From the banks of Orcas Island Shore

September 2009

[I haven't written to you for a short eternity, my comrade. Forgive me?]

dear comrade,

Sometimes I just want to quit, give up, flunk out of life, mine in particular, with a final epic hissy fest complete with temper tantrum. Have you ever felt that way? Have you every actually quit and walked away from the things, beliefs, works, or ideals that you hold self-evident, true, and dear? How did you continue caring about things- even when it feels as though the whole world doesn't care and never will?

On days such as these, it becomes a bit more apparent why so many of my peers as well as the elder generations of this era seek to remain in darkness. Shadows of reality and ignorance must be a comforting blanket with which to block out this life's illumination. Surely this light must not be allowed... this light that reveals a suffering, dying planet. This same light that unmasks our modern age's evil doer's and their sinister designs. I would bet that under such a blanket, it wouldn't matter from where the wealth sprang... or from whom's labor and sufferings such treasures were unearthed and amassed. Maybe such a blanket is even powerful enough to cause the bearer to forget that all the bargain stuff in one's bargain home was gained at a physical, spiritual, and ethical cost paid for by this planet, children the world over, the disenfranchised, the uninsured, the underpaid, the unpaid, the starving, the weak, the indigenous, and the imported migrant... Even those who might have ties with those upon whose fetters this wealth and splendor depends seem to easily forget. I was certainly one of them... knowing full well that just two generations ago, it was the backs of my forebears that built the railroads which brought untold wealth to capitalist barons on both coast while raising a new middle class in the newly connected young nation. Surprising, really, how much suffering one can forget while looking at a $.99 price tag, shopping through a long grocery list with a tight budget -- or even a unlimited one. Could you forget?

Have you ever been so hungry that momentarily you could forget about genetically modified foods, amazonian deforestation, animal suffering [in both life and death, particularly factory-raised chickens], minimum wage slavery, ageism, racism, and the non-food nature of fast food long enough to shove 10 mcnuggets into your mouth? What would you say if I were to admit my guilt on this matter? The very last time I ate fast food, the experience felt so foreign... kinda like going on vacation to a place that seems sorta similar, but has a thousand and one slight variances that make it all seem odd and alien. Why was this the piece of American culture that got exported the world over anyways??!! Well, I realise we have little else to offer up. But really, fast food?! Wendy's in Baghdad?!! Starbucks on the Great Wall!! WTF??! Could the rest of the world ever push past that impression to see and believe that we are not all like that version of exported Americana? ...that some of us are trying to rid ourselves of the vilest stains and characteristics of our culture; only then to feel the need to pay penance to the world for being a member of [and unwitting and/or unwilling accomplice] a country so bent on world domination, deception, and destruction! Can you believe that I/we are not all contrived of fast food, overly consumptive cars, trite knowledge [appropriated from others along the way], and cheap plastic crap?? Can you see that some of us have tried until a breaking point to resist bowing before the capitalist/imperialists' gods of greed, profit, instant gratification, imperialism, and the like? But how much longer can we hold out in a society that NEEDS and REQUIRES everyone to ultimately fit into a nice economist formula for high gross domestic product productivity??

your querying comrade, ~z