This triggered a fifty year old memory of a conversation with a friend who was a nuclear engineer and had no religious inclination. “What if God is something like pure energy?” he asked me. It was a new idea then. Now I’m thinking about it again…
And yesterday my daughter-in-law had new leads installed in her heart from her pacemaker…her heart needs extra help to manage its electricity…so grateful for that!
Can you imagine what it was light when the Rural Electrification Act passed and people everywhere could turn night into day? And now we can't seem to live without that sacred force.
Absolutely a revolution! (Which today would be called socialist because of the massive federal government investment.) The REA still has a huge impact on the West because many of us live where we are served by rural electric co-ops, some of which are visionary pioneers of renewable energy and some of which are dinosaurs completely tied to fossil fuels.
Appreciate you delving into the basics to offer insight and increased awareness. Thanks for taking time to beautifully express your musings, facts and contemplations.
I'm also exploring how my body's electricity communicates non-lineal and non-logical "knowing". When an idea or proposal really resonates, I'll often get a tangible surge of electricity - particularly thru my limbs. I've learned to trust it as a reliable indicator of an inner "yes".
I've had that same electrical surge inside when an idea resonates or excites me. I think we think too much in our brains (pun intended with the double think!) and too little in our bodies.
As a teenager, and even on too many occasions now, I will leave lights on in my house when I go out at night. In those days my mother disapproved and accused me of wasting electricity and therefore money. It was a small form of rebellion that morphed into laziness. Your excellent blog today gives me another perspective. I am feeling regret for my past sloppiness but with this mornings perspective, thanks to you, am able change my attitude to one of gratitude. Just like that. Wow. Thank you.
Nan, Isn't it fascinating how just a small shift in perspective opens us up to new possibilities? We are fortunate to be able to learn and grown through our lives. Good for you for that change in attitude, and many blessings to you!
Sensible, not sensational. Educational, not a steel-edged ruler. Hopeful, not bombastic in any way. About 40 YA a friend bought property where he planned to live off grid. That acreage had a constant flow of water. Tip had done his homework to prepare for this endeavor. Using stones and cypress timber he dammed the flow for increased depth and velocity. He installed an over draft wheel to power a modest DC generator, along with a wall of storage batteries. Likely lead-acid...
This led to careful shopping for DC appliances except for the refrigerator, a gas-fueled Kelvinator supplied by a buried tank near the home. No AC. Rather an attic fan for overnight comfort and ceiling fans in the daytime. I had no idea those features were available in DC format.
One remarkable aside is that my friend performed all the constructing with hand tools. Hand saws in several coarsenesses of teeth per inch. Brace and bit. Hand planes of several types. A molding plane for edge contours on door and window trim. How impractical many would exclaim! PV panels didn’t exist in those days. Today one could remain in AC power mode and with prioritizing for an initial array, one could use conventional AC-powered tools. A clivus multrum outdoor toilet works for human waste. A grey water septic system for laundry, bath, and dishwater usage.
I realize those were not your objectives. Still, your Tuesday post offers hope to folks wishing to move through life with a small footprint for resource utilization on the place we call home. Ideas, willingness, effort. Just like my friend Tip.
I lived with wood heat and cooking and solar power for many years, not as beautifully as your friend Tip, I am sure. Good for him! The important thing is to be mindful about how we live wherever we are in our lives--location, abilities, and what we can manage.
Perhaps we need a few more of those kind of revolutionary programs in this country today. Some a simple federal program created a century of growing prosperity (for some).
Absolutely! Affordable housing for one. Support for small farmers, for another, the ones growing human food, not the agro-industrial farms growing food for feedlot cattle, chickens, pigs, and turkeys raised in appalling conditions. Universal basic healthcare for another. Better support for tribal nations, education, national parks and monuments. Oh, I could go on and on!
To me these issues are fundamental to humanity. Time to speak up and speak out for fairness, true equal opportunities, clean air, clean water, for the vital role of science in decision making. Such concerns today inspire cries of Socialism and Communism, while ignoring the socialism of Interstate highways. Lobbying for more support for community gardens, often in food deserts, to support the health of the citizens living there and for improved neonatal and newborn health, is denounced as more socialism. A daunting task to make meaningful headway.
Gary, We can't make headway on everything, only on the issues that speak to us most deeply. We do our best work locally, on whatever is our passion. But if lots of us pursue our own little area, that equals big change.
Penny, It's not easy, but I think if we protect and restore the environment, we will also protect human life. Which is to say, if we devote energy and money to restoring the environment, we won't have to choose between that and protecting human life. For example, if we restore marshes and their ability to absorb flooding, we are also protecting human life. And if we restore natural fire to those forests adapted to fire as part of their cycles, we will protect the humans who live in those forests by keeping mega-fires from happening.
This triggered a fifty year old memory of a conversation with a friend who was a nuclear engineer and had no religious inclination. “What if God is something like pure energy?” he asked me. It was a new idea then. Now I’m thinking about it again…
And yesterday my daughter-in-law had new leads installed in her heart from her pacemaker…her heart needs extra help to manage its electricity…so grateful for that!
Your nuclear engineer friend's comment is right on, I think.
I'm so glad your DIL could get new leads for her pacemaker safely and successfully! I wonder if she or you would appreciate reading my friend Katie Standefer's memoir Lightning Flowers, about her journey to understand her heart rhythm issues and the environmental cost of her treatment and pacemakers. It is a riveting and honest memoir, beautiful in its pain and searching. The NYT named it a "notable book" the year it came out. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/10/books/review/lightning-flowers-my-journey-to-uncover-the-cost-of-saving-a-life-by-katherine-e-standefer-an-excerpt.html
I’ll look into that - thank you!
Can you imagine what it was light when the Rural Electrification Act passed and people everywhere could turn night into day? And now we can't seem to live without that sacred force.
Absolutely a revolution! (Which today would be called socialist because of the massive federal government investment.) The REA still has a huge impact on the West because many of us live where we are served by rural electric co-ops, some of which are visionary pioneers of renewable energy and some of which are dinosaurs completely tied to fossil fuels.
Appreciate you delving into the basics to offer insight and increased awareness. Thanks for taking time to beautifully express your musings, facts and contemplations.
I'm also exploring how my body's electricity communicates non-lineal and non-logical "knowing". When an idea or proposal really resonates, I'll often get a tangible surge of electricity - particularly thru my limbs. I've learned to trust it as a reliable indicator of an inner "yes".
I like what you just said. A “divining rod” image came to mind.
I've had that same electrical surge inside when an idea resonates or excites me. I think we think too much in our brains (pun intended with the double think!) and too little in our bodies.
As a teenager, and even on too many occasions now, I will leave lights on in my house when I go out at night. In those days my mother disapproved and accused me of wasting electricity and therefore money. It was a small form of rebellion that morphed into laziness. Your excellent blog today gives me another perspective. I am feeling regret for my past sloppiness but with this mornings perspective, thanks to you, am able change my attitude to one of gratitude. Just like that. Wow. Thank you.
Nan, Isn't it fascinating how just a small shift in perspective opens us up to new possibilities? We are fortunate to be able to learn and grown through our lives. Good for you for that change in attitude, and many blessings to you!
Sensible, not sensational. Educational, not a steel-edged ruler. Hopeful, not bombastic in any way. About 40 YA a friend bought property where he planned to live off grid. That acreage had a constant flow of water. Tip had done his homework to prepare for this endeavor. Using stones and cypress timber he dammed the flow for increased depth and velocity. He installed an over draft wheel to power a modest DC generator, along with a wall of storage batteries. Likely lead-acid...
This led to careful shopping for DC appliances except for the refrigerator, a gas-fueled Kelvinator supplied by a buried tank near the home. No AC. Rather an attic fan for overnight comfort and ceiling fans in the daytime. I had no idea those features were available in DC format.
One remarkable aside is that my friend performed all the constructing with hand tools. Hand saws in several coarsenesses of teeth per inch. Brace and bit. Hand planes of several types. A molding plane for edge contours on door and window trim. How impractical many would exclaim! PV panels didn’t exist in those days. Today one could remain in AC power mode and with prioritizing for an initial array, one could use conventional AC-powered tools. A clivus multrum outdoor toilet works for human waste. A grey water septic system for laundry, bath, and dishwater usage.
I realize those were not your objectives. Still, your Tuesday post offers hope to folks wishing to move through life with a small footprint for resource utilization on the place we call home. Ideas, willingness, effort. Just like my friend Tip.
I lived with wood heat and cooking and solar power for many years, not as beautifully as your friend Tip, I am sure. Good for him! The important thing is to be mindful about how we live wherever we are in our lives--location, abilities, and what we can manage.
I couldn’t agree more.
I once had a clivus multrum toilet. ! Loved reading this story about your friend, Tip. Thanks for taking the time...
Perhaps we need a few more of those kind of revolutionary programs in this country today. Some a simple federal program created a century of growing prosperity (for some).
Absolutely! Affordable housing for one. Support for small farmers, for another, the ones growing human food, not the agro-industrial farms growing food for feedlot cattle, chickens, pigs, and turkeys raised in appalling conditions. Universal basic healthcare for another. Better support for tribal nations, education, national parks and monuments. Oh, I could go on and on!
To me these issues are fundamental to humanity. Time to speak up and speak out for fairness, true equal opportunities, clean air, clean water, for the vital role of science in decision making. Such concerns today inspire cries of Socialism and Communism, while ignoring the socialism of Interstate highways. Lobbying for more support for community gardens, often in food deserts, to support the health of the citizens living there and for improved neonatal and newborn health, is denounced as more socialism. A daunting task to make meaningful headway.
Gary, We can't make headway on everything, only on the issues that speak to us most deeply. We do our best work locally, on whatever is our passion. But if lots of us pursue our own little area, that equals big change.
It's such a a delicate balance to protect human life in extreme weather and protect the environment.
Penny, It's not easy, but I think if we protect and restore the environment, we will also protect human life. Which is to say, if we devote energy and money to restoring the environment, we won't have to choose between that and protecting human life. For example, if we restore marshes and their ability to absorb flooding, we are also protecting human life. And if we restore natural fire to those forests adapted to fire as part of their cycles, we will protect the humans who live in those forests by keeping mega-fires from happening.