Thinking about simple living...

I'm pretty sure I read somewhere not that long ago, an argument by someone on the web, pushing for the rich/poor type of world economy that we have now. Pushing perhaps for a more feudal system.

Why? Because their argument was based on human intelligence requiring TIME. They were pretty much saying that if it wasn't for the inception of a system where some people are brow-beaten into doing the menial labour of washing/growing food/cooking/childrearing/building etc, then we would NEVER have developed the technological things we have today - simply because with an "every man supplies his own needs' type philosophy, there isn't enough TIME in the day to get over the humps of providing and have time to think and dream and create new ideas and get them to fruition.

Now, I'm an avid reader of fantasy, as anyone who knows me will be able to confirm. I love it. I love my books. I love reading about kings and queens - but more-so, about the little everyday people who leave their rutabaga patches and go on awesome life journeys to discover skills they never thought they had and change their entire existence.

That is fantasy however. For every single human being who wants to uproot themselves from wherever they are and go on a life-changing journey there are costs, and sometimes, the costs are too high.

So I ask you this - are the costs of our modern-day conveniences, the ease at which I can disseminate this very blog post out to the world, while a machine does my washing and another machine cooks my dinner and other people teach my children and somewhere, someone is growing the food I'm going to eat tomorrow, - are those costs WORTH the price? The price happens to people in other countries that I don't have to see. I never have to notice how they slave away every single day to produce the rice I'm eating for dinner tonight. I never have to see the tiny fingers that get horribly disfigured in the factories that make the clothes I'm wearing.

And I will never ever see the generations of people who have had nothing of their own for thousands of years because they were too busy with life to do the 'thinking' that provided us with all the benefits to start with.

Is all this cost worth it? We may have intellectually made more gadgets than we can think of uses for, but have we completely missed the point? All those people who lived in the fields doing back-breaking manual labour all day every day whilst being paid practically nothing in physical terms - they are the price we have paid to be where we are today.

I wonder what they thought. I wonder what their reward was. They lived. They pushed on regardless. And sometimes when I sit outside after doing some achey work of my own, something raw and earth connected, like washing fleeces by hand (none-the-less with the aid of hot water on tap, not having to cart it from a well miles away and boil it to get hot over a fire...) I think that whoever it was that said all that stuff was wrong.

Because it's when our hands are occupied with the manual labour of everyday tasks, when we are busy creating something from the raw materials we have, THAT'S when our brains are free to wander and think and create ideas. It's like there's a switch in there that turns on the imagination while our other side of the brain is busy working on what our hands are doing.

I wonder if there's research somewhere about how many of history's amazing discoveries were actually attributed to upperclass people when in fact it was the gardener toiling away in the potato patch with his hoe whose imagination leapt from there into the horse-drawn plow.

today's excitement

So I havent' blogged in a while. Been very very busy madly crafting for the May fair, and also working as many shifts as possible to cover the other expenses.
Today being Friday is the LOOOOOOONG shift day. So I came home to some aching aching feet and a need to do something relaxing, like, well, sleep!

But! There were parcels and parcels galore at my house. Much excitement! Some of it I knew was coming, like the cellophane bags I ordered to pack product into. And the wool I ordered to knit up into felted elf slippers. And.... another thing. But that will be in a moment.

I also got a very very suprise package. The posted date on it was the 3rd of December, LAST YEAR. It took a while to get here! Must've gotten lost in the mail.

Anyhow, it was a birthday present from my Mum inTassie. It had a fabulous hand-dyed felt needle-book, and an awesome preserving book. Very exciting indeed!

The other package that I knew was coming but is still very exciting was my new spinning wheel. I finally bought myself an Ashford Double-treadle Joy. It's the portable, fold up spinning wheel and it's just PERFECT. I set it up very quickly (it's very easy to do!) and have been playing already. I'm very very happy with it. My current wheel needs to be treadled rather fast to keep moving and it's difficult for me to spin on because i'm not really practised enough to go that fast. This one is easy as pie to treadle slowly yet keep itself going. So i've spun up a quarter of a jumbo bobbin full and am hoping to do more later on tonight. I know I should really be making things for May, but I think after a 10 hour shift at work I can have some time off, yeah??

good, I thought so LOL

Conspiracy theories

So I'm sitting here listening to the TV. It's making this odd noise - becomes more and more noticeable as the volume gets lower. It's like a subsonic very fast-paced drumming, thumping along underneath everything, a deep sound that gets into my bones and irritates the heck out of me.

It's a sound I've never heard before from our TV.

The thing that has changed is that our TV is now running through a digital set-top box kindly donated by the IL's. I have no clue why a digital box would make this noise come through the speakers when it never did before. When the TV runs on analog, you can't hear it. And when you are listening/watching DVD's, you can't hear it.

So me being me, I'm listening to this thumping and wondering why it's the newest technology that's causing the weirdness. I start to wonder what else they are transmitting along this digital signal. What are they thumping along through that multitude of new digital signals that this magic little box is picking up.

Anyone else out there into conspiracy theory fiction? Coz I've got an inkling of a novel idea....

Freakin out all over

Today, after discovering a MONUMENTAL stuff up, I spent most of my time driving around frantically searching for a product which unfortunately, no longer exists.

Part of my frantic-ness had me ending up at Marion shopping centre. Yes, Marion, on the first official day of the school holidays. OMG. *remember to breathe*

So we found a park without too much stress from the idiots right up my rear end. We managed to extricate ourselves from the car and the lure of junk food on the way in without too many complaints, and the small beings happily held hands for me so I didn't have to panic about losing them in the crowds.

I managed to go the wrong way to get to our destination not once but twice. We still didn't find exactly what I wanted. And to top it all off - I got lost 4 (that's right, four!) times on the way back to the car. It took my middle child to tell me that I was going the wrong way, and that we needed to go 'over there mummy, we came in past that subway right there'.

In the midst of all this, with 2 excited young children, I made the inevitable mistake of looking down at the lower storey, and immediate recall of almost every blockbuster or even b grade disaster movie landed in my head. I'm almost running along, pulling 2 kids behind me, convinced that any second now all those columns are going to crack and fall down and we are ALL GOING TO DIE goddamnit, without me ever touching the earth again. That we would be entombed in some disgusting concrete and steel pylon jungle and what is left of us couldn't even help a tree grow.

I really really hate big shopping centres. Really hate them. Can't freaking stand them.
Someone needs to build a teleporting machine for me so I can buy stuff I need online and have it arrive RIGHT NOW.

Or maybe I just need to get more organised.

I can already tell that I'm going to be the type of mother who seriously embarrasses her teenage kids by getting lost everywhere she goes and needing help to get out. But then - I don't get lost when I can see the sky. So maybe I'll be OK.

Thinking thinking thinking

About all sorts of things, but mostly about the nature of relationships and work.
There's this theory that one needs to work hard at keeping relationships going and heading in the right direction, along the same track. That being in any type of relationship is hard work, because it's about individuals melding their desires into one cohesive sort of whole.

But I'm beginning to question the wisdom of such thinking. Is it sensible and sane to throw your heart and soul constantly into relationships that simply do not improve, that don't seem to get any better? It's exhausting work, and there seems to be no return on it.

I understand that relationships are a trade off between what you believe the final result will be worth, compared to the effort that you are expending to get there. Or am I being far too 'capitalist' with my thoughts? Am I treating a relationship experience with the jaded attitude of a business person? Trading profit versus loss in an emotional sense?

And if I am - is that wrong? Surely the point of life is happiness, and the point of relationships is to share that happiness with people in a way that engenders MORE happiness?

Challenges arise on every path, but if there are nothing BUT challenges, is that path worth pursuing?

Much thinking to do here. And probably much more rambling as I think. You might have to bear with me on this one.

whaddya know, martha stewart is right!

I have some eggs. I have some 100% silk ties. I have a saucepan.
And now, I have a new addiction.....

How cool do they look?? Genuine easter eggs for a change. And edible - the kids will be munching out on them all day tomorrow. Ok, so it will be a bit sad to see that lovely patterning disappear - but OH! so happy about this!