Comments on: in interesting times

By: Georgia

Georgia — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 23:13:32 +0000

Those Shutter Sisters are pretty cool Bon, but can you please stop directing my mind and my mouse to interesting ideas when I’m trying to study!

By: janet

janet — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 15:16:10 +0000

I’m really trying to not watch the news. Call it avoidance, head-burying, whatever but I feel the fear actuely and it sinks deep into my psyche and makes me walk around all jittery and shrill.

I’m trying to focus on the things that I know right now rather than the foreboding unknown. But I worry: it’s just what I do.

By: anymommy

anymommy — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 03:01:12 +0000

That’s my favorite proverb/curse. I think about it all the time. I think my largest hope for my family has contracted down to ‘just let us be happy.’ We are so lucky that we are.

Funny, though, just last week I decided to stop thinking about helping out locally and DO it and I signed up to be a doula in a local parenting partnership program. It’s small, but it feels good.

By: mamie

mamie — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 21:30:12 +0000

hope springs from the healed husband that pieced together our raised bed garden frame today. the seed beds taken root and lifting up their leaves. from the boys taking turns ‘watering’ and ‘digging’ in the new space designated to food production.

from the bank account staying just on this side of positive as he healed and those nice people over at disability that signed his form positive. from friends like you, asking questions and making up answers that make sense.

we have so little example of frugality in this day an age. it is good that we as a community are learning how to share our ideas a bit more, our talents a bit more, and ourselves.

love reading here, bon. thanks.

By: Beck

Beck — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 19:15:45 +0000

Where my husband works is – knock on wood – bizarrely thriving because all of their competition is collapsing. Isn’t that grim?

But where I live, things have been economically bad for a very long time, and so this just feels like a continuation of what’s going been already happening.

My husband always says, very calmly, to never worry about things that you can’t fix – which is a good thing to live by in these times, I guess.

By: Quadelle

Quadelle — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 11:55:06 +0000

Hope is such a powerful word. I’ve been thinking a lot about it lately, too. Fuel for fear abounds, but sources of hope are to be found – they just take a bit more effort to locate.

I personally hope for countless things, big and small. Some realistic, some unlikely to ever transpire. I hope we halt and reverse the damage to the earth. I hope our family one day has an environmentally friendly house, complete with veggie garden. And I hope that our house (green or not) is a welcoming one, where people are cared for and nurtured and know love and acceptance. This is especially true for our own two, who I hope will grow to be responsible, thoughtful and loving.

By: Mary G

Mary G — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 01:26:57 +0000

This too shall pass. And in the meantime, help where you can. (I am working at the moment to design a brochure for a local food bank; I love doing it and it might help them get donations.)

By: Hannah

Hannah — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 01:12:45 +0000

Sometimes I feel bad because I’m not all that worried about the economy. I’ve been poor – really poor – and my lifestyle now is so far from what it was twenty years ago that sometimes I just laugh quietly and shake my head, marveling at it all. If we had to make do with just Michael’s income, we could. If we had to sell the house, downsize, move to the sticks, I’d be OK with that. They are only possessions – and they’ve always felt transient and borrowed to me anyway.

By: thordora

thordora — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 00:50:54 +0000

Having lost my job, I can say it’s not the end of the world. Worst case-I could have lost my house. I would have found something to rent, eaten MR Noodle, changed some habits.

It reinforced what I’ve always known. Becoming complacent makes fears easier to see. Once I let it pass me, it was better. It’s only money. The things I hope for-my daughters to grow in to awesome women, for my inner voice to find it’s footing-these are the things I hope for. My marriage to find it’s place. Real things.

Life, at least for us in Canada, is never as bad as we think. I’d like to hope we can all learn to be more grateful. Myself VERY much especially.

By: christine

christine — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 17:46:09 +0000

bravo, bon! i am seriously cheering you on here. i am SICK of people saying that there is nothing they can do. someone just said the other day that she really has no idea about how bad the economy is b/c she won’t listen to the news b/c she can’t change anything? WTF? we CAN do something, as you say. we can gather food for the food shelves especially as summer approaches and their supplies dwindle. that is only one example. there is LOTS we can do. and i plan on doing what i can, too.