is it possible, in the pursuit of trying to simplify one's life, to make it more complicated? maybe that is the nature of the beast; that all change implies complication of what has been droning on in the name of routine. but what of routine? life seems to follow the path of least resistance, water always flowing downhill and all. but it don't take much thought at all to remember that such paths have not always, or even often, been righteous ones. dare i say they never are? that the good way is never the easy way? Jesus says that his yoke is easy and his burden is light, but in what senses of the words?
like the need to blog, tweet, fb, flickr and more more more in order to feel like one's person is sufficiently available to the world? to be able to mediate one's life in this way for the world to see (and presumably accept?) is a truly modern phenomena . . . i will even call it a pleasure. aldous huxley said that "speed provides the one genuinely modern pleasure", and so perhaps to be able to communicate speedily, as with all these newfangled social networking tools, is one perk of modernity.
and then comes the backlash against this modernity, say, in the form of the 'slow food' movement. how strange that those of us who want to 'slow down', 'live simply' and all that still blog? the ultimate irony of this must be me with my email address: johnhenryshammer@gmail.com. those of you unfamiliar with the story of john henry, immortalized time and time again with each rendition of the folk song named after him, will now be learnt of him:
an african american born in the late mid-1800s into a large family, little john and family were abandoned by his father. he knew from a young age that the toil of his hands would somehow be his downfall, and before his father left, he gave him his hammer with the admonition to become a skilled manual laborer, and that the hammer would serve him well in this capacity. john grew into a bruin of a man and capitalized on his physical strength, becoming quite the asset to the railroad building industry that was then booming, presumably finishing the trans-continental railroad. the simplicity of hammer + spike + muscles made him a star, gave him an identity, a livelihood . . . until the fist of technology came rudely knocking at his door.
the foreman brought a steam drill onto the scene to try to streamline production, but that of course would mean the unemployment of the steel drivin' men like john who were providing for their families and themselves. john henry resisted being ousted in such a way, and ended up beating the drill when he challenged it to a spike driving race. he did, however, end up overexerting himself in the process, and like any good folk hero, died for his cause.
but what is so bad about that? having a cause for which one would die is one thing, but john henry's fight seemed as much for life at it ever could be for death. i like a good cup of tea and though good tea usually doesn't come in a bag, i do like the little proverbs that can be read on the little tags that adorn them. one once read, "it is the mark of an immature man to wants to die nobly for his cause, and the mark of a mature one who instead wants to live humbly for it". now, with all due repsect to john henry and all who have sacrificed themselves for their cause, that is a pretty damn good quote.
last spring i was at the cultivating food justice conference, lazing the day by with a friend on the grass, when i spied a dead honey bee. as well all knopw, bees die once they sting, and seem to employ thier sting chiefly as a means of defending their hive and queen. we were a bit saddened by seeing such an endearing creature lifeless on the ground, but then i though aloud, "isn't that what we all want? to have a cause we are willing to die for?"
