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More thoughts on the Waste Management mentality, and its ideological opposite: In principle, it comes down to a difference between thinking in terms of a linear process ( the industrialized, 'Waste Management' mentality), and thinking in terms of natural, circular processes. Simply put, lines vs. circles. Here's the Waste Management schematic:

raw material -> process -> process -> consume -> waste

We stupidly measure our standard of living by how much we are consuming, and by how many jobs are being created by all the processes involved. But we cannot ignore the hard fact that there are problems with both ends of this linear method. We consume stuff that is often scarce and is not replenished, and we generate waste that must be forever banished from our world because it is often toxic and we can't or won't neutralize it.

The 'ism' part of consumerism is when this becomes our belief system, when we even more stupidly assume that this is the only way we can live, that human life must by definition be toxic and wasteful. And if we think this way, even subconsciously, we will begin to loathe our very lives, and we will begin to assume a collective death wish.

Herein lies the connection to the Culture of Death. We secretly cringe at the news of another baby (another hungry consumer), and we secretly rejoice at decisions to abort or to engage in sterile sex. Contraception, abortion, sterilization and population control measures are accepted because, deep down, we believe human life is the problem.

Here, by contrast is the natural, circular schematic:

material -> process -> use -> changed material -> process -> another use -> etc.

This ideological concept has practical, concrete ramifications for me, and provides a very real motivation. I must, as part of my focus, look for ways to live in a non-consumerist way, and so test for myself whether the principle underlying the Culture of Death can be dismissed. For example, rather than relegating the art of recycling to a special every-other-week extraordinary effort, the challenge is to incorporate the circular mentality into my everyday life, a complete lifestyle thing. That is what I must be attempting.

0035

A rainy day today, so I'm working indoors, tearing into areas where I intend to install some plumbing. I try to carefully remove and save for reuse as much of the old sheetrock as I can, but some is so decrepit already that it is beyond salvaging. It's messy and tedious work, but I try to look beyond the present mess, and envision the way it will be when it's all fixed up (still years off, I fear). I distract myself by singing Johnny Denver songs, hymns, or 'American Pie' (which is good for killing 10 or 15 minutes in one song). Talk to myself, sing to myself, full voice, who's going to mind? That's one of the perks of living back in the woods.

I take piles of the broken pieces and pitch them out the back door. Waste. Which gets me to thinking again about the Waste Management foolishness.

Now wait a minute. Think about what you're doing, Jerry. What is this stuff you're pitching? Old sheetrock. And what, exactly, is sheetrock? Gypsum sandwiched between two layers of heavy paper. And isn't gypsum used to sweeten sandy, acid soils like mine? Bingo.

So, between showers, I use the wheelbarrow to haul the pieces out to the grassy knoll west of the house, where I scatter them about, and smash the bigger chunks by dropping the sledge hammer here and there. This is more like it. In fact, this is exactly what I had in mind.

Again, I need to look beyond the present messiness, and see the future goodness: This gypsum given over to the elements of Nature, and Nature knowing what to do with it. Time will see the chunks crumble, soften, and return to the earth, enriching the cycle of Life. Yes, the broken, irregular pieces lying on the ground are pretty icky looking at the present, definitely not in the Waste Management style. But it's OK, and better than OK. It's as right as the rain that is beginning again to gently fall.

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Today is recycling day, so I put the same garbage out, but put those broken canning jars into the recycle container where they really belong.

I didn't actually see the Waste Management truck go by today, but I'm down by the road now to get the mail, and see that they picked up my neighbor's garbage, but have ignored mine again, and have also left the broken jars. Pat is out to get her mail, too, so I ask what's the deal here? She shrugs, "I don't think they like broken glass in the recycling."

So... Waste Management will manage only certain kinds of waste. First off, you have to be a true consumer, producing enough waste at a regular clip, so that they will remember to stop. And the waste must meet certain standards, too. Nothing icky allowed. Hmmm...

The real question may be, why am I buying into this? As a culture, we have so sterilized our lives that we think we must have all our refuse wrapped in individual plastic bags, hauled off to a landfill where it will be wrapped in more plastic, then shrouded within a layer of impervious clay so that all of our icky leftovers will be completely banished from our universe for ever and ever, amen. A select percentage of this refuse, meeting certain strict standards, will be recycled with much fanfare and self-congratulatory pride, as if recycling were not the ancient rule of nature, but something we moderns have ingeniously invented. I will henceforth refer to this whole silly attitude as the Waste Management mentality.