Bottom Up Politics: One Thing Leads to Another

Monday, May 30, 2011

One Thing Leads to Another

(click on all pics to enlarge)
As I get more and more accustomed to a more rural life style, I find a continuing thread in the purpose behind what I’m doing. When I started blogging and getting into politics I wrote at the time that I was meeting neighbors and finding community activities that until then I didn’t even know existed.

I started to go out every day and prowl my neighborhood (Precinct) and one thing would naturally lead to another. Pretty soon I was interviewing for my blog local start up businesses and stopping to talk with neighbors in my precinct. I was coming out of my, self styled cocoon. What I realize better with hindsight is that I was breaking free of the “reality show mentality”.

Let me explain about that term. I’ve moved out to the country and live in the middle of 20 wooded acres. To this day and especially in the beginning I would be out in the yard and always looking up to see who was passing by or who was watching me. There was no one of course but out of habit I would still look around. As I fix my yard and garden etc someplace in those calculations there is the thought, what the neighbors will think. Just to reiterate, I can’t see my neighbors and they can’t see me. I live at the end of a winding 700 foot driveway.

To the point, I still feel sometimes like I’m in a “Reality Show”. I still spend a lot of time in front of a 60” computer monitor doing my blog and putting out a newsletter and a weekly “Cozy Conservative Corner”. On top of that I’m still a Netflix junkie and record at least one movie a day. I admit it I’m still an alternative reality junkie.

I came across the article below about Nicholas Carr (no relation) about how the internet may be causing a lack of concentration in people.
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http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.92e49cb93f1c7fc4348116d5ec926d79.2f1&show_article=1
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I not only agree but now better understand that how during the last 6 years of my life; I have been trying to prevent just that. Also in my previous blogs I have said that I believed we were not any smarter today than we were as a people than the ancient Greeks – just more factoid filled. I’ve written about time and the relation to us as a person and a people. Before I get all philosophical let me just suffice it to say that Time is not the enemy any more than the fact that we have to breathe is. It is something that just is – something we live with.

Because time is finite, I found that if I used my time on doing one thing instead of 10, I would actually get things done and get them done better and more efficiently. More to the point if I did that in the real world vs. on the internet, things (real things that mattered) would get done.

I would add to Mr. Carr’s book that along with destroying our concentration, the internet world is taking away our sense of righteousness. The righteousness and contentment we feel when we actually do things and not just think them. I still use and extol the virtues of the internet but I do so because of the fantastic communication and research tool it is. I find that when I combine the internet with a hands on project I get a deeper feeling of accomplishment that if I just used the internet.

The sun is shining and spring has sprung. I roto- tilled my garden yesterday and today I need to buy some string and start planting. While I’m in town buying string, I’ll keep checking out my new neighborhood.

Just a side note. As I was looking around for a possible new place to hold our new Oceana Tea Party meetings I ran across the Hart Historic Preservation Group which is a private group building a Historic District. They have several buildings of a historic nature. Some were there others they moved there such as a period Church and a one room school house (see picture above). The main building below has been turned into the museum. Several displays have been created and are pretty well done and interesting.

In my questioning about the cost and the physical aspects of the place for our meetings, I was told they were having a meeting of their board the next day following a work bee that started at 4pm. I showed up and ended up washing the windows inside and out of the one room school house. We then had a pot luck dinner for free and then I made my pitch and answered questions then left.

As I write this I realize how hard it is to say the feeling of accomplishment that effort gave to me by just doing the windows, much less the sense of thankfulness when the board decided we could hold our meetings there at a reduced rate.

I say all this because it is important for me to see that what I do in the internet world is given meaning only if through that help something gets accomplished in the real world. This I feel is good advice for me not only as an individual (it helps me exercise my individual freedom) but for groups like the Tea Party and political parties, as it gives us a chance to put our money where our mouth is.

Regards, Live Dangerously Be A Conservative

PS. While in Hart getting that string I stopped at La Fiesta for a half order of Nachos with beef and shredded cheese. I was astounded by the size of that half order.
(Click on any picture to enlarge)

Also my timing couldn’t have been better. While sitting there eating this Mt. Everest of Nachos along came the Hart Memorial Day Parade. Below are pics. As I said one thing leads to another and on and on. It all start with the question. What Can I Do Today?