(no subject)
I awoke this morning with a sudden urge to watch the Fellowship of the Ring. I did not know particularly why, but I grabbed the extended edition and popped it into the player, and watched it while eating my breakfast of black beans and scrambled eggs.
What struck me was how much I wanted that world. Not how much I enjoyed it, but how much I wanted to actually live in it. A community of people who work for themselves and one another, not a faceless entity with a thousand middlemen so as to receive a certificate to allow them access to the basic goods of life. Ones who use their spare time to delve into topics of interest, topics of niche and particulars. Who celebrate life and actually live in the world around them, using strictly technology that betters things rather than just changing them. A world where when the going gets tough, they confront the evils that bring it on. A world of acknowledging when you are doing evil and how to stop it.
I was tempted to shed a tear, and felt one arrive, asking permission, as I observed the Shire in its splendor of sustaining those within it, without harming those beyond it. I was envious of those doing battle, for the fact that though their lives may be short, they have lives of telos. That what they are striving to do day in and day out is actively for a reason dear to them.
Leave all that can be spared behind. We travel light. Let's hunt some Orc. -Aragorn
What can be spared? How many things in my life do I actually need? Am I remotely capable of travel or am I anchored to a place, a prison, because of my possessions? I have always been enamored with efficiency and lightness. Only having and using what I need. But I have not lived it, the last time I moved it took dozens of car trips, each time filling my vehicle to full capacity. How much of that do I need, let alone use? I sift through the piles of things in my room and apartment... I discover things. I should not be discovering that I own items. It is time to do some cleaning. This morning I went through my DVDs and made 3 stacks. Sell/Get rid of, Maybe Keep (which amounts to watching it once more before selling) and Keep. The only time one was considered for Keep was if I REALLY enjoyed it, it was efficient space-wise (multiple films per case) or if it actually had something real to teach me. I will be doing the same with my music and software, and then my books and clothing. I have felt burdened for long by my things, things which cost money, and bring little return to them.
I do hope to also change my clothing as a whole. Sitting here dressed like a boy... In fabric soiled with blood. I would like to make a move to simple colors, simple clothing - eventually all home made clothing, and maintain that well. I do not need all the clothes I own. I need at most 10 or so shirts, 3 pairs of pants and 10 or so pairs of socks and underwear. If I have more suitcases full of suits, than suitcases themselves, I got something wrong somewhere.
How do we go about hunting orc though? Well what are orcs? In the film and book, they embodied corruption and evil, they were the active malevolent force. Easily identified because not only were they tangible, but also visibly corrupt - ugly and vicious - and easy to distance yourself from because in no way did the peoples of the Shire, Rivendell, Rohan, Gondor or whatnot else (I apologize, my fictional geography is not up to spec) prosper from the existence of the orc on a reasonable level. That is what makes the orcs of our world tricky.
We prosper under our orcs. Our lifestyle appears to be high in the sky, unless you look down and see the bodies of others elevating us to where we stand. Make no mistake about it, our lives have grave impact on others - and it is easy to dismiss it because we keep it invisible, we shun those who try to educate about such. Not only do we prosper on this evil, we rely on it. How do you get to work? I drive. My car takes gasoline, refined from oil, which is purchased from dictators that have been propped up, or forcibly taken from lands with no one speaking for them. Ultimately it arrives here at the cost of human lives and dignity. Why do you need to drive? Because work is far away, businesses have moved, to accommodate a driving lifestyle. Work used to near our homes, or at least centralized - towns used to be designed for the citizen, not against them. The town I live in... in the 1940s, you rode a horse or drove to a central location, and from there you were a 10 minutes walk to any of the services. The same services we have today in terms of the goods provided. Today, for the same services, you drive an average of 10 minutes, at the consumption of a good which is wrought from the bodies of people who will never get a glimpse of our contentment - to reach goods that were previously easily available. We have spread thin for no particular reason, and not cleaned up after ourselves. Downtown Johnson City is festering and rotting, with a particularly nice layout convenient for persons, if businesses had not spread out.
Of course I could write one hundred entries about the orcs of our world... I am searching for something in sight at this moment, in this computer lab, that is not derived from the destruction of either human life (but in another nation, so its okay) or the destruction of the world that we need to live (oxygen is nice, and I prefer it over patio furniture or soybeans).
I am trying more these days to hunt the orcs in my life, to not be so much of an orc myself.
All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us. -Gandalf
So what are we going to do with our time? Are we going to help others in their time, are we going to take steps to not actively shorten their time given to them? How much evil are you doing in your life right now? Not to say that you do nothing but contribute to evil... but is your general contribution at least offsetting the evil you help bring? I hope someday to at least be able to claim neutrality... To say, I have done what I can to atone for my sins, and have harmed you no more. What are you doing with your time?
What struck me was how much I wanted that world. Not how much I enjoyed it, but how much I wanted to actually live in it. A community of people who work for themselves and one another, not a faceless entity with a thousand middlemen so as to receive a certificate to allow them access to the basic goods of life. Ones who use their spare time to delve into topics of interest, topics of niche and particulars. Who celebrate life and actually live in the world around them, using strictly technology that betters things rather than just changing them. A world where when the going gets tough, they confront the evils that bring it on. A world of acknowledging when you are doing evil and how to stop it.
I was tempted to shed a tear, and felt one arrive, asking permission, as I observed the Shire in its splendor of sustaining those within it, without harming those beyond it. I was envious of those doing battle, for the fact that though their lives may be short, they have lives of telos. That what they are striving to do day in and day out is actively for a reason dear to them.
Leave all that can be spared behind. We travel light. Let's hunt some Orc. -Aragorn
What can be spared? How many things in my life do I actually need? Am I remotely capable of travel or am I anchored to a place, a prison, because of my possessions? I have always been enamored with efficiency and lightness. Only having and using what I need. But I have not lived it, the last time I moved it took dozens of car trips, each time filling my vehicle to full capacity. How much of that do I need, let alone use? I sift through the piles of things in my room and apartment... I discover things. I should not be discovering that I own items. It is time to do some cleaning. This morning I went through my DVDs and made 3 stacks. Sell/Get rid of, Maybe Keep (which amounts to watching it once more before selling) and Keep. The only time one was considered for Keep was if I REALLY enjoyed it, it was efficient space-wise (multiple films per case) or if it actually had something real to teach me. I will be doing the same with my music and software, and then my books and clothing. I have felt burdened for long by my things, things which cost money, and bring little return to them.
I do hope to also change my clothing as a whole. Sitting here dressed like a boy... In fabric soiled with blood. I would like to make a move to simple colors, simple clothing - eventually all home made clothing, and maintain that well. I do not need all the clothes I own. I need at most 10 or so shirts, 3 pairs of pants and 10 or so pairs of socks and underwear. If I have more suitcases full of suits, than suitcases themselves, I got something wrong somewhere.
How do we go about hunting orc though? Well what are orcs? In the film and book, they embodied corruption and evil, they were the active malevolent force. Easily identified because not only were they tangible, but also visibly corrupt - ugly and vicious - and easy to distance yourself from because in no way did the peoples of the Shire, Rivendell, Rohan, Gondor or whatnot else (I apologize, my fictional geography is not up to spec) prosper from the existence of the orc on a reasonable level. That is what makes the orcs of our world tricky.
We prosper under our orcs. Our lifestyle appears to be high in the sky, unless you look down and see the bodies of others elevating us to where we stand. Make no mistake about it, our lives have grave impact on others - and it is easy to dismiss it because we keep it invisible, we shun those who try to educate about such. Not only do we prosper on this evil, we rely on it. How do you get to work? I drive. My car takes gasoline, refined from oil, which is purchased from dictators that have been propped up, or forcibly taken from lands with no one speaking for them. Ultimately it arrives here at the cost of human lives and dignity. Why do you need to drive? Because work is far away, businesses have moved, to accommodate a driving lifestyle. Work used to near our homes, or at least centralized - towns used to be designed for the citizen, not against them. The town I live in... in the 1940s, you rode a horse or drove to a central location, and from there you were a 10 minutes walk to any of the services. The same services we have today in terms of the goods provided. Today, for the same services, you drive an average of 10 minutes, at the consumption of a good which is wrought from the bodies of people who will never get a glimpse of our contentment - to reach goods that were previously easily available. We have spread thin for no particular reason, and not cleaned up after ourselves. Downtown Johnson City is festering and rotting, with a particularly nice layout convenient for persons, if businesses had not spread out.
Of course I could write one hundred entries about the orcs of our world... I am searching for something in sight at this moment, in this computer lab, that is not derived from the destruction of either human life (but in another nation, so its okay) or the destruction of the world that we need to live (oxygen is nice, and I prefer it over patio furniture or soybeans).
I am trying more these days to hunt the orcs in my life, to not be so much of an orc myself.
All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us. -Gandalf
So what are we going to do with our time? Are we going to help others in their time, are we going to take steps to not actively shorten their time given to them? How much evil are you doing in your life right now? Not to say that you do nothing but contribute to evil... but is your general contribution at least offsetting the evil you help bring? I hope someday to at least be able to claim neutrality... To say, I have done what I can to atone for my sins, and have harmed you no more. What are you doing with your time?