On My Mind

I know I don't often write long thoughtful or informative posts, but I've got one today for those who are in the mood (and have time) to read and possibly participate in a discussion over the next few days. If you don't feel like reading the whole post, would you mind going to the end and answering any one of the questions? I'm quite curious!

The thought came up on a message board I visit that affluence is subconsciously, or maybe even consciously, defined as the distance between a person and the provision of their own daily needs. I brought up the subject, again briefly, while chatting with a new friend about the butchering of meat. Fun topic, no?

Since then, I haven't been able to get related thoughts out of my mind. When I can't get something out of my mind, the best way for me to process it and 'let it be' is to write it out.

I considered the possible levels of progress as our money, resources, knowledge, and skills increase. (I realize some of my descriptions are slightly colored for the sake of discussion.)

1. The very basic survival: following the animals and food, movable shelter, clothing made from skins, dishes from carved wood or pottery, washing occasionally in a river. Every waking hour devoted to basic needs.

2. A step up: using purchased tools to fell trees and build a cabin, rifles for hunting, plows and seeds for crops, honey and maple syrup for treats, digging a well, cooking in a fireplace, weaving material on a loom, spinning thread and yarn, teaching children to read using the Bible, Pilgrim's Progress, and Robinson Crusoe after the day's work is done. Life is hard and often dangerous. Tragedy is commonplace.

3. Building a house using milled lumber, buying grain to make bread, housing livestock in barns and pens for butchering, a barrel of molasses purchased at the country store, a nice orchard and vegetable garden --drying fruit or storing veggies in the cellar, using a clothes line to dry the laundry, baking in a bake oven, a community-run one-room school house children attend over the course of a few years (during the winter when home labor is less intense).

4. Having a house built by a contractor; purchasing flour, meat, honey and sugar and other supplies at the store while canning many fruits and vegetable from the garden; running water and electricity, simple appliances; buying cloth to sew clothes, yarn for knitting; newly found free time is spent making up games, creating something, enjoying conversation, playing music, getting together with neighbors for dances (quilting, discussions, or sharing food...).

5. Buying the cookie-cutter house in the suburbs. Clothes are purchased along with everything else. Food comes in boxes, tubs, bags, and cans. There is an appliance for everything. Children are in childcare or public school until they go off to college. Cars have DVD players and gaming systems. Free time is spent being entertained rather than entertaining one's self. Children's games are organized and regulated by adults. Who needs to actually make money? We've got credit cards now. Life expectancy is much longer. Workplaces strive to be safe. Modern medicine keeps many of us from dying from diseases, in childbirth, or due to accidents.

6. Now we've made enough money to have the laundry taken care of at the dry cleaners, house cleaned by a cleaning lady, health maintained by a trainer at the gym, bellies filled with restaurant food, and private childcare and school for the children.

7. But who really wants to leave the house to get everything done? Home staff for laundry, cooking, exercising, cleaning, decorating, phone calls... personal needs taken care of at the spa because everyone needs a day out with a chauffeur to drive us there. Nannies and then tutors or exclusive boarding schools for the children.

8. I didn't think there was another step, but my sister mentioned that many kids (and adults) don't ever see the money made in the first place. It has always been handed to them, always will.

I think we are doing a disservice to our children by removing them from the process of providing for their daily needs. Each generation needs to know that the memories they have of the process often aren't shared by their children.

I may remember watching my mother kneed bread dough, the yeasty smell of rising dough, the feeling of punching down the dough and watching it 'deflate,' the irresistible smell of baking bread, and the first bite of hot bread: crunchy on the outside, warm and soft on the inside. When I buy a loaf of bread and eat it, I may have somewhere in my subconscious a connection. An idea that wheat was grown, ground into flour, mixed into dough and baked, but do my children?

The world often looks down on or pities those who have no choice but to spend their time providing for their own daily needs or even providing basic services for others, but how much more does it not understand those who choose to do things for themselves rather than 'buying out' when money is available.

I am thankful that my children don't spend their days laboring in a field, but am I actually taking something away from them by not letting them experience the connections? There can be an immense amount of satisfaction and accomplishment in 'doing for ourselves.' Not only that, but thankfulness often comes from knowing what 'could be.' I would be so much more thankful for a bar of soap if I knew the laborious procedure the pioneers went through to make soap.

In no way do I intend to romanticize the hardships of the past. There are so many things I would choose to purchase rather than do for myself. I'll be the first to admit that I am both lazy and squeamish. If I had butchered animals all my life, it might be easier to me, but a dead mouse sends me over the edge.

I do think, however, that children and adults alike should have a decent grasp of the process by which our food comes to us. If they can participate to some degree in the process, even better. A field trip to a dairy, growing a veggie garden, baking bread--each of these things could serve to make connections.

There are so many questions to ask:

What is the purpose of wealth? To have the money to pay others to provide for our basic needs? To have more time for recreation? Luxuries? Security? To impress others?

Do we really have more time for recreation the harder we work?

What conveniences would you not want to live without?

What conveniences do you think actually serve to make our life more complicated?

What do you enjoy doing for yourself that you could pay someone else to do? Why do you enjoy it? Is it more enjoyable knowing that it isn't something you have to do, but something you want to do?

What are you interested in learning to do on occasion or as part of daily life that you currently purchase ready-made or have done for you?

Is life easier now? Simpler? More complicated? More enjoyable?

What steps can we take to foster in our children appreciation, participation, and basic understanding of what it takes to provide for his or her basic needs? Is this important?

Do the majority of Americans find fulfillment and great satisfaction in their employment?

I'm reminded of a story that a friend told me a while back. Some of you may have heard a version of it, but here is my short rendition:

A poor fisherman spends his early mornings fishing, sells his fish, and then comes home to his family. A rich man comes along and tries to convince the poor fisherman to get a real job, working for 30 or 40 years to build his wealth so that when he is an old man he can spend his days fishing and playing on the beach with his family.

Comments, anyone? Short, long-winded... I'll take whatever you have to give!