Freedom

When I describe how I take two years to fill a load a garbage in part by buying fresh farmers market produce, I'm usually talking to people who can afford more than I can. They eat out, order takeout, buy bottled water, and eat a lot of meat without worry. Still, they say farmers markets cost more. When I tell them I pay less than the average American on food, their defense crumbles. Many of them come up with "You don't know what it;s like to be a single mother in a food desert with three kids and three jobs." None of them do either, but they continue to lecture, "They can fill their children's bellies for less money at McDonald's than with salads, which…

I unplugged my fridge November 22, meaning tomorrow begins my fifth month with it unplugged. Here's a podcast post describing why. It's not to save energy, though it does, but to develop resilience. I opened it to take a picture and am slightly embarrassed to show that mildew has grown, but that happens when it's not running. I'll clean it before I plug it back in and put food back in. I've already written how the electric part of my last bill, not counting fixed line charges, was $1.70. What I've learned I ferment a lot more. I thought there was more to it, but mostly I just sprinkle some salt on a vegetable or sometimes fruit and periodically stir so mold doesn't form I've…

With my practicing singing the national anthem and my guests who are experts in abolition, I keep researching the colonies and early United States. Not my goal, but I noticed how often the American Founding Fathers kept showing up in Europe. Here's Benjamin Franklin in Paris: I could have posted about Jefferson, John Adams, or, for all I know, many non-famous colonists and early Americans visiting Europe and the Caribbean. Also plenty British and other Europeans visited North America, including many British troops. None of them flew. For that matter, their sailboats must have been slow and less stable or reliable than ours today. Yet they traveled across oceans without burning fossil fuels. Why should we think not flying means not traveling? Do we think…