If you teach me to fish you have fed me until the river is contaminated or the shoreline seized for development.
But, if you teach me to organize, then whatever the challenge, I can join together with my peers and we will fashion a solution of our own!
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Despite hating most people, I really like people. I often will drop by a friends house just to chat or hang out with no desire to do anything in particular. The majority of my friends are young families. I've figured out that if I show up after 5 they will be home from work, but much later than that they'll be busy putting their kids to bed. Although it's not my intent, this works out that it's dinner time.
Tonight I went over to some friends' house to show them pictures of my recent trip to New Orleans. Two things stood out...
Considering I always show up at dinner time I'm always a little concerned that people think I just come over for dinner. This whole thing of showing up sometime after 5 and before 8 made me realize that often there is only a three hour period in any given weekday that a family gets to hang out with each other. The reason for 5:00 is that is usually when the parent(s) get home from work. The reason for 8:00 is that they kids (young kids) need to wake up for school in the morning. The reason for waking up for school in the morning is that school starts at 8 am (ish). This is because there must be a certain amount of time spent in school per day on particular subjects. So, the focus goes to the kid needing to get an proper education at the risk of valuable family/socializing time. All of this so they can wake up one day with their own kids , go to work and repeat the same cycle they lived as a child and subject their own children to it.
Americans, especially christians, talk about the erosion of family values. Based on this completely non-scientific observation it seems that the biggest threat to the 'family' is the oppressive conditions that the American workforce must operate under in order to survive - the mortgage, medical bills, student loans, need to get a high paying job, etc. That all seems pretty god damn ridiculous to me.
The second thing about this visit with my friends tonight was that the dinner they had was not made by them. There are four families who take turns making dinner for each other. When it is your night to cook, you cook enough for the other three families and take it to them. You don't necessarily eat together, but it's this nice little community that's being built. Plus, there are rules to what has to be provided, like protein, carbs, and so on. I think that is neat.
I don't know where the quote I started with originated, but I like it and I think applies to my experience tonight. If you bring me a dinner I can eat tonight. Since I know how to make dinner but I'm spending all day at the office and will have to spend at least an hour preparing a healthy meal I will only have two hours of quality time with my family. If my friends and I organize to allow one another to eat healthy and provide opportunities to develop relationships between friends and family then I can survive in a system that isn't structured for my happiness and ultimately I can operate without it.
Tonight I went over to some friends' house to show them pictures of my recent trip to New Orleans. Two things stood out...
Considering I always show up at dinner time I'm always a little concerned that people think I just come over for dinner. This whole thing of showing up sometime after 5 and before 8 made me realize that often there is only a three hour period in any given weekday that a family gets to hang out with each other. The reason for 5:00 is that is usually when the parent(s) get home from work. The reason for 8:00 is that they kids (young kids) need to wake up for school in the morning. The reason for waking up for school in the morning is that school starts at 8 am (ish). This is because there must be a certain amount of time spent in school per day on particular subjects. So, the focus goes to the kid needing to get an proper education at the risk of valuable family/socializing time. All of this so they can wake up one day with their own kids , go to work and repeat the same cycle they lived as a child and subject their own children to it.
Americans, especially christians, talk about the erosion of family values. Based on this completely non-scientific observation it seems that the biggest threat to the 'family' is the oppressive conditions that the American workforce must operate under in order to survive - the mortgage, medical bills, student loans, need to get a high paying job, etc. That all seems pretty god damn ridiculous to me.
The second thing about this visit with my friends tonight was that the dinner they had was not made by them. There are four families who take turns making dinner for each other. When it is your night to cook, you cook enough for the other three families and take it to them. You don't necessarily eat together, but it's this nice little community that's being built. Plus, there are rules to what has to be provided, like protein, carbs, and so on. I think that is neat.
I don't know where the quote I started with originated, but I like it and I think applies to my experience tonight. If you bring me a dinner I can eat tonight. Since I know how to make dinner but I'm spending all day at the office and will have to spend at least an hour preparing a healthy meal I will only have two hours of quality time with my family. If my friends and I organize to allow one another to eat healthy and provide opportunities to develop relationships between friends and family then I can survive in a system that isn't structured for my happiness and ultimately I can operate without it.
