Re: Plenish, Place, New

   Last night I got a drubbing.  In the U.S. that's sort of slang for a lickin' or a bawling out or any of a dozen other terms that mean a "talking to."  Another art print had arrived and despite my defense that I donate most of them to charity fundraisers (and get them at heavily discounted prices since art just doesn't seem to be much of a market these days), even I had to admit that these prints were piling up.  Just what are you going to do with them, she asked.  Things keep coming into this house and never leave, she said.  You're a collector, a hoarder, a good person but what exactly is this thing about getting more and more stuff, she asked (from her eyes, this was a serious talk).  You can't take it with you!  And here's what I got out of it...I had become my mother.  I used to wonder and chuckle a bit as my mom would gather whatever she could, even with her dementia; but we're talking things such as bananas (which would just ripen and turn black) and apples (which she couldn't eat with her dentures), play money and bags of Fritos, all of which went into her dresser and which I would continually try to toss out while she was out of the room and having lunch (she then began placing things under the cushion of her wheelchair).  "I want it" became her mantra of sorts.  My brother got a taste of this when cleaning her room (and earlier her housnow e when she moved from there, taking a picture of some 37 large bags of trash which even he admitted didn't make a dent in the overall cleaning).  And for me, I had to admit that I didn't know what that was for me personally, this getting a "deal" or snapping up an extra shirt or art print which I didn't need (even if I gave them away).  Would I be that genetic clone in a wheelchair in later life reaching out for that apple or cookie which I would never eat but could hide away in a drawer because well, I wanted it (and it was free).

   In my defense, I think that I would love to be a minimalist and part of this comes with shedding the past.  Old photos are nice but maybe just a few and not several thousand (before you laugh, just add up those on your phone and computer, much less those frozen on paper and stored away in ancient albums or boxes in a closet).  I still have slides (remember those, even if the colors are still spectacular) and the accompanying projector!  Memorabilia of childhood or work (that retirement plaque) or books or whatever.  Put me in a 900-square foot apartment and I'd likely have a conundrum...would I be more comfortable in the dumpster now being filled with all my excess?  That's the image my wife seared into my head that night.  What IS all that about, she asked.  You can easily clean out your mother's place and toss things away without a thought, she said, but you're frozen stuck when it comes to your stuff.  Let me go in there (my room) and I'll have it clean in an hour, she added (the horrors!...even if it would be true).  But I had to admit, what good did any of this stuff of mine do other than gather dust?  If charities didn't want the prints why did I keep purchasing them (fundraisers have taken several dozen but I seem to keep replenishing the supply as if I'll soon discover more charities, which hasn't proven to be true and actually puzzles me for why wouldn't such places want to have the chance to add to their coffers unless --duh-- art just isn't selling, or at least the type of art which I'm donating).   Other people can use that stuff, she told me, so why are you keeping it (out went those three new pairs of shoes along with all sorts of shirts and coats...but don't think me too generous because I was continuing to nab bag loads of "deals" for the homeless and refugee groups, everything from brand new baby clothes to jeans and underwear knocked down to ridiculous clearance prices as the seasons changed, all of which made me feel good inside because for many of these people they had never gotten something that still had a "tag" on them, most of their clothing coming from thrift stores and hand-me-downs...at least that's what I was told by the organizers).  My step-father and my mom used to go to church thrift sales in their area, $5 per shopping bag which you could fill with whatever; my dad would come home with broken (but new) hedge trimmers and such which he would fix and feel outright proud (he was talented in working with such things as resistors and refrigerants).  Why don't you two go on a cruise or go out and have some fun, my brother asked one day, to which my dad replied, "what's makes you think this isn't fun for us?"  Was that me, those beautiful art prints that I only wanted me and others to appreciate for their colors and lines and talent soon to be reduced to the same importance as play money and overripe bananas hidden away for perhaps a stranger to discover?

    So let's get back to now; the evening has passed and it's a new dawn and in just a few days there will be an event that hasn't happened in 150 years... a triple moon, one which is new, super and blue.  But as Creedence Clearwater was so popular in saying, "I see a bad moon arising...hope you got your things together."   The spectacular "once in a blue moon" eclipse will turn the moon red, a "blood" moon as astronomers term it.  But for me and my junk, I see all that will be happening as a change in general.  Stop, I'm telling myself, break chains and old ways and possible genetic patterns.  Part of this optimism comes from what I'm seeing elsewhere.  Here are just a few highlights from the recent Natural Resources Defense Council's bulletin:  China bans old and new illegal ivory (and helps to save elephants in the process) and leads the world in solar panel production; forests are saved from unparalleled and almost uncontrolled access by the logging and mining industry; lawsuits have been filed against Trump's easing of allowing more mercury in U.S. waterways and the world's skies (ditto for his easing of methane emissions); Kentucky Fried Chicken agrees to sell only antibiotic-free chicken in its outlets (McDonald's did the same earlier).  That bad moon arising might bring a bit of darkness and "blood" redness and be a once in a blue moon happening; but with every eclipse there also comes a new moon, a brand new and brightly lit and refreshed moon, a new beginning echoing history, a history well beyond just the centuries that we humans can imagine.  Replenished, replaced, and renewed...maybe that'll be me, a rare tripled me.



   On a side note, try to explain this: you're asked to grow something that uses a inordinate amount of water and is so plagued by bugs that you have to use a ton of often carcinogenic pesticides and eventually have to resort to only genetically modified seeds dominated and distributed by a single giant company (which will eventually be bought out by an even larger company); by the way you're asked to use only a few specific varieties of this species, not any of the other 300+  wild varieties that originally were grown throughout the world...which increases the possibility of just one fungus or virus wiping out entire continents worth of the crop (as is happening with bananas which are basically down to just a single part of the world not yet affected by this yet-to-be-contained fungus). And here's the other thing, this crop is not profitable so the only reason to grow it is that your government will pay you all sorts of money to make up the difference for the cost of your fuel and labor and seeds and fertilizer, and create a profit for you.  But don't worry because you're not alone...there's sugar (mainly sugar beets) and cotton and oil and well, the list goes on and on.  In fact, this particular product is so useless for humans that 99% of it has to be subsidized and altered in ways not at all envisioned some decades ago...make it into an almost undigestable syrup and offer more government money to the food industry if they will slide it into a majority of their products (offer accepted); or better yet, give it to animals who would ordinarily not eat it because its starches quickly add fat and sugar, and offer more government money to the industry if they'll use it (offer accepted); or maybe even tempt the wealthy petroleum industry and offer them yes, more government money if they'll add this new creation into their pipelines and our vehicles (offer accepted).  The product of course is corn; but none of this would have successfully happened without the use of lobbyists (and if you think the sugar lobby is only now being exposed for what results they paid to cover up, wait until you read about the pharmaceutical lobbyists).  Much of this is old news, but then came the recent U.S. tax reform and with it the news that Wall Street and other financial institutions had sent in a historical record number of lobbyists...11 for each Congress person.  So one has to ask, with so much government money at stake and sending so many excessive and almost unnecessary products onto the people of the world by subsidizing such --and all done with fewer lobbyists than were sent into the tax change effort-- who or what will exactly benefit from this latest tax change?  And in case you were wondering about that renewable energy stuff, you know, the old nemesis of the petroleum and coal industries, the one that also was getting government subsidies?  Well fear no more as the U.S. has basically removed those incentives (but just for solar...the petroleum industry gets to keep theirs).  Hey, just asking...