Telescoping universe

I was going to take pictures of an older finished object for you - the post is all done but for pictures and it's rather good, if I do say so myself.

But instead of that or knitting, or organizing the bookcase, which were the sum of my rather tenuous plans for the day, I have been reading the Inheritance of Loss, which is really a devastating book in such a number of ways, starting with the fact that I will never be that good a writer (selfish first, please), running through the realization that my world is too small and ranging into colonialism, and racism and injustice and the weak show that is good intention most of the time, particularly when movement peters out at the far end of intent and doesn't manage the thrust into action and change, selflessness.

More and more I think capitalism is maybe fundamentally selfish and yet, I can't quite get my head 'round the alternatives.  There's pride in nationalism so narrow and limiting and yet, love of culture so profoundly valuable, the customs, the history so precious to who we are, human locusts destroying and changing everything in the act of living.

The extra weight I carry is more than a private difficulty, really more of an affront to those who have so very little.  I go to the store and think about healthy choices and I have Whole Foods and Wegman's and Trader Joe's and an infinity of options and they are good, but they are luxurious opulent abundance in this world, not necessity.  And yet good fresh vegetables ought not to be the high end choice, but even here in the first world there's less and less food in the food at the affordable end of things.  The expanding American girth is a sign of self destruction at a cellular level.

So I go and clean the bathroom, a manageable task, and find myself using a metal dpn to pull the long hair from the slow drain, trying to clear it enough that baking soda will clear the rest.  And it is a sloppy, disgusting human mess I don't want to touch even though it literally comes from me.  In the end the lye dissolves the human remains, the clog is beyond the reach of my digging needle point.

Comments

[Marce]

This is poetry.
Thanks for sharing.

[seizuresalad]

Capitalism feels like the weather, kind of. Inevitable. That's why I love certain kinds of speculative fiction/science fiction, like Ursula LeGuin - it's those writers who play with the hypothetical who skillfully show us what something else might look like.

For the hair clogs I take a really long zip tie, cut barbs in it with a sharp knife and wriggle it down into the drain and twist a couple of times.

[Anne]

I tried to e-mail you but got a bounce-back (apparently I am a tinned Hormel product). Having a lovely time, though the on-site liquor store is (sob!) closed...

[Gina]

I often think about some of this as well -- having the luxury of having had too much too eat for too long become a health problem. It makes me feel so, so very glutenous.

[Cassandra]

Maybe try the farmer's market! You'll support your local community rather than some big corporate farming machine. It's healthier because you can talk to the people who grow the food you put in your body and know how they produce it. Better for the environment because it wasn't shipped across the country. At least this is how I deal with the guilt...

[Jocelyn]

Thanks for the thought-provoking post (hair in traps and all). I was particularly caught by your comment about their being less food in the food at the cheaper end of the scale, because it's one of my least favorite things about the organic food market. I know about economies of scale (ah, capitalism), but it seems to me to be fundamentally wrong that only relatively wealthy people can afford to make certain kinds of food choices. I shop at a farmer's market, which, while somewhat more expensive than a chain market, is much more affordable than the Jimbo's/Whole Foods options, where I refuse to shop. Keep mulling whilst doing -- only way to go!

[Mome-rath]

If you haven't already read it, I highly, highly recommend "The Omnivore's Dilemma," by Michael Pollan. It's devastating, sure, but it's also uplifting, because he shows that we can change our lives for the better, little by little. I'm buying a copy of the book for everyone I know over the holidays—if I have to live in a capitalist society, then at least I can support people who have something positive to contribute to the world. Read it. It might just change you forever.

[camilla]

Gee, I'll just have to go throw myself off a bridge now. Such an uplifting look at our human condition. Perhaps not being too wrapped up with introspection would be a good place to start, and focus instead on what you are pleased with. The heart follows the mind. At least consider that you have the luxury of contemplating your lifestyle/habits. As a former homeless 'person' (I was a child of twelve when my parents' bad choices left us homeless), I can tell you there is no "perfect" system, no precise way to live. A few extra pounds can mean the difference between survival or perishing... my grandfather survived over four months in a Nazi POW camp on roots and bugs and anything else he could get his hands on. I'm sure growing up on fresh butter and bisciuts must've helped him too, at least psychologically. You seem, from your blog, to be a creative and vital person. Go do something for and about someone else. Sometimes you just have to get out of your own way. Blessings to you. Cami

[claudia]

Dude. Untwist and then mangle a wire clothes hanger to make a little hook with a long straight bit. That will reach all the way down to the trap.

[Lizbon]

I assume you've read Alexis de Tocqueville's critique of the American system of representative democracy? Written not long after our government's foundation, and eerie in its predictions.

[Laurie]

One tries to tread lightly, leaving littler evidence of having been past. The carbon footprint..recycling...it's really few things that we can actually control.
It's the only way to live with being a locust (which we have been for all of recorded and unrecorded history).

[Lynn]

Your second paragraph: Yeah, exactly, although I haven't read that book. I am a well-educated, smart, competent person, and yet it horrifies me how little I know and understand of the world. No wonder I'm always burying my head in a pile of yarn or fiber - it's escapism, pure escapism, disguised as creativity and innocent hobbies. There's nothing innocent about being human these days.

[Tara]

You know, I innocently come to the internet to goof off, rather than face the mountain of laundry or multitude of other household chores that I have let slide a little too far in recent times, and what happens? You remind me that my drain has only been grudgingly letting the water through for the last week or so. I suppose I ought to get up and take care of that now while I'm thinking about it.... but then again I have a few more sites to check in on. I'm sure I'll remember later. :)

[Allison]

It's a shame all the options seem so monolithic. It's like every society is a test case for a narrow ideal. Hopefully, over time, we'll find a way to mash social structures - some capitalism, some socialism, some communism, some nationalism - just enough of everything to create the structure yet flexibility needed to function. I think the biggest challenge is operating as a huge mass. It tests our faith in humanity. The more people we try to regulate as a group, the more rigid the rules become and the less discretion individuals have. The more fear overrides everything else.

I was thinking the other day that our capitalism might end up looking a lot like Soviet "communism" - which wasn't communism, at all. As the big box stores knock out all the competition and we only have one place to buy office supplies and only two choices for the paper in the office supply store, it's beginning to feel more like that commercial: "Day Vear! Svim Vear! Evening Vear!" I rail against the loss of independent stores and locally produced goods with a cultural feel. And then I wonder, "Maybe it's not such a bad thing to be reduced to no choice and force our energies to be applied elsewhere, our vanities to derive from something besides shopping conquests." Who knows?

It's easier to clean the bathroom, though. I seem to turn to that often when I feel overwhelmed or helpless. or reorganizing a closet. or a nap.

[Carrie]

Interestingly around here, a lot of the stores that cater to the Mexican population (I'm less than an hour north of the border) have good meat and veggies at lower prices than most of the gringo stores do. For some reason I haven't figured out yet, I still shop at the gringo stores. Most of the gringos do.

[--Deb]

A couple years ago I finally broke down and got a hair filter for my bathtub--just a little plastic gizmo that sits over the drain and catches the hair before it washes away. SO much easier than trying to find ways to clear the drain. Because, ick! (grin)

[Tsock Tsarina]

This is me totally not thinking about that today, because if I do my slim remaining chance of actually getting anything done around here goes straight down the drain (even though, like yours, it's uncomfortably slow).

Sheesh, lady, way to get under my skin....