Thoughts from Oklahoma

I've had a very introspective day. I've spent the day working on the house on our farm. 160 acres, a quarter section, that was originally the property of my great-grandfather and the house that sits on that land was built by my great-grandfather and is the birthplace of my grandfather. It's in a state of most disrepair. My job today was to patch up the outside walls so that the weather couldn't come into the house through all the cracks. I didn't end up getting all that done, but I did get the backroom of the house cleaned out. It's been boarded up back there and there was a bunch of interesting old things in there, including a Dr. Pepper bottle that has the old 10-2-4 logo. (Dr. Pepper's recipe used to include prune juice and was originally marketed as a drink to keep you "regular". Read: laxative).

Between working with this old house and being on the farm, my thoughts started meandering toward the lifestyle I currently lead. There's been much talk recently about the price of oil and the cost of gasoline and so forth and so on; the kind of talk I've been hearing (and believing) the large majority of my life. I've also happened to hit an economic low of my own (lower than I've ever previously been, which, if you know me, is saying something). I've been thinking of ways to live that are cheaper than common way. Heating with wood, having only one room in the house that uses electricity, I was even thinking today (because I saw an old breadbox) about the possibility of food storage by vacuum rather than refrigeration. And I started thinking once again about the, as I see it, inevitable end of "modern living". I presume that as oil runs low, machine usage will decrease due to cost and lack of availability of lubricants, and that this will in turn increase the cost of electricity. My thinking hasn't really gone beyond that, because oil and electricity are probably the two aspects of modern living that I rely upon the most. I don't think that there will be any significant change in lifestyle for this country during my lifetime, except perhaps towards the end of my life, but I do think that in the lifetimes beyond my own, reasonably shortly after my own, there will be significant lifestyle changes.

So, I started thinking: what would I miss the most? I can tell you that of the three things about modern life I love the most: cars, stereos, and refrigeration, I'll miss music the most. It's almost impossible for me to imagine a life in which I cannot turn on a device and hear music. The few times I have had to go for any length (like a week) without electronically reproduced music have left me rather depressed. It's the one thing I go out of my way to ensure availability of. If I'm going anywhere for any length of time, a means of listening to music is a must. Ipod, stereo, Discman, computer, Walkman, whatever, I've got one. I don't worry about food or transportation nor money hardly, but music is right at the top of the list. I always have a way to listen to music with the highest quality I can reasonalby muster.

So... here's a list:
Can you imagine lifestyle where the only time you hear music is if someone in your range of hearing is creating it?
Can you imagine lifestyle where there are no electric lights? Once the sun goes down, candles and fire are all you've got.
Can you imagine a lifestyle where there are no cars? Not just because you can't afford one, but because nobody can. You're not jumping a ride with a friend, or taking the bus. It's bicycles, horses, and feet.
Can you imagine a lifestyle without fast food? Without grocery stores? No, you can't get strawberries year-round?

I could go on but I won't. The point is not to scare, nor to educate either, but more to point out that the lifestyle I take for granted, poor as I am, is luxurious in the light of history, and, I think, destined to be short-lived. And when this luxury becomes economically unfeasible, what will it be like? I completely take for granted all kinds of "basic" things that are, in fact, amazing luxuries. (Hot showers... I'll miss them when they're gone, even if I'm in the grave, I'll miss hot showers...)

And I think that's more the point of what I'm saying:

These things that appear to me as "normal" are in fact totally exotic and amazingly luxurious. It's the lack of appreciation for the profound luxuries we have managed for ourselves that astounds me. The lack of people saying: "Yes, these are luxuries." I don't have a problem with luxuries, per se. I love Pizza Hut. I love hot showers. I love, love, love, being able to record and playback music. I love electric lights and the way the dashboard on a car lights up when you turn it on. I don't think they're bad things. I wouldn't even necessarily say it's bad to take down a mountain for its coal so we can have all these things, as long as we're agreed that we're willing to live with the consequences. It's like Halloween when I was a kid: I always ate all my candy quickly. I would run out in two or three weeks. My older brother would always eat his slowly and long about Thanksgiving, he'd still have some. That was okay with me. I enjoyed my candy up front, leaving nothing for the home stretch. That's a perfectly legitimate choice. Use all you've got now, live with the nothing you leave for yourself. But you should realize that is what you're doing, and nod your head in approval and say, "Yep, I'm willing to live with the consequences."

Resources are limited, and it's okay to choose how you want to use them, but acting like they are unlimited is not okay. Somebody's children are going to do without oil, unless you use oil at a lower rate than it renews itself (which it does... takes millions of years, but it does...). And that's okay. There have been people who lived prior to the mass use of oil and there will likely be people who live after the mass use of oil. It's just like passenger pigeons or dodo birds. We don't have them anymore because people used them up at a rate greater than their own renewal rate. That's a resource choice. I don't know how to evaluate whether that was a responsible choice or not, I just now I've never seen a passenger pigeon or a dodo bird. And there are going to be people who never see a car driving down the road, or who never turn on an electric light.

I'm not suggesting that resource management is outside of the realm of morality. I simply don't know how to determine the morality of resource management and so I'm suggesting that at least making responsible choices and accepting the consequences is the only appropriate decision.

I am now going to deflate my discussion and go see if I have any messages on Myspace. And then I'm going to open up the frig and cook some food and go downstairs and work on some recorded music, all the while electric lights blazing like miniature stars.

Postal for Mail

I just mailed something to Finland! It was every bit as exciting and thrilling as I expected. I think I might try to send myself to Finland soon. Heck, it's got to be the cheapest way to travel.

Also, Postal for Mail is my new band. We're going to rock the new-wave/alt-country tip. It's going to be awesome.