I Need To Think About My Future

What? What sort of future does a 68 year old man expect?

You may well ask. And I may well answer, because I am continually evaluating my position in life, what is going on around me, where the world is heading.  This is something that I recollect doing as far back as I can remember.  It is second nature to me.  Am I unusual in that regard?  I don't know but I suspect that a majority of people's thinking and outlook are shaped by events of their past, by what is happening to them today, just perhaps by things they need to do tomorrow and, only if they are pushed from a driving necessity to do so, by what they may have to face any further ahead than that.

So, I isolate myself to be among a select group of people, perhaps self-selected, who have an interest in the far future.  I tend to think that this self-selected group of forward thinkers are also members of that sub-group of humanity who could be described as self-educated. Having taught themselves to think outside of the normal and limiting range of thought patterns that a standard formal education would influence folk to use.  There is no doubt in my mind that I am not normal.  This does not influence me to think that I am better or superior to other people, just different.  ...but I digress.

I repeat, what sort of future does a 68 year old man expect?  Only a few generations back in the past I would expect to have been physically dead for some time by now and this holds true even today in many areas of our modern world.  As it is, I have a Mother who in about a month will reach the age of 99 years.  She is still living independently in her own home, with some outside assistance, far away in my original home city of Lincoln, England. It could be said that I have some long life genes in my physical make-up and potentially around another thirty years of good living ahead of me.  I do not indulge in any dangerous sports such as paragliding.  Never have as a matter of fact.  I stay well away from large, fast flowing or deep bodies of water to minimise my chances of drowning. I have never suffered a major accident causing physical harm nor any debilitating disease or illness except for one situation that I will explain in a moment.  In the last decade or more I have not even had a runny nose or severe headache.  I put a lot of my fortunate physical health down to a mostly healthy lifestyle, (generally) good eating habits (I am a vegetarian) and also to avoiding hospitals, doctors and any form of medication as far as possible.  I have also practised for some years Qi Gong and Reiki for the personal health benefits that they can bring (until recently that is, something that I must get back in to as a more regular practise).

My Setback

There has been an exception to my generally rude good health, as I mentioned earlier, which has put a cloud and possibly a limiting factor on my future expectations of maintaining that state.  This is how that came about.

For a number of years I consumed, as an exclusive substitute for dairy milk (as I consider it to be not healthy for human consumption), a particular brand of soy milk which I will not name here.  For some of those later years the manufacturer of that soy milk (allegedly) altered (drastically increased) the iodine content of the product (also allegedly at the request of an Australian importer of the product, purely for marketing purposes).  The (alleged) result of this action was that a large number of consumers in Australia suffered various conditions, mostly involving Thyroid Toxicosis in some form.  I was, am, one of those alleged victims.  The matter is currently before the courts as a Class Action.

I was hospitalised for a couple of days with this condition which manifested with the symptoms of Rapid Atrial Fibrillation (wildly fluctuating heartbeat) until the cause was diagnosed and medical action taken to control the situation.  I was to remain on various medications for the rest of my life I was told.  Fuck that, I thought and determined to get myself out of that untenable situation as quickly as possible.  Two steps I took.  Gradually, over a period of several months, I reduced the dosage of each of the four medications I was prescribed, replacing Warfarin by Low Dose Aspirin, until I was eventually left with only the regular daily Aspirin.  I didn't mind that and continue to take it daily as a blood thinner.  Because my system was at a very low ebb as a result of this condition I consulted a master of medical Qi Gong and after only a few clinic sessions was back on my feet.  The situation has however left me still with an irregular heartbeat, low stamina and a tendency to perspire profusely from even minor physical effort. I have learned to live with that as being much preferable to any alternative.

This all happened three years ago.  I still expect that with a positive attitude and getting back into regular Qi Gong practise and Reiki self-treatment I will gradually improve my health to something like normal or better than may be expected for a person of my age.  I retired from work within six months of these events because I had lost the appetite, desire and to some extent the physical ability to manage a full time occupation.  Overall I am very happy with my situation.  Let's talk about that.

My Current Situation

So, I am: 

• retired  -  happily
• healthy  -  reasonably, and better than could be expected
• independent  -  I have lived alone for the last ten years
• prepared  -  visualising possible futures has led me to equip myself for various eventualities
• isolated  -  I live rurally, 'far from the madding crowd' (Thomas Hardy), by choice
• saddened  -  by what my generation has inflicted on itself, its environment and its descendants
• heartened   -  by the beauty of nature and its cycles of renewal
• uplifted  -  by life and the eventual prospect of its continuity in whatever form in the boundless universe of endless possibilities

But before we get too carried away, I need to deal with the here and now and the immediate future, whatever it may hold.

My current situation is generally very satisfying.  I own no land or property, by choice and partly by necessity.  As a by-product of that, I also have no debt, which is a comforting thought.  Yes, I have a credit card which I am usually in a position to pay off immediately on those few occasions that I need to use it.  

I live an increasingly simple life, travelling little and infrequently.  I still own a petrol driven motor vehicle, necessary due to my remote living and inability so far to fully feed myself from my immediate surroundings but aware that such luxuries may not be available or affordable to rely on in the near future.

I am in receipt of a government aged pension, partly from Australia and partly from the United Kingdom.  I also receive some allowance for previous military service in the UK so all in all I am comfortable enough to say that life is not usually too much of a struggle to make ends meet.  Conversely, I am by no means living in a state of wealthy extravagance either.

For the last two years I have lived happily as a tenant in a rented property situated near the bottom of a deep gully with a dirt road and just enough spare land for me, with my recently acquired limited capacity for hard labour, to play with experimentally using knowledge that I picked up on a permaculture design course just before I retired.  That has been a useful and beneficial experience, enabling me to some extent feed myself from the land though the full fruit of my labours will not mature for some years yet.  The setting is ideal for me.

"So, what's the problem?"  I hear you ask.  "Sounds like you got it made".

Yes, I could live like this happily for a long time, perhaps for as long as I've got.  But there is nothing so certain as change and there is a great deal of uncertainty from living year by year on a 12 month lease as a tenant. The owner of the property I rent has recently suffered a health issue that prevents her from continuing her chosen career and consequently needs to sell the house.  She has been good enough to advertise it as an investment property with a ready income source.  But of course there are no guarantees as to who may eventually buy it or what their intentions may be as to its use.

This gives me cause (one of several, which I will discuss shortly) to start to think about my future.  I still have almost a full year of lease to run as some sort of security of tenure for that time so there is no immediate rush to act.  All may be well for me to continue living here for many years yet but I don't wish to arrive at that end of lease point and face the prospect of living with a month to month prospect of needing to up sticks and move on at short notice. That is the basic situation.

Reasons To...

Aaaaaagghh!  Sometimes memories are best left forgotten.  Typing the above sub-heading suddenly brought this dreadful dirge from the late '70s to mind.  If you have 5 minutes to waste you could still find something more useful to do than listen to it.  (Icy-y ss-shudd-d-er-rr. Exit, stage left.)

Perhaps it would have been better for me to have titled this section 'What If...'.  No, I will leave it as it is.

Back to the subject. I have outlined my basic situation and mentioned that there are other reasons (causes) for me to consider the future.  Here are some of them.

At the time I retired from work, apart from my recent illness, the world was deep in the throes of the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) and  I was acutely aware (still am) of the fragility of the banking and finance sector of the economy.  Nothing has changed to alter that situation. In fact as time goes by it only becomes clearer that the world economy is operating literally on borrowed time. Debt time. More debt that can ever be repaid except by more and more debt.  That would not have mattered at an earlier time but in a system that relies on economic growth to sustain its operations, when that growth falters or stops, the whole unstable house of cards will tumble.  We are now irreversibly entering such a period.  

Why irreversibly? You surely can't have failed to notice the earth resource constraints that are looming ever larger as time goes by? Can you? Or the growing concerns that we have already overstepped our use of such resources to our peril from uncontrollable climate effects? Can you? You can't have failed to notice that global economies are struggling to maintain even a small amount of economic growth and in fact many national economies are going backwards? Can you?  You can't have failed to notice the high rates of unemployment around the world? Can you? You can't have failed to see the cut-backs in business investment and business failures due to people not spending and having to cut their margins to the bone in order to make a sale? Can you? Well, those are just some of the reasons why the era of economic growth is rapidly coming to an end.  Oh, I forgot to mention two extra billion mouths to feed in the next twenty years, assuming we last that long.  

  

What concern was all of that to me?  Simple.  I was on a daily basis watching my mainly equity based superannuation nest-egg shrinking.  To counter this, two years earlier I had stopped adding to my equity accounts and put all further contributions, both government and personal, into a cash account.  This didn't gain me very much in terms of interest but at least it was not shrinking.  I quickly determined that if I was to have anything worth saving I needed to get my money out of the superannuation system as quickly as possible. The only way to do that was to retire. So I did and instead of rolling my savings over into some other investment I banked it into a high interest, internet based, instantly accessible savings account where it has been earning me reasonable interest ever since and from where I can easily withdraw it if needed ie. when the banking system takes a dive or if I need to convert it to precious metals or something like that.

Having taken that action, I knew that I had secured my future as best I could.  While receiving government payments in terms of aged pensions, I was not totally reliant on those handouts. This is important because even with the best of intentions (and when we talk about governments, that can't be guaranteed), when a government has no money, because it has no income, because its tax base has disintegrated, because there are no jobs, because trade and industry has collapsed, because there is zero growth in the economy, there will be no government handouts. This week. Next week. Next month. Next year. Period.

Of course, when things get that bad, money will very quickly become worthless anyway. But for a time, those with cash, and only cash, will be able to eat.  Until the food runs out, that is. And with the just-in-time delivery system of operation that is in effect now, in three days, a week max, there will be no food to buy, no matter how much money you have. Scary? Damn right. Cause to think about the future? Even if only part of this occurs? Damn right.

That is just one major reason/cause to think ahead. Some preparation for these possibilities is obviously called for. The wise will take heed.

You may begin to see the reasoning behind some of the life choices I have made in recent years.

What else?  As if that isn't enough to be going on with.

I have decided to continue this discourse in one or more separate posts.  That way I can publish my meandering thoughts whenever I run out of fresh ideas or I am forced to take a break for some reason.

Hope, and History

Only once in a while, sometimes in a long while, do I come across intelligent, mature writing that inspires and resonates with thoughts and ideas that feel like they belong somewhere deep inside myself.  I just read an article that fits this description on the blog TomDispatch.com, written by Rebecca Solnit.  

Now, I don't know a whole lot about Rebecca Solnit other than that she is a writer, so I don't know if I would agree with all of her views (though her name sounds familiar so I may have read other of her work somewhere) but if this article is a good example of that work then I should urge myself to discover some of her books. 

The article I want to share here, and urge for it to be read, is titled 'Too Soon to Tell: The Case for Hope, Continued'.  This is a 10 year later follow up to her first essay for Tomdispatch which turned into the book Hope in the Dark: Untold Histories, Wild Possibilities, since translated into eight languages.

A quote from the current essay is I think quite remarkably illuminating: 

 'Hope and history are sisters: one looks forward and one looks back, and they make the world spacious enough to move through freely. Obliviousness to the past and to the mutability of all things imprisons you in a shrunken present'. 

I am so impressed with this that I intend to add it to my list of favourite quotes.  

In today's world where conversation is shaped and dominated by sound-bites or short catch-phrases, we tend to identify ourselves with and glibly hook onto such simple word pictures which have the appearance of marketable validity and value but when the surface is scratched a little are found to be actually quite limiting or in some cases even stupid and dangerous.  One such quotable quote, or a derivative of same, is 'Never look back.  It's not the direction you are headed'.  How short sighted is that. It shows a complete disregard of history and our place in time, something I have mentioned elsewhere as it is a favourite subject of mine.  

My usual counter to this frivolous statement is 'We cannot know where we are going unless we also know where we have come from'.  History adds time and space to our one-dimensioned present.  The 'Now' is a very important concept but too much focus on the 'now' without the benefit of a valid context, past and future, since every 'now' was, is or will be one or both of those, is utterly without purpose. 

There is much to commend this article.  The thread is woven around those people movements, that Rebecca repeatedly though not repetitively refers to as part of civil society, which were in times past, many of them more recently, born out of hope.  A hope based on actively pursuing the changes necessary to the realisation in some form, of their dreams. A hope for a better future for, quote: 

"...the world, for you, for us, for generations unborn, for species yet to be named, for the oceans and sub-Saharan Africans and Arctic dwellers and everyone in-between, for the whole unbearably beautiful symphony of life on Earth that is imperiled."  

Rebecca moves on to talk about the present with the latest news that, quote:

"...we (just) reached 400 parts per million of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere, the highest level in more than five million years. This is terrible news on a scale that eclipses everything else, because it encompasses everything else. We are wrecking our world, for everyone for all time, or at least the next several thousand years." 

She still values hope as necessary to the picture.  A starting point, quote:

"Think of it as the match but not the tinder or the blaze."

So, there is a place for those who would form that tinder and fan that blaze.  We should welcome them not think of them in terms of, well whatever our current thinking is of those who question the way things are and actively propose alternative strategies for change. Those who get out of their comfort zone to do things that may in the past have made us feel uncomfortable about what they are doing and possibly who have given us reason to deride them for rocking the established and proverbial boat we are reclining in. Civil society owes all change, great and small to those people. 

While I think I have a good grasp on the possible range of outcomes that lay ahead for civil society, neither I, nor you, nor anyone else no matter who, can know exactly what may eventually transpire or the precise triggers or agencies that bring about the conditions which will be affecting us or our descendants in years to come. 

With Rebecca, I am sure that surges of unstoppable action backed hopefulness on our part may play a vital part in the direction of our journey along that path.  Will they play a deciding factor in the outcome?  Too soon to tell.  
 

Duality In Pisces

I have been thinking wistfully about what I could write on Meanderings sometime soon as it has been a while since I did so.  It has to be something of a personal nature that expresses my inner thoughts, because that is what I wish this particular site to be about.

Something came up.

I was asked today if I believed in the duality in Pisces.

Now, let it be said that I do not follow Astrology or put any great weight on the substantiveness (having practical importance, value, or effect: Encarta dictionary) of the fortune telling capabilities of Astrologers.  I think people tend to pick and choose what they want to hear from these sources to provide a level of comfort or minimal discomfort for their ego.

Spiritual work and Philosophical studies that I have done in the past, mainly some time ago now, has left me with a belief that, logically, there are likely to be subtle influences on all matter within the Universe brought about by the proximity of large bodies of matter such as planets and stars.  By subtle influences I mean something akin to the gravitational effect these thing have, though I am prepared to accept that it may not only be the influence of gravity.  I think that it would be generally accepted that all matter in the universe is gravitationally affected by, and exerts a gravitational effect on, all other matter in the universe.

Having said that, back to the duality of Pisces.

I am a Piscean.  Birth Date: 17th March.

I like being a Piscean and I think that I am quite typical of that group of people.  Here is what Wikipedia has to say about the personality of the Piscean:

Although there is no scientific basis for characterizing personality traits from date of birth, traditional Western beliefs assert that Pisceans are perceptive, emotional, and reasonable. Pisceans are also said to desire reasoning for all actions, and are always capable of giving a reason. Notorious for being highly sensitive, they are also said to be desperately afraid of ridicule, as the sign is deemed "unfortunate." Pisces are a mutable sign, which makes them susceptible to change. Similarly, Pisces is classified as a "common sign," making them flexible and vacillating in nature. As a bicorporeal sign, astrologists believe that events in Pisceans lives are prominently repeated, suggesting that they may marry several times and that misfortunes never come singly. However according to astrologer Max Heindel *, the Piscean's "good fortune also comes in multiple." 

Conforming to the traditional astrological belief of the dual nature of the Piscean, in part seeking enlightenment in the "unseen realm," they are said to be "dreamy, mystical, and artistic." Edgar Cayce, an alleged psychic, has been cited as an example of such a Piscean. It is also been said that Pisceans are the quietest among the twelve zodiacal signs, and that they are good workers. In line with their association with feet, Pisceans have been described as being "never quite satisfied when sitting," preferring to be standing or walking.

*  I studied the Astrology of Max Heindel at one stage.  He takes a more pragmatic approach to the subject than the regular flimsy fluff put out by most Astrologers.  I downloaded his manuals and the annual charts still put out (I think) by the organisation he once formed, The Rosicrucian Fellowship.  It all became too difficult to follow by my poor tired brain so I gave up.  Maybe I will try again when I have nothing else to do.

Pisces is the last sign of the zodiac.  Here is what Risa D'Angeles says about that in her Astrology column in the Santa Cruz Good Times:   

Pisces contains all previous eleven signs. Pisces is the two fish, connected by a silvery cord. One fish is the personality, the other the Soul. They represent the duality all of humanity experiences. Being both animal and divine, we experience simultaneously feelings of attraction and separation, passion and despair, suffering and bliss. 

So, the two fishes of the Pisces symbol represent that duality.  Unfortunately, many depictions of that symbol incorrectly have those fish swimming in opposite directions.  This is not how it actually appears in the astral configuration in the night sky.  There, one fish is swimming upwards while the other is swimming in the same direction but level along the line of the ecliptic.   Some might say, and I tend to like the idea, that this represents the dual aspect of Pisceans in that they split their energies between pursuing the more spiritual aspects of life as well as the more mundane things of the physical/natural world.

All of that, take, for whatever it is worth to yourself.

This year, 2013, there is another unusual aspect of duality in March, covering the Piscean zodiacal period.  It relates to the path of the planet Mercury through the skies as viewed from Earth.

Mercury entered Pisces this year by turning retrograde from Feb 23 and will go direct (change direction) on my birthday March 17.  It will finally catch up to where it left off on April 6.   So, for half of the period it will be going in one direction and for the second half in the other direction.  That is a duality if there ever was one.  I wonder if I will feel any different influences from the 17th?  I certainly have been feeling as though I am not making much in the way of progress for the last few weeks.

If you don't understand the concept of retrograde and direct motion, the first thing to know is that planets do not change their direction of travel.  It just appears that they do to viewers standing on another planet.

It is easiest to see it like this.  The solar system is like a number of small balls (planets) travelling in circles around a large ball (the Sun) in the same direction as each other.  They all travel at different speeds and because of this, from time to time, when viewed from the surface of one of the balls, another ball may appear to be going backwards.  It isn't actually going backwards but it looks like it is to the viewer.  A little further around the circle the backward travelling ball will appear to start going in the right direction again.  It will eventually catch up to the place where it appeared to first be going backwards and then everything will appear to be going as normal again.  It is all smoke and mirrors really but it seems to hold great significance to those involved in Astronomy.

I will finish where I started.  Perhaps there is some subtle difference in the subtle influences from such apparent differences in motion.  I wouldn't be surprised, but I wouldn't lose any sleep over it either.

Something Special

I Am Special

I have always thought of myself as someone special. Always.  Never any doubt.  Well, perhaps a very few fleeting moments that could be instantly dismissed as lacking validity. I have always thought of myself as someone who would do something amazing, achieve something way beyond the ordinary.  Most of my life, and I will be 68 in a month or so, has been spent waiting and looking for that special something to appear.

Am I disappointed that I am still not well known?  That I do not carry letters after my name? That people do not hang on my every word with respect, admiration and awe?  Or that I do not even have a fan base of any kind?  Not even a single person that I would think of as a friend?

No I am not disappointed.  In fact I revel in my anonymity, my reclusiveness, my strangeness, my uniqueness, my resilience, my self-reliance, my inner strength, my foresight, my openness to ideas, my ability to think, my acceptance, relief, joy in being different.

At the same time I rejoice (hate that word, but it seems to fit) in the opportunities that life has presented to me.  Opportunities for self expression, to excel in many (not all) of my endeavours and activities, to travel, to procreate, to mix with all sort of different folk, to appreciate the wonders of life and nature, to feel moments of despair, moments of elation, moments of drunken abandon, moments of serious thought and contemplation, moments of stillness, moments of hectic pressure, moments of fear.  I could go on.

Thinking on these things (my own specialness), my thoughts diverged along two separate lines.  Firstly, my own uniqueness and then my own place in time.

My Uniqueness

From an early age I have accepted that I am essentially different from other human beings. I don't mean that I am weird, dangerous, have some disability mental or physical, or that I am in any way to be avoided.  No, but I am unique.

I am so unique that I have never in my entire life found anyone that I could truly call a friend. Someone in whom I could confide.  Someone who thinks the way I do.  Someone with the same hopes, dreams, fears, expectations.  

Yes, I have had 'friends', someone to talk and mingle with, thrust together by circumstances for short periods of time.  Yes, I have been married, twice, and raised or partially raised six children, with all of the bonds, togetherness and affiliations that that entails.  

But, never, never, have I found that enduring closeness and bond of two people who have a similar expansive world view, a grounded sense of their place in the grand scheme of things based on a backdrop of historical perspective and a clear, informed view of how the future is likely to play out.  Perhaps that is hoping for too much.  I hope not.  It is not going to be easy to be an individual in the world of the future but at least a clear sense of self and direction will confer a better chance of survival to form community with like minded folk.  

People who may have been part of my life now or in the past, do not need to be alarmed or offended by these statements.  This is about my journey and self-analysis, not anyone else's.

While my own sense of who I am has not always been crystal clear, and recognising that we each grow and change over a lifetime, I have never felt comfortable socialising with those who, in my own words, dwell on the level of the mundane.  I make no apologies for that.  This is something that has dogged me for my whole life and is, I guess, the main reason for my lack of friends.  My choice.  I choose not to have them. 

It got to the stage that towards the end of my business career I would avoid work lunches, preferring to eat my home made sandwich, nuts and fruit at my desk than go out to a big feed with a pointlessly noisy and, to me, boring crowd of colleagues with whom I had nothing in common.  At team morning teas I could stand only a few minutes of bland, inconsequential conversation before returning to my work.  I had nothing to say to these people.  That didn't make me an outsider.  I was, I think, generally well liked and respected by all I came in contact with. They may well have thought me a little odd.  I was just different.

I like that.  Being different.  I can't say I have always liked it but in time I came to accept it. The change must have been a process as I can't put a date to it.   Accepting it, it was fine.  Even liberating. 

Don't be afraid to be different.  Don't be a Lemming.  The Lemmings, at certain  times (yes, I know it is a myth), all jump over a cliff together and perish.  No vision. No individuality. They just go with the crowd.

Enjoy your individuality, but base it on something solid.  It is no good being different if that makes you a loony, a cretin or in some other way self-destructive.  Individuality demands solidity.  A grounded base.

• First get a sense of history around you.  You can't know where you are going if you don't know where you came from.  I am thinking I may put a potted history of mankind on my other blog one of these days that nicely explain the importance of this point.
• Then lift yourself out of the mundane.  That is where all the Lemmings live. Spend some time alone, thinking about your situation and preparing for the future. Unplug the TV.  Compost the newspapers.  Stop allowing or needing yourself  to be entertained all the time.  Your new sense of history and a look at what is happening in the world right now will guide you to project out events a few years ahead so that you can adjust and be ready.

My Place In Time

I have a very clear picture of my place in time.  Like I said earlier, a knowledge of history will give you that. Without that knowledge, you can only see your life as a straight line. Cradle to grave.  No perspective.

I should advise readers that knowledge of history should not be tempered or coloured by racial, political or religious bias.  Remember that history is generally written by those in charge or victorious at the time, which can lead to any or all of those biases in individual particular accounts. There are few if any historical records that are immune from these influences. It is a general view of history we are looking for.  One that will enable us to see who we are and the forces shaping our tomorrows.

It came to me only tonight, which is why I am writing this account just now, that I am in fact special and it has all to do with 'now'.  In fact, all of my 'now's.  My entire life, beginning at the end of the Second World War, until today, and hopefully extending well into the innards of the Twenty First Century, makes me one of a very select group of human beings.  No other group of people has ever in the history of mankind on this planet and no other group born into the community of humanity since that time or at any future date, has or will or could have, the same perspective on the human condition as we pre-'baby boomers' have.

Let me say that this is a very important period in the long, at least 200,000 years, history of mankind on this planet and the much longer, ~5,000,000,000 years, history of our planet of residence, the Earth.  It is a privilege to be alive at this momentous time.  I hope to enjoy another couple of decades or so of healthy living in order to witness just how our future unfolds but if, for whatever reason, I do not have that long to remain here, then I have  already lived a fruitful life, longer than many of my contemporaries, longer than untold millions who were born later than myself and quite likely longer than a large part of the current world population that was born after me.

Let me also say that I expect to see huge (that word does not adequately convey the intended meaning), colossal, epoch marking, history defining, changes taking place in the near future.  Every facet of daily life that we know at this time will be affected.  Our definition of what is 'Normal' will be turned on its head.  In order to ensure continuity, humanity will have to, will actually be forced to:

• unlearn much of what it has learned in the previous sixty years or so 
• remember much that it has forgotten, or in the case of younger generations much of what it never knew 
• face the future, a possibly perilous future, with a whole new outlook on life.

In the western or developed nations at least, the only group of people who will, or may, still have a grasp on the only essential field of knowledge that is going to be valuable as this situation unfolds, are those of my generation should they still be around and in full possession of their faculties.  We, I speak of pre-baby-boomers, will be the only folk in history, now or ever, who had the dual experience of pre- and post- technological revolution, pre- and post- globalization and pre- and post- consumer driven lifestyle conditions.  Even this life experience in my generation, if it still exists at all, will only be at a superficial level, less and less so as time progresses.  It will not be the ingrained knowledge of our parents who lived for most of their lives the old way and who struggle with the scope of massive changes they have witnessed in their later years and who will almost certainly have departed this life in the next few years anyway.

Even in the currently developing nations, things are quickly going the same way due to globalization and the desire to feed at the same trough that westeners have been feeding from for decades.  The old traditions are fast disappearing and being forgotten even in those nations but they should still have a more complete store of knowledge as to the old ways that they can draw on in time of need, if prevailing conditions allow for that possibility and if there is any way to go back to the conditions of earlier times.  That is a prospect that all humanity will eventually face, together.

All that I have just said is my reasoning behind my statement that I, and my generation, are in some way, special.  We will be the elders, the wise ones, the oracles, the know-ers, the thinkers, of the new civilisation on Earth, if in fact there is still an Earth civilisation at all.  We will not necessarily be the leaders and almost certainly will not be the do-ers in that society but, if it is to form and exist, we will be the essential community knowledge resource.

That is enough to digest for one post.  I will explain my reasoning behind why I believe this will be the case in a future post.

Rethink

(Slightly corrected  altered from the original.  I knew what I was talking about and now you, dear reader, may be able to understand also)

I am quite disappointed with myself for letting things get a little off-track in what I originally intended this blog site to be all about.  My intention was that it was mainly to be a clearing house for what goes on inside my head.  A sort of record of the things that occupy my attention or even perhaps of my subconscious, if it were possible to tease such muses out from the murky depths in which they dwell and induce them to be transcribed into prose.

So why hasn't that happened?  It is not for a shortage of material by any means.  I mostly find it difficult to keep up with the pace at which my thoughts are generated, progress, momentarily coalesce and dissipate, or more often than not, instantly diverge onto some other track as a result of some sensory stimulus (visual, auditory, olfactory etc.), or perhaps through the random firing or etheric incitement of some backwater synapses at some time linked to an ancient memory.

It has often been the case that I have had (conjured, cajoled, dreamed, or received from the ether) a thought that I considered worthy of dwelling on and developing during those moments of being in the state half asleep - half awake, that occur just before rising for the day while gazing through eyes half opened at the ceiling or, recently, at the tree line on the ridge of the gully high above me as it appears between the gaps in the venetians covering my bedroom window, and also in many other settings at this time of day throughout my life.

On many of these occasions I have resolved to hold the thought and quickly get to writing about it. But, and it is a big but, 'twixt (always wanted to use that word in a sentence, just once), 'twixt thinking the thought and sitting down at my computer, a million other inconsequential ideas have served to erase, nay obliviate (courtesy H. Potter Esq.), that important thought irretrievably from memory.  Never, as far as I can tell, to return again. Bummer!

No. No.  I can tell what you are thinking. "Why don't you write the bloody thing down straight away".  If it were that simple, don't you think I have enough nouse to have walked that road years ago?  Not an option.  Even if I were so organised that I would prepare pen and paper in a handy location beforehand in anticipation.  Especially these days when, after thirty two years of banging keyboards, I find it a daunting task to decipher my own handwriting unless it is produced so slowly and carefully that any self-respecting thought would not hang around to witness the event.

I will just have to learn to live with the unfulfilled realisation that I could have saved the world many times over if only I had the capacity to hold onto the answer without distraction.

We have of course covered only one small part of the day.  Thoughts arise continually and I do spend some time, occasionally too much time, sitting in front of my computer, where I have caught myself in a state of contemplation on some occasions, staring at the screen.  Productive time. Thinking time.  Often leading to fruitful research.  So maybe I don't need to beat myself around the head too much.  Just need to get it together and record stuff a bit more than I have done in the past.

I have sometimes thought that I should consistently dedicate a particular time every day to writing about my thoughts but that doesn't really work.  Apart from the fact that this would require a certain level of order to my day, something that I naturally shy away from, the process of inspiration demands a level of spontaneity.  Spontaneity is my friend and an arch-enemy of order and time keeping.  I have spent too many years leading an ordered life, ruled by the clock. No more, good friend, no more.  Oh dear, I shall just have to give myself a 'Must try harder' report card and resolve to do just that in future.

There, that feels better.  Now that I have gotten all this off my chest I can, with a clear conscience, go back to playing Civ5, my current drug of choice for occupying my mental capacities (and soothing me with a very relaxing soundtrack) and acting as a tap to turn off or exclude all those irritating thoughts that would otherwise flood into my consciousness, for a while.

But I do promise, before I go, that I will endeavour as often as possible to put into writing here such ideas as I can muster from time to time.

Dangerous Ideas

Added after publication:
I have now completely removed the original content of this article which contained links to the AMEG (Arctic Methane Emergency Group) website.  I have taken this action, not because I disagree with their message on the acute situation regarding ice melt in the Arctic (on the contrary I couldn't agree with their findings more) but I cannot in any way condone or promote their plans for a geoengineering solution to the issue.  These are very dangerous people whom I would now classify as the archetypical 'Mad Scientists'.  I do not say that their crazy schemes would not work in some way but would ensure that we have a chance to continue to live, at least for a while longer, in a world just as fucked up as the one we have engineered for ourselves already.  If we survive as a species at all then it would be better to not do anything more outrageous than we already have done to the planet.

All or most of us alive now, are going to die in one or more horrible ways, possibly not too far in the future.  If I should be one of those who might survive, I do not want to have to live in a mad scientist's nightmare.

Pre-season

Recently I took my camera out into the garden so that I could spend some time reviewing how things stand before the Spring planting and growing season starts in earnest.

They say that up here you shouldn't plant anything out until after Melbourne Cup Day (first Tuesday in November) because frost free nights are not guaranteed prior to that date. Tish!  I can't wait that long. We have a short enough growing season as it is.  But I will likely wait until mid October for the most vulnerable of my sowing items.

My garden has been prepared for its second season for a few weeks now.  So, how are things going?  Here is a bit of a review.

I have noticed that there are a greater number of birds visiting my garden this year.  Two pairs of Kookaburra spend some of their daily hunting time here now whereas I only really got to hear them in the area previously.  Of course there are the ubiquitous magpies and also a pair of what I think may be wattle birds.  I have also noticed a pair of Corrawong.  My favourites are the friendly and cheeky Rosellas, a few of which will actually take food out of my hand.  All of the birds, even the similarly sized Corrawong, are intimidated by the Magpies, and they all of course scatter noisily when the Wedge-tailed Eagles fly over the gully.  My garden is now teeming with life at ground level, and the birds love it.  I too love them all for the good work that they do in maintaining nature's balance and for the little packages of garden beneficial nutrients they leave behind during each visit.

One of my successful crops last year were the spinach and kale varieties.  They have continued  to provide me with the basis of some meals even over the winter and are one of only a few things that remain from that time.  They are continuing to produce abundant new growth now.

Another survivor is my celery, which only produced quite thin stalks last year but new growth is looking much better now, even though snails appear to have been a problem for them over winter.  I am glad that I didn't pull them out earlier.

I almost trod on these little beauties sitting in the middle of my walkway between beds.  Baby Kale plants which have self-seeded from last year's stock.  They will get moved to a safer place soon.

I did plant a couple of things over winter.  Here are some onions that have popped up recently...

...and here is my new strawberry patch.  Eleven new plants sown from bare root stock to supplement the five plants from last year towards the other end of the garden.

I am not sure what happened to the garlic I planted but I did get it in very late.  Maybe there is still time for it to appear.
I am very pleased with how most of the herbs in my spiral planting have survived winter frosts and are now flourishing.  A few did not survive but at least I now know which ones require a little special care and replacements perhaps should be planted in a better sheltered area.

I planted these potato bags over winter because some eating stock had been left too long in the cupboard and had begun to sprout.  Another experiment which appears to have gone well, so far.  The bucket contains worm pee from my worm farm.  I expect the plants will love some of that.

My fruit trees are now in leaf and a few have actually blossomed, including this Nashi pear.

My Hugelkultur, built (if I remember right) just before winter, is really asking me for things to be put into it.  I did plant some extra potatoes there and they popped up a few times but each time the frost cut them off.  A couple are now showing again, so here's hoping.  There is also a celery and perpetual spinach that were recently planted.
I did put a few Yacon rhizome cut-offs in there but they are not showing, yet, he says hopefully.  I separated my Yacon rhizome into about ten cuttings, each of which looked, to me, as though they might make it on their own.  We will have to wait and see.  They are planted in various parts of the garden.
I am nothing if not an experimenter and new idea follower.

This sorry looking thing in the cage is an almond tree.  It had a lovely set of leaves when I planted it, but the next day it had none.  Those wascally wabbits, or maybe the kangaroos.  I bought a roll of 60cm wire last year but found no reason to use it except to cover the sweet potato.  Perhaps the local wildlife were giving me a honeymoon period.  It is different this year and this almond defoliage event was when I started caging things.  Not everything.  Most of my fruit trees are untouched but this almond and especially the blueberries came in for some unwanted attention.

This is a Wintersweet, which I decided not to take chances with.  It was caged immediately on planting.  Wish I could remember why I bought it now.  Must have had a good reason at the time.  It is supposed to fruit.  Maybe it was just another experiment.

I am growing to love doing this stuff.  Last year I was almost afraid to start working on what was pretty much a blank canvas.  Now I am eager to get stuck into a new growing season with a little bit more confidence than at this time last year.  Successes and failures; successes and failures.  Hopefully a few more successes than failures.  Need to get the failures out of the way before they could become life-threatening and to get the successes bedded in before the need for life-sustaining practices becomes critical.

Addendum

I took the above photo snaps a few days ago.  This afternoon I went out again with my camera and found a few surprises.

This is a Sturmer Pippin apple with some unexpected blossom.  Ok, I know my plants are currently very small but they have only been in the ground for a short time.  Less than a year, and in some cases only a couple of months.  So, after Winter, it gives me great joy to see them doing something special.

 The next three pics show fruit forming on Blueberry, Gooseberry and Blackcurrant bushes.

Growing stuff is so rewarding.  Even before you get to eat anything.