December 13, 2009
"Honey"
There was a simple sign nailed on a tree that only said “Honey” and another down the road that said “Cabbage”. Some farmer long ago must have quickly painted them with left over paint and hastily nailed it to the tree on the corners of his property. It was a way to make a bit of money out here in the country. The signs are now gone, along with the farm house and a way of life that said country. It seems, once again, the city has reached out its greedy arms and gathered it up. It has taken all that was built here, a bucolic life of sustainability and nurturing and caring for the land and for the natural world. It was a life that began in the very early morning when the sun was just climbing over the horizon, before the rooster crowed and before the morning sounds were heard. The world was quiet just before dawn when the animals were fed and the dew still hung on the garden, before the birds sang and before the busy day began. There was a sort of peace then, a time when Nature was at its purest and man could feel close to the earth and appreciate all that it provided. Instead, we now have communities that all seem the same; lines of chain stores and acres of concrete slabs to park on to go into these stores that feed our gluttony and excess. Now there are early morning noises coming from the nearby imposing interstate, loud with the sounds of big trucks bringing heaps of stuff to people in towns across our country, objects they probably don’t need and will soon tire of and put out with the trash. Soon, we will not have a path into the woods that nourishes our sense of past and provides our connection with Nature. We will no longer have brown eyed cows right outside of town to stare back at us when we take Sunday afternoon drives into the country. The country lanes will be replaced with the muck corridors made by all terrain vehicles and the birdsongs will not be heard for the thunderous blare of these engines that entertain. I think there exists a paradox in our modern society; people move to the “country” and soon, the country disappears or as a friend of mine said, “they bring the city with them.” And so I ask, do we really need all of this “stuff”?
A long while ago, I posted Anne Leonard’s “The Story of Stuff” on the right column of this blog page (it is still there if you care to watch it). Here is a summary of the video:
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