Good Morning everyone,
Well, our temperatures are leveling off some. It isn't below 0 today, I think that it is hovering around 24* now, and that is a heat wave compared to what we did have a few days ago.
I received a comment from a wonderful reader who I respect greatly and it really got me to thinking this morning. I wanted to think about it some more and drink a cup a tea over it and between doing household chores that need doing.
On my blog the other day, I put a web site for mother nature network, and my reader commented that green is getting "old". Now I am not angry in the least bit, but I starting thinking about the "green" movement and it really got me thinking, which is a great effort sometimes, and I thought, gee, you know it "is" getting old. This is what I love about blogging, we exchange thoughts, and talk, and learn from others, and sometimes you get a new perspective on the world, which for me is somewhat isolated, as I do not get out much so for outside stimulation and conversation, I fall to the Internet and the blogging world.
Now on to the thoughts. Those of us who live a frugal, simple, and not complicated lifestyle, which the term of "Simple Lifestyle" has as many faces as Yannis, actually live "green", like my reader said. And the "green" movement has been done for hundreds or thousands of years. Now I wasn't around then, but I was raised by Depression Era grandparents who lived simply and frugally and was "green" before it was a coined term. It seems like now it is the "it" thing now, but it's not. I have found that for years, if women did not work outside the home, they were coined "lazy", worthless, or "high priced mistress", which I have found very derogatory to the females. But yet, the females of the house, were expected to work outside the home, then come home to clean the house, cook the dinner, run after the kids, run after the husband and whatever else the female was supposed to provide for the household plus her wages she earned outside the home. I do not call that lazy, worthless or a high priced mistress unless she was seeking out extras from the boss she worked for, especially if it was a male, for ill-gotten gains. I have thoughts on working outside the home but that is for a later post.
I do not have a word or a comment on this but it sure made me see a light that I really didn't see. I do feel however that the green movement is being used to benefit corporations for their personal gains, by hitting on people who are ignorant of old ways, and have no one to turn to except these corporations that are seeking out the ignorant and placing images and thoughts that aren't true or undermine others who are living a more simple lifestyle, or more frugally, or trying to get out of debt,
Now, frugal has a lot a meaning to a lot of folks, and I really feel that I do not need to go into explaining that term. Each of us has a life that we live and we do it the best as we can, no one can make the frugal lifestyle fit for every one human being for every life that is lived. What we can do is listen to others, take suggestions, ideas, thoughts, recipes, plans and work them into each of our lives and if it doesn't fit, no big deal. Go on to plan B, then plan C and etc.
Now I am going to post a web site that I got from another wonderful blogging friend, and it speaks about this subject directly. Now I thoroughly enjoyed this site. And the lady who has this site speaks just about a blunt and plainly as she can, and if it makes you upset or mad or whatever, oh, well, sh*t happens. She is glad that she got your attention.
Please go to www.homesteadgardenandpantry.com and read about Granny Miller.
So, this is my thoughts for today, my brains are warped now, as this is a complicated subject, with many facets, and many, many sub-subjects under it.
Thank you again, my lovely readers, for your thoughts, suggestions, recipes, and just plain over the fence conversation.
I agree. I smile to myself when I read the blogs of the 20-30 somethings thinking they have *discovered* a new *green* way of doing things. I was part of the hippie movement back in the day and my grandparents were part of the Great Depression: now that was *green*...and a matter of survival...but it is kinda' fun watching the *new kids* making their discoveries!
ReplyDeleteYou had a post a while back about fund raising projects for the homeless shelter. Had you thought about writing to the seed people to ask if they would like to donate some seeds? Lord knows it's a worthy cause. I saw something a while back about using newspapers torn into strips or run through a paper shredder, as one of a series of layers -- a layer of newspapers, a layer of leaves, straw, grass clippings (if you use this go easy with it), or such and then more newspapers, and more organic stuff, and then your dirt. This is supposed to help hold water, and will compost good. You know, If you can come up with some scrap lumber, some long, wide boards, you can build a box and do this composting thing at the bottom, then fill with dirt, and there's your raised garden. By everything I've seen and read, it doesn't have to be but like a foot deep. Then each fall, once you've done harvesting everything, let the plants just die where they are and then fork them under. Fork the whole thing up good and mix things up. Good luck on your shelter garden thing. I think it's a great idea.
ReplyDeleteI've never really sorted these ideas into words. maybe I've felt a little smug when all the ranting about "green living" went on. So many of us grew up taking for granted the things done by the "back to the land" folks--it is just a way of life that we have continued to practice and refine.
ReplyDeleteStill whatever it takes to keep older skills alive and well for younger generations is good.
Seems like a lot of us have been having the same kinds of thoughts lately. You are right, there are so many aspects to all this it makes my head spin.
ReplyDeleteI am so glad you are my blog friend. It helps to know others feel the same about stuff. Keeps me sane.
Granny sure does tell it straight doesn't she LOL.
Now, there is an interesting website!
ReplyDeleteThank you for the link. I want to go back and read in a more leisurely fashion. Only funny thing I thought about was her encouraging everyone to go off the grid, get rid of electronics..........all while I am reading her "blog" on a computer!
The general message is good though.
Your point is very good, each of us cuts out what he can and does what he can to live better and eat better and more economically. What works for one doesn't work for all.
More food for thought: Lasagna gardening...........it is what was called sheet mulching back when all the green stuff was called Organic! I was a child of that era and own a good many of Rodale's Organic Gardening and Farming books. I have Ruth Stout's book the No-Work Gardening one. She was lasagna gardening way back in the 70's.
To say that something is "getting old" is to suggest that it's more of a "fad". I guess that's what it is to some people. But to me, being frugal is just a way of life. It's how I was raised and how I've lived during most of the almost 45 years that I've been married. Everyone has their own definition. Some people won't buy anything expensive and to me, buying cheap things is not frugal, because they don't last. I expect things I buy to pay for themselves by saving me money or time. I have been wasteful sometimes. It happens.
ReplyDeleteI was a young mother during the "super-woman" phase. We tried to do it all. Consequently we weren't able to do as good a job at any one thing as we might have, and we exhausted ourselves. Our children missed out on the nurturing they should've had. I was a secretary. I spent my days seeing after the work-related needs of some other woman's husband while she, instead of doing this herself, did charity work. This was before very many women were becoming "the boss" themselves. And when my labors helped the man's business grow, a share of it was not mine.
It's so complicated now, people working jobs where they have no security, no stake in the business. It's a small wonder no one is loyal anymore. I remember a time when the employer valued each employee, and they stayed with him all their careers.