Explaining ourselves to death

"... explanations are unavoidable; we are constantly explaining - that unexplainable complex of being and feeling and explaining ourselves; life itself demands explanations for us, as do our surroundings and finally as we do, demanding explanations from ourselves until, finally, we manage to minimize everything around us, ourselves included - that is to say, explaining ourselves to death. Thus I expound to the philosopher with that disgusting (to me) and yet irrepressible urge to speak, that which always seizes me when I have nothing to say, the urge, I suspect, which lies at the root of my habit of giving far to generous tips in restaurants, to cab drivers, to driving officials or semi-official representatives, and the like; it almost might have something to do with my politeness, exaggerated to the point of self denial.. as if I were continually apologizing for my existence, for this existence." -Imre Kertesz, "Kaddish for a Child Not Born"

I read this novel a few years ago, bought it randomly in New York. It's about a guy who survives the Holocaust and his psychology and life after going through such a thing. How his PTSD as a result keeps him from feeling a part of society, keeps him from love. He "explains to a friend that he cannot bring a child into the world where the Holocaust occurred and could occur again."

Explaining ourselves to death. We can rationalize anything with explanations. I also find that often times things can lose their beauty when explained. Now after Botany I have a hard time looking at a tree without thinking of the flow of the sap and the meaning and scientific words for its parts. Something lost something gained though. There is something really mechanical about thinking of a tree (or anything) in science.

Born seeking explanations because the world doesn't make sense. So we the unsure make definitive explanations for the earth. Making explanations for me and my existence as if knowing better than I do. Their mere ability to explain set to shape me, but I have my own eyes, and ears. I know now to question the hardest those who claim to have the answers, the users of big words, the over-explainers. It's a lot more work paddling up stream.

How do you quantify the wildness of birds?

"How do you place a value on inspiration? How do you quantify the wildness of birds, when for the most part, they lead secret anonymous lives" (Terry's Grandmother)

-Terry Tempest Williams, "Refuge"

Leave the Driving

"the moral of this story
Is try not to get too old
The more time you spend on earth
The more you see unfold

And as an afterthought
This must to be told
Some people have taken pure bullshit
And turned it into gold"

-Neil Young, "Leave the Driving"

The Cost of Food

Our current system for providing food is severely unsustainable, most of it illogical and possibly insane when put into perspective. To help frame where I am coming from let me tell you about my school lunches at Sparta, Michigan. Then I will go into more detail about the statement.

Sparta, the self proclaimed Apple Capital of the Midwest, is a small country town about 20 minutes north of Grand Rapids, Michigan. A faint smell of cow manure always trailed down the halls. A few of my classmates already had plans of inheriting there parents farm, so most didn't care to try much at school. For lunch there was always a main course of some sort of pre-packaged burrito or the 'grand slam' burger. All of which arriving by semi-truck labeled Sysco. There was also a beverage of choice, Country Fresh milk, juice, or a soda. Then after paying, the line wrapped around to a salad bar. The lettuce was iceberg lettuce with bits of cabbage and shredded carrots out of a Sysco bag, to the end was the fruit. Usually there were usually apples, oranges and bananas. The apples were always disappointing. They were a deep burgundy, high-glossed, and thick skinned. They lacked flavor, often tinted green signifying they were picked too soon. There was always a sticker to peel off; they were often from Washington or Chile. I didn’t think much of any of this back then besides being disappointed.

Now I look back at this and wonder why in Sparta, Michigan, the apple capital of the Midwest, we were not eating Sparta apples. To me this is illogical. Why would it make sense for an apple travel over 2000 miles, when they are growing outside our door?

In this region of the world apples aren't just apples, they have different flavors colors and textures. Some are good for caning, others good for pies, some better for storage, all of them good fore eat'n. Though some preferred to others. My grandma likes the Northern Spy for her pies. The Gala's used to be the best for just eating but now that the trees have aged or maybe its been the weather, but they haven't been as good the past couple of years. At the farmers market the buzz is all about the Candy Crisp which seems to be the predecessor to the honey crisp which was all the buzz last 2-3 years. There are so many different flavors though, each a little different then the other. So what I am saying is that apple isn't just an apple, it's an experience, each apple is unique.

Did you know that there are 2,500 known varieties of apples grown in the United States (some sources now say 1000) and over 7,500 grown world wide as of 1999? 15 apples accounted for over 90% of production in 1999. These numbers have been greatly reduced over the past 100 years. At one time there was said to be well over 7000 in the united states alone.

Somehow industry has managed to produce a variety of apple for our school lunches that is consistently of horrible quality by my standards and lacking any character. To industry apples are burgundy, yellow, or red. That's it.

At Sparta, “All meals served must meet patterns established by the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture.” The department of agriculture is run by representatives from Monsanto. Large corporations have monopolized the market, making it hard for smaller local farms to compete.

“Agri-business,” as some call it, receives most of the federal subsidies, making it possible to produce food more “cheaply”. 10% of the farms are collecting 71% of the subsidies, an average of $123,909 annually and the bottom 80% receiving less than $586 annually. This is OUR tax dollars used to make it possible to make it possible to for these large farms to be able to sell their produce for cheaper than our local farmers. I wonder what an apple from Chile or Washington would really cost if they weren't receiving these subsidies, or tax breaks.

when wagering the costs of producing "cheap" produce the environmental, social, and ecological costs are often not taken into account. What is not factored in is the packaging, the unknown health effects of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, the amount of oil used (to transport the product, to make and transport the packaging, used in fertilizers, used in production), unfairly paid labor, lack of connection locationally and psychologically to food and how it is produced and where it comes from, the effects of Genetically Modified foods to us and our environment, Mono-cropping (large fields of one crop), how modern practices are effecting our depleting top soil, the list goes on.

I think the first and most important step is to support local. Then start advocating for more sustainable practices from these farmers, from restaurants, and from our stores.

In investigating why my former school system would choose not to use local suppliers I found a document that presented all of the hoops that would be 'necessary' in order to use local produce. Making it seemingly intimidating, difficult, and risky to use local suppliers.

It's focus is on food safety. But in reality most of the problems with food have come from the large industrial farms.

http://www.fns.usda.gov/cnd/Guidance/foodsafety_onfarm.pdf

The Yin and the way

It’s ironic taking any amount of time reading explanations of the Tao Te Ching, let alone the Tao Te Ching. The Tao Te Ching can be translated from Chinese as ‘the path of truth’ or ‘the way and virtue.’ It is said to be have been written by Lao Tzu though there is little evidence that he had ever existed. Taoism has become one of the three pillars of thought in China along with Buddhism, and Confucianism. It is written as a collection of 78 poems focusing on states of being (and non-being) and its' intrinsic interconnection with nature. Tao cannot be described, it is said that if you can name something then it is not ‘the way.’ So the irony lies in the fact that the Tao is meant as a guide book to help us return to that which cannot be explained. The fact that the Tao has been written implies to me that we (civilization) has already skewed from ‘the path’ and this could be why it has been written.

In addressing this idea we must first consider some thoughts on the possible roots of this imbalance and consider how we may return. One thought, which will be the focus of this paper implies the lack of feminine involvement in the structure of society. In “China: Its History and Culture” the author expresses an imbalance by connecting Taoism to the yin component of the yin-yang by writing, “[the] yang has been overemphasized and the yin must be restored to its rightful place” (Morton 39). The yin represents the feminine, dark, passive, empathetic half of the yin-yang. The author suggests that we are living in an unbalanced society dominated by the yang.

The Tao arose out of the bloody decay of the Zhou Dynasty (ca. 1027-256 B.C.) from the time of the ‘Warring States’ (403-221 B.C.). During this period several states were reduced to seven, the wars were fought over territory and leadership. The ideals of warfare, which prior had been considered a moderated gentleman’s activity, had shifted from acts of honor to fighting for less noble territorial and personal gains (Welch 18). Weapons were also introduced during this period, which also may have aided in the shift in thought. Weapons can be seen as extending masculine authority both literally and metaphorically, leading to an increasingly masculine minded society.

To me the Tao may have been written as a direct response to an emasculated society. The Tao says, “Know masculinity, Maintain femininity” (Laozi 72). Implying that there needs to be understanding of both to maintain harmony. Another important school of thought that was birthed from the Easter Zhou Dynasty was Confucianism. Confucianism has became an integral part of historical and modern Chinese ideology, taking hold for the first time in the Western Han Dynasty (202 B.C.-9 A.D.) (Wasserstrom 7). It emphasizes on morality through the importance of knowledge, hierarchy and division of labor. In considering the Tao as the yin, Confucian thought and masculinity could be compared to the yang.

In syncretism, a common practice in China involving using all three pillars as religious practice, a person uses mostly Confucian and Tao portions of the three pillars in their daily life. Confucian thought used at jobs and in conversation during the day, Tao for evening meditation, and the third being Buddhism reserved for prayer. So in theory, the yin and the yang, Taoism and Confucianism, masculinity and femininity, organization and reflection are both essential to a culture. The Increase in trade, which also emerged out of the fall of the Zhou dynasty, also increased a focus on commerce which utilized Confucianism, the masculine thought (Morton 27). This idea is most obvious in today’s consumption driven society, more interested in GDP’s as opposed to integrity of humanity, associating success and doing well with the ranking with a growing GDP. As these ideas have grown, GDP seems to be the inverse of happiness and satisfaction in humanity.

In the United States, and across the world, wars are waged over non-renewable resources, more cities and stores and factories are materializing, imperialism is alive and well. Consumer culture has spread like a disease across the world. Nature is seen as a resource as opposed to a holy place for meditation. The idea of masculine dominated society seems to be an inevitable symptom of ‘civilized’ society. Not to say that femininity is strictly reserved for women or that masculinity is strictly reserved for men. To me, Sara Palin and Hillary Clinton are both faces of the yang or the masculine part. Just the same I would consider Martin Luther King Jr. as speaking on behalf of the yin or of the feminine portion as his speeches advocated for a more empathetic society. This is why the ideas Taoism are important for us to consider today.

To me the Tao is kind of like driving a truck full of water, if one takes a curb too hard the water splashes hard in the opposite direction so the truck feels as if it is tilting so naturally one swing the wheel fast in the other direction, which the water sloshing back from the other direction gains even more momentum, hitting the other side even harder, the truck wobbles back and forth until it either winds up crashing on its side or working together with the rhythm of the water to calm itself back down, to complacently fallow the road. Tao is harmony, it is driving while knowing (or not knowing) the potential influence of water to the amount of control (or lack of) one has over the truck. The Tao Te Ching is a guide to teach us how to get back in rhythm with the water, through feeling and non-action, this is nature and the yin, this is the dark and the feminine. The beauty of Tao, and Eastern thought is that everything is cyclical, that whether we try or don't try balance will be restored and the forces of nature will prevail, through earthquake and tidal wave, this is the nature of things.

Works Cited:
Laozi. Tao Te Ching: The Classic Book of Integrity and the Way. Trans. Victor H. Mair. New York: Bantam, 1990. Print."
Morton, W. Scott, and Charlton M. Lewis. China: Its History and Culture. 4th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2005. 22-44. Print.
Wasserstrom, Jeffrey N. "School of Thought." China in the 21st Century: What Everyone Needs to Know. New York, NY: Oxford UP, 2010. 1-18. Print.
Welch, Holmes. Taoism: The Parting of the Way. Boston: Beacon, 1966. 1-34. Print.