I heard the tractor mower across the river at the golf course today: first day of freedom under ‘essential turf maintenance’ that golf courses and other significant sports grounds were allowed to undertake in a new extension of ‘essential services’ allowed under Level 4 Covid19 restrictions.
I was somewhat disappointed. The low hum of the tractor across the way is not disturbing, but it’s just a sign, a starter, an indicator of the resumption of normal activities - and noise - we can expect to see as the machinery of modern life gets underway again. I do not wish to see a return to our so-called ‘normality’ - at least, not the normality we had become accustomed to before the pandemic: the noise, the business, the increasing intensification of life.
This same morning, I had also read an excellent and challenging article by Julio Vincent Gambuto, "Prepare for the Ultimate Gaslighting". It warns of the onslaught from business, advertising and government which will urge us to spend our way back to ‘normal’. OK, he’s writing about the States, but similar aspects will apply here - that normal is seen to be a busy, productive economy producing ‘things’ that may not be necessary, or exploit people or the earth, or are only available to those who can afford it.
(How essential for life are golf courses by the way? Could they be better turned over into urban farms, or small native bush enclosures?) Don’t worry - I’m not going to get out there and start ploughing up golf courses, just wished to point out they are artificial ecosystems, whose concept has come from a foreign land, imposed on natural soils and ‘maintained’ in that artificiality through the constant intervention of people, machines and chemicals (yes - and much modern farming is the same). “This ’aint normal” - to borrow a phrase from the book of the same name from another American commentator ‘farmer philosopher’ Joel Salatin, who is already carving out a new normal for a post-COVID19 United States.
Meanwhile, Gambuto, whom I read this morning advises:
take a deep breath, ignore the deafening noise, and think deeply about what you want to put back into your life. This is our chance to define a new version of normal, a rare and truly sacred (yes, sacred) opportunity to … only bring back what works for us, what makes our lives richer, what makes our kids happier, what makes us truly proud.
Back to Aotearoa, on my side of the river, we have a riverbank ecosystem which has been restored over the last decade through plantings of harakeke (flax), taupata, ti kouka (cabbage tree), toi-toi, etc - though blackberry, gorse, broom and lupins are also finding a footing. And native skinks are competing for rats for life.
So - you want to go back to the rat race again after all this?
I was somewhat disappointed. The low hum of the tractor across the way is not disturbing, but it’s just a sign, a starter, an indicator of the resumption of normal activities - and noise - we can expect to see as the machinery of modern life gets underway again. I do not wish to see a return to our so-called ‘normality’ - at least, not the normality we had become accustomed to before the pandemic: the noise, the business, the increasing intensification of life.
This same morning, I had also read an excellent and challenging article by Julio Vincent Gambuto, "Prepare for the Ultimate Gaslighting". It warns of the onslaught from business, advertising and government which will urge us to spend our way back to ‘normal’. OK, he’s writing about the States, but similar aspects will apply here - that normal is seen to be a busy, productive economy producing ‘things’ that may not be necessary, or exploit people or the earth, or are only available to those who can afford it.
(How essential for life are golf courses by the way? Could they be better turned over into urban farms, or small native bush enclosures?) Don’t worry - I’m not going to get out there and start ploughing up golf courses, just wished to point out they are artificial ecosystems, whose concept has come from a foreign land, imposed on natural soils and ‘maintained’ in that artificiality through the constant intervention of people, machines and chemicals (yes - and much modern farming is the same). “This ’aint normal” - to borrow a phrase from the book of the same name from another American commentator ‘farmer philosopher’ Joel Salatin, who is already carving out a new normal for a post-COVID19 United States.
Meanwhile, Gambuto, whom I read this morning advises:
take a deep breath, ignore the deafening noise, and think deeply about what you want to put back into your life. This is our chance to define a new version of normal, a rare and truly sacred (yes, sacred) opportunity to … only bring back what works for us, what makes our lives richer, what makes our kids happier, what makes us truly proud.
Back to Aotearoa, on my side of the river, we have a riverbank ecosystem which has been restored over the last decade through plantings of harakeke (flax), taupata, ti kouka (cabbage tree), toi-toi, etc - though blackberry, gorse, broom and lupins are also finding a footing. And native skinks are competing for rats for life.
So - you want to go back to the rat race again after all this?
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