It was at the checkout, that I had a real epiphany about the madness of our modern lives. The woman in front of me (who was probably in her 40's) was complaining that the stain remover was out of stock.
Eventually I said to her: "Just make a paste with bi-carb soda and water, then apply to the stain and leave for a while."
She looked incredulous. She repeated it slowly back to me. "Make..a..paste..with...bicarb...soda...and....water"
I was feeling a little incredulous too.
Her own mother, or her grandmother, at the very least, would have known this. She would not have relied on packages of fancy-marketed chemicals, but used her ingenuity and the basics that were available to her.
In just one generation, a whole wealth of knowledge and wisdom has been lost.
In our haste to keep up with the times, we have embraced all things new, and if we are to be honest with ourselves, it has led us straight into a state of dependance.
Scores of my own generation do not even know how to cook a meal for themselves, much less grow their own food or make their own clothes.
I certainly don't advocate going back and living in the 1930's. I love modern technology as much as the next person. But turning our back on the lessons of the past is a very unwise move.
And being completely dependant on big corporations (which is where I see us headed, unless we pull our heads out of the sand and make a conscious effort) for the very food that sustains us, is nothing but a recipe for disaster. For our health, and for our society.
Case in Point: In the past, we would have saved bones, and boiled them to make a rich and nutritious liquid stock, and then fed the leftovers to the dog.
Today, we throw away our leftovers, then drive to the shop to buy powdered stock (which has very little nutritional value - if any - and contains all kinds of junk like MSG), and packets of dog food which contain all manner of questionable things that dogs in the wild would not touch.
Meanwhile we work longer and longer hours so that we can afford the stock powder and the packets of dog food...Both of which are probably contributing to dis-ease and premature ageing in both ourselves and our canine friends. (Which of course, costs more money...)
Does anyone else think this is sheer madness?
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3 comments:
Yes! Me.
We laugh at ourselves for being so "wasteful". This is when might throw vegies into the compost rather than save them to use later as they are home grown, there is more in the garden & the chooks will love it and return to us beautiful eggs.
Totally agree - we have become dependant on everyone else to provide everything we think we need. We should embrace the old with the new and find the happy medium. Of most importance is seed saving so that giant corporations don't have the monopoly on what and how we grow. We need to keep the heirloom seeds going! Cleaning with the basic things such as bicarb, vinegar and good old elbow grease is important for the budget and the environment too!
@Mrs Horty: Absolutely 100% agree with you about saving seeds. EVERYONE needs to start doing this, as a matter of importance, before that nasty piece of work, otherwise known as Monsanto, takes control of our entire food supply.
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