Even in Wars, There Are People Growing Crops, Minding Stores and Fixing Broken Pipes

For no particular reason, that was the first thought that popped into my head this morning, as I sat up and got ready to get out of bed.

"Change" is so often the result of the work and influence of a very few. Which is a funny thing to think about, when contrasted with a frequently spoken assertion during general elections: "Who cares, my vote makes no difference, anyway!" The very few make the difference, but it seems that "everyone" feels the consequences.

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Anyway, as I rolled that thought around in my head, I realized that I have always been one of those "crop tenders" or "shopkeepers" during times of difficulty.

Even when there is strife, the world still has to go on, after some fashion.

When there are riots, battles, hurricanes, destruction... someone has to come in and clean up the mess, afterwards. Someone has to make sure there's still something to make lunch with, when the rebuilding takes place.

Because most people sure as shit aren't going to adopt a steady diet of Twinkies...

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(Which reminds me, there's a 24-hour restaurant in my old hometown where someone nailed a Twinkie to the wall sometime in the mid-1960's, and as far as anyone knows, it's STILL edible...)

I speak figuratively, mind you.

My point is that I have very little interest in most "wars" and "battles" people get involved with, be they small local skirmishes relating to whether or not a new traffic light should be installed, or ostensible "public policy" on a large scale.

I used to annoy my "Activist" friends by listening politely to their diatribes and then asking a question like "and if that is accomplished, then, will my morning coffee taste any better?"

What's my point here?

The vast majority of issues are brought to us with an air of VAST importance, and yet the VAST majority of these issues will never have even the slightest DIRECT FUNCTIONAL impact on most people's lives.

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Take a big bugaboo like "taxes."

Quite honestly, new tax legislation — regardless of whether it was enacted by the "righties" or the "lefties" — has never had even the slightest impact on my existence. Regardless of who's in charge, I end up having to pay taxes with money I don't have because life in my economic circle cost every cent I make, just for the basics. The only way I would feel any functional difference would be if there was a law enacted that "If you make less than $20,000, we don't want to hear ANYthing from you, in ANY capacity, PERIOD."

If that happened, I could sincerely say "I'm better off."

But that is not going to happen.

But this isn't a post about taxes... but about how far removed most of us are from the processes we purport to care about, or be involved with. If you truly want to be involved, you'd have to move to Switzerland, where major decisions are resolved via Direct Referendum.

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This is a Presidential Election year, here in the US of A. But I doubt any of us living here even know who's running the country. Because it's certainly not the "talking heads" we see on TV. And so, casting a vote for Donald Trump or Joe Biden might make some people feel good about doing their part...

However, neither of those two are going to "change things."

Change has to happen at a systemic level presidents and ministers and congresses have no control over. Change is something that happens as a result of regular people examining and changing their core value systems. At which point they start making personal choices that gradually bring about change. And that's actually pretty rare, because the impetus tends to be that we have to STOP farming out our power to others to make our decisions for us, and be accountable form our own choices... and their consequences.

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"Paper or plastic?"

NOT "whatever is most popular," but what YOU choose.

We don't tend to like making our choices personally, because then when things don't turn out well, we have nobody to "blame" but ourselves. And that's going to be a long time coming, because so many operate under the fantasy delusion that they must present a perfect image to the world.

In the meantime, I'm going to continue being one of those people who are part of the mop-up crew. Because — regardless of who's in charge — there's always a need for someone to take out the trash...

Thanks for reading, and have a great weekend!

Comments, feedback and other interaction is invited and welcomed! Because — after all — SOCIAL content is about interacting, right? Leave a comment — share your experiences — be part of the conversation!

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(As usual, all text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is original content, created expressly for this platform.)
Created at 20200718 12:06 PDT

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13 comments
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Manually curated by brumest from the Qurator Team. Keep up the good work!

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Thanks for the support, I appreciate it!

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Gorgeous shots:) Me ... I think the change that will make your coffee taste better ... comes from personal enlightenment and education too. Every time I complain about the state of the world, I remind myself a few hundred years ago, the streets literally flowed with excrement. LOL

There is always that.

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"Change comes from within," as they say... and such things as simple gratitude for What Is and mindfulness does make the coffee taste better. Throwing bricks through shop windows? Not so much...

And yes, we are definitely better off in many ways than we were 250 years ago (for example). Although... sometimes I do pause and ponder the price we are paying for that progress...

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Wow, your photography is beautiful! I love ❤️

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Many great thoughts here, @denmarkguy... amidst some absolutely jaw-dropping photography that you never even mentioned. Is that rosemary with the purple flowers? Or what is that, exactly? Back to the thoughts. I really appreciate this perspective. Every day I find myself asking, "what really matters?" It all kind of comes down to that for me. Health, life, community, family and doing what's right are top in my book. And there's exercise and creativity and enjoyment, which I know can be difficult for a lot of people right now with varying types of lockdowns going on around the world. (I've been super fortunate, and feel incredibly grateful for that.)

Politics admittedly has me in knots. The divisiveness of it sickens me right now and I think is eating away at our society. But when I find myself churning about it, I just ask that question again. What really matters? And then I veer away from that horrid stewpot of senseless babble and self-righteous claims from multiple sides that all drown one another out, and hope that our collective sanity is not dead but just dormant.

Thanks for this interesting level-set. At the end of the day, we still need to make lunch.

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Hi @jayna, thanks for the lovely and thoughtful comment!

The bee at the top is on our lavender... the purple flowers at the bottom are Russian Sage bushes. Both of which shouldn't really do so well here in rainy Northwest Washington... but they grow like weeds!

Although I have pretty much always been given to reflecting on life, it feels like this odd period of lockdowns and quarantines have been an invitation to think about what truly matters in life. On one hand, we take reasonable precautions to stay healthy... on the other, we are aware that there does seem to be "something" out there that can end your life in a matter of a couple of weeks, even if you're a healthy person. Sort of makes you stop and think, even if you are not in a high risk group.

And it's funny where we "go" with it. The past four months have been very good for my writing, but pretty useless for my art... just haven't felt inspired.

In many ways, politics has long frustrated me. For the vast majority, the most qualified people for various offices don't want to go anywhere near those positions... which leaves us with "the dregs" running the world, and that sort of scares me. But what can we really DO?

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Oh, sage and lavender. Of course! I should have recognized the lavender. I have quite a bit of it myself. I absolutely love the aroma. This year I'm going to dry some.

Although I have pretty much always been given to reflecting on life, it feels like this odd period of lockdowns and quarantines have been an invitation to think about what truly matters in life.

Yes, at the end of the day, all the squabbling and bickering going on is so senseless. I think people are going to make themselves sick with anger and stress about it all, and then they will be more vulnerable to the virus.

I don't know why we don't get more truly great people wanting to be in the top leadership roles. Maybe they're too smart. This is something I've begun to fear more than ever before - that people who may be wily in certain ways want to govern, but those could really make a difference are just: "No. I'll age naturally, thank you."

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To be honest @jayna, I think a great many of the people who would be truly qualified to be in public office will — pardon my bluntness — stay far far away from that munted shitshow.

I always end up thinking of that old Tears for Fears song from back in the 80's: "Everybody wants to rule the world." It all feels like a big misguided contest in accumulating personal power and influence. People are more attached to "Being the Leader" because it makes them LOOK good, than they are to actually leading.

I look at someone like the recent Presidential candidate Andrew Yang... his policies aside, what I admired about him was his ability to sit down and have a reasonable and intelligent discussion with someone like Ben Shapiro one day and Cenk Uygur the next day and nobody needed to get mean and sling arrows.

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Change is the only constant in our competitive world. To survive, we can adapt or fight back but every choice comes with a consequence. Change may not always be comfortable especially we are so used to the current state.

!tip

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I am not terribly bothered by changes... and long as they make reasonably good sense. But yes, sometimes we simply have to adapt to what comes along, in order to survive.

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