I have just started reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle : A Year of Food Life By Barbara Kingsolver, Camille Kingsolver, Steven L. Hopp. It was a Christmas gift from my sister to the whole family (we all got one). I am now into chapter 3 and am enjoying it very much. I, at first, was very skeptical since my sister and I don’t see eye to eye on the Global Warming Hysteria. True to form the book begins with that as one of its premises, but moves on to make some very good points on how we have developed a food culture wholly foreign to its intended design and purpose. Furthermore, it’s based upon convenience, not results. I for one am very results orientated and if my food isn’t making sense I want to know!!
This brings me to the purpose of this post. My Mom and Sister and I are starting a family garden!! I am so excited because I have been trying to get a garden going for years and I just don’t seem to have the time to tend to it like it needs, but with three of us surely we can take care of it and reap the benefits of fresh food!! I’ll keep you POASTED!!!

12.3.7

I have responded many times in my mind, but now I respond once more and allow you to share in my musings. I have, many times, found myself shaking my head to the many complaints in the editorial pages. Not enough of this, too much of that. You don’t care…I don’t care…why don’t you…I’m going to. Proselytizing to The Left and The Right.

I wish to respond to many of the caring, well-intentioned, educated contributors to December 3rd’s Editorial page. If you read it you will know that the main editorial had to do with money moving out, a short comment to the side was on too much going one way and not enough going another, a third was a young lady who dreams of becoming, maybe the first, Black-Female President of The United States and the last I am responding to was a syndicated writer speaking to the issue of racially-specific murder.

While all of these subjects seem, to the passing glance, to be unrelated they are all connected by a glaring “misunderestimation” of economics. What I see happen time and time again is a caring, well-intentioned do-gooder identifies a problem and sets out to solve it. They certainly do not want to spend their whole life engaged in the resolution of the intention, but rather would that it was solved yesterday! I do not want to be misunderstood at this point; I can feel you warming up. I want your life; yes you, to be filled with much success and happiness. I wish that you did not have a care in the world and that all of your heartache and concern could be wiped away with a word from my lips. It just does not happen that way.

We live in a world of exchanging values. While we can, to a degree, experience unlimited increase; we are limited at certain moments by our ability to manifest our value to another. Let me illustrate by example: I want my floor swept. I can A: do it my self and spend my time; or I can B: spend money; I have received for time I have spent to another, on another for the service of sweeping my floor. Simple right? Not so fast. The individual who may sweep my floor has value, of which they may keep, or give away. Depending on their verifiable value to me, the person needing the sweeping, they may gain more or less of my money (that I have earned from my own negotiation of time).

You may or may not be following me, but this is where all value begins, the production of human capital. A wrench that seems to commonly rear its ugly head is the false constraints placed upon a simple economy (illustrated above) by those outside of the transaction. Those without a dog in the fight, but for that of their own idea of how the two individuals above should behave towards one another and how they should profit from it, or how those around them should benefit from their interaction and hard work contained in the simple act of sweeping and contracting one’s floor to be swept.

The spine in all of the above words is to persuade you to educate yourself, and your children to learn how to let the owner of the dirty floor and the broom owner to do what they do. You will be much happier. There will be more money in the Government’s coffers. There will be more diversity. There will be less murder. And Global Warming will be over.