Storm Front

Advancing lightning

reflects off my sword; night moth

gleams just as brightly

Reality Breaks Into Fantasy

Last Friday evening, to break the monotony of our dinners, The Ravishing Mrs. TB suggested that we watch a movie.  We grabbed one - one of the many Marvel hero movies - and started watching.  It had been a while since I seen it and thought that it would be an enjoyable break.

Instead, as I watched it I found that I could not enjoy this story as I had once done.  This person would come on the screen and suddenly I would remember the opinion they had expressed; that person would come on screen and the same thing happened.  Suddenly, I found myself far less lost in the story and far more seeing the actors and actresses for who they portrayed themselves to be outside of the narrow parts that they were playing.

It effectively destroyed the movie for me.

This is the danger that those that entertain - that the real life world personalities eclipse their on-screen personalities and people no longer desire to support them based on who they are, not on their skill.

There is one more movie for Marvel heroes, which I will go see because The Ravishing Mrs. TB likes the movie series and wants to do it as a date.  But quite likely after that - and after that for almost any movies - I am effectively done.

I desired escape.  You have given me the real world instead - if I must be in the real world all the time, it will be the reality of my choice, not yours.

On Control Of The Heart

"CHRIST:  My son, you have still many things to learn.

THE DISCIPLE:  What are these, Lord?

CHRIST:  How you must frame your desires in accordance with My good pleasure, and not be a lover of self, but an earnest follower of My will.  Desires often inflame you and drive you violently onward; but consider whether it be My honour or self-interest that moves you most.  If I Myself be the cause, you will be content with whatever I determine; but if self-interest is your hidden motive, this will be a hindrance and burden to you."

The Imitation of Christ, Thomas `A Kempis

A Few Words From...Yamakoshi Masaki

"The events of the present will eventually become the past, and to live in the present is to live in the future.  So let us continue to live as best as we can, now, in the present, together in harmony with our family, our job, and our surroundings.  The martial art of iai is the art of living a plentiful life."

- Muso Jikiden Eishin-Ryu:  The Iai Forms and the Oral Traditions of the Yamauchi Branch

Beware Of An Old Man

The Collapse XVIII: Postal Service

27 July 20XX

My Dear Lucilius:

So an unusual thing happened today: The mail announced that it was slowing down.

Our post office, as you may remember, is a two room affair on the main road in and out of town which also serves as our local mini-mart and gas station (yes, I concur that the prices are higher but every now and again one does not wish to make the 20 to 40 mile round trip up the road and back for a single item). It largely serves the local community here and is in fact the only delivery in town. It has perhaps a hundred mail boxes or so.

My mail load, as you can imagine, has gone down over the years. Most bills are now done on-line (is not almost everything these days) and I seldom get mail of a personal sort: those that might send it are either dead, moved on, or correspond via some other method. Therefore my visits to the post office are once a week affairs at most, involving me walking the half mile or so, pulling things out of my post office box, and then meandering back home where I can safely sort the mail into my “save” or “burn later” later piles.

This morning, when I walked over, there was an official looking sort of letter taped on the front door announcing that staring at the end of this month (July), mail delivery was reduced at our location to once a week. Stating that decreasing the amount of deliveries would increase the economical nature of the mail (and save valuable fuel and emissions), the letter ended with a rousing statement about how the postal service would continue to be there to service the community in the future.

Now, I am not impacted a great deal of course – I do receive a few things once in a while via the mail which are mostly seeds or occasionally books – but these have just as often come via one of the major delivery services (which, I predict, will immediately raise their rates as well – supply and demand, of course). But with this cut off as a timely sort of thing, my choices – and I suspect many of those like me – will be changing our spending habits even a little bit more, as well as our expectations.

When I returned home, I re-sorted more of the items into my “burn later” pile. I suspect with a decrease in mail, my fire-starter materials will become more precious.

Your Obedient Servant, Seneca

Blossoms

I had thought that time

would fade the past; yet I find

the trees blooming yet.

2019 Garden Update

Thought I would show you a quick update on the progress of the Spring Garden:

My Lime trees survived the Winter!  And are supporting new growth!

Two volunteer leeks that showed up - and will be in leek pie soon:

Beans, Black Eyed Peas, and others doing well:

Onions starting to do their thing:

Overwintered Garlic:

 Volunteer lettuce:

 Asparagus popped up in a hurry:

All the grains are doing nicely even after the late start:

Overall, I am very pleased with how planting a month earlier than I have done in the past has worked out.

Random Economic Thoughts I

Some random economic thoughts:

1)  Retail, on the whole, is dying.  If you have a bit of interest, I might recommend you check out dailyjobcuts.com.  It keeps a running tab on closures, layoffs, and bankruptcies. 

Beyond just this basic observational basis - name a single mainline or Big Box store that has not had some level of layoffs or closures - I have the most interesting note from The Ravishing Mrs. TB on local malls:  "They are 50% empty of stores, and what is left is mostly junk). 

Realistically of course, blame the InterWeb - but not really.  Blame stores that have made it a pain to shop there or return there versus Amazon, which is effectively creating an ecosystem where one almost never need shop outside of its confines:  Clothes?  Check.  Food?  Check.  Gadgets?  Check.  Entertainment via books or streaming?  Check.  Fresh fruit and vegetables?  If you live within delivery distance of a Whole Foods, Check.

Who wants to deal with crowds when you can practically do it all from your home?

2)  As a result of 1) and in conjunction with it, the minimum wage job is dying as well.

Why?  Retail is one of the highest users of the minimum wage, and those jobs are going away.  Food service?  Believe me, the move to kiosks in places like McDonald's or Wendy's are here to stay.  As the cost of labor increases, the push to automation will grow - as will the continued growth of services that deliver food (via things like Ubereats). 

The decline in minimum wage affects two groups:  the unskilled and the just starting out (via graduations).  Where before these jobs were available to reflex to, they will begin to vanish.

3)  Autonomous, electric vehicles and the push for them is not going away.  Never mind they are not economical and environmentally destructive, they will keep coming up until they get close to being right and then the press will be on for us to adopt them - first cities, of course (you just need to make "driven" cars illegal downtown), then out to the suburbs.

Who does this impact?  The list is rather long.  Auto industries, of course - with autonomous vehicles the need to "buy" a new car becomes less, combined with ridesharing (e.g. Uber, Lyft).  Any service which involves a driver - taxis, limousines, even the aforementioned Uber and Lyft.  Any industry touching an automobile - auto dealerships, oil change shops, even service shops.  And delivery services, eventually.

4)  Who is not impacted in all of this?  The trades, for now - yes, automation continues to march forward but much like the assembly line, things have to be standardized before they can be impacted by automation (for example, plumbing and electric wiring are run per builder, but there are many builders and many older homes).  Science and tech workers, for now - but give Artificial Intelligence time and between automation and AI, many basic science and tech jobs will vanish as well. 

There will always be the outliers of course - small botique shops, those catering to the wealthy or well off, and the underlayer that people like myself frequent - used book stores, discount and thrift shops, etc.  But I suspect the next twenty years will find millions of unskilled and skilled laborers out of work and with little or no opportunity to re-enter the workforce.

And then ask the logical question:  What happens next?

God Makes A Way

A Few Words From...Calvin Miller

"Decision is the key to destiny.

'God, can you be merciful and send me off to hell and lock me in forever?'

'No Pilgrim, I will not send you there, but if you chose to to there, I could never lock you out.'"

- The Singer

Experience

The Collapse XVII: Vacation

25 July 20XX

My Dear Lucilius:

My apologies for the delay in writing. For the first time in years, I took a vacation.

Yes yes, I understand – you have often commented that my whole life at this point seems to be one long vacation of doing what I want to do – fair enough, I have often said the same thing myself. But I made the decision – right after the refugees I informed you of in the last letter – to make a trip to some of the places I love here that are farther away.

Yellowstone – You remember Yellowstone of course, we went there on your last visit. I had a longing to go there again – not so much for the natural wonders (as amazing as they are, of course) as for the buffalo. And I found both – and the park strangely deserted. Where before there were literally thousands of cars there were merely tens of them. I had no problem or issue getting anywhere or seeing anything I desired. The buffalo were there, placidly moving in their herds the way they did long before Westerners ever arrived.

The other place I needed to go, of course, was the Little Bighorn.

The monument was even more deserted than I had expected – it was myself and two other people, wandering among the headstones of the US Calvary and Sioux Warriors. The grass was brown and dry and blew in the wind, perhaps like it did almost 150 years ago. The wind whispered the voices of warriors of both sides, long dead, watching.

In a very meaningful way, these sorts of trips were walks into a past that was rapidly approaching into our future.

These were day trips for me of course, and I am sure that you will wonder at the wanton waste of fuel for each of them. I somewhat wonder at it myself – but comfort myself with the thought that I do not know when, if ever, I will be able to go again. At least they can now always live in my memory.

Your Obedient Servant, Seneca

Done With Entertainment

So last night I was watching one of my Animes on Netflix that I have come to watch.  At this point it had become a little bit tiresome and was dragging on, but I was sticking with it to the bitter end.  And then, just like that, it ended - on an radically modern correct note.

And I was done.

This absence from media has been a great boon to me, although a struggle as well.  But as I think about it, this has become the next logical step.

Entertainment, it seems, is always reflective of the age in which is was created.  And media for last 10 years at least has definitely come to reflect society as a whole.

I cannot, in good conscious, support it any more.

And so, I am done.

Two aspects of this, really. The first is that I am done - really done - with Netflix and Hulu.  If I do not own it, I will not watch it.  Which means I will be watching a lot less.

The second is that my timespan of watching just shrank a great deal.  Pretty much anything prior to 1985, I suppose.  Maybe occasional exceptions - one of my favorites The Thirteenth Warrior was made in the 1990's - but on the whole, I stop there.

The good news is, I just got a great deal of my time back.

Yes, I know.  This will not really stop the advance of anything.  Society will continue on with its business and ignore me by my lack of support.

Strangely enough, I find myself more and more okay with this.  It may be a bubble, but I find it to be one that I can function in and focus on what really matters.

A Funny Thing Happened To Me On The Way To Work....

...more specifically, A Funny Thing Happened To Me At Work.

My boss sits down.  "Good job, keep up the good work."  Hands me a piece of paper.

Turns out I have been promoted.  To Vice President, Quality.

Wow.

I have been at this just over 21 years.  I started as a Research Associate 1, scraping labels off of bottles in a research lab. 

Of course, nothing is free.  All the responsibility is on me - but in reality, it always was.  And I have a great deal to do and be responsible for - but then again, I always did.

Vice President.  This is a high as I pretty much every figured I was going to reach.

Go me.

Your New Life Is Going To Cost You

Hat Tip:  Aware Wolf

This wandered across my consciousness this weekend.  I looked at it, thought it was rather useful, and sent it along to others,

And then, I actually started to think about it. What a devastatingly profound statement.

Christians, of course, are familiar with the concept of this:  "We are buried with Christ in His death, we are raised with Him into newness of life" we say in some form or fashion every Sunday.  But we make the rather painful mistake of not realizing it applies to every aspect of our life.

It works this way in Nature, of course:  the tadpole surrenders it life to the frog, the caterpillar surrenders its life to the butterfly.  The change in nature - indeed, the change in form - is something that we have actually embraced and use as a symbol of the newness of life, of the ability to change.
We forget that, much like Cortes and his ships, they have burned everything and have no choice but to move forward.

It is true of us as well.

The simple - and rather painful - reality is that when we make a life change, be it by choice or forced, it eventually costs us our old one.

Oh, we may not think so at first:  we continue to maintain the relationships, do the activities, and believe that somehow we are continuing to bridge the gap between the two. But time, that revelator of all things, eventually points out a very simple fact:  Just as we cannot be in two places at once, neither can we have two lives at once.  It is either the old or the new.

It is true of me, of course.  10 years ago this year, we moved from Old Home to New Home.  The move did change our lives - in many good ways of course, but along with the good came the bad.  Our old lives - old church, old friends, old activities, old contacts - faded into the mirror as we continued to move forward into the new. 

Even now, I continue to change - as I have come to embrace Iai more and more, it means that other things, such as Highland Games, matter less and less.  It is a number of factors of course - I find that throwing in the wet is not nearly as entertaining as it once was and driving more than two hours to and back is more than I want to do - but it is also because, simply, I have X amount of time and energy and must allocate them appropriately.

Some things stick with us of course - in a sense we are nomads of our lives, carrying some things from place to place to place (I fell in love with Japan at age 10; it took me 30 years to find a direct connection and 40 years to have a mechanism - training - to return there annually).  But by choosing a new life, we by default choose to lose on the old.

I wonder: if we really grasped that by choosing a new life we cost the old one, would we always be so eager to do so?  Or would we simply become more melancholy about the change, more thoughtful about the choice - and do it anyway?

God Of The Elements

O God of the elements

O God of the mysteries

O God of the fountains

O King of Kings!

O King of Kings!

- Carmina Gadelica (Alexander Carmichael) from Celtic Devotions (Calvin Miller)

A Few (More) Words from...Miyamoto Musashi

"To Release Four Hands

'To release four hands' is used when you and the enemy are contending with the same spirit, and the issue cannot be decided.  Abandon this spirit and win through an alternative method.

In large-scale strategy, when there is a 'four hands' spirit, do not give up - it is man's existence.  Immediately throw away this spirit and win with a technique the enemy does not expect.

In single combat also, when we think we have fallen into the 'four hands' situation, we must defeat the enemy by changing our mind and applying a suitable technique according to his condition.  You must be able to judge them."


- The Fire Book, A Book of Five Rings

Sit Back And Observe

The Collapse XVI: Refugees

20 July 20XX

My Dear Lucilius:

Yesterday we say our first band of refugees.

The first hint I had of it was a Recreational Vehicle coming through town past my home, and then another. And another. And then a truck pulling a trailer – until a whole parade of vehicles drove by my house and on the park down the road, where I do my laundry. As I had planned to do laundry that day anyway, I gathered my things and walked the mile or so to the park.

The park was virtually full – the first time in years I can remember it being so since my youth of coming here. Adults and children milled around the main area of the park, the children running around as if trapped inside all day (which most likely they were) the adults in small knots clustered together.

As for me, I was there to do laundry, so I started up my loads, pulled out my book and commenced reading. I sat quietly until about 15 minutes latter when a number of younger women came in to apparently start doing theirs as well. We nodded pleasantly to each other, then I returned to my book and they to their conversation – which was loud enough to hear over the edge of my cover.

They were, apparently, from somewhere south of where we are had been on the road “for a few days” - not enough regional accent to detect from where. Wherever they were coming from, it sounded as if life had not become too awful yet but they were worried about something that was about to come. They did not sound as if they had a clear plan on where they were going yet - “West” is what I heard, but I did not get a sense of how far “west” really meant.

During the conversation, children flitted in and out of the laundry room, laughing and crying and shouting at the top of their lungs. It has been a rather long time since I have had that level of...”activity” in my life. It was a source of both joy and confusion to me as my life has become so much more quiet now. I can scarcely remember when such loud days were the norm.

I finished and folded my laundry, nodded to the ladies women finishing theirs, and then packed up everything in my basket and headed out. The park was as full and busy as the laundry room had been, with children tearing around the spots and men and women in small clusters, grilling over charcoal or cooking over camp stoves.

They were gone the next morning to points “West”, as the owner told me, almost gleeful at the amount of money he had turned in one day and trying to figure out how to restock before the next wave came through.

It is a concerning thing, Lucilius, these populations on the move. In point of fact there is probably no better thing “west” of here than there is “east” of here, or north or south. I am coming to fear the time of decision has already passed and one will need to make do with where one is and what one has.

Your Obedient Servant, Seneca