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Pastimes : Don't Ask Rambi -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dayuhan who wrote (47273)	2/22/2000 2:38:00 AM
From: Gauguin	Respond to of 71178

Hi Steve. Good points. It's not exactly science, but I had a dream I described here not long ago, where "we" chucked all this and did move back into villages. It was 5000 years in the future, and the people had chosen that; or learned what they needed to survive. It does seem impossible, at this point. But maybe we won't "survive" this way. And then, it will be more possible. Weird.

To: Dayuhan who wrote (47273)	2/22/2000 3:21:00 AM
From: nihil	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 71178

Future of villages. I live in a village of 52 houses surrounded by mountains, cliffs and walls. One road leads up to it. Next to me on the mountain side a Kiwi world expert on Polynesian art writes his books on the internet; up the road a famous oceanographer communicates with his ship or home on the internet. Down the other road, a world economic development expert's empty home stands unpillaged while he is on mission. It's hard to find a board to run our condominium, but the tennis courts are always busy. You can tell exactly where the young beautiful blonde girl walks her beagle because all of the other dogs greet them as they walk. We don't have much time to interact. In the day there are more husbands than wives at home. We do wave to each other as we repair our roofs on the edge of the precipices after every storm. We are busy with the world and our gardens. We exchange our own books. I love oceanography and Polynesian art and economic development. The Japanese gardener who lives in our village and insults the wrekin with his leaf blower and keeps our xeroscapes taut and spare is the only person all of us know and like. Sometimes we get together to relay our roads or prune the thick foliage in the creek. A resident might help the tall, slender good-looking Samoan boy contract tree surgeon prune some tall koa trees at the risk of his life. All of us wonder when the blonde girl and the Samoan boy will meet and fall in love and make beautiful kids. No tree surgery or child birthing for me, any more, although as a youth I topped the tall Georgia pines on the mountain side before dropping the stripped trunks neatly between the mountain flowers in the vale, and bred a dusky race of sons who ran, and shouted, and cast their lances in the sun. Sometimes several of us will take an SUV and make a major expedition to COSTCO to buy wondrous things gathered from the seven seas. But most times, its FDX delivering e-commerce orders of wondrous things gathered from the 180 nations. Sometimes I think we are the future.

To: Dayuhan who wrote (47273)	2/22/2000 4:54:00 AM
From: epicure	Respond to of 71178

Mr X was talking to a guy he knows who was in Paraguay. This guy (Ralph) was telling him about his taxi driver- apparently a very intelligent and talkative guy- who COULD have made more money going somewhere else to work, but who stayed where he was because of his family (HUGE family) and he couldn't comprehend how anyone could function without family around. Because Ralph was trying to explain his nuclear family to the taxi driver. So even though Ralph is a pretty wealthy guy it occurred to him that the taxi driver had a kind of wealth he (Ralph) couldn't earn. And it was a kind of wealth difficult to put a value on- priceless really- because in any time of trouble this guy has a huge network of people to help him. And of course, also a huge network of people to share the good times with as well. It was interesting to think about.

To: Dayuhan who wrote (47273)	2/22/2000 6:10:00 AM
From: Rambi	Respond to of 71178

I can't remember if I mentioned this before- forgive me I did-but it bothered me a lot when I heard it and I think it's a pretty graphic example of what you all were talking about after my margarita did me in last night. A couple of weeks ago I went to a going away party for a friend whose husband was transferred to London. She was very upset about the move. She said that they had lived in Southlake longer than anywhere else and she felt she had roots here now. They'd been here for four years. This just horrified me.

To: Dayuhan who wrote (47273)	2/22/2000 5:52:00 PM
From: Crocodile	Respond to of 71178

In the tribal cultures I've lived in I noticed that people didn't really spend that much time with their spouses; also that this didn't seem to bother them much. What they had that we don't were intricate networks of other relationships: family, and friends they had known all their lives. Each of these relationships may have been individually less important than the primary relationship, but taken all together they provide an invaluable web of emotional support. I agree. It seems unfortunate that most of us are living this way. It creates extra pressure in relationships... lots of expectations. Also a degree of insecurity due to the vulnerability that a lot of people feel when so much is riding on a single relationship. Quite claustrophobic really... Also, when you consider the transfer of skills and wisdom, a limited social network is a handicap. It causes people to lose out on a great number of other possible ways of learning about the world. Some of the most interesting things that I have learned about nature and animals have been from people in their 70s and 80s who were still living on the land. I don't see as many of those people around anymore. Seems like everyone ends up in homes for the aged these days.... Not good IMO..

To: Dayuhan who wrote (47273)	2/23/2000 11:50:00 PM
From: Rambi	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 71178

Saw your Napoleon quote on Feelies about incompetence and wanted to tell you about a nice example of it. I got a call today from a nice gentleman who informed me that all my checks had arrived in his bank statement and what would I like him to do with them. And also did I have his? Well, I didn't, but I did have a note from the bank, saying "we are unable to locate an item of yours but we are looking into it" An item? How about 30 cancelled checks? And who knows WHERE Bob's (the nice man's) are? He had called the bank and they told him to bring mine by and they'd take care of it. I said, no, mail them straight to me. Then I waited to see if the bank would call me that they'd found my "item". But they haven't. He was a lovely man, but he knows more about us than I would like-- like our house payment, and what I pay my hairdresser of one name, and wow-- our VISA< DISCOVER< AMEX, numbers. I just realized that. All our account numbers are written on the checks. SHould I go beat up someone at the bank????