At the edge of reason 3/25

I saw an eagle soaring in the air above the Lowe's parking lot. There used to be a woody meadow full of creatures there. Now there is a big ugly parking lot and a bunch of cheap crap from China. Like the Walmart of home building. I wondered if the eagle had been there before looking for a mouse or other prey. Did he know where he was? Was he shocked because it is now a concrete jungle instead of a natural habitat?

Every time you give your zipcode to one of those checkers in one of those megamarts you contribute to the destruction of natural areas. They come in with their bulldozers during prime nesting and birthing season and they kill everything in their path. They terraform an acre or ten. Make it flat. Give it unnatural draining, pollute the neighboring undeveloped areas and provide yet another store full of substandard merchandise in individual little plastic wraps, that also pollute the earth by not being biodegradable and are either burned releasing heavy polimers into the aire or are thrown in the garbage collection system to sit forever in a landfill that will never break down into usefull matter in our lifetime or even the lifetime of humanity on the planet.

I always tell my checker, no thankyou. And then I wait while the poor employee has to think what to do next to override my rebellious refusal. Last time they told me I would not be able to return the merchandise without it. Is that blackmail? Are you extorting my zipcode? Next you'll want my social security number and credit rating. I don't think so.

What is it about Americans that make them think that every zipcode needs Costco, Home Depot, Walmart and an Albertson's? Now that we have our little commercial corner in our neighborhood we get to stop at three stoplights to get to the road to our house. I just want to go home. I want to see the natural world in my corners. I just want them all to move back into town and I'll go to them if I need them.

What will happen to all the destroyed meadows when the megastores don't make the expected 3% growth in sales per year and then they close? Will they restore the destroyed habitat? Bring back the little birdies they slaughtered all on that beautiful spring day; the traumatized parent birds flying about trying to find their nests in trees that no longer stand in the meadow.
It all makes me pretty sick. Makes me wish someone would just listen to the voice of reason and quit mowing down America and think about the future.

Do I stand alone on the edge of reason looking in at madness.

At the edge of reason

Is it just me or does the world look lopsided to you, too? Are we just about to tumble over that edge? Am I the only one who wants to sell all my stock and buy gold and bury it in the yard because the Financial Giants just borrowed all the available money in the United States and are going to wirte themselves a check and run off with the money waving their noses at the rest of us fools who did nothing but watch? Can you see them in South America whooping it up with the $900million they just got.

Do you have jewelry and gold and silver coins? Do you have loose gemstones to carry in your pocket to bribe the sentries into letting you leave the guarded borders one after another till you get to someplace safe?

Do you know about the laws in place since the Carter administration that allow FEMA to sieze personal property, break up families and put us all in neat little "work camps" for the common good in the event of a "catastrophy'? Do you have ammo to go with your person guns that they want you to list so they can come and get them just before they declare common law? Are you just going to stand their with your mouth open while they bring in foreign troops to guard our borders (hey San Diego, hey Bellingham)? Are they keeping people out? Or are they keeping people in? Did you see the huge troop movement crossing the Cascades on I-90 last summer in the strange uniforms with the steering wheels on the right? Did you see those strange airplanes fly over Puget Sound last month? me neither.

Do you read the paper cover to cover? Do you read those little articles they hide in the middle of the sections that tell you the truth about what is happening in the world? I do and I am pretty nervous that I have been working all these years putting away enough money to live comfortably in my old age, paying into my pension (yes I have one of those) and into my SS account with the very simple truth that our economy could tumble to the dirt in a matter of moments and all that work will have been for aught. It's not the money, it's the work, the time and the effort. I sold my soul for that guaranteed future.

and unless we can survive the ensuing depression without needing to access all that money we put away, we are sunk. The mobs. The starving families. The camps for the homeless. Did you see the Woody Guthrie movie?

Did you watch the last Lethal Weapon movie? Did it have any significance at all?

Do you have a three month or greater supply of food on hand, stored dried and canned food? Do you have an adequate sourch of water? Do you know how to make water drinkable? Can you survive without electricity and toilet paper?

Can you live off the land in the woods?

I feel the energy all around me building like a balloon about to burst. I am not afraid of not surviving. I am good at survival. I am afraid of surviving. I am afraid for my grandchildren who may not have the resources and the wherewithall required to survive.

I look all around me and all I see is corporate greed and silly consumer driven masses. I see vulnerability all around me for a way of life that just uses and takes and never looks back. I do not cherish this lifestyle. It is unreasonable. I just can't believe I live here in the midst of it.

Am I just standing on the edge of reason?