Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Amazed

I continue to be amazed at the reality we Modern Humans with our Superior Brains have created and the purpose that it serves. I grew up in a time when People valued doing things for themselves. Not so today.

Cases in Point: In the early 1950s, my Father built his own House. So did Richard's Father the decade before. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Richard's Dad built beautiful Furniture of Local Woods he had bought decades before just for that purpose. If it was broke, Folks would fix it.

Richard's Mother grew her own Food in the Garden to feed a lively Family of 6. His Mother and Father raised their own Cattle, Chickens and sometimes Hogs. They butchered Meat they ate. My Mother says that she was not too aware of the Depression in growing up because her Dad grew most of their own Food; I am assuming that her Mother preserved it. If you didn't grow it, you didn't eat much. People cooked and preserved their Food and they made do with what they had.

Over time, we Modern Humans began giving up that Knowlege, Skill, and Can-Do Orientation. Of course, sometimes you needed someone to do it, if you don't have the skill yourself. Plus, Products commonly available these days often take a Technician to make it work. Or not. We could bear witness to the difficulties that we have had in getting our 2 Toilets to flush in just the way Toilets are reported to do.

As we Humans have moved up the Socioeconomic and Education ladder from our forebearers, it became more prestigious to get someone else to do the work. We became little Kings and Queens far removed from such drudgery. It somehow became associated with something termed "Progress". I am not so sure that it is.

As a result, we became experts at moving words around on pieces of paper or on computer screens. We became experts in practices which became obsolete overnight. Over time, our Kind has become experts at punching buttons and staring at over sized Screens while munching away on Overly Processed Foods from those ample Couches.

We have introduced for ourselves a kind of Institutionalized Helplessness. Now why would we ever want to do that?

Our return to the Farm is an effort to reclaim some of those Skills. It is not easy. We have been away a long time and we are not the young Pups we were before. But we are committed to finding our way.

1 comment:

A. Milkweed said...

Wow - "institutionalized helplessness" - what a concept, and so true! Thanks for your thoughts! and have a lovely day tomorrow!