No, the two certainly don’t look like they are related. And they aren’t. I don’t put laundry soap in the baby’s food and I don’t wash the laundry with baby food - although the latter is more often something the baby attempts to do. I have become rather pleased with myself because I’ve learned to make these two items myself, at home, using simple, easy to find ingredients.
Laundry Soap:
2 cups Borax
2 cups Arm & Hammer Washing Soda
1 cup Baking Soda
4 oz favorite soap
Shred the soap - I’ve found a food processor with the grating attachment works best for this. Then grind up the shreds in the food processor. Mix all 4 ingredients together. Use 1/4 cup or less per load.
As for whether or not this actually comes out to a considerable savings is something I’ll have to work out for a later post. By the way, don’t forget to wash your food processor thoroughly after making the laundry soap.
As for baby food. After the food processor dries, put it back together. You’ll need it. I’ve come to learn that the food processor is better for the job of making finely pureed baby food than a blender is. A blender is nothing more than frustrating with all the stopping, pushing the air pockets out and contents down, lid back on, start up, stop, repeat. No cooking is required for some foods like avocadoes, and bananas. Other foods like string beans, butternut squash, sweet potatoes, and so on do need cooking. Use your preferred method. I recently roasted butternut squash and pureed, then put a heaping tablespoon of the squash into each cube of an ice cube tray, and freeze. Voila! Fresh, homemade baby food. Feel good about food you made yourself for your baby, that you know what went into it!
I just finished Cosmic Trigger I by Robert Anton Wilson. On one level, this book is about conspiracies, coincidences, and the possibility of ongoing contact with alien intelligences from the star Sirius. You know, all that crazy stuff that fills the “New Age and Occult” section of your local bookstore.
But on another level, Trigger is a book about thought, and the validity (or not) of beliefs, and about deliberately playing with how you think. Wilson acknowledges this explicitly in the Preface to the New Edition:
…many people still believe that I “believe” some of the metaphors and models employed here. I therefore want to make it even clearer than ever before that
I DO NOT BELIEVE ANYTHING
…It seems to be a hangover of the medieval Catholic era that causes most people, even the educated, to think that everybody must “believe” something or other, that if one is not a theist, one must be a dogmatic atheist, and if one does not think Capitalism is perfect, one must believe fervently in Socialism, and if one does not have blind faith in X, one must alternatively have blind faith in not-X or the reverse of X.
My own opinion is that belief is the death of intelligence. As soon as one believes a doctrine of any sort, or assumes a certitude, one stops thinking about that aspect of existence. [...] Belief in the traditional sense, or certitude, or dogma, amounts to the grandiose delusion, “My Current Model” — or grid, or map, or reality-tunnel — “contains the whole universe and will never need to be revised”.
Trigger, more than anything, is a book about trying different reality models on for size and seeing how they fit. While Wilson characterizes his philosophical position as agnostic, his approach in the book could be equally well characterized as a kind of philosophical polytheism. Whitman said “I am large, I contain multitudes”, and Wilson acknowledges this state of being explicitly by referring to himself in the third person by a number of different titles, sometimes two or three in the same paragraph: e.g. the Skeptic, the Materialist, the Hedonist, the Shaman, the Scientist, etc.
Most Western adults have probably experimented at least a little bit with alternate belief systems from the one they were brought up in. But for the vast majority it was probably as a sort of spiritual serial monogamy - one belief system supplanted another. By contrast, what Wilson advocates and exemplifies, is more like spiritual polyamory. The ability, in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s words, “to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function”. Or five ideas, or twenty-four.
It’s worth making some distinctions here. This is not about the trend in modern pop-philosophy and personal development literature towards a “belief buffet” approach to life - a little denatured monotheism here, a little Buddhist psychology there, a smidge of paganism and a dash of karma. This also is not about mere intellectual understanding - being an armchair scholar of philosophy can be fun and rewarding, but Wilson is advocating something a little more active and immersive.
No, this book is about being able to look at the world from multiple fully-realized, internally-consistent, and very possibly contradictory vantage points at the same time. The ability to see a chance meeting with someone you’ve been thinking about, for instance, as a) a meaningless coincidence; b) an expression of the Jungian collective unconscious; c) an intervention into your life by a singular divine or superhuman will; d) the result of your own intentions working at a distance; or e) the conscious, unified Universe playing games with Itself. Or any number of other explanations.
Why is this important, and why write about it here? Even in the most ecumenical and open-minded circles, there is often an implicit pressure to define yourself. Just as there has always been a subtle but undeniable urgency to finding that “one right person” to spend my life with, I’ve often felt as if I’m somehow incomplete until I can say “I’m an Xist”. Where “X” is some kind of philosophy or ideology, either traditional or a synthesis. But this is a form of self-limitation. I see the philosophical/spiritual plurality that Robert Anton Wilson exemplifies as perhaps one of the greatest forms of abundance a person can embrace. It’s a meta-philosophy for life, a philosophy for dealing with philosophies and for coping with all the weirdness and contradiction out there by being weird and contradictory yourself.
And if nothing else, it’s good brain exercise. Just as arguing for policies you don’t actually agree with in debate class will help you sharpen your understanding of your own beliefs, embracing philosophical plurality will help you see your preferred point of view (if you have one) in a clearer light. And possibly kick you out of some mental ruts you didn’t even know you were in. Most acrimonious debates over topics from table manners to politics stem from the basic inability of either participant to comprehend where the other is coming from. The same way an occasional weightlifting session can make all of your daily exertions easier, periodically stretching your mind around a whole new worldview will improve your perspective on all of your day-to-day interactions. At least, that has been my experience.
Today started off with a promising snow flurry, which quickly tapered off and left only a light dusting of snow, which in turn was quickly melted. Stacey and I commiserated over our mutual disappointment in the paucity of snowfall this year, which led inevitably to a discussion of our growing dissatisfaction with Pennsylvania in general. We love the community of friends we’ve slowly grown here over the last eight years; but in many ways it is becoming clearer that PA is not going to be the optimal state in which to live out our dreams.
This then led to an impromptu research session into various US states, and the throwing-together of a spreadsheet to compare various state attributes head-to-head. We defined our criteria for “goodness” in a state consist first in foremost in the triumvirate of terrain (we love the mountains); snowfall (we love snow); and friendliness to homeschooling. To that we added a laundry list of lesser criteria, mostly having to do with how much various aspects of life are regulated, such as tax load, gun laws, restrictions on raw milk sales, anti-midwifery laws, etc. In aggregate these latter measures paint a picture of how oppressive or liberal a state’s policies are.
After a lot of research and some spreadsheet-fu to assign weighted scores to each statistic, we arrived at the following top-five list:
Alaska
Idaho
Colorado
Montana
Oregon
It wasn’t a surprise to see Alaska high on the list. Alaska has long been on my mental list of possible long-term destinations; if for no other reason than that I sometimes just feel like getting the hell away from everyone. Alaska has plenty of space, plenty of mountains, plenty of snow, and a generally lax legal environment.
But Idaho as number 2? I’ve never given a second thought to Idaho; if anything, I just thought “something about potatoes” and moved on. Turns out Idaho meets or exceeds our requirements in almost every way: a hands-of policy towards homeschooling; large swaths of mountainous wilderness; and hefty snowfall. We’re definitely going to be doing some more research into Idaho, and maybe a family vacation is in the cards…
The other surprise was that New Hampshire, long at the top of our shared mental list of destinations, didn’t even make it into the top five (it landed at number eight). This is largely due to the fact, new to us, that New Hampshire’s homeschooling regulations rival Pennsylvania’s in onerousness. We once spent a summer vacation camping out with the Free State Project in the New Hampshire mountains, so that we could evaluate it firsthand as a potential destination. Now it’s not looking nearly as attractive.
So. Idaho, huh? Anyone else have any thoughts on Idaho? Any Idahoans out there?
Got this in my inbox this morning. Karen is a friend and knows what she’s talking about.
Introduction to Permaculture
Co-sponsored by the Karme Studio
This workshop will introduce permaculture, a method of designing sustainable human habitats by following natures patterns. Sustainable systems are ecologically sound, socially just, and economically viable. Permaculture offers practical ways to meet basic human needs for food, energy, water, waste recycling, shelter, and social organization without harming the environment. Workshop facilitator Karen Stupski is a Permaculture educator, a member of Heathcote Community, and Development Director for the Gunpowder Valley Conservancy.
DIRECTIONS: From 695, exit Liberty Road and go west towards Randallstown. Go about 1 mile, make left at light onto Rolling Road. Go about 1/4 mile to 3501 N. Rolling Road on the left. Pass house, make left onto Orchard Avenue and park at fenceline. Enter gate and follow path to sliding glass doors.
Tom had become indifferent to persecution by this time. This phase filled the old lady’s heart with consternation. This indifference must be broken up at any cost. Now she heard of Pain-killer for the first time. She ordered a lot at once. She tasted it and was filled with gratitude. It was simply fire in a liquid form. She dropped the water treatment and everything else, and pinned her faith to Pain-killer. She gave Tom a teaspoonful and watched with the deepest anxiety for the result. Her troubles were instantly at rest, her soul at peace again; for the “indifference” was broken up. The boy could not have shown a wilder, heartier interest, if she had built a fire under him.
- The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
I came down with a stomach virus last night, for which Stacey plied me with various herbal immune-system boosters. One of these was grape seed extract, the foulest-tasting tincture it has ever been my misfortune to choke down. No amount of dilution abates its throat-scouring potency.
I discovered, though, that a combination of icing the tongue beforehand (to numb the taste buds), and a cough drop after (to cover over the aftertaste) helped a lot to mitigate the flavor. I just wanted to pass this tip along.
Two articles on eating healthy on a budget: an older but still relevant post from Mark’s Daily Apple, and a new post from Carrie and Danielle. We’re already doing most of this - making meal plans and shopping lists; brown-bagging instead of eating out; buying veggies in-season; participating in a CSA during the summer months; etc. It’s still been difficult for us to keep costs down since we’ve embarked on a primal diet. There’s a reason that humans have almost universally shifted to a grain-centric diet since the agricultural revolution: in terms of effort and caloric payoff, there’s simply no better bang for the buck than cultivated grains like corn and rice. Staying under budget while avoiding grain products has proven a difficult challenge so far, one that we’re still wrestling with.
I have a confession to make: I’m a flake. My friends and family can confirm this. I make big plans, energetically execute them for a few days or weeks, and then get distracted and leave projects half-finished or barely even begun.
I’m a system-builder by nature. Even when I was a kid I sometimes used to make detailed daily schedules for myself, which I invariably failed miserably at following. I’ve always felt like if I could just get sufficiently organized, I could get things done. But my when it comes to implementation, I always lapse back into short bursts of focus followed by a change of interest.
And it gets worse if you’re anything like me, and you spend a lot of time thinking and reading about personal development and the pursuit of fulfillment. It can seem like the path of personal growth makes limitless demands on your time. You know you should be spending some time meditating every day… and you should set aside some time for daily reading… and of course a workout is essential to your health and well-being… and you should probably be writing a little every day… and spending some dedicated quality time with your loved ones… and don’t forget time for your hobbies… etc., etc. Add in work and sleep and you find that you’ve come up with the perfect balanced schedule - for a thirty-six hour day!
A few articles I’ve read recently have helped me to feel a little less disheartened by my mercurial nature, though. First, in “Life Balance is Overrated”, Scott H. Young writes that “Obsession, not balance, makes things happen”. Scott points out that seeking balance in your life does not imply that you have to try to enforce balance on every day, or week:
Today, if I go for a goal, I make sure it takes a top priority, even if it means sacrificing other parts of my life temporarily. I recently did this for a highly competitive business plan course, and now our team will be competing internationally at the graduate level. During the last four months, my life was out of balance. I didn’t work as much on this website as I wanted to, I spent less time with friends, and I definitely was overworked. But those things are temporary, the experiences and achievements from that will last a lot longer.
[...]
…long-term balance doesn’t mean short-term balance. I cycle through periods of extreme work with extreme relaxation. [...] Going through cycles is more effective than constantly maintaining balance. Cycles allow you to fully immerse yourself in a project or fully relax without feeling guilt. Inserting smaller cycles into larger ones is the best way to avoid the problems of burnout or rustout that can happen when you’re temporarily out of balance.
Scott cautions the reader that this shouldn’t be taken to extremes - you still need to take a little time for your family, for instance, no matter how focused you are on your latest project. But [politely] blowing off a few of your engagements, and letting less crucial responsibilities things slide might be worthwhile in the long run, if it means a getting a solid start on something important to you.
Then just today I ran across the concept of Tidal Homeschooling, which applies a similar principle of cycles to learning at home. As Melissa Wiley explains, her family experiences natural ebbs and flows in their interest in structured learning. Rather than having a strict Charlotte Mason program, or an uncompromisingly hands-off Radical Unschooling philosophy, they find themselves at different points in between at different times of the year:
The truth is, I couldn’t find any label that completely fit my family, so I made up my own. I call us “Tidal Learners” because the ways in which we approach education here change with the tide. Now, this doesn’t mean that we’re flighty or inconsistent, changing direction haphazardly. We aren’t Fiddler Crab Homeschoolers. What I mean is that there is a rhythm to the way learning happens here; there are upbeats and downbeats; there is an ebb and flow.
Even in as regular a routine as eating, variability can be good. Some people have found benefits in a practice of intermittent fasting. And weightlifters know that optimum results require periodization. It seems that even our bodies’ basic processes are wired to thrive on cycles.
So I think starting now I’m going to start going easier on myself for my flaky ways. Instead of striving for daily balance, I’ll settle for life balance on the scale of months or years. I’ll let you know how it goes.
I wrote the following at the end of 2008. The financial downturn had indirectly led to a minor financial crisis in our household. At the same time I was watching the news as tens of thousands of Americans lost homes, jobs, and dignity all because of unsustainable lending practices. Some of those Americans were my friends, family, and colleagues.
It was in thinking about the suddenly all-too-apparent fragility of our accustomed lifestyle that the phrase practicing abundance first entered my mind. I realized that it wasn’t the sufficient to put faith in a bigger paycheck or a carefully-assembled bulwark of savings. As so many have learned recently, even the most carefully invested savings can vanish in a matter of days. What is needed is a reorientation in attitude and in practice in order to start experiencing the tremendous wealth of Western society as bounty, rather than as just barely enough. Here’s what I wrote then:
I am ever more struck by the fragility of modern American life. There is no denying that by and large we enjoy a higher quality of life than any other society in history. But that quality of life is predicated on dozens of factors remaining constant. One slip, and the whole thing can fall apart.
A divorce can leave a formerly well-off single mother trapped in the welfare cycle, never quite breaking free, too drained by child care to put her full energy into a career, and too drained by fighting for work and resources to give her children the attention they crave.
A layoff leaves a family suddenly pinching every penny and going further and further into debt. Unused to being unable to give their children the things they considered "necessities" until recently, they descend into bitter bickering and wounded self-confidence. Their worsening credit rating means they are denied the loans they need now more than ever. Unable to pay for a trivial car repair, the parents find themselves dependent on friends and neighbors for transportation - making it even harder to look for work. Self-esteem plummets, and crippling depression sets in. Even if and when work is found, it takes months or years to crawl out of the crippling debt load and poor credit rating incurred by a few months of unemployment.
The bounty of international foodstuffs available at any suburban supermarket relies on a massive and intricate supply chain infrastructure. Stores only stock a few days’ worth of goods at most. A fuel shortage or other disaster affecting interstate logistics, and famine is short weeks away.
A family finds they can have the American dream, with all the little luxuries they desire, and send the kids to college - so long as both parents work full-time, fifty weeks a year, until they are sixty-five, and neither one ever contracts a debilitating illness, opts to pursue creative dreams, or decides to stay home with the children.
The older I get, the less I am OK with this state of being. This is absurd. It’s irresponsible. It’s unsustainable.
Now, I am not one of those who believes sustainable living can come only at the expense of reverting to a semi-primitive lifestyle. I believe that kind of life just opts for a different sort of fragility, a different set of dangers.
But as a society we are like a man who must run 24/7 in order to stay alive. If he slows or stops for a moment, he will die. I don’t want to force everyone to slow down to a uniform walking pace. I want to make the running optional.
It is increasingly clear to me that a good portion of my life’s effort moving forward will be to create a place, a set of values, a whole mode of living which will allow myself, my family, and anyone who chooses to join us to live robustly. A place and a lifestyle which will accommodate setbacks as a normal part of the rhythm of life rather than as life-changing events which trigger a destructive spiral. A community dedicated to the idea that bountiful resources can be experienced as true abundance, with all the leeway that abundance implies, rather than as only ever just enough.
Hello and welcome to The Lazy Faire, a blog about the art of abundant living. Your hosts are Stacey and Avdi. Together, we are building a family and a home that embraces abundance in every aspect of life. We are learning to live bountifully in a society that sometimes seems to be running on empty despite it’s profound wealth.
The subject matter of this journal will be broad and varied, but a few themes you may expect to encounter include:
Welcome to The Lazy Faire, a family blog about the practice of abundance in every aspect of life. Your hosts are Stacey and Avdi. Together with our children we are building our dreams and writing about the journey.
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by Robert Anton Wilson. On one level, this book is about conspiracies, coincidences, and the possibility of ongoing contact with alien intelligences from the star Sirius. You know, all that crazy stuff that fills the “New Age and Occult” section of your local bookstore.
