Overton

 

Archaic Period (700-480 BC) / Ancient Greek Painting and Sculpture/ Pair of Eyes

 Back to the grind today.  Yesterday was a day of rest.  Much snoozing, waiting for my back to get un-tweaked.  Ibuprofen and lying around is always a good cure.  

I need to go over my camping gear for the summer.  I really do want to get out more this year.  I need to put in some time in campgrounds to get away from the hurly-burly.   I am thinking that a better sleeping arrangement and a better cooking setup is in the cards.  Looks like this year might be the first test of the “how-to’s” of a nomad existence (not at all my preferred option, but not out of the question).  

Now, I think quite of few of my friends will consider statements such as the preceding paragraph to be quite outside the acceptable range of our common discourse.  To quote Chomsky:

“The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum—even encourage the more critical and dissident views. That gives people the sense that there's free thinking going on, while all the time the presuppositions of the system are being reinforced by the limits put on the range of the debate.”

But I think that the range of discourse has been broadened lately.  This past year has got folks a thinkin’.  What was once an established future descent into senility is now probably not completely secure. There might have to be activity beyond the planned lethargy of “retirement”.

I have always resisted the siren call of suburbia and ownership.  While others have made this particular totem central to their lives, I see it as limiting in the extreme.  I think that the chains that it offers in exchange for the erstwhile security are not at all a good bargain.  

So this summer is an exercise in tactics.  I have a good baseline for what can work, I have to explore other possibilities and lifeways for options to meet an increasingly insecure future.