Where does the time go? I promise this winter, I will do a better job of keeping this thing up. But on to what’s happening at the moment.
It’s FALL! That means there is a show or festival or event EVERY weekend. I love small town festivals. There is something so fundamental about them that makes me connect to the people, the crafts, the food. No matter where I am, when I am at a festival, I feel like I am home. Which is good. Most of the time I feel like Gonzo in Muppets from Space. I never quite fit into my environment.
Today’s theme is all about contradictions. Greenday would call me a “walking contradiction”. It’s true. I long for the days of cooking outdoors, making your own goods… I guess a simpler time. I try to learn as many of the activities as I can because I think we all need to preserve them. The truth is I have to have a job to pay for these things. We no longer live in a society in which bartering is an option. I don’t have enough land to be self-sufficient, and not matter how much I want to go off the grid, I am tied to it in a love/hate relationship.
Recently, I was told a local magazine was interested in doing an article on me. I was initially thrilled. Then I was worried. Worried that I wouldn’t live up to the expectations. I do tinkering on tin and I make cornhusk dolls and I study all the crafts of the old days… and I make them too. I make them in my very modern house. I have a house that was built in the 90’s. It is packed full of the latest and greatest of everything, because I married a computer programmer. I do not have antique furniture because, well basically, I am afraid of it… too many episodes of Haunted Collector. I learned how to can my own food, but I don’t do it. For one, the weather here zaps every garden I plant, and for two, it’s hard to spend a Saturday canning when I can buy them so cheaply at the store (I know it’s blasphemy, but it’s the truth).
It’s becoming harder and harder to reconcile the contradictions. I am a firm believer in buying American Made items. I make a point of telling the sales people that I only want American items. I encourage others to do it too, but the truth is, many of our jobs involve importing goods from other countries. It’s very difficult to make peace with this, but I look at it that if I don’t have my job, I can’t afford the American goods. Still, I struggle.
My mother pointed out that I use a handmade broom with a sapling handle to sweep my floor before I use my Floor Mate to mop it. I pointed out that I bought that broom from a broom squire who made it from a tree from his land, and sold it to me using his smart phone and his Square. It is at least comforting to know that I am not alone. From the documentary I watched, many Amish are also starting to feel this pinch. It said that many of them now have phones (outside the house) to take orders for cabinets and such because the economy is eating away at their lifestyle as well.
So what to do? I honestly don’t know. In a way, I kind of think the way we are headed with the importing and the disposable goods are going to lead us back to the way I want to live. I think in the future, we may not have a choice between canned goods and store-bought goods. Maybe it’s the ex-girl scout in me, but I want to be prepared. Plus there is just something wholesome and reassuring in making your own items - In knowing that I am not only using an American-made spoon, but a Teresa-made spoon. Will the magazine want to write an article on me with all these conflicts? Who knows? But I kind of figure most of us are in the same boat.
