Sorry I disappeared for a while

The car died, the furnace died, and the basement renovations were completed all at once, and then I started reading The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson, so I got sucked down the rabbit hole for a bit. But I'm back now, and looking forward to 2022.

I think I'm not going to set any goals for the new year other than to keep my eyes open for ways to help serve and comfort the people around me. It's going to be a bumpy ride ahead, and I think the best thing anyone can do is just be aware of and alert to other people. 

Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer

Now and then you bump into a book that has a powerful impact on your thinking, and the magnitude of the thoughts within it make you want to discuss and discuss them...and yet you don't know where to begin. You almost can't talk about it, because anything you say won't do it justice or encompass everything in it. Robin Wall Kimmerer's book Braiding Sweetgrass is that kind of book. She conveys her sorrow and anguish at what we've done to the planet and she points out our complicity in this warped fuel-based-economy destruction...and yet at heart it is a hopeful, peaceful, lovely book. Part of that is the writing itself, so founded on a deep love and appreciation for the world and a scientist's innate curiosity. Part of it is that she writes like a poet, even when describing industrial waste (which is not easy to do!). But mostly it is because she also discusses ways to combat  consumerist Windigo Thinking and contribute our gifts to the world. There is a way forward that follows the path of gratitude and generosity, whatever the fate of our species.

This is a book I want to share with everyone, and yet want to hang onto so that I can reread it and ponder it frequently. It's a good reminder of our place on the earth and the role we need to play. We need to deepen our awareness of the more-than-humans around us and our impact on them. We need to be accountable for our actions (and inaction). We need to take a hard look at our responsibility, our inequity, and what gifts we can share. We need to question the status quo and refuse to participate when we deem it is harmful. We need to give, not consume so much.

One of the things she points out is that our individual gifts to the earth can include art and writing. I have felt more and more lately that I can't continue to write fluffy fiction while the earth is burning. I have always written to entertain, but lately it seems like just adding to the muffling, the distraction, the stupor that keeps us from being fully awake. Granted, my writing isn't widely known or hugely impactful for anyone, and I doubt it contributes much of anything to anybody...but what if it could? What if it could help people awaken to the gifts the earth has given us and increase gratitude? That would be worth writing. That I could get motivated about. I don't know if my skills could adequately capture all that is in my heart, but it's worth a try. I want to give back to the earth, to thank her for supporting and feeding and loving me, whether I show that through writing books or growing squash or playing the guitar or marching in climate strikes or foraging hickory nuts. It means looking for ways to opt out of our oil-based consumerism. Which might mean having to bite the bullet, scale back other wants, and splash out a year's salary on an electric car. Or better yet, go halvsies and share that car with another family.

Much to think about.

That'll teach me not to judge

I was walking back from the grocery store and passed two young men who were standing on the sidewalk, talking. They were dressed roughly, looked a bit sketchy and possibly gangsterish, and smelled of marijuana, and I gave them a bit of a wide berth as I passed. And overheard them having an earnest discussion about soil degradation and crop rotation (and they weren't referring to weed). I totally felt like turning back around and joining in the conversation. How exciting to find young people talking about those things, and how bad I felt for jumping to conclusions about them because of their appearance.

Rhapsody in Green: A writer, an obsession, a laughably small excuse for a vegetable garden by Charlotte Mendelson

I work for a physician who used to be a farmer, and often our conversations revolve around chicken breeds, electric cars, and squash. He recently sent me this book as a gift, and I devoured it in two days. Such a delight! This author perfectly captures the drama and joy of backyard gardening. I kept laughing aloud, hugging the book to my chest, and punching the air with my fist crying, "Yes! Exactly! She gets me!"

She knows the humiliation of having to buy zucchini from the store, the yearning for self-sufficiency, the danger of drool-inducing seed catalogues, the inordinate pride at harvesting three whole blueberries, the hopeless desire to taste every single variety of apple, the envy of those who have stone walls and ponds and vistas and willow trees and ha-has. I no longer feel so embarrassed about the tablespoon of oats (the entire harvest) carefully put in a jar in the cupboard. Or the green beans currently growing up the walls of my dining room (I've picked four so far. A burst of flavour in winter). This writer has been there before me.

I am going to check out Charlotte's (may I call her Charlotte? I feel like we're friends) other books. I love it when I discover a new, fun author, and finding a book like this is like...well, finding a delicious green bean hiding behind the curtains.

Christmas Baking

Butter tarts, hickory nut tarts, chocolate-oatmeal cookies, egg nog cookies, and a peanut-pecan-date-apple-coconut thing I don't know the name of. These will go to friends and neighbours as fast as possible before they get eaten...

Smash and Grab Thefts

Yesterday I watched some of Dr. Phil's show covering the spate of smash and grab thefts occurring in the U.S. The audience expressed shock and outrage at the scale and brazenness of the thefts, but after a while their sense of non-involvement and non-complicity made me stop watching. It felt like they were sitting in judgment -- Look at what others are doing. Isn't that appalling? We're not like that.

The deeper issue needs more discussion: the thefts are the symptom, not the problem. The problem is we've fed people for decades on the idea that money is king, showcasing the Kardashians as desirable, pasting advertising in every possible space, pushing for a robust economy over the health of the planet, rewarding dishonesty, feeding entitlement, and allowing the distance between the wealthy and the poor to widen. We've let poverty -- and price-gouging on essential medication -- continue, and we haven't addressed people's desperation. Add to that the fact that we've eroded people's trust in authority, in government, in the police, in educators, in sports and celebrity figures, in just about anyone they could hope to look up to. And then we're astounded when people apparently ignore all moral consideration and flaunt their thefts in others' faces. As a society, we've fed this. As a group we are collectively responsible. Because we've bought into that value system too. We have no right to sit back and look down our noses in disapproval at what's going on if we're feeding our own greed and not seeking equity for all.

That leads to the tandem issue: people wouldn't be stealing the merchandise if they couldn't sell it. Someone is buying it. 

I think what we're seeing is just a manifestation of the dichotomy of need and greed. You can't generalize that the thieves have one and the buyers have the other -- you'll find both motivations on each side. Some of the thieves might be desperate fathers trying to feed their children. Grandma may not be dressed in black swarming the malls, but her need for medication she can't afford may force her to buy off the black market, thus giving motivation to someone to essentially steal it for her. That desperation is a deeper problem that needs addressing. 

On the other hand, some of the thieves are just looking to make quick money, and as long as it is profitable for them, they'll continue to do it. It's the greed of the buyer, in that instance, that feeds the greed of the thief. If people would stop buying the stolen Vitton handbags on the black market, there would be little incentive for the hordes to steal them. No one seems to be talking about that aspect of it.

Do I think we'll stop need and greed in our society any time soon? No. Meanwhile, there are some short-term solutions stores could consider. 

One Band-aid that stores could apply would be to gate their entrances, and only allow a handful of customers into the store at a time. With a two-gate "airlock" type of set-up, it would be impossible for hordes of thieves to enter at once, and they could lock down (essentially trap) individual shoplifters between the gates until they gave back what they took. I suppose someone would complain that it was unlawful detainment, but do we really care? Even a single metal gate would help, but someone would have to be on duty there. You're still then left to determine what to do with the thief themselves, and it sounds like the law is pretty toothless. You may have to release them, but it would give you some control and at least you'd have a chance of getting your merchandise back.

Malls could also hire people to patrol the parking lots looking for cars without licence plates and immediately putting boots on them and impounding them/towing them away. If you use a car in the commission of a crime, can it be legally impounded? I don't know. But then the thief would come out of the mall laden with merchandise and couldn't drive away with it (plus there'd be the headache and cost of getting their car back out of the pound). No Uber driver would pick them up because they'd be abetting a crime and therefore an accomplice. And in possession of stolen goods, also a chargeable offence. (And yeah, why not charge the person with possession of stolen goods, rather than the crime of shoplifting, if that's the thing that's toothless?)

In the end, we can come up with a myriad of Band-aids and legal solutions, but until we address the dichotomy of poverty and greed, the related issues of racialization and corporate greed, and our own complicity in those, there will be no long-term fixes.