Category: Living in Society

Politics mostly social commentary.

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Living in Society

Living in the Body Politic

Gardening Books
Gardening Books

LAKE MACBRIDE— This week has been nonstop action from Monday morning until Friday night. I was worn out from all the engagement— so weary, I bumped into a parked car in a parking lot before heading home last night. Sour end to an otherwise positive week.

It is hard to count exact numbers, but I engaged with more than 50 people, not including my sales work at the warehouse. The human contact was welcome, and I dove in.

There were the chores. A township trustee meeting, transfer of the financial records to the new treasurer of my veterans group, writing two press releases for coming speeches, work at the newspaper, the warehouse and the farm— all part and parcel of a week’s work. Groceries were bought, seedlings planted, laundry done and a host of small errands run that together make up the logistics of a life. There was more.

In politics, I met with each of the three people running for state representative in my district. The incumbent, and two challengers who will face each other in a primary. Don’t try to read the tea leaves, as I’m not saying here who I’ll support during the campaign. They are all good men— a bit disappointing they all are men.

I took a friend who is running for county supervisor around my area to introduce him on Friday. We ended up at a local eatery, where we met a few more people. We had a great couple of hours while I carried the clipboard, watching and listening to him work the rooms. He too faces a primary with two others vying for a total of two seats on the board.

If the weeks ahead are like the one just past, before I know it, I will have passed through the this stage of life into the infirmity old age. One resists swimming in the body politic. Partly because we cling to the present— not wanting to let go of what we know and have. Yet we are compelled to engage— to let go of what we hold dear, and enter in with our fellow travelers.

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Juke Box

Juke Box: My List

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Work Life

Today’s New Path

Sunrise
Sunrise

LAKE MACBRIDE— A colleague at work is from Tanzania— in Iowa to attend the university. Until we met, I didn’t know much about his country, but in bits and pieces, I am learning.

“People think the Maasai are poor, but they are rich,” he said, describing the wealth found in their cattle herds. He also talked about how society is changing for the semi-nomadic people. They are becoming sedentary, he said.  No longer do they leave their dead for predators to consume. When they arrive in town they consume whiskey by the bottle, he added. We also talked about the difficulty of taking a census of Maasai. Census taking is a western notion, so it may be a futile effort.

I tried to preserve his emphasis, his words here. It is difficult, nearly impossible given my western outlook.

It is work to listen… even more work to hear. It’s a characteristic of people with a driving social style. This personality trait has gotten me where I am in life, but one wonders what has been missed while focusing on a task, goal or objective. My conversations about Tanzania remind me to work toward hearing what people say, which is much different than listening through a filter of cultural biases.

I look forward to continuing the conversation.

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Work Life

Drinking Fountain

At Sunset
At Sunset

CORALVILLE— Perhaps the best perquisite of my warehouse job is the public drinking fountain. At anytime, I can partake in the cool, filtered water to quench my thirst. Maybe I’d like something more substantial, something that would pay the bills or reduce expenses. Yet the water is very good— and it meets a human need.

All around me, in every social setting, I hear stories of people who work for low wages and no benefits. People don’t talk much about this as a collective idea, yet it is everywhere. It is a way for companies to minimize the cost of human resources. It is also becoming the new normal.

Understanding the low wage, no benefit, temp worker culture is important, as it’s the life many people live. I write often about temp workers, wages, unions, and work because to survive in the seventh decade of life every source of income and expense reduction has become important. In a way, it represents preparation for the infirmity of being elderly. Health and mortality have become an issue as I proofread the weekly obituaries at the newspaper. A lot of the subjects are people younger than me, and already, I feel like a survivor.

My newspaper colleague Milli Gilbaugh recently wrote about people in my age group. “What we need is another 20 year category between “middle age” and “elderly” that includes the years from sixty to eighty. Maybe the word “older” would work, or “retired” which isn’t necessarily accurate, but it does give an indication of the age span involved. […] The term “retired” has a bunch of problems in that not everybody in the 60 to 80 year age range is retired. Some may be retired from life-long careers and spend their time supposedly enjoying the golden years, […] but most are still working, or have retired and taken a “retirement job” with less stress, fewer hours, and considerably less pay.” While Milli doesn’t cover everyone who works a low wage job, she defines something relevant that people haven’t been discussing.

Recently, when applying for a job at a large company, I knew my chances were slim. They mentioned on their website that the normal retirement age was 62. When they replied to my application, “after careful consideration, we have decided to continue our search for a candidate whose background and qualifications more closely match the requirements of the position,” I wasn’t surprised. I recognized the legalese for “we don’t want you, whatever your qualifications.”

I’d rather work for people who want me in their organization. As long as our family makes enough to live in kind and money, we’ll be okay. Better than that, we’ll live in a way that is better then a large segment of the global population. A global village that doesn’t take drinking water for granted.

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Home Life

Tortilla Hot Dish

Snow Melt at Cedar Bluff
Snow Melt at Cedar Bluff

LAKE MACBRIDE— Mexican-style entrée with no name. Maybe that’s a better appellation for a layered and baked casserole using tortillas, tomato sauce, refried beans, cheddar cheese, green chilies, home made chili sauce. cilantro and canned corn. I would never go to the store and buy ingredients for the dish. Rather, it’s a way of using up pantry ingredients. Mighty tasty for lunch, or breakfast.

So it is with a lot of things in Big Grove. The contemplative musings of winter gave way to practical work: fitting too much stuff into the short days. Like the nearby Cedar River, my banks are swollen with the stuff of life— vital fluids coursing through the heart of the country. Winter has signaled its end, and the lengthening days do not recompense winter’s beating. There is a lot to schedule and do.

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Home Life Kitchen Garden

Last Winter Soup

Winter Soup
Winter Soup

LAKE MACBRIDE— Taking the last of the root vegetables– four kinds of potatoes, three kinds of turnips, and beets– and six jars of canned goods, two kinds of beans, barley, peas, onion, celery and carrot, I made the last batch of winter soup last night. It cooked until bed time, when we turned the heat off to sleep. In the morning, I brought the mixture to a boil, then turned the heat down to simmer until it becomes soup.

All that’s left in the fridge from last year’s local harvest is a couple of daikon radishes and some cabbage. There is plenty of garlic in the pantry, and a single spaghetti squash, but that’s it for fresh. It will be a few weeks until spring produce begins to come in at the markets. The soup and remaining canned goods will have to last.

Yesterday, I finalized plans for a presentation titled, “Living Non-traditional Lives:  Focus on Finances.” It is part of the American Library Association “Money Smart Week,” which is a national initiative in its fourth year between the ALA and the Federal Reserve Bank (Chicago) to provide financial literacy programming to help members of our community better manage their personal finances.

Here’s the blurb I posted on Facebook: “Will be speaking at the Solon Public Library on April 12 about living without working a conventional 5 x 8 job as part of Money Smart Week. I plan to focus on: my personal work history, including what it means to be a writer in a time of social media; the role of jobs, the role of households and family, and personal finance in alternative lifestyles (banking, debt, income, taxes, bartering, health care, transportation, communications), deciding what’s important (community engagement, family, stress management, health, time management).”

My Climate Reality colleagues are meeting in Johannesburg, South Africa today where Al Gore is making his slide show presentation. The organizers didn’t know the exact number of attendees, as visa and finance problems deterred some who had registered. However, it looks like about 700 new members of the Climate Reality Leadership Corps, from many nations, will join us at the conclusion of the 24th training session.

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Work Life

Transportation Required

Garden in Late Autumn
Garden in Late Autumn

CEDAR RAPIDS— Vehicular transportation is required when a person lives in rural Iowa. Horses and bicycles won’t do, so there are trucks and cars. A year ago I bought a 1997 Subaru Outback Legacy to get me around, and it has been a serviceable vehicle. It was popular in its day, and remains so.

Most repairs can be effected by a mechanic in town, but a few items require the dealership support of trained mechanics, certified parts and the latest diagnostics. It’s an example of accessing the global supply chain and technical support staff. I seldom, if ever, want to make the trip, but am there now, using ultra slow WiFi to connect to the Internet while I wait.

The days are filling up with activities, but the whole system depends, upon getting around and hauling stuff with me.  At least there is coffee.

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Work Life

Day in the Life

First Soil Blocks at the CSA
First Soil Blocks at the CSA

LAKE MACBRIDE— The winter of thinking and planning is over, leaving the doing and its requisite long days and short nights.

Yesterday began at 5 a.m. with finishing my newspaper article about the forestry meeting in town. Afterward, I spent a couple of hours at the farm, worked a shift at the warehouse, and attended a meeting about the global roll out of a nuclear abolition initiative with Rotary International. I returned home at 9:30 p.m. It was a long day.

Rotary International is engaged in its final work to eradicate polio around the world. What’s next for them may be working with others to bring an end to nuclear weapons. I signed up as one of three Iowa speakers for International Physicians for Prevention of Nuclear War, and its U.S. affiliate, Physicians for Social Responsibility, as we seek to engage Rotary Clubs worldwide. Rotary International and the International Red Cross Red Crescent Societies are the only non-governmental organizations recognized by the United Nations, and both have expressed an interest in nuclear abolition for humanitarian reasons. This is a really big deal, even if we don’t hear about it in the U.S. corporate media. I am thankful to be a small part of it.

The seeds planted indoors have sprouted. The growing season has begun.

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Living in Society

Winter is in Retreat

Rules Committee Report
Rules Committee Report

LAKE MACBRIDE— “Temperatures averaged 12.6° or 11.4° below normal while precipitation totaled 1.54 inches or 0.49 inches above normal. This ranks as the 7th coldest and 28th wettest February among 142 years of records. A colder February was last recorded in 1979 and a colder calendar month in December 2000,” wrote State Climatologist Harry Hillaker.

February was cold, but now winter is in full retreat. Temperatures are above freezing, and snow is melting into pools on the driveway. Spring won’t be long.

The inexorable attraction of politics was present at the county Democratic convention in Coralville. More than anything, it was a time to see friends from past political campaigns and to meet new people. Many there know me, although I sensed today more didn’t than did.

Unexpectedly, I signed up as a delegate to the district and state conventions. The delegate slate was ratified early in the day, so I left as lunch was served, having zero interest in the platform discussion.

Dennis Boedeker, a candidate for state house in my district, spoke to the convention in the afternoon. He hasn’t filed his nominating papers, but I expect he will. He and David Johnson, who spoke in the morning, will vie for the Democratic nomination in the June 3 primary election. This is the year for Cedar County to lead the nominating process, so I’m staying in the background. I interviewed Johnson for the newspaper, but wasn’t around when Boedeker made his appearance.

There were three women at a table marked “Ready for Hillary.” I declined to sign up, but took a blank supporter card. Other than that, there was talk about strategies and tactics, gardening and drones, and upcoming events. A busy, friendly day with people I know and respect for the work they do in Iowa politics.

Things could be a lot worse as winter turns to spring, and the promise of tomorrow is a tangible presence in everything.

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Juke Box

Juke Box: You Can’t Always Get What You Want