Apples and doomerism and interesting canvassing

 

We are a landscape of all we have seen. -Isamu Noguchi, sculptor and architect (17 Nov 1904-1988)

What a great find by the parking lot at church!

Those branches are just full of apples!

Makes me wonder what kind they are...

There's a blush of red coming on one on the far side up above.

They're the wrong shape for delicious. So that leaves about a hundred other varieties!

The following are quotes from an editorial newsletter. It reflects my opinions as well. But you don't have to read it if you're not interested.

Read this article: Jane Coaston, Opinion | Try to Resist the Call of the Doomers - The New York Times.

          Apart from the other excellent points made in the article, the author considers the relative merits of “doomsaying” vs. “optimism” as a way of motivating people. She writes:

          If you want people to do something, they need to be motivated — and impending doom doesn’t seem to do it. Yes, it seems like it would be the equivalent of setting someone’s couch on fire to get them to move, but doomerism seems to have the same effect as depression, bringing about a loss of interest in taking action.

          It makes sense. If you believe that your fate is sealed by climate change or the Supreme Court or the Republican Party, well, why would you do anything about it? [D]oomerism causes people to be “led down a path of disengagement.”

          I wish I had said that! We cannot motivate people if our only message is that “the end of democracy is upon us.” Yes, we are in perilous times and the fate of democracy hangs in the balance—as it does for every generation. We must be realistic and steely-eyed about the challenges we face, but we have a surfeit of Cassandras who excel at spotting the challenges we face. That is the easy part. Identifying solutions and motivating people to pursue those solutions is the hard part—especially when people criticize you for maintaining your optimism. Ignore them. Do the hard work of defending democracy. Somebody has to. It may as well be us!

From: "GOP Declares War on Government" by Robert B. Hubbell July 25, 2022 (Cassandras: In modern usage her name is employed as a rhetorical device to indicate a person whose accurate prophecies, generally of impending disaster, are not believed. Wikipedia.)

And thanks to Hecatedemeter again for giving me a ray of hope. Her shared video of a woman who's doing "deep canvassing" gave me incredible hope. I could only watch the first half hour last night, and am looking forward to seeing more today. Message to White Women. These are the women chosen because they usually vote, live in swingstates, and haven't decided completely yet. They are targeted for phone calls and ads that use psychology and salesmanship to match their values and show how they would benefit from voting for the party that these canvassers are promoting.

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Replies to yesterday's comments:

Eileen - Yes the barbecue was yummy, though I ordered the wrong things. I wonder why we don't have raccoons...because they would certainly be much more clever than the bears with getting at garbage. A small blessing!

Tom- The idea of recycling is a positive move, but economically it has definitely hit a snag...we sure don't have good processes in place.

William - Lexington slaw has some tomatoes in it, but this slaw was mainly just sweet vinegar with little chips of cabbage floating in it.

John Stargoose - I guess some of my purchases have still had Styrofoam, but I just realized some are now using different size bubble wrap, some little pillows.

NewRobin - It certainly was a beautiful day for a drive to a nearby town, and I was so glad Tim was driving and knew where things were (or had his phone give him directions!)

Linda - I never thought of asking about shipping with less foam when ordering things. I still had to pay $10 for the TV to be recycled, and there was another one just like it in the big container.

Spare Parts - Yes bears are pretty clever, and there are a lot in our area, unfortunately. Each momma seems to have 3-4 cubs since they're so well fed out of people's trash. Also... I still have lots of VCR tapes, as well as DVD's. Kept the DVD player, but don't have a way to plug it into new TV yet. I guess I won't find any player for VCRs. Yep, they are probably pretty rare.

Yogi - Bears have become acclimated to eating out of our garbage bins, unfortunately. Not often here, but every day I see photos of them on FaceBook. I have no idea what recycling plants can do with Styrofoam.

Dave - Happy birthday. But actually today is a friend of mine's 84th birthday...so I'm afraid you're still not the oldest person I know. I need to learn what they do with all that styrofoam. Sorry to hear glass is no longer being recycled there. It's a hard business, which had lots of hopefully citizens when it began.

Joyful - I think bears are smart, though they have trouble seeing things, they can smell and hear probably better than I can. And they are unfortunately stronger than the average trash containers. Yes, it was a beautiful North Carolina day!