In article
,
"Dan L." wrote:

In article , Charlie wrote:

On Tue, 15 Jul 2008 17:36:01 -0400, Bill wrote:



Try listening to Is as you read this

That You Mo-Dean? 5:32 The B-52's Good Stuff Rock 100 2 7/13/08
6:32 PM


I plant much stuff about and sometimes it makes and some times it
dies. . Never found anyone who I¹d like to share lunch with that would
tell me how to garden. Just like what to try and I try things and some
work some don¹t. I like to hear about successes and failures too.
Not just food but that issue is growing more in to our yard. Still how
to save caladiums troubles me.

What interests me is what else you folks find of value. The premise
begins in our gardens dirt and offers potential for more if inclined to
share

The World's Green Laughter 4:04 The B-52's Good Stuff Rock 2
6/27/08 6:32 PM AAC audio file 1992


Bill

When bodies collide...

I did and I think I understand. Tonite in the garden I watched
spellbound as two of my favorite creatures did the dance. A spider had
captured a blink (firefly) and was wrapping it, while the blink kept
blinking thru the silk. What is my role? To observe.

This, and your post, which I had been pondering for some time, led me
to think upon one of my favorite quotes...

"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion,
butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance
accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders,
give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new
problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight
efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects."

-Robert A. Heinlein


Specialization is for insects.

If we limit our relationships with all that goes on in the garden, and
all that which we observe and all that in which we participate,
gardenwise, to simple mechanics and technicalities and disregard the
broader implications and relationships, we are specializing, much in
the vein of monsatano, et al...monoculture.....insects fighting
insects....it's a world gone mad, my friend.

Kinda like photos. As much as I enjoy the subject of a photo, what is
supporting the subject in the background and off to the sides is even
more fascinating to me. Perhaps more important.

Charlie, who should be retiring, but the lightning in the distance is
much too important to ignore and the fragrance of the petunias beckons
me back outside....

Robert A. Heinlein is no doubt a top five author in my favorite SciFi
collection. I have read over 20 R.A.H. books. I have almost 400 SciFi
books. Almost 1,500 books total and still growing. I agree with R.A.H.
that humans should be able to do those things and I have done almost all
of those things and capable of the others.

However, the sad truth is: those that specialize tend to be more
successful in life in more ways than one. The "Jack of all Trades" is a
dying breed in the evolutionary world in which we are living in.
That is because we have ridden the madness of the mechanical analogy as
far as it can go. We have reduced food to four principal crops (maybe
eighty altogether) and lost 75% of agricultural diversity in the last
century. The diversity that is necessary to develop resistant strains
for pathogens that always adapt to the defenses that we deploy for our
crops, like the four that we depend on for carbs, has shrunk.

The mechanical analogy has to end or we will. If mankind survives, it
will be because of the generalist who doesn't grow a monoculture but
varied plants that compliment each other, and grow at different
heights, at different times of the year in changing beds.

Bring back small town America.

The insects will indeed inherit the earth,

if we let them. Right now, it is ours to lose.


Also listening to the thunder ... Dan
And it's getting closer.

Bush & Pelosi behind bars

- Wild Billy

We wish to control big business so as to secure among other things good
wages for the wage-workers and reasonable prices for the consumers.
Wherever in any business the prosperity of the businessman is obtained
by lowering the wages of his workmen and charging an excessive price to
the consumers we wish to interfere and stop such practices. We will not
submit to that kind of prosperity any more than we will submit to
prosperity obtained by swindling investors or getting unfair advantages
over business rivals.

- Theodore Roosevelt

* Speech at Progressive Party Convention, Chicago (1912-06-17)