Saturday, July 9, 2011

Bake Bread, Not War

"Completing school is often simply a certification that you will put up with a basically boring situation, be moderately productive and not sabotage the system. Young people are asked to be thankful for the opportunity to be exploited in low-paying, essentially meaningless jobs. After all, if you do not want one, we can always put you in prison. Even though prisons cost $50,000 to $80,000 a year per person, we'd rather spend the money that way than actually invest in changing the system and creating real jobs, real opportunities. I guess that is what is called capitalism.
Yet the real joy of work is in providing for yourself and your family, in working to benefit your community. We could be baking and cooking for one another. I'd like to see a bakery every few blocks. Skip the trucks. No one out of walking distance of fresh bread and pastries. Sure it's hard work, but it is also loving what you do, in companionship with flour and water, sugar and butter; loving what you do, which nourishes your spirit and others' stomachs, and provides convivial space for neighbors to get together."
-Edward Espe Brown, The Tassajara Bread Book

Friday, July 8, 2011

▲▲▲Magic Child Book Club #2▲▲▲

 
I can't read. I mean, I can read, but I can't seem to sit down and read a book, all the way through. I have 5 books in a pile that I have started reading. This pile never goes away.
Sometimes I start reading something on a whim though, and can't stop. This is one of those. To Your Scattered Bodies Go is the first book in the "Riverworld" trilogy, which is actually a quintology (is that right? There are 5 books total). What can I say, it's historical fiction/sci-fi/fantasy, there's a river, a world, and so on...Philip Jose Farmer is my new hero.