Brain Flossing

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August 23, 2004

VT - On an organic dairy, somewhere near the Canadian Border.

Its Sunday night. Somewhere, my friends are watching Adult Swim. Its been a crazy couple days. I haven't had net access for 2 days and likely won't for another 2, so this probably won't get posted anytime soon. After NYC we rolled into Burlington, VT and met Greg's cousin and her family (husband and 2 children, 8 and 4). They took us out to dinner on Church street, Burlington's version of Santa Monica's 3rd St. Prominade, or Boulder's Pearl St, only nicer than both. Greg's family was really nice. They were also extremely environmentally conscious. Everything in their house was organic or environmentally friendly in one way or another. I can think of a time in my past when I would have thought this behavior was extremest and unfounded. Now I commend it. I can especially see people going this way who have kids. We want the best for our kids and if we knew there was even a chance of hurting them by buying 'conventional' products, we would hopefully decide not to. When I was growing up, we did not know as much as we do today, of course. Their kids seemed happy, well adjusted and very well behaved. They seemed like very good parents.

The above makes me think of a political debate I've been having with myself, or rather a political justification. I don't want to go into great detail on it now, but I'll just put it out there for later discussion. There are those that believe they should vote republican because the republican's talk more about family values. The republicans are also pro-life, which is an important issue to many religious people in our country. On that issue alone, they may hang their hat as far as determining who they will vote for. I am pro-choice, but I very much respect the pro-life position, but the above debate, like so many others, is not as clearly delineated as people want to believe. While our current president is pro-life, he is not pro-environment. His opponent is pro-choice, but also pro-environment. Why does this matter? Because the environment affects the lives of our children as much as the abortion issue does. The fact that, besides a few third world countries, we are the only nation that allows bovine growth hormones in our milk is just one of many important factors to consider when using the well-being of our children as a political wedge issue. What good is it to say one is pro-life, but then show so little concern for the well being of those children once they are alive. I imagine there are those of you who disagree with my reasoning and I'd certainly like to hear from you.

Back to our story. It got REALLY cold that night and I only had a sheet, so I did not sleep well. The next morning Greg and I got up and went back to Church St. to look around and see the Lake Champlain, which borders NY and VT. There is a ferry in Burlington that goes between the two. Later, we followed Greg's relatives on small state roads for about 2.5 hours to get to where the 'event' we were going was. It was called the Insurrection Circus put on by Bread and Poets, a performing arts group. The story, as I later learned, is that this festival has been going on for decades. It had grown larger and larger each year until finally someone had died or something when it had grown to over 30,000 people. They then took a couple years off and decided to bring it back as a series of smaller events. There were a couple hundred people there, most from Vermont. I really have no way of explaining what it was like. It was really great, but I can see how most people would not have liked it. Most of the skits were humorous, and most were political and or social in nature. I agreed with most of what I saw. It had a great vibe though. People there were really friendly and many seemed to know each other. The location was beautiful and the various events were spread out among trees and natural amphitheaters. There were was no electricity and no seats, so it was just sitting on grass listening to the performers as their predecessors performed centuries ago.

After playing some mock base ball with their kids, we followed them as they showed us to where Greg and I would be staying that night, which is where I am writing this. The person we are staying with, Spud, is somehow related to Greg's cousin. He runs a small independent, organic dairy/farm close to the Canadian border. I got to drink so cold, fresh milk that had just been milked tonight. It was delicious. He has chickens for fresh eggs, pigs for pork, a garden for veggies, and more. Greg's other family left for the 60 mile drive home and we stayed up talking to Spud for a while. He is an exceptionally nice and educated farmer.

Its funny how our situation determines our politics. I am not sure if Spud was ever interested in politics, but he is now, for obvious reasons. For a long time it got harder and harder to run an independent farm. As he put it, there used to be dozens of companies that bought milk in VT, but there is only 1 now. They pushed him so hard he had to declared bankruptcy at one point. Now he is part of an organic co-op that pays good set prices for his milk and he can again sustain himself. It isn't that he doesn't work hard, or didn't try hard enough, or didn't have the business savvy, that led him to file for bankruptcy, like they want us to believe. He has always been hard working. The cows must be milked twice a day, 7 days a week, even on holidays. He has gone years without a single day off he recalls. Going back to my last post on our American experiment... is this what we wanted? To protect these large conglomerates at the expense of a single hard working farmer just trying to pursue a meager version of the American dream?

Tomorrow we leave for the East Coast of Main. The town we'll be staying in is so small, it does not appear on any map we have. We will be meeting Greg's friend in Belfast where she works because even she is sure we'd never find where she lives. It will be a long drive on almost all state roads. The last couple days have been emotionally difficult, something I have not let known to those around me. I seem to have less and less control of where my mind wanders. Of course, it always wanders to the same place, a place I still have found no easy way of visiting. I wrote a while ago that I felt I had found balance with my past, that I could visit it without feeling depressed about better times. I could see the past for having been good and still feel good about where I am. These current trips into the past do not reflect this revelation. I get stuck there sometimes, unable to get out for more than the moment it takes to regain cognition of where I am at that moment. It is most difficult during the silence, when nothing is going on and no words are being spoken. It is during these times I lose all consciousness of my surroundings, unable to truly appreciate the magnificence of lush green New England. I have been moved to write more in my personal journal, sometimes on paper, sometimes electronically. I'm not sure if it helps or not. They tell me it isn't healthy to keep things in and not deal with them. They also tell me it isn't healthy to dwell on things and that it is important to move on. I'm not sure where to draw that line.

Posted by wonko at August 23, 2004 02:04 PM

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Posted by: simonsays at August 23, 2004 02:49 PM

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