What Some of the Future May Look Like (Which Is What Some of the Past Looked Like)

It might be interesting to think ahead to what the future might look like once there are changes in the financial system, fewer resources, and various environmental exigencies.  For one thing, I believe we will be thinking on a more regional basis.  (Such as:  not sending produce all the way across the country in trucks that use gasoline but in seasonally eating what our particular area grows even if that means mostly stored root veggies in winter.)  As well as thinking on a more community-oriented--or even neighborhood--basis.  In New York City, for instance, people think in terms of their own little neighborhoods and support the shops and eateries right there where they live.

We can come up with our own barter systems.  If we need to keep the car in the garage because of the cost or lack of fuel, we can support our neighborhoods by opening up nearby mom and pop stores.  Or places where vendors can set up a temporary side-walk stall if they have extra tomatoes, say, to sell.  So I see more places that one can easily reach by walking or bicycling.

I see something of a return to a farming life with more communal help--putting up pickles, sauerkraut, and applesauce.  Milking cows, raising chickens, putting a veggie garden in place of a lawn.  Stockpiling non-GMO seeds, acquiring garden tools.

With more back-to-the-land activities, there may not be time for TV or video games--which, to me, seems a plus.  I would like us to sit down with the family to eat--and to eat home-cooked food--as we also share time talking together.  As well, to save on electricity, we may well have quieter lives without the currently ever-present "music" playing in the background wherever we go.  We might even fish our ukuleles out of the closet and create our own music.  But we also need more silence so that we can think our own thoughts without distraction.

I would appreciate, too, if there were free education including college and graduate studies.  Free health care.  Better public transport.  Even a proportionally representational government such as the Dutch have.  As for the Presidential elections, they need a complete overhaul to do away with the billions of dollars spent and the lengthy waste of time the process now takes.

Then we need to abandon the ever-present war mentality that keeps this country afloat with its proliferation of "bona-fide" (ha!) reasons why we should go to war in some poor country or why that same spot needs our troops, our drones, our contractors as we then take over and drain their resources and our war machine hauls in big bucks. (It was the war in Viet Nam that used up much of our own domestic oil supply.)

With their community, their off-the-grid life, their buggies and farms, I often think the Amish are among the best prepared for the future.  Obviously, I don't know what it will look like, but I dare say we'll have an opportunity to be creative!

What getting ready for winter looks like in these parts.