| The End, My Friends - |
[May. 31st, 2007|12:43 pm] |
I heard from my dad today. It seems like now is a time for homecomings everywhere. Now is a time for a lot of things, I guess.
This morning Lauren woke me up early, and though I still don't have a ton of energy she egged me out onto the roof over our porch. The sun was coming up. The street was stirring with people and pets. Wrapped up in her grandma's old quilt, we sat and watched the sunrise and watched our friends and neighbors wake up, waving to us as they walked or biked to class, or started shoveling their walkways from the light dusting of snow that fell last night. We waved to Andy starting up the cooking fire. He asked if we wanted anything, and threw some extra oatmeal into his pot for us. We listened to the sounds of people living in a new way, or is it an old way? Sometimes it strikes me as really medieval, our walled village with its own livestock and garden plots, cooking with fire and reading by candlelight after dark. But at the same time, it's not.
The way I see it, the basis of society is agriculture. Lucky for Michigan, we have plenty capacity for that. But Detroit, the city that Lauren loves so much, is built on obsolete technology now. I dread what is going to happen to the state as a whole because of it; although oil is now available, it is absurdly expensive. The Big 3 were tanking before the crisis. Now they're in shambles.
But we can and will start again. Some of the farmers we've been working with have announced that they're going to band together to start up the Ann Arbor Farmer's Market in the spring, something that I'm sure everyone living up on the north side misses dearly. Andrew has offered to give them gas discounts if they buy in quantity from him.
The basis of society is agriculture, but what allows it to grow is fellowship. We had to learn really fast the necessity of banding together and keeping a cool head. And I'm honored to count myself in among a community of men and women who have made a commitment to community and rational behavior, both online and here in Ann Arbor. Though sometimes the stress was too great, I think I did a pretty good job of it myself. Looking back on the past 32 weeks, I have to say, I'm older, I'm wiser, I'm more experienced, but I'm also more skeptical, more tired, and more worried. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing. We've all changed, and I can imagine the vast majority of us have taken our troubles and travails and made the best of things.
From all of us here at the Northside Crop Collective, keep fighting the good fight. We're not going anywhere anytime soon, so if you're ever in the neighborhood, drop by and maybe we'll break our bread together. |
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| Family Matters |
[May. 29th, 2007|08:43 pm] |
So, as you know, I'm living up at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, and my family is back at home, about an hour northeast of here. I haven't really heard much from them, but I keep checking in now and then. Mostly my mom and sister have been going about business as usual, with a few cutbacks. It's hard because my mom has really severe rheumatoid arthritis and isn't as mobile as us kids here in A2. But they're getting by. Like I mentioned, there's no money to pay for my tuition, so I'm just stuck living here. Which, by the way, isn't bad at all. I like helping people, building things, bartering and playing music. It just isn't exactly what I envisioned for my life at the university two years ago...but then, the stuff that happens to us rarely is what we envision for ourselves.
My dad, on the other hand, has been in China since before the oil shock. I haven't heard from him for about two months now. This isn't really out of the ordinary, because he has a tendency to disappear. I'm just worried because we have no way of knowing what conditions are really like in China. I'm worried he's gotten into trouble or something. His cell phone stopped working last week. I've been trying to send him weekly voicemails to see if he responds, but so far, so bad. I guess I can just keep my fingers crossed.
I have to say that the kids who live in our collective are really like my family. We cook for each other, help each other with chores, support each other when we're freaking out about life, keep each other warm, make sure everyone has everything they need, and protect each other with our lives. Now that things have been stabilizing and our futures seem more secure, I've been able to take a step back and look at it. Before the oil shock, I was everyone's "dad" but only in a nominal sense: I was the fun guy who made sure nobody died at parties. Now I'm "dad" in a much realer way: I make sure everyone is protected and has food to eat. Honestly I feel like a father figure to some of my friends and neighbors now more than I ever have. And they look up to me, and I am proud of them. Is this weird? Maybe. But it's also good: we're a big, warm, fuzzy family. Nobody has to stand alone. We're the family I never had growing up.
Yeah, it's sappy, but it's true! |
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| Green Cities in China |
[May. 9th, 2007|08:37 pm] |
I just read this story about Alejandro Guiterrez's green city project for Shanghai. Basically, they're turning this island at the mouth of the Yangtze River into a green city, complete with power plant fueled by burning rice husks! Originally, he was charged with the task of creating habitable space for humans while preserving the nesting grounds of the black-faced spoonbill. I emailed this story to my dad, who is working on some marine terminal engineering in China right now. He thought it was pretty neat, and that despite the world oil prices, the Chinese government still seems pretty keen on building his marine terminal. Investors will be harder to find, but there are still some who are interested, especially if shipping technology becomes more efficient. Unfortunately, he also said he might not be getting back stateside for another month or so.
Sometimes I wish I were studying civil engineering or urban planning instead of philosophy. This is something that could really make a difference - connected to the rest of the world while completely independent of it. What a beautiful vision for a city! Maybe we'll eventually get a place there, or get a place somewhere like there. |
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