channonyarrow (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
channonyarrow) wrote2008-05-24 08:42 pm
channonyarrow) wrote2008-05-24 08:42 pm
Dear self
Dear self,
Okay, you know what? This is absolutely fucking ridiculous, that's what. So. Sit down, shut up, and fucking just live each day as if it's your last. STOP trying to make contingency plans for what you'll do in 2013, STOP worrying about the death of capitalism (you don't like it all that much anyway) and STOP rerunning issues of Transmetropolitan in your head.
Because you know what?
There is nothing you can do about it. You can't. You're not a city planner, you're not an automotive engineer, and your only involvement in the process is to make sure that the city planners and automotive engineers have really good books to read while they're figuring all this fucked up shit out.
Stop and think about it, self: on balance, you would prefer to see the end of oil. You would rather see culture become far less mass-culture, you would rather see peoples' carbon footprints disappear, you would rather see a lot less overconsumption. The sight of a stack of 300 pairs of jeans at the store does not fill you with joy.
And you know what else?
If push really, really comes to it, you will have warning. You will have warning, and you will be able to throw it all over and go buy a fucking farm in the Midwest and raise your own food. You may never leave that farm again, but you'll at least have that option. You will not starve. You will not be naked. You have skills, and you will survive.
You can do nothing right now, except be prepared. It's a porcupine; you're not going to reach into it and get anything other than spikes, no matter how hard you try.
And you know what else, else?
You're a pessimist. Humans are inventive creatures. You are an inventive creature. You will not live your life to a normal span and never see your friends again or be able to take that trip around the world you're thinking of: it will be bad for a while, but people are willing, always, to go with fast and expensive, in the end, and if America is faced with the end of oil, America will figure its shit out really damn quick and do something else. You are discounting the billions of people in the developing world who are also thinking about this problem; America itself may be too tied to Big Oil to be able to think straight, but there are millions of people out there who want American lifestyles, and don't have Big Oil.
Remember all that. Keep breathing, and remember that. Remember that you make the changes you can, and that you support the changes you need, and that as long as you are alive, tomorrow is another day.
And someday you will have that again, that feeling of driving with the top down and the radio up on the way to nowhere except that you can go.
You do not live in an age of limited choices. You are an American, and quite frankly, Americans will not stand for limited choices.
You live in an age of decisions: how much, how long, and what's the tipping point?
But not limited choices. Not yet.
Remember, also, these things:
Live each day as if it is your last. Plan for the things you can see happening, but do not try to lock in plans contingent upon the apocalypse happening. Have some grace. Remember that every empire falls, and that is not always a bad thing; by the time it falls, the empire is rotten. Remember that you can make the future, every day.
And remember to breathe.
Breathe.
Do not borrow trouble. Trouble will come, with interest, regardless, but borrowing it makes it that much worse.
Remember to breathe.
Everyone faces a world-shaking catastrophe; the question is getting through it with grace. Do not assume no other changes to your life than the increasing cost of oil: you have no idea what you will be doing, what options will be available, in five years.
And remember that even if it all goes to shit in five years, at least we'll have stopped global warming, and that's not a bad result to have.
But remember: every year, every winter, we get better and better, and we refine who we are and who we are becoming, and who we want to be, and how we want to be those people, and the main thing, the absolute main thing, is to do it with grace.
Live each day as if it is your last.
Love,
Me
Okay, you know what? This is absolutely fucking ridiculous, that's what. So. Sit down, shut up, and fucking just live each day as if it's your last. STOP trying to make contingency plans for what you'll do in 2013, STOP worrying about the death of capitalism (you don't like it all that much anyway) and STOP rerunning issues of Transmetropolitan in your head.
Because you know what?
There is nothing you can do about it. You can't. You're not a city planner, you're not an automotive engineer, and your only involvement in the process is to make sure that the city planners and automotive engineers have really good books to read while they're figuring all this fucked up shit out.
Stop and think about it, self: on balance, you would prefer to see the end of oil. You would rather see culture become far less mass-culture, you would rather see peoples' carbon footprints disappear, you would rather see a lot less overconsumption. The sight of a stack of 300 pairs of jeans at the store does not fill you with joy.
And you know what else?
If push really, really comes to it, you will have warning. You will have warning, and you will be able to throw it all over and go buy a fucking farm in the Midwest and raise your own food. You may never leave that farm again, but you'll at least have that option. You will not starve. You will not be naked. You have skills, and you will survive.
You can do nothing right now, except be prepared. It's a porcupine; you're not going to reach into it and get anything other than spikes, no matter how hard you try.
And you know what else, else?
You're a pessimist. Humans are inventive creatures. You are an inventive creature. You will not live your life to a normal span and never see your friends again or be able to take that trip around the world you're thinking of: it will be bad for a while, but people are willing, always, to go with fast and expensive, in the end, and if America is faced with the end of oil, America will figure its shit out really damn quick and do something else. You are discounting the billions of people in the developing world who are also thinking about this problem; America itself may be too tied to Big Oil to be able to think straight, but there are millions of people out there who want American lifestyles, and don't have Big Oil.
Remember all that. Keep breathing, and remember that. Remember that you make the changes you can, and that you support the changes you need, and that as long as you are alive, tomorrow is another day.
And someday you will have that again, that feeling of driving with the top down and the radio up on the way to nowhere except that you can go.
You do not live in an age of limited choices. You are an American, and quite frankly, Americans will not stand for limited choices.
You live in an age of decisions: how much, how long, and what's the tipping point?
But not limited choices. Not yet.
Remember, also, these things:
Live each day as if it is your last. Plan for the things you can see happening, but do not try to lock in plans contingent upon the apocalypse happening. Have some grace. Remember that every empire falls, and that is not always a bad thing; by the time it falls, the empire is rotten. Remember that you can make the future, every day.
And remember to breathe.
Breathe.
Do not borrow trouble. Trouble will come, with interest, regardless, but borrowing it makes it that much worse.
Remember to breathe.
Everyone faces a world-shaking catastrophe; the question is getting through it with grace. Do not assume no other changes to your life than the increasing cost of oil: you have no idea what you will be doing, what options will be available, in five years.
And remember that even if it all goes to shit in five years, at least we'll have stopped global warming, and that's not a bad result to have.
But remember: every year, every winter, we get better and better, and we refine who we are and who we are becoming, and who we want to be, and how we want to be those people, and the main thing, the absolute main thing, is to do it with grace.
Live each day as if it is your last.
Love,
Me
no subject
Old motto of mine: "Live each day as if it is your last. Some day you'll get lucky."
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It might be the only time I've been on capitalism's side in anything.
But right now, that particular part of tomorrow is going to have to take care of itself, because I can't.
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Will there be room on that mid-west farm for others? Especially those with green thumbs?
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Dude, I want a commune.
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And I'd like an angora goat named Euripides.
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I'm sure my dad will let me have a few buffalo for us to raise. Good meat and they are great at scaring off trespassers. Like 1 ton dogs with horns.
no subject