your dose of anarchist theory for Holy Saturday
Everyone would be an anarchist if they weren't trained to have a visceral reaction against the word as if it were something dirty like "social darwinism." Here's a lovely paragraph from one of my favorite blogs that I hardly read:
Gustav Landauer was one primary example of a constructive anarchist (and a mystical one at that!). Landauer reframed the classic anarchist question about the necessity of abolishing the state. Landauer wrote “The State is a condition, a certain relationship between human beings, a mode of human behavior; we destroy it by contracting other relationships, by behaving differently.” The State only seems to be necessary because we presume it. In fact, the State is artificial and can be overcome by forming real relationships with “People”. The question of state or no-state is a false choice. “If the State is a relationship which can only be destroyed by entering into another relationship, then we shall always be helping destroy it to the extent that we do in fact enter into another.” Landauer advised the formation of alternative communities of real relationships that would not destroy the prevailing system by a frontal assault, but by withdrawing energy from it and rendering its institutions redundant. Landauer’s position didn’t require that everyone become an anarchist, nor did it force anyone to do so. It only forced those who desired to live differently to begin doing so immediately – to practice radical democracy.
According to Ric Hudgens at Jesus Radicals.
When I say I hardly read Jesus Radicals, it's only because of the length of the articles, and the PHD department writing style. Whenever I do understand something I'm pleasantly piqued. Go energy-sucking alternative communities!
wellspring of crazy
Sometimes I feel like I have this bubbler inside me... you know like a bubbler in a water cooler? But this bubbler is of crazy ideas. Thankfully these ideas bubble rather infrequently. But when they do? Watch out! Because there is nothing to turn the bubbler off save going through with the insanity. Six years ago it was about getting a dog. It was like my hunger for owning a dog was an all-consuming physical feeling. "Can we go to the shelter today?" I asked Dan. "Tomorrow? How about tomorrow? Come look at this puppy online. Does this puppy look cute? Dan, does this puppy look cute?" On and on every second until we finally drove down to Sterling and brought home our Rascal. I think it took like two weeks but to me it felt like FOREVER.
I was safe for a while, happy dog owner, but three years later the bubbler started up again. "When are we going to have a baby? Let's have a baby! Can we get pregnant NOW?"
Last year in the springtime I couldn't go to sleep for looking at pictures of different chicken breeds online. After we got our chickens, though, I was sure I was safe from the manic oppression of the bubbler. We can't have any more animals now, certainly, and two babies in diapers is enough for the time being.
And I WAS safe, for a whole twelve months or so. Then I saw this blog and something clicked into place. And that thing is the bubbler going "I HAVE to get dreadlocks."
Dan says, "Dear Lord, these episodes are coming closer and closer together!"
"Yes," I reply, "But of all the things I ask for, dreadlocks will require the smallest time commitment from YOU."
Now back up. I've thought about wanting dreads on and off since 2003, but I always dismissed the idea as too crazy for any number of good reasons. I was trying to get a job or I never wanted to go through a short hair grow out phase or I'm afraid my sensory integration issues will drive me batty if I can't wash and comb my hair every day. Then again, you'd think there are rational reasons why someone might not want to own a dog or chickens or two children in diapers, but something beyond ration drives those choices, and that something has turned on under the dreadlock issue for some reason. That's the only way I can explain why I'm spending every free moment watching dread maintenance videos on YouTube.
I've been praying a lot over the past few days whether I should move forward with this. Will my neighbors judge me more harshly and call the cops when my dog gets out? Will people in my Small Group stop taking me seriously? I prayed and prayed about it and today I heard God laughing, "LEAH! I JUST DON'T CARE!"
I mean, we're not talking about gender reassignment surgery or anything. This is a hairstyle.
The next step is seeing if I can save up a month's worth of babysitting money, given that I also need to pay the real estate tax this month, and also buy some meat to eat for God's sake, because Dan and I totally both have a protein deficiency; we're like mainlining peanuts after every meal. Something has to be done. I don't care if we're poor we need to allocate a greater percentage of our budget to eating animals. Seriously, our brains need protein to function. HEY! Do you think that's the source of the bubbler? Lack of brain fuel? Okay, so real estate tax first and a roasting chicken second and when there's enough money left over I'll call the hair salon and ask them about extensions.
boys in the garden
gentleman farmer
Harvey and I enjoy playing in the garden, even if we don't get too much accomplished. Only he does it with a little more style than I manage, apparently. We haven't let him actually wear his Easter clothes out to play (though he totally would if he could), but yesterday the fitting for his tie required bringing out last year's model and of course we couldn't deny him the wearing of that. Not even while playing in the mud.
Of course, all mud around here is purely user-created at this point, since, while summer in March is now only a memory, we're still waiting for our April showers and things are pretty dry and dusty. So a watering can was just the thing for creating a pond, or perhaps a pool, which was then augmented with a selection of the "play wood" we have lying around the place. (We have "play bricks" too, but they're a little too heavy for any of our children. And both wood and bricks were put away in anticipation of our Easter party—might some parents not approve?—but he knew where they were and brought them out again.)
Zion was also outside for some of the action, but he wasn't wearing a tie so I didn't take a picture of him. He too was very content to amuse himself with what came to hand, though I do shudder a bit when he tries to use rocks as teething tools. Much like Harvey at a similar age he emerged with a little bit of dirt around his mouth, but I'm sure there was nothing like a peck involved.
All I managed was planting out a few seedlings that were suffering from too long in their containers, and then putting down a row cover to keep them from freezing to death. I'm all mixed up this crazy spring: I sowed a few "as soon as soil is workable" crops already, but everything stopped growing entirely over the last few chilly weeks. I've never seen anything like it: the radishes that sprouted on March 24 didn't get their first true leaves until yesterday, 12 days later by my probably inaccurate count. Kind of frustrating for a crop that should be half-way to maturity in that time span! On the other hand, it's been great for the daffodils and forsythias, which are headed towards their third week in bloom and still going strong. So I guess I can't complain—especially when I have the boys out there working right along with me.