to sing our National anthem?

Who Are We?

Imbolc     Waxing Moon of Winds

The winds have calmed down to zero and the temperature has fallen almost there at 1 degree.

Began research on American Identity in the Time of Obama.  Who Are We?, a book by Samuel Huntington, contains a controversial argument that for our nation to last we must inculcate in all citizens reverence for the original Ango-Saxon Protestant ethos that created the Revolution and the early sense of what it means to be American. He’s a really bright guy and a lot of what he says makes sense to me, but the whole thrust of this aspect of his book, the central argument, just seems wrong to me.

Next week I have a couple of tours for which I have to prepare and I also have to start my mustard greens, haven’t got that going yet.  The bigger task right now is the research and writing of American Identity.  In between I need to continue studying both the Sierra Club issues and Obama’s stimulus and budget.  A lot to chew on right now.

Can’t Get No Satisfaction

Imbolc        Waxing Moon of Winds

Even now the winds continue as winter and spring continue their tug of war.  Seasons do not just give up here, seasonal ground has to be earned.

Two China tours today.  I left dissatisfied with my work on them.  My work was not as crisp or as engaging.  I may need to go back to themes and questions, which I have largely abandoned.   These were  senior high kids and there was a certain amount of boy/girl silliness with the girls in front and the boys in back, moving away.  Still, at my best I keep the kids engaged and today I didn’t.  Room for improvement.

My first asmat tour is next Friday and I have work to get ready for it.

Otherwise, tired.  Headed upstairs for a nap.

Indiana teenager burned trying to kill head lice with gas

Back home again, in Indiana…

Indiana teenager burned trying to kill head lice with gas

EVANSVILLE, Ind. — Police say a teenager who soaked her hair in gasoline to try to kill head lice was severely burned when the gas fumes ignited and set her head ablaze.

Snow, Snow, Snow

Imbolc        New Moon (Moon of Winds)

The winds continue to blow, now driving a heavy snow.  The winds come straight out of the north with gusts ranging as high as 16 mph.

I’m not going to either the MIA (Maya lecture) or the capitol (Clean Cars hearing) in favor of staying home and working on the blog while the snow piles up.  Sometimes the distance and a lack of four wheel drive add up to remaining in place.

My energy level and my sense of well-being began to increase dramatically at the end of last week, either the end of a mild virus or the hangover from the vertigo/nausea fun of the previous week.  It feels so much better to feel so much better.

In a bit I’m going to dive into Obama’s first budget message to congress.  I have it on a pdf file.

The Moon of Winds Delivers

Imbolc        New Moon (Moon of Winds)

The moon of winds has already begun to deliver.  We’ve had gusts up to 15 and average windspeeds of up to 5.6 mph.  All the air and clouds running before a snow storm coming to us from the west.

The legislative situation has begun to pick up speed.  I’m not sure what all the momentum will do when it hits the wall of the new revenue forecast, anticipated to raise our state deficit by some billions more.

Two China tours tomorrow.  I’m doing my 8 dynasties tour for these Chinese language students from Highland Park High School in St. Paul.

Off to Costco.  No, not again.  Never made it Tuesday.  Gotta go today.  The dogs need food.

Full Is Good. Most Days

Imbolc        New Moon (Moon of Winds)

Accolade

The weather remains virtually the same as at the earlier post.

Winter has a just holding on by the tips of its fingers feel.  Small dimples have begun to hollow out around the base of trees and shrubs.  The angle of the sunlight gives the sun a more spirited presence and stretches shadows, making them more pale.

I have made my post for the Sierra Club today and one for the Star-Tribune.  Keeping up with these two has become easier as I have come to grasp more quickly what would make sense.  Even so, they take time and make my day full.

Most days full is good; some days full sends the old work anxiety shivering up and down my body.  Not good.

Allison has gone on the web with a vengeance in pursuit of any and all information about the pre-Raphaelites.  She found an especially good site at the Delaware Art Museum.

Before Kate left for work, I hooked up the leads for her TENS unit, an electrical device that works on gateway theory, similar to accupuncture.  She has tried many different things.  I sure hope this one works for her.

Data Squirreled Away In Proprietary Caches

Imbolc       New Moon  (Moon of Winds)

Proserpine

We have hit the time of this and that, weather of winter and weather of early spring, often dispensed within hours of each other. According to the weather service the winter weather depicted as Severe still heads our way, due to arrive tomorrow afternoon sometime.  Meanwhile, it’s 34 and sunny with fluffy cumulus fleeing to the southeast ahead of the storm.

I’m looking forward to using my new MIA library skills on the Pre-Raphaelite show.  There are data-bases to mine and particular paintings to run through the periodicals and books.  I love the thought of data, lots of data, and helpful ways to sift through it.  The internet has captivated me for just that reason.  There is even more on point data, lots of it, squirreled away in proprietary caches like JSTOR, the ARTfull Index and several others to which the MIA subscribes through the library.

Today, a trip to Costco, the retailer for our times with cut-rate merchandise and plenty of it, most of it unnecessary, but dogfood and dog biscuits that we use.  We also bought a flat-screen TV from them for a good price last year.