What Do We Do Now?

What Do We Do Now?

Four years ago, we were adjusting ourselves to a future that did not include Trump. Biden was declared the winner of the 2020 election on November 7th, four days after voting ended. However, the counting had not ended. Republicans were filing lawsuits in crucial states, claiming that the counts were corrupted and illegal. Trump told media that he would concede the election only when the electors voted, yet when they did so on December 14th he still continued crying foul, refusing access to the Biden administration to enable the transition. It is believed that Trump’s inflammatory words in this period became the match that lit the January 6th insurrection. If he did not explicitly tell his followers to attack, he certainly hinted strongly. Perhaps the only reason the attack was a surprise was because the rest of the country did not believe anyone would be stupid enough to listen.

I was not worried. Though to be honest, I had stopped listening to things said by or about Trump about three months into his administration. There were too many lies, too much disconnect from any basis in reality, too little filtering. I didn’t have the patience to deal with that. I would only fight the battles I could see and smell and verify for myself.

After Biden’s election — and some rather shattering personal experiences — I decided to begin this writing project. I wanted to write about what I was doing because I thought that this is the way forward. If there is a way forward. I am not as certain there is a way forward anymore. There is too much damage to everything. And to be honest, Trump was only a small part of that, mostly the ruder bits. But it must be said that things did not get much better under Biden for many reasons, but mostly because things have passed the point where they can get better.

Now, we are living in a hospice culture that is embedded in biophysical breakdown that is nearly all caused by this dying culture — which is, of course, accelerating the culture’s dying. Somewhere in the last few years, I gave up on the idea that this culture is savable. I am not convinced that it is even worth saving, depending as it does on the enslavement and destruction of most of the planet… to the dubious benefit a very few humans and their strange obsessions.

Still… there are things worth saving. Most exist in spite of this culture. Nearly all exist on the edge spaces. And… the way forward for those things is still exactly what I began writing about four years ago — living local, becoming small, taking care of our own needs and caring for each other, being real, doing the work, know what is actually happening. Now that we have another four years of supreme stupidity, it seems all the more important to follow this small path, to turn away from the things that are harming us, to build up our communities, to live our lives — because this is all we get and the idiots do not get to take that from us, not even four years.

But it’s more than surviving. This is how we thrive even as Washington festers. This is how we have always thrived despite the idiocy of self-declared leadership. I suspect this is how we will continue to thrive even as the world falls apart. This is how the work of thriving gets done, after all.

It is also the only thing that is real. The local is where you are and who you are. Take care of where you are, and you are creating the space for your life. Ignore your place, and it will crumble from neglect. Things like insurrections are only possible when we are not caring for our places in the world, not caring for the people around us, not caring for ourselves. Now, your real space will not be an echo chamber. It will be filled with Trump voters and raging old women and frightened young people and a large number of uncaring jerks. But most people are just people, and people living together usually overcome whatever differences they might have. Because most people prefer getting along. And if there are jerks, there are also wise folks who are watching. In the real world, anyway.

That’s not at all true on these screens, where most of the festering of the last decade or so has played out. It is so easy to get caught up in the drama and forget that these screens have nothing at all to do with our real lives. Nothing here feeds us or shelters us or cares one whit about us or our dying planet. Even the good guys, whoever that is, are limited and often corrupted by this medium, seeking attention more than talking about how we help each other, what needs to be done, or ways to do that. For all the potential reach at our fingertips, we are arrested by our own egos and do not reach outwards.

We are also lazy beasts… and it is much easier to post a video or type two thousand words about anything than it is to actually do the work. I fall into that trap also, though I am saved by solitude. If I don’t do the work, if I let myself get sucked into screen drama, then the work does not get done. I don’t have clean laundry. The garlic does not get planted. I don’t have dinner. So my priorities are sort of set for me. If I had one wish it would be that those who do the work for these bloviators and idiots would stop enabling them. Just stop taking up their slack. When they are hungry, they will turn back to the real and start doing something about that…

I do apologize for losing my head these last dozen days. Like most of you, I am enraged, I am scared, and I am deeply disappointed. But really, I was and remain unsurprised. I think if you read back over my posts for the last year, there is definitely a resigned note regarding the inevitability of crappy leadership. I mean, why should we expect otherwise in this crappy culture? But for a few days I forgot that really national politics have no effect on strong local communities. This parasitic system is built on the backs of strong local and productive communities. We do not need it. It needs us. And if we turn from it, if we stop giving it our attention, our labor, our lives, it will die.

So I am going back to my small corner and ignoring what is really just a circus — without even the consolation of bread… My goal is to tell the world what we are doing in my community — when it works, when it doesn’t, when its emergent properties are completely unexpected — and then compare notes with other parts of the world. What are you doing? Is it working? Is it not? Are unforeseen joys leaping out of the cracks? Also I want us all to keep tabs on the actual physical world, how it is changing in real time and how that affects the work we do.

So what is this real living? Well, for one thing, it finally got cold enough to believe that it’s safe to plant the garlic. So I did that. I have a bed full of four different varieties. Garlic is definitely a leap of faith. All seeds are to some extent. But garlic is put unshelled and naked into the nearly frozen soil, to endure months of conditions inimical to life before it can even sprout. It will be nearly a year before it is food. A lot can happen in a year. Will I remember that I planted this garlic in the cool twilight under a moon just past the full? Will the echo of these times survive in the sharpness of flavor, the acerbic commentary on Vermont winter? Will there even be garlic, or will it all rot in too much warmth?

I choose to believe in this bed of garlic. Or why would I have planted it…

There are other things I believe in. Bread is high on that list. This weekend I made an oat and wheat loaf for sandwiches. I also used the end of the stew to make enchiladas. This stew was black beans, corn, sweet potatoes, green chile and winter squash — all grown locally. Don’t ever let anyone tell you that you can’t eat well out of your local food-shed! Wherever you are, there are tasty foods. Otherwise, your ancestors never would have settled there. I’m calling this Three Sisters and a Cousin or Two Enchiladas. (Tortillas, by the way, are also local… made by me from local corn and wheat flour.) I will eat one or two for dinner all week, probably with a dollop of my yogurt, perhaps with melted cheese from any of the dozen or so cheese-makers around here.

Too much starter!

But the best thing that happened in the kitchen came about because the sourdough starter was getting out of hand.

This happens from time to time. I take out two and a half cups for every loaf. I replace it with a bit over two cups of fresh flour and water. Yet somehow the jar gets fuller over time. So I find ways to use it up. Today was pancakes. Or maybe fry bread. There was quite a lot of oil. But they aren’t greasy like fry bread. They are filling though. One will make a nice breakfast. Two is a meal. I will probably end up freezing many for later in the winter. Because with the amount of sourdough starter that I had to use up, I made a lot of pancakes! This is a recipe for a crowd of cold, hungry people! Maybe the flapjacks you will serve to wassailers…

Too Much Sourdough-Starter Pancakes

Ingredients

4 eggs, well beaten
3 cups sourdough starter
1 cup yogurt
4 cups roasted butternut squash puree
1 cup maple syrup
1 medium shallot, chopped fine
1 cup raspberries, fresh or frozen