Living Together In Peace, Buying Less Eating Better, New World Order ~ This That And The Other Thing As Seen And Lived From The Cheap Seats

 

Sorting things out from the cheap seats

This: Living Together In Peace

After my only divorce, my ex spent a lot of time and energy telling anyone that would listen just how badly I had abused her. At the time, I loudly proclaimed my innocence. As time went by I began to realize that she had a point. 

Not that I beat her or locked her up. But abuse takes many forms. In our case, it was a combination of our upbringings. She had been programmed to submit to male authority. I had been programmed to control. An abusive relationship was nigh on inevitable. 

After I came to this realization, I came to another of equal importance.  If I were to marry again, it must be to a woman strong enough and smart enough to battle me to a draw. M'Lady is just such a person. After 30+ years of marriage, we have a few scars, but neither of us can accuse the other of abuse. 

Once we married, we quickly came to an understanding: If we were to prosper as a couple, we must fight with honour. No lying, no deceiving, nothing that would destroy our trust in the other. Oh yes, and no matter how strong the fight, we always sleep in the same bed. Over the years we modified the last rule. My arthritis makes lying down a truly bad idea. So, no matter how bad a fight we have (yes, we still fight) we always sleep in the same room. M'lady in our bed and me in my easy chair. 

We have found that living together in peace doesn't mean living without conflicts. We have found that it means we live together in trust, honour, and respect. Or to borrow the words of a prophet, we live together in justice, mercy, and humility. It works for us!

That: Buying Less And Eating Better

During 'feeding at the zoo' time I usually stop to admire the tilapia, turtles, geese, and veggies. Today I was amazed at how large and plunp the fish are. Come June, perhaps earlier, we will have the first tilapia harvest of the year. It may reach 75 pounds (ca. 34 kg) of fresh, healthy tilapia. We will have a share, Min, and her family will have theirs, and some of the old people will get a treat.  

I also noticed, once again, the bumper crop of snake gourds. To date we have harvested about twenty snake gourds with another thirty growing. M'lady and I eat one or two a week, Min takes some home, and we share the bounty with others. 

Buying less and eating better

So far, our sweet potato experiment has been less than encouraging. Lots of leaves and ground cover, but few and small have been the actual sweet potatoes. It just might be that our bamboo is sucking up the soil's nutrients. Maybe we will try sweet potatoes in large rice bags? We'll see what the garden has to say about it. There's no doubt that the tomatoes, peppers, pechay, and ginger do better in containers. And there is also no doubt that the Philippines has an abundance of used rice bags. 

I should also note that Min has been doing superb work with the compost piles. She has at least four on the go at any given time. Which means that when it's time for a new planting, the rice bags get half soil and half compost. As well, she has come to realize just how powerful our pond water is when used to water the veggies. 

Which brings me full circle. We are buying less and eating better. 

The Other Thing: The New World Order

There is a belief I keep running into: If we can just survive the next four years, everything will be okay. I disagree. The problem does not lie with our leaders, it lies within us, the people. We have the leaders we deserve. The next round of elections will change absolutely nothing unless we the people change.

The New World Order

Here is my challenge to you the reader. Take an honest look at your own faith. Is it based upon fear? Do you allow others to make your choices? Do you accept that the others your leaders tell you are evil are actually evil? Have you given over your own moral compass to the control of the state? 

The current New World Order that we the people have empowered is hideous. The only way for a new and better New World Order to arise is for us, the people, to firstly create the new and better New World Order within ourselves.  

This can be done as easily as taking your Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Sikhism, or whatever other faith you follow seriously and learn to love your neighbour. 

Your choice, our world.

Brian