Great Work Begins as a Seed

So I got my mediocre little column (well more like two of 'em pasted together) published in one of our papers up here. Though it isn't a paying gig, it's a real lesson that you don't have to wait until you have your very best work or maximum inspiration to start pursuing your dreams. I know I'm awfully bored with my 9 to 5 and frankly it's time I started doing something about it. I encourage you to do the same. It takes hard work, perseverance, and you've got to start some where.
I think my next dealio is going to be a look at an architect involved in the small house movement. Check the link for tumbleweedhouses.com. It'll blow you away to see viable houses at 100 square feet or even less. It's very convicting because we have got to be about more than maintaining and paying for our oversized houses. Now if I can only get to it between all my projects around my own money pit!

A McCain Reign to Ease the Pain?

So I sent the following as a sample to an editor of a local newspaper looking for readers to contribute occasional columns. I guess I'm just sort of feebly searching for my voice as I finally get off my hind end and write again. This is not an endorsement for or against any candidate by either Crazy Eddy or his staff.

The battlefield has been perfectly arranged for John McCain to ride in on his white horse among the wounded and save the day for both conservatives and moderates. This former war hero will cruise through the primaries by emphasizing bread and butter conservative issues: a strong national defense, reducing the size of government, cutting wasteful pork barrel spending by passing the line item veto, an emphasis on exercising fiscal discipline, lower taxes, and a promise to appoint judges who will interpret the Constitution rather than legislating from the bench. These issues, referred to as common sense conservatism, are the themes of his early campaign, which frankly has more wind behind it than any other candidate at this stage since Ronald Reagan.

His appeal to moderates is palpable due to his famous independence, crusade to end corporate welfare, his perceived incorruptibility at the hands of evil special interests, a genuine concern for easing our dependence on oil, straight talk, and the fact that the majority of the electorate is right of center. In the end he will steamroll through the primaries with half of social conservatives endorsing him as the best candidate to defeat their great nemesis in the fall, and the other half being diluted between a couple other non contenders who will quickly be overwhelmed by the McCainiacs.

Though his greatest competition will be with himself until then, is there any doubt who will be his ultimate rival? The presence of the fresh yet unseasoned Barack Obama could make the opposing side’s primaries interesting, but he will not win the pole position. It is difficult to comprehend how a junior senator who hasn’t had time to distinguish himself could decide to run for the Presidency at the dawn of his political career. The example of JFK, however, will encourage him to take the plunge. On a side note it is interesting to observe that every President elected in the 1960s beginning with Kennedy were spawned in the Senate, which clearly bucks the historical trend favoring governors.

John Kennedy was also a young, handsome, articulate man. He came along at the right moment in history, yet he too as a junior senator did not stand out tremendously from his peers. He was photogenic, charming, and a rising star as well. Circumstance provided the opportunity of a lifetime and he capitalized on it. Likewise, Obama will understand that he won’t be a young star forever with the ability to inject new life into the political arena. If he waits someone else will eventually overshadow him. Perhaps of greater importance is the draining effect that controversial votes have on any candidate. That said, Obama’s valiant campaign will eventually succumb to Hilary’s powerful political machinery that has prepared for the better part of a decade for this moment in time. However, his electrifying stump speeches and popular support will prove far too tempting for Mrs. Clinton to pass up in favor of a more boring and lifeless running mate.

Ultimately McCain and his VP selection, our very own Tim Pawlenty, will triumph handily as the famous Reagan Democrats return to restore balance to the force. After which, our current governor will look forward to a retirement date in January of 2025.

Well since we’ve got that settled, lets start thinking about other things far more interesting than politics.

buckets of sap and bittersweet fruits

So I'm reading a book by Gladys Dimock called A Home of Our Own, which tells the story of her young family after moving from Chicago to a remote farm in Vermont shortly after World War II. Abandoning their cramped basement flat with small windows looking up at the shuffling feet hurrying along the sidewalk for the freedom of the farm was not unlike emerging from a cocoon, though it was difficult for them to abandon the security of a reliable paycheck with a new baby. It is an inspiring story of the pursuit of a dream and a better life.

Incidentally, this reminds me of a fantastic visit my wife and I had just a half hour out of Quebec once in the far north of Vermont. It is really beautiful country out there, and the people are a real hardscrabble independent lot. Anyhow we stayed with the parents of a friend in a simple wood heated home with windows overlooking a classic view of the rural northeast that hasn't changed much since our founding fathers were still above ground. A night of cooking down a couple hundred gallons of maple sap to syrup over a large roaring woodstove in the sugar shack with large snow flakes gently falling outside was one to remember.

Back to our story though, I have been struck by the fact that the author begins telling her story some 90 odd years after the publishing of Henry David Thoreau's influential book telling the tale of his "experiment." The author doesn't mention this classic as an influence, but one can't help but use it as a reference point. What is striking is the thought of how much had changed within the span of a single lifetime since Thoreau left Walden Pond. This was an era of accelerated "progress" greater than any in all of human history. Four major wars of increasing barbarity and scope, the transcontinental railroad, the fulfillment of Manifest Destiny and dozens of stars added to the American flag, numerous world changing inventions such as the automobile, airplane, telephone, electricity, radio, television and the frisbee, as well as the onset of the Atomic Age, to name a few, would all have been vividly experienced by an individual born in 1854. We are still tasting both the bitter and sweet fruits of this flowering of creativity, which incidentally was marked in its earliest years by mankind's greatest works of literature and art. Well the extreme degree of change in daily life and the massive industrialization caused a longing in many individuals to get back to the land in the post WWII era that persists to this day, as well as in the head and heart of the one incessantly pounding on his keyboard now (as if 40 hours a week in front of a screen isn't enough!).

Children of this industrialized concrete jungle clearly have missed out on a great deal, and have become shallow, self absorbed, and soft to a great extent. It's really interesting to observe the busyness with which people move through life along with their ipods and cell phones completely oblivious to the world around them. It is a constant busyness with very little of anything of value ever really being accomplished. This week I saw a story about the debuting of Sony's Playstation 3 in Japan, and the tens of thousands jockeying to have the opportunity to waste their money before someone else beat them to it. Japan is one of those areas in the world that for literally thousands of years has been a very traditional and fiercely independent society, and it is incredible to see how this sort of frivolousness is westernizing their youth at record pace. Less than a generation of this style of westernization is causing a general unraveling that had been feared over 150 years ago when the first gun ships appeared near Tokyo to force trade. Their kids are becoming just like our kids, namely self absorbed punks. Don't misunderstand me as worshipping their society. It is just one of several places where even a young punk like myself can observe the change taking place even within my 3 decades.

Well, I never did get to wax poetically about the importance of both manual and mental labor, but I think you get the general idea. If you actually made it this far through my incessant rambling your persistence would produce greater dividends by diving into a truly great work: War and Peace by Tolstoy which was a part of that flowering I spoke of.

dirt commish

Well I have to say that yesterday's election really ticked me off. The fact that the Dems steamrolled to victory in Congress was no big surprise. However, the fact that the back side of my ballot had not one but three separate Soil and Water Commissioner positions to vote for was baffling, befuddling, and downright stupid! So apparently I live simultaneously in soil district 2, 3, and 5. How does someone vote for the best soil and water commissioner? What if the person with the prettiest name knows a heck of a lot about soil but not a dang thing about water? I would wager that 99% of the working stiffs that went to vote yesterday knew about as much about this coveted position as me. What exactly does this person do? Furthermore, the fact that you've read this far is a bloomin' miracle because I don't think anybody cares. For whatever reason this just sort of got under my skin, and true to this whole blogoverse phenomenon, I feel better having spilled the beans. So goes my first foray into blahgging.
Of course, like most folks made mostly of water, I spend every working day entirely removed from what the above "politician" deals with as I'm huddled deep within the bowels of Corporate America in a sterile semi-cubicle. Of course this will likely be the theme of several future rants. So Godspeed, and get on with it. Don't wait for some public "servant" or office manager to fulfill your dreams.