spinningwheel.net

The newly resurrected spinningwheel.net is already on the robot list. I got this comment yesterday, in response to my thoughts about suffering and caring. And clearly it was a bot, because the commenter doesn’t get the gyst of my post. In which I agree with the commenter.

It’s not difficult at all for a lot of people to just switch off the TV and forget about the horrible things that happen in this world. I, however, do not believe in closing my eyes to the suffering of others. Post-Sendai, there are many Japanese left without food or shelter. Not all of us are fortunate enough to be able to spare the money to donate, but any contribution that you could make would be appreciated! If you don’t have money to spare, please keep the Japanese in your heart and spread the word along to your friends!

Ok, aside from the annoyance of robot responders, which I will address at a later time. And I will. I do have some thoughts on the crises in Japan.

First, like anyone with a pulse, I am horrified by the earthquake and resulting tsunami. And terrified by the nuclear collapse that’s happening right now. I’m not watching it on TV, though, because that just makes me anxious and unable to act. I agree with the commentbot that donating to reputable organizations (the commenter link goes to a site that lists Red Cross, Mercy Corps, etc.) is a fine and noble thing to do in such crises.

Japan, though, is a rich country. And while Red Cross tents might be a useful loan in the short term, they don’t really need us to give them back the money we borrowed from them at this time. They’re making money off the interest.

What Japan needs, and the world needs, is to get off these toxic energy sources. Oil, nuclear, coal, and even gas, are just toxic. Period. The stuff is dirty, with dirty, filthy waste, and the industries are largely run by dirty, filthy people. What Japan and everyone else NEEDS to do is open our eyes to this fact, and the fact that we have a clean, essentially-eternal source of power in the sun, the wind, and the ocean currents. Instead of toxic nuclear plants that are being feverishly cooled with ocean water, if Japan switched to using those currents as their energy source, there wouldn’t be a radiation problem to worry about. I know some will say the middle of a crisis isn’t the time to criticize, but when the crisis is over, attention will turn away. The world survived Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and now Fukushima is melting down, and we’re still considering nuclear power in the United States. Europe is undergoing emergency inspections and halting new plants. We must do the same. We’ve just got to stop this stuff.

I’m not a historian, but I play one in knitting books. The Fukishima plant is owned by Dai-ichi, which is one of the giant Japanese megacorps, with subsidiaries in countless industries. (Pharmaceuticals, Fishing, Nuclear energy, Hotels and hospitality, Insurance, to name a few. Just Google Dai-Ichi or Daiichi and see what you find. I believe this is one of the companies that survived WWII to become an equivalent of Rayovak in the US. A huge, bloated, bazillionaire, life sucking corporate entity.

Japan doesn’t need your money. Japan needs to hold Dai-Ichi responsible.

As a closing note of irony. Click again on the Dai-Ichi Life Insurance link. Read that headline. Thinking People First. Under the Corporate Citizenship page, the company brags about its recycling and green energy initiatives. This is the worst kind of greenwashing imaginable. A sibling company touting its green practicies, while the nuclear plants are melting down. How long do we as world citizens put up with this?

I bought this book when it first came out. I was just newly divorced, depressed, not really sure where I would go. If you’re not familiar with Kathleen Norris, you should pick up one or more of her books. She is an insightful writer, and so many of her themes ring true to my middle-class life.

The book in a nutshell: Acedia is one of the original “bad thoughts” that later morphed into the 7 Deadly Sins. It refers to the malaise that sucks action from a person’s life. I know these things need attention, but I just can’t bring myself to care enough to do anything.

I don’t think that’s been my problem. It’s not that I don’t care. It’s that I care so much that I find myself unable to act. I don’t know what to do first. I’m overwhelmed with caring. The government is utterly corrupted by corporate money, media ignores the real problems that might inspire voters to act (Charlie Sheen? Really?), the people around me are utterly absorbed by their own daily issues and ignore the real problems they could solve. Example: a teacher at my daughter’s school is facing real personal crises in the form of family illness. When I asked in the office how she was coping, and if anyone was organizing to help her out, the response was, oh, that was last week. Not only was no one helping, no one seemed to want to help at all. Or to even notice that the problem was not going to just go away. And my offers to contact her and OFFER help were met with polite indifference. No one needs your help, dear. Just go away.

How does a moral person respond to that? So much is so wrong, and no one seems to do want to anything about it. And so I sit in my chair and wait for the lightning bolt, and THINK with so much intensity, as if the mere force of my will could manipulate the universe into meeting my expectations.

How do I make people WANT to care enough to act? Especially when they block me from acting myself? How does one person counter the cultural acedia that’s become the accepted norm? It’s not a rhetorical question, I could use some advice.

When I look at the actual political struggles that are happening right now, here in Wisconsin, and in the Middle East and North Africa, I see people who have found their own responses. They are looking at their situations – dissolution of collective bargaining and general political and economic oppression – and they’ve decided to work together to change things. From my chair, the only way I can think of to change the world is to rechannel my too-much-care. I don’t have power or money to make things happen directly. All I can think of is keep on knitting, keep publishing my works, restart this blog and feed you all with my subversive ideas.

Maybe god put me on earth not to act directly, but to inspire others who have greater ability than I, to act for me.

Knitting, to me, is a deeply spiritual act. A moving meditation. The pictoral designs I use in my patterns hold symbolic meaning that points to a reality that is greater than the thing they appear to represent. This is how I put my thoughts Out There and try to make the universe listen to me.