Saturday, May 3, 2008

ARE YOU POOR, OR JUST STUBBORN

Are You Poor, or Just Stubborn?

from Freeacre

OK, I watched a lamestream media news report the other night. I swear I’m not ever going to watch network news again, but then I can’t help myself. Peering at the fuzzy picture brought to us by an antenna fastened to the back fence, I watched a local broadcast during dinner. CBS was attempting to enlighten us about how tough it is for the people on “fixed incomes” now that inflation and the falling dollar has taken about a third of our purchasing power away in the last several years. This old lady only had eight dollars left in her check book.

Oh, gee…. The poor lady and the millions like her who live in their several bedroom homes all alone and have to share the cat food…. WAIT A MINUTE! She’s living in a home with extra bedrooms all alone…. Why isn’t she renting rooms? Why aren’t elderly people ( or single parents, or anyone trying to save money and get out of debt, or pay off the mortgage), encouraged to share their homes with each other?

One little old lady on Social Security might only bring in $700 a month. Trying to live on that is miserable, especially when you figure in medical costs, etc. But, you take four or five little old ladies pooling their $700 checks – that’s $2,800 to $3,500 a month for a household! And, if some of those ladies owned homes of their own that they rented out to others, it could add even more income – a lot more. Add several hundred dollars per month to your social security check from renting your home out, and cut costs by reducing your expenses to a fraction of what they were in rent and utilities.

“Oh, I could never stand to live with other people!” they protest.

Well, why the hell not?

Why live isolated and broke when you could be surrounded by friends, doing things together, helping each other with chores, sitting down to eat together, and having some laughs? It would also take a load off that over-worked grown up kid of yours who is sacrificing her sanity trying to keep you intact all the time.

I was first introduced to communal living in 1968 or so at the SDS commune in Ann Arbor, Michigan. It was a nice, big old house with great woodwork. They had three or four big tables set up in the dining room. I was a guest and was assigned the job of setting the tables and bringing the food out to set on side boards. I remember there was the biggest bowl of butterscotch pudding I ever saw – and we were welcome to have as much of it as we wanted. I loved it.

Later, I spent much of my 20’s living in homes shared with friends while we went to school, worked at entry-level jobs, and hoped to meet the loves of our lives.

Once we did, and the nuclear family was established, we no longer “had” to share homes with anyone other than the captive audience of our spouses and children. Unfortunately, for a lot of us, that meant we could be as rude and dysfunctional as we wanted to be until the children grew up and left. For most, it meant that we faced the challenge of raising a family and keeping a roof over our heads on our own, with very little help. We worked our butts off doing the best that we could. It wasn’t easy.

Living those nuclear family centered lives, mostly separated from the greater community, except for associates at work or church members, people may never develop the social skills needed to function well, living with others that they haven’t raised to think like them. When the kids grow up and the spouse dies, there’s nobody left who thinks your way of doing things is “normal” or the way it “ought to be.” They may not fill the toilet paper rack the same way you do. They may eat with less or more utensils. They may watch different T.V. shows. They may prepare unfamiliar food, or keep different hours. They may not be convinced by your vast knowledge of politics or your religious point of view.

All of which may be annoying. Ergo, “I can’t live with anyone else.” But, that can change.

When my husband died in 1999, I had just turned 50. I was working for a newspaper in Tahoe for ten dollars per hour. I had a son who had just started junior college. I had seven thousand dollars in credit card debt, and my husband died with no life insurance. And, I had a mortgage on our home for $149,000, the payments of which equaled my take-home pay. Yikes!

Renting out rooms kept a roof over our heads and led to the life Murph and I live today. I’ve written about it before. So, I won’t go over it again.

But, with that experience, I think both Murph and I would do it again, if and when we lose the other one, or we can’t handle this place by ourselves. We have all these active Senior Centers. Why couldn’t they have programs teaching the in’s and out’s of communal living? Support groups for living with others where you can share strategies and stories of what works and what doesn’t would be great. Group processes like using talking sticks and campfire councils could easily be introduced to help with group dynamics. How to ask for what you need, give feedback or criticism without rancor, or resolve hurt feelings aren’t so hard to do, especially if the people are motivated.

So, just maybe someday the lamestream might be able to offer some better advice than taking out a second reverse mortgage for some lonely, desperate lady trying to make ends meet all by herself.

Here are some pointers that I have found helpful over the years:

If you rent a room to someone, make sure that you have their name, previous address and phone number, nearest relative, doctor’s name and phone number, and driver’s license number in a folder handy in case you need it. This makes life easier if something happens, they move away and you have to forward mail or someone comes along looking for them, or they owe you money.

Put away the silver or any real treasures that you don’t want broken or lost when living with others (including step-children). Anything that would be really hard to forgive if damaged, put away or let go of. Buy your glasses and eating utensils at the Goodwill, so when they break (and, they will) it’s no biggie.

Figure out how people want to do food. Everyone takes one night a week to cook for everyone? One or two people are the cooks and the rest do the dishes? Each person cooks for herself, with one communal meal per week? There are no right answers – adjust as needed for the mix that you have.

How about chores? Everybody keeps up their own room, and common areas are cleaned together on Saturdays? Or, rotating chore lists. Or, individual talents – like John is the Handiman, Gracie is the Driver, Mandy is the Nurse, Sue and Bob keep track of the finances and vacuum. Whatever works.

Rules of engagement need to be spelled out. No wandering into other people’s private spaces unless invited. No nudity in common areas. Keep the bathrooms neat for the next guy. Quiet times and policy on having friends or grandchildren over to visit need to be set. Stuff like that can be decided upon during the weekly house meeting held after eating a meal together on a certain evening or day.

Usually, there are one or two people who are the leaders (or parent figures), and the rest fall in like brothers and sisters. That just seems to be the natural order of things in my experience. The leaders need to set the tone of friendliness, respect, tolerance of differing opinions, good humor, and limit-setting. At the very least, everyone needs to feel safe. Thievery or threats or intimidation must not be tolerated. This is especially true if younger children are involved or there are older ones who may be physically vulnerable.

Once healthy and empowering norms are established, affordable homes can be created that provide safety nets for each other, a tribe of friends, and some peace and dignity in times of the god-knows-what that are to come. Personally, many of the people that I have lived with over the years are friends of mine to this day. We still visit, call or write to each other, even though we may not have lived with each other since we were in our 20’s or since we lived in Tahoe. They were an enrichment to my life, I am grateful for each and every one of them, and I don’t know how I would have gotten along without them.

14 comments:

RAS said...

Hey Freeacre,
Not to nitpick a good idea, but I'd like to point out some problems with it.

For little old ladies and others on Social Security sharing living quarters may not be possible outside of a nursing home or assisted living facility. The reason is that SS has a limit on how much one household can get. Not just individually, but totally. Back when I was on Survivor's Benefits after my dad died (that ended 7 years ago) the limit was $2100 a month. It didn't matter how many people lived there or whether they were related or not, the limit stuck. Since a lot of people on SSI get between $1000 and $1500 a month they might not be able to live with more than one other person on benefits -if that. And if you rent out a room, that counts as income that can reduce your benefits as well. Or, if you live with relatives, they can only make so much before reducing your benefits. Some people are in this catch-22.

Secondly, cultural conditioning isn't lightly thrown off. We're all taught that we have to be independent, to live alone, to take care of ourselves. It's not easy to shake that conditioning and most people will never question those ingrained assumptions until and unless their worldview gets shaken up.

Finally, a lot of us -especially my generation -DON'T have the social skills to live together. We're so used to having things our own way that the idea of compromise is not in our psyche. I have some problems with this myself (though not as much as a lot of others). I've tried renting out a room several times and it's never really worked. The best one never paid his rent on time, never chipped in on groceries, and did the dishes (one of his common chores) exactly twice in all the time he lived here. The worst was such a slob I came home from a week away and nearly threw up because of the smell from the mess she'd made. One time I got so sick of waiting for her to clean up her messes that I did it. The trash filled three bags and her belongings that were scattered and piled everywhere formed a mound 10 feet high in the living room. I'd like to find another roommate, but I don't think I could find anyone who would put up with me and the pets and be a good roomie!

Anonymous said...

Ras,

Your experience is one of the reasons so many people cannot even entertain the idea of dealing with roommates.

Most of the time since I left home, and was not married, I've had roommates. Not once did I have the problems you indicated you had. When I joined Pam in Tahoe, she had 5 people renting from her. Before I came into the picture, it is true that there were a couple of people that simply couldn't be lived with. But overall, it actually was a positive experience. When I was younger (by a bunch) I had also done some time in commune type living. Overall, it wasn't a horrid experience at all.

The question is why different people have different experiences in this area. I have no real answer to that.

My mother, before her stroke and after my fathers death, is the perfect picture of someone who should have been living with someone. She also was dead set against it. "Didn't want other people knowing my business" and "can't stand having other people around all the time". The consequence was that she endangered herself frequently, and my sister had to invest huge amounts of time taking care of her, (she lived about 25 miles away). Mother wanted to be independent, but was unable to do so. She no longer could drive, and public transportation was a bitch for her. Which may have had something to do with the area she lived in.


I have met elderly women and men who lived in a semi communal situation and it worked fine for all. I suppose it has something to do with the personalities involved.

Financially, it is true that you are allowed to have a certain percentage of income in relationship to your SS income. So let's look at this. Let's make an assumption. The living accommodations are paid for, no mortgage. In your example of $1000-$1500 per month may not be an average but be that as it may. Depending on the area you are in, that could be doable. In a lot of areas, it is starvation income.

In reading the SS rules on supplementary income, you are allowed to earn an outside income equal to your benefits without penalty. So, if you have benefits of $1000/mo, you can earn up to $1000/mo with no decrease. So, if you had 3 bedrooms, rented 2 at something less than $500/mo. each you wouldn't have a decrease in benefits. If you exceed the $1000/mo in income, the SS benefits are reduced by whatever amount is in excess of the $1000/mo. The people that are renting and living on SS have a non taxable, non reporting income. I can find nothing that stipulates household income when all are on SS. It does kick in household income when applying for things like food stamps and certain other types of entitlements. So, the only person that would be affected by the renters is the landlord and has to do only with the landlords total income from all sources.

It is true that a balancing act has to be performed in that area, but it can be done. For instance. If the total income from renting rooms exceeded the landlords SS income, and factoring in taxes from the income, would you be better off?

As long as the people all are able to live independently to begin with, it can be worked out. When you also take a look at what it costs for nursing homes and assisted living facilities, you would have to be wealthy to have anything left at all right off the top and communal living wouldn't make sense. My sister took care of my mother for about 1 1/2 years. None of my mothers benefits were cut and there was no penalty because the household income was in excess of some amount which far exceeded mothers total benefits.

Interesting you use the term "compromise" in group living. I'm not so sure it is necessarily applicable. If so, and you were raised in a family, then you are well used to "compromise". All family living is a set of "compromises" then. I would tend to look at that kind of problem as "me" vs "them" in non family living groups, more of an ego thing I think which was certainly true of my mother.

When it comes down to the bottom line, is eating canned cat food or a diet of macaroni and cheese a better alternative to group living?
If our situations get as bad as we project, we are going to have to take a new look at communal living out of necessity anyway. Avoid the rush.

Anonymous said...

lolo...We all have stories of Roommates from Hell that are entertaining learning experiences. In Tahoe, I did have to ask two people to move out. One, was a lady who turned out to be crazy. She became rude and confrontational and threw her little dog's poop into my son's room because she was mad at him. Another was a Mexican casino worker who was fine, but his dad would come over and drink beer all day when he had a fight with his wife, and pee all over the bathroom floor (which was often.)
It's true that the younger the people are, often times the more erratic the behavior. It takes an exceptional amount of time in this culture to grow up. An alarming number of people don't have a concept of keeping one's word. Many never do. If we were renting to the Amish, there probably wouldn't be a problem with that.
But, by the time a person is older and has lived and raised a family, and has a regular check coming in, I figure that it would be easier to create a stable situation. The type of communal situation I'm envisioning also requires a larger home, like 4 or 5 bedrooms. And before anybody did anything, there would be an understanding of just what the process was going to be and what the intention is and so forth.
I have enjoyed a range of ages living together at the same time. One thing I know is that no system (political, religious, financial) will work if it is sabotaged by lying, greed,and selfishness. And, nobody can bullshit you about those things when you live with them.
That's the real test, isn't it? If we can master what it takes to live with each other in a fair, comfortable and empowering way, then I think we have a chance to fix our larger problems. But until then, I think our chances are pretty dim.

Anonymous said...

great post sis/..... look at (rex84)?

ras. this is montana, man have you got it right about having slobs fucking up YOUR quarters, here is the catch, yours truly during the late sixties and early seventies as a hitchhiker extraordinaire seeking the perfect commune situation discovered much about human nature, it was great and what an education in itself. man i saw more bullshit on the one hand and on the other truly great scenes of human interaction.the main thing that was prevalent in most was that some mother fucker would take it upon him or her self to be the head honcho and tell everyone else their social and workplace designation. well to put it simply there was never one place good enough for this one to want to call home. city or country, causeeee, no mother fucker in this universe will ever tell me what to do unless they have a gun against my temple, and god help um if they look away for one second.
so anyway this was then and we were all pretty young and even the fact that we in most cases would pull together on things there was always the fucking ego that fucked things up.
now this ego thing of which happens to be my personal quest with the help of my awesome spirit guide langosta the sweet, is in its various guises is a fucking plague at the worst and a fun thing at its best but in the final analysis is a fucking nuisance and really needs to be put in its proper place. Garbage can comes to mind.

at one point long ago while the children were young it came to me while being in the unusual occurrence of occupying a square teepee that it should belong to the children and and that my place was to create a condition that was simply safe and somewhat clean and let um have at it.
remember ''don't jump on the couch ?'' and other extraneous bullshit?
well fuck that let um jump. houses are a shit place to lock down a kid anyway, actually being of a gypsy nature the kids raised them selfs as we were camped along some river someplace, and our earth-mother was the impartial teacher, unforgiving and full of love energy for its creatures,(the kids).
also before i forget, this was also the most best place to live among other humans, each had their little camp made from what ever,and would as a community help each other and share what ever was dragged in from the outside world and it was great. no one telling others what to do because a small go fuck yourself was pretty much understandable by the dimmest of friends.
it was TRIBAL!! no formal rules and obligations was some christian crap used by the sly to ensnare dumb asses and to be used as part or full time slaves.
everything was voluntary and the new comers bringing their crippled fucked up egos either learned to live without a noose around their necks or simply wondered off to some structured whorehouse of perishables.
this life style was not without its challenges for sure, but the fact that most if not all of these people cared little about the acquisition of materialistic crap but rather enjoyed the pleasure of each others company and helping one another just to live because everyone was in the same boat for the most part, still folks carry their childhoods with them and problems cropped up from time to time and there was some violence, but it was not often and it usually occurred after and over dose of firewater celebration.
the fact that children were included in everything that happened was a constant reminder that there was more to life then over reacting to mommy and daddy's wonderful sense of purpose, which is nothing more then passing on that ancient truth of either consciously or unconsciously accepting the bullshit that keeps the world so fucked up in its behavior.
these children thrived and now that they are grown there is not one single one that does not have a good heart and will pitch in at the drop of a hat to help someone in need. not perfect according to some but good enough to be called one of those that you could live next to and not worry about them causing you undue stress. now the stress that one causes oneself is something else of course and piss there ain't nothing you can do about that, its like eating off another's plate or wearing their jock strap, its a personal thing, right?
ok enough flap for now i guess, this probably don't make much sense but thats how some of life goes anyway.
so..as long as there is a sense of ownership involved its going to be for sure nine out of ten a bitch to live with anyone else, when its YOUR house or THEIR house, your fucked, if you discover a house together then thats a whole other bag of bones. you share cause it don't belong to nobody, o hell wait a minute... here it goes "hey!! i saw it first, its my house!!"
sigh.....
peace
aho
mf

ps bug says we should try to discourage our footprints on the mother anyway we can.
pss, the greenhouse is coming along fine rockpicker, thanks for asking

Anonymous said...

Freeacre.Really good ideas.I ve already gathered my old sister to move to Sask with us.She is getting on and has no money except her pension.She is a great gardener.Funny you mentioned Anne Arbor in 68.I used to hitchhike there from Edmonton every summer for the blues festival,somebody always let me crash for a few days.I loved the 60's.Russell in Canada.ps.had my last chemo tuesday.

Anonymous said...

Great news, Russell! Hope that's the end of it, and you can get onto your land and you and your sister can kick back and grow great stuff and live the way you want to and cultivate peace of mind. All the best! Keep us posted.

lolo...Montana. It's nice to be reminded that living the "simple" freed up life comes in a zillion forms. I bet your kids feel they had charmed childhoods.

Anonymous said...

Soooo....is everybody busy making crash preparations, gardening, or just drifting away? Are there some subjects that you would rather consider than these? What's the haps?

Anonymous said...

congrats russell form canada, we're with you brother, my brother is dying from cancer before my eyes and is too sick to even consider anything more to heal, the fucking disease is just to overpowering and though he is more scared of death them let on he is more then ready to find out what awaits him on the other side.
we connect every day on some level and he can still laugh at the feeble jokes i tell and tells me that i'm a shitty comedian and i agree. we go for rides in the country out at eagles nest and the river and a weekly trip to the dump to see what treasures are being cast aside to be replaced by wally world plastic.
these little things mean much to a once physically strong man, now cut down by the contagious sickness that thrives in a world gone insane, why just one hour ago i heard a helicopter buzzing just south of my square teepee , it was spraying something as a crop duster would, the catch? there is no fucking crop!! GODDAM IT!!
thank god its raining and the wind is slightly out of the north ( rare) and the nutrient? HAH! bullshit,. the poison is going straight into the ground to add a little more to what is already there. those mother fuckers will just not quit this outrage, i heard nothing about this , not a fucking word. but i already know it was MONSANTOS ROUNDUP! and get this, there is a weed here that bears a pretty little purple flower and was introduced from europe and now is a goddam plague and has to be regionally controlled but grows right back because its everywhere, the name of it,? its called SPOTTED KNAP WEED. anyone else got it in their neighborhood? its even in the mountains around here brought in by logging trucks
just one more fuckup by shit from somewhere else.
other then that its a beautiful morning with already mentioned gentle rain after a glorious yesterday in which yours truly managed to create with the help of the trusty little helper two new garden spots, one for a son and one for a dear friend that loves to get her hands in mother earth and play. tickling i think she says, she tickles mother earth and hears her laughter as the little seeds are placed within her body and to bring forth the fruit that gives life to children.
have not checked in for a while and it seems as if everyone is to busy to really chat much as it should be i guess, i was in the hardware store yesterday and the place was packed with folks buying seeds, and all the things it takes to make gardens, i think at least in this little village that the news of impending disaster and the possibility that food might be in short supply are getting ready, wheeew, lord knows i've talked till blue in the face to folks that hard times is on its way and better get ready and either that or something else is sinking in, what a relief. felt good being there with so many like minded people and knowing that at least a few are listening.
ok something from the bug,

bug says that we... as lights in a world of darkness are not required to entertain the notion of giving our attention to the continued downward spiral of a decaying human travesty , that our little band of swimmers has been given all that is needed to survive the coming blackout of the current human experience and that fear has no place to hide anymore.and that our efforts instead of being maybe a torturous affair ...we might look to the beauty that has obviously been hidden from those that would destroy us.
humm......
also.
SATS, we continue to hold vigilance for your beautiful wife, the candles and sage burn bright and cleanse the world of doubt.i think the minds of all that love you and your family speed the energy of healing to you.and we hope for a full recovery for a sister we know only as thought waves and a digital picture, but that is enough.
aho
mf&b

ps freeacre, you know it has occurred to me that the importance of physical health as attached and the same for the most part as mental health, it might be a subject for the council. just a thought but as a year of sobriety has come and gone the world has taken on a new and beautiful strangeness that i cannot describe but is too sweet for words after the initial shock also has come and gone also.
so many people to hug, love is in the air can you feel it.?
i tried to hug a whale once in oregon that had beached itself and died,.............i cried.

Anonymous said...

I'm so glad to hear from you, Montana. I'm glad that your people are out putting in gardens as a hedge against the hard times. My little lettuce and radish babies are about two inches tall, and other little things are just beginning to show their heads. They are a pleasure to watch. Today I went to the St. Vincent DePaul store and got some flannel sheets and mattress pads to use for garden covers to help keep the plants warm. We will staple them to frames we are making for garden shelters.
I think the bug's message is a good one. At this point, the analysis of the shitstorm to come has already been done. The rest will only be the details of which way it will actually come down. But, now that we know what a twisted trip TPTB have in store for us,the only real antidote we have is to live the opposite of it.
I find myself attempting to be aware of the stress and anxiety and annoyance in my mind, and release them. The feelings are like the gruesome footprints of Darth Chaney and his minions running through my mind's mental ground. I'm attempting to let that crap go and replace it with silence and calm and maybe just a little smile to fill in the gaps when nothing is going on.
There is no beating these miscreants at their own game. We need to be playing a different one. Something simple like "Kick the Can." "Grow the Garden," "Dump Treasure Hunt," "Help Your Neighbor," "Recognize a Good Thing." Anything and everything that makes us feel more whole and happy, proud, and free that doesn't cost any money and won't profit the profiteers.
This is not a form of denial, or pretending that everything is OK. It's more like building a fort for ourselves from which we can "Make Love, Not War."
We keep a vigil for your brother, too, Montana, as well as rejoice with Russell and the dear wife of SATS.

mrs p said...

I'm poor and stubborn but there's no time to be either. Soon and getting closer everyday, we'll all have to drop our egos and modest vanity very quickly, so fast our heads will spin and then we'll be in a hole over that so we'd might as well get used to the idea of living and doing everything very differently than we've been doing it, like it or not. Whole neighborhoods will have to buck up and commune together. In order for this mess to untangle itself, the recipe has to seriously change from the top down or from the bottom up or both. If we're forced into going back to basics then it will be a party in a sence at least for those who are expecting it. We'll just have to embrace it enthusiastically or just create suffering for ourselves.

Meanwhile lets not hand the PTB same evil group the election by dropping out and ignoring the election. If Obama turns out to be more of the same then I'll have to eat my hat but maybe he'll pull some other great people into the mix. Maybe he'll have J. Edwards and Ron Paul at the table with him. I hope we can stop this huge lean towards corporate fasicsts having all the power that so many unsuspecting ignorant americans have bought into. It has spread worldwide but even some of the elites know we can't continue this way and can see we're at a critical downslide in everything that matters. Even some of them may vote for change out of fear of losing it all. So I can't help lately but think it's time for Hillary to step aside and support what she claims to believe in. All hands on deck! We cannot afford to waste another 4 years with this BS...(John McCain). We're at a very critical point. It may even be too damn late but I will not incourage anyone to hand them the election, (if we have one). Obama will intelligently address and attack the issues. He will hopefully abolish the Un-elected private not-federal crooked to the core--Federal Reserve. Maybe. He will at least discuss it. No one can tell me the election doesn't matter. I still believe it does. Step away from the vehicle Hillary...all hands on deck. As usual a bit hyper and dillusional, mrsp :O)

Anonymous said...

this is sure to get us a new posting, sorry about the length its fingers with no conscience and love for all that allow me to just ramble like the old fart that i am

all adjustments to normalize the body processes are at full function

bug says that i have a tendency to worship words to much, i says what do you mean? she says a word is a physical object , its a physical configuration or arrangement of brain matter and can be proved by going into the brain with a scalpel and just cutting out the part of the brain that contains the word. worshiping words is really no different then worshiping anything else, to worship the word is to give it power to direct ones actions, people will kill you over a word, like when you say french fry down south , why them there is fighting words to some.
hard to believe she says but thats part of the human condition catch and release she says.
anyone remember soylent green? well its in the matrix also, people are energy, batteries,heat, .....food. these are all interchangeable stuffs aren't they? what is the total output of say btu's of all the humans. i wonder about shit like this all the time, ,,,, its got to be a bunch, like six billion times one right? i flunked math too, just laying our a roof with more then two sides leads to my bottle of prescription goodies right beside the hammer strap. helps with the hard stuff you know.
anyway if you melted down all the people and put it in a square,how big would the square be? someone good at rithmatic help me with this one?

b.
i says wtf? she says remember the other day when you came across the term ' grammar nazis'? on some right wing
she says its true what you have read about the genetics not being the instrements of manifest except as only the tools in the pouch to do the work, the reality of it is is that there is no will be or might be or could be or anything else that has in its outlook the illusion of time, for time does not exist except as an idea in the mind, and as soon as the mind learns this through and through, completely, then all limitation is gone, all limitation is gone, the mind is the decider and the dna is the worker bees and is not this a wonderful thing?
would you like to know what it feels like to be a wolf? and be an actual wolf,? or any other form, this is how the shape shifters transform

one would seek the place where neither agreement nor disagreement would enter into the equation, truth spreads its own legs and needs no comfort .
bug

was tilling up a garden yesterday and guess what,? up popped a cricket, first one of the season,was good to see her, how do i know it was a her? i asked her how else? said did she know langosta and she said of course that langosta was kind of like grandmother in two legged's terms, of course i looked around to see if anyone else was around but there was not,
you know this more then likely will sound like some sort of mental projection or the equivalent to folks but ask you self this, do you really know who made you? i mean come straight up and looked deep and said who the fuck am i and what or whatever is it that made it not only possible to be here in a body but also in a body that can ask such a question? i mean holy fuck, is this just something that is a ho hum item and ....well for me it is the most paramount thing in existence, to stand face to face with the creator, that is if the creator has a face. if you think we are an accidental collection of random cells that just somehow got together and made a human, .....well thats just plain assed nuts as far as i am concerned , ok got to admit that a little help from some of the food that the creator put in the path of those that seek the explanation for their own existence has helped a lot, and i'm pretty sure that most that visit or live close to these council will know of which i speak, because while ingesting these sometime scary culinary delights the light of the mind is reveled and one is shown things that go far beyond ordinary awareness and the only way to tell if what i am saying is to simply go there and try it for your self.!
Well, the native americans or what's left of them have used these foods for eons of time in seeking what they refer to as the great mystery and have found among other things the way to live with not only each other but with mother earth herself, all the creatures upon her as relations and to most of all if intent is great enough to gift one with a sentient relation to act as a gateway to the intelligence of the universe which this one has but only in a limited fashion the tools to understand the deeper things that are available, but bug says that over time this will become greater and site? i says no. but the book says the nazi party was outlawed in germany at the end of ww ii , how can you outlaw words,that just sounds way to stupid for me even.


the reason the sense of the i stays in place is its constant reminder by being in the vicenity of its reminders

it flashed on me so hard that people are afraid to love,!!! why is that? why are we afraid to love? thats crazy, were not afraid to love are we? so what is love? this thing that we are afraid of, what is it,? what does it mean? to love something.
how bout man loving man? not necessarly to have sex,i mean you love a turtle does not mean you want to have sex with a turtle does it ? hummmm told ya i had a sick bone, that is really an uncomfortable thought huh? sex with a turtle, but how does one know unless one tries, right? i mean you could go on a turtle date or something, go to the beach, see a beach movie, watch whales. hold appendeges or what ever. talk about the really good things in life, you know like suntan lotion, mesqueto netting,
greater as it is needed or just simply desired.
the spirit guide as they are called can be anything, even clouds or rocks or trees or the river, don't know how it works, only that it does and the voice, image or whatever or however its manifested just is, and thats that,.... ok bug says this is simple and everyone knows it, the word is not the thing, the word rainbow is not the rainbow, so in trying to covey what rainbow is and what it looks like leaves one only the tools as memory to understand what a rainbow is.. right? thats assuming one has never seen a rainbow,,,she says this is also one of the great mysteries as to why the confusion among two leggeds is so rampant, what we call communication is really one of a response to a response to a response and the response has nothing to do with actuality except as the fact that that is reality at that moment, that that whole thing is the truth about the moment,and it is only a proximation to what is actually being discussed and works ok for most things but totally fucked when it comes down to the really important things,like who's dick is bigger and what does ownership really mean and why is it that we as humans have less sensitivity then a nose hair. i mean how exactly is it that we feel no oneness with the suffering of our fellow humans or the suffering of animals when we put them to the guillotine
to satisfy our gluttony for the flesh of our relatives? don't get me wrong i eat meat from time to time but the minute delicious comes into the mind i think of putting myself in this poor creatures place and somehow the flavor is just not quite the same.

well heres something that i was asking langosta about and it had to do with health, i was thinking about immunity systems and how that worked and she explained to me that all living things have immunity systems and that these things kept them from being eaten, sure i scratched my head at this but she went on to explain that also the condition of the two legged's immunity to being eaten was simply that the immunity systems or the things we eat are of the nature of one of two things, either when they are eaten their systems are fastened to ours and enhance ours or act as poisons to us and then inhibit further eating of that particular item. she said this one of the key factors in human health and longevity and also some of those that we choose to eat bring about the condition of mind explanation of which has already been spoken of, but also she says that the ingesting of processed manufactured man made stuff that comes in a box or sack and not straight out of the ground that one is doomed to the deterioration of the brain and consequently the mind, ( they are different she says). but more then that she says is that processed shit i mean (food) is a real poison and the diseases inflecting people also make them less sensitive to everything that is encountered in daily life and allows people to get pissed off and go postal at the drop of a hat.


just think of it, every school shooting that has taken place lately has been kids or adults under the influence of some god forsaken mind altering so called healing drug!!! ridden comes to mind and good ole prosaic of course, that wonderful little psyche item that drove one of my kids grandfather to almost successfully commit suicide.
ok this is enough blither for one morning, but am alarmed at the amount of crap that the children as well as the adults put into their mouths, and friends that watch television tell me that this shit is on 24/7 with no escape!!
god help us
peace
aho
mf&bug


this is sure to get us a new posting, sorry about the length its fingers with no conscience and love for all that allow me to just ramble like the old fart that i am

all adjustments to normalize the body processes are at full function

bug says that i have a tendency to worship words to much, i says what do you mean? she says a word is a physical object , its a physical configuration or arrangement of brain matter and can be proved by going into the brain with a scalpel and just cutting out the part of the brain that contains the word. worshiping words is really no different then worshiping anything else, to worship the word is to give it power to direct ones actions, people will kill you over a word, like when you say french fry down south , why them there is fighting words to some.
hard to believe she says but thats part of the human condition catch and release she says.
anyone remember soylent green? well its in the matrix also, people are energy, batteries,heat, .....food. these are all interchangeable stuffs aren't they? what is the total output of say btu's of all the humans. i wonder about shit like this all the time, ,,,, its got to be a bunch, like six billion times one right? i flunked math too, just laying our a roof with more then two sides leads to my bottle of prescription goodies right beside the hammer strap. helps with the hard stuff you know.
anyway if you melted down all the people and put it in a square,how big would the square be? someone good at rithmatic help me with this one?

b.
i says wtf? she says remember the other day when you came across the term ' grammar nazis'? on some right wing
she says its true what you have read about the genetics not being the instrements of manifest except as only the tools in the pouch to do the work, the reality of it is is that there is no will be or might be or could be or anything else that has in its outlook the illusion of time, for time does not exist except as an idea in the mind, and as soon as the mind learns this through and through, completely, then all limitation is gone, all limitation is gone, the mind is the decider and the dna is the worker bees and is not this a wonderful thing?
would you like to know what it feels like to be a wolf? and be an actual wolf,? or any other form, this is how the shape shifters transform

one would seek the place where neither agreement nor disagreement would enter into the equation, truth spreads its own legs and needs no comfort .
bug

was tilling up a garden yesterday and guess what,? up popped a cricket, first one of the season,was good to see her, how do i know it was a her? i asked her how else? said did she know langosta and she said of course that langosta was kind of like grandmother in two legged's terms, of course i looked around to see if anyone else was around but there was not,
you know this more then likely will sound like some sort of mental projection or the equivalent to folks but ask you self this, do you really know who made you? i mean come straight up and looked deep and said who the fuck am i and what or whatever is it that made it not only possible to be here in a body but also in a body that can ask such a question? i mean holy fuck, is this just something that is a ho hum item and ....well for me it is the most paramount thing in existence, to stand face to face with the creator, that is if the creator has a face. if you think we are an accidental collection of random cells that just somehow got together and made a human, .....well thats just plain assed nuts as far as i am concerned , ok got to admit that a little help from some of the food that the creator put in the path of those that seek the explanation for their own existence has helped a lot, and i'm pretty sure that most that visit or live close to these council will know of which i speak, because while ingesting these sometime scary culinary delights the light of the mind is reveled and one is shown things that go far beyond ordinary awareness and the only way to tell if what i am saying is to simply go there and try it for your self.!
Well, the native americans or what's left of them have used these foods for eons of time in seeking what they refer to as the great mystery and have found among other things the way to live with not only each other but with mother earth herself, all the creatures upon her as relations and to most of all if intent is great enough to gift one with a sentient relation to act as a gateway to the intelligence of the universe which this one has but only in a limited fashion the tools to understand the deeper things that are available, but bug says that over time this will become greater and site? i says no. but the book says the nazi party was outlawed in germany at the end of ww ii , how can you outlaw words,that just sounds way to stupid for me even.


the reason the sense of the i stays in place is its constant reminder by being in the vicenity of its reminders

it flashed on me so hard that people are afraid to love,!!! why is that? why are we afraid to love? thats crazy, were not afraid to love are we? so what is love? this thing that we are afraid of, what is it,? what does it mean? to love something.
how bout man loving man? not necessarly to have sex,i mean you love a turtle does not mean you want to have sex with a turtle does it ? hummmm told ya i had a sick bone, that is really an uncomfortable thought huh? sex with a turtle, but how does one know unless one tries, right? i mean you could go on a turtle date or something, go to the beach, see a beach movie, watch whales. hold appendeges or what ever. talk about the really good things in life, you know like suntan lotion, mesqueto netting,
greater as it is needed or just simply desired.
the spirit guide as they are called can be anything, even clouds or rocks or trees or the river, don't know how it works, only that it does and the voice, image or whatever or however its manifested just is, and thats that,.... ok bug says this is simple and everyone knows it, the word is not the thing, the word rainbow is not the rainbow, so in trying to covey what rainbow is and what it looks like leaves one only the tools as memory to understand what a rainbow is.. right? thats assuming one has never seen a rainbow,,,she says this is also one of the great mysteries as to why the confusion among two leggeds is so rampant, what we call communication is really one of a response to a response to a response and the response has nothing to do with actuality except as the fact that that is reality at that moment, that that whole thing is the truth about the moment,and it is only a proximation to what is actually being discussed and works ok for most things but totally fucked when it comes down to the really important things,like who's dick is bigger and what does ownership really mean and why is it that we as humans have less sensitivity then a nose hair. i mean how exactly is it that we feel no oneness with the suffering of our fellow humans or the suffering of animals when we put them to the guillotine
to satisfy our gluttony for the flesh of our relatives? don't get me wrong i eat meat from time to time but the minute delicious comes into the mind i think of putting myself in this poor creatures place and somehow the flavor is just not quite the same.

well heres something that i was asking langosta about and it had to do with health, i was thinking about immunity systems and how that worked and she explained to me that all living things have immunity systems and that these things kept them from being eaten, sure i scratched my head at this but she went on to explain that also the condition of the two legged's immunity to being eaten was simply that the immunity systems or the things we eat are of the nature of one of two things, either when they are eaten their systems are fastened to ours and enhance ours or act as poisons to us and then inhibit further eating of that particular item. she said this one of the key factors in human health and longevity and also some of those that we choose to eat bring about the condition of mind explanation of which has already been spoken of, but also she says that the ingesting of processed manufactured man made stuff that comes in a box or sack and not straight out of the ground that one is doomed to the deterioration of the brain and consequently the mind, ( they are different she says). but more then that she says is that processed shit i mean (food) is a real poison and the diseases inflecting people also make them less sensitive to everything that is encountered in daily life and allows people to get pissed off and go postal at the drop of a hat.


just think of it, every school shooting that has taken place lately has been kids or adults under the influence of some god forsaken mind altering so called healing drug!!! ridden comes to mind and good ole prosaic of course, that wonderful little psyche item that drove one of my kids grandfather to almost successfully commit suicide.
ok this is enough blither for one morning, but am alarmed at the amount of crap that the children as well as the adults put into their mouths, and friends that watch television tell me that this shit is on 24/7 with no escape!!
god help us
peace
aho
mf&bug








this is sure to get us a new posting, sorry about the length its fingers with no conscience and love for all that allow me to just ramble like the old fart that i am

all adjustments to normalize the body processes are at full function

bug says that i have a tendency to worship words to much, i says what do you mean? she says a word is a physical object , its a physical configuration or arrangement of brain matter and can be proved by going into the brain with a scalpel and just cutting out the part of the brain that contains the word. worshiping words is really no different then worshiping anything else, to worship the word is to give it power to direct ones actions, people will kill you over a word, like when you say french fry down south , why them there is fighting words to some.
hard to believe she says but thats part of the human condition catch and release she says.
anyone remember soylent green? well its in the matrix also, people are energy, batteries,heat, .....food. these are all interchangeable stuffs aren't they? what is the total output of say btu's of all the humans. i wonder about shit like this all the time, ,,,, its got to be a bunch, like six billion times one right? i flunked math too, just laying our a roof with more then two sides leads to my bottle of prescription goodies right beside the hammer strap. helps with the hard stuff you know.
anyway if you melted down all the people and put it in a square,how big would the square be? someone good at rithmatic help me with this one?

b.
i says wtf? she says remember the other day when you came across the term ' grammar nazis'? on some right wing
she says its true what you have read about the genetics not being the instrements of manifest except as only the tools in the pouch to do the work, the reality of it is is that there is no will be or might be or could be or anything else that has in its outlook the illusion of time, for time does not exist except as an idea in the mind, and as soon as the mind learns this through and through, completely, then all limitation is gone, all limitation is gone, the mind is the decider and the dna is the worker bees and is not this a wonderful thing?
would you like to know what it feels like to be a wolf? and be an actual wolf,? or any other form, this is how the shape shifters transform

one would seek the place where neither agreement nor disagreement would enter into the equation, truth spreads its own legs and needs no comfort .
bug

was tilling up a garden yesterday and guess what,? up popped a cricket, first one of the season,was good to see her, how do i know it was a her? i asked her how else? said did she know langosta and she said of course that langosta was kind of like grandmother in two legged's terms, of course i looked around to see if anyone else was around but there was not,
you know this more then likely will sound like some sort of mental projection or the equivalent to folks but ask you self this, do you really know who made you? i mean come straight up and looked deep and said who the fuck am i and what or whatever is it that made it not only possible to be here in a body but also in a body that can ask such a question? i mean holy fuck, is this just something that is a ho hum item and ....well for me it is the most paramount thing in existence, to stand face to face with the creator, that is if the creator has a face. if you think we are an accidental collection of random cells that just somehow got together and made a human, .....well thats just plain assed nuts as far as i am concerned , ok got to admit that a little help from some of the food that the creator put in the path of those that seek the explanation for their own existence has helped a lot, and i'm pretty sure that most that visit or live close to these council will know of which i speak, because while ingesting these sometime scary culinary delights the light of the mind is reveled and one is shown things that go far beyond ordinary awareness and the only way to tell if what i am saying is to simply go there and try it for your self.!
Well, the native americans or what's left of them have used these foods for eons of time in seeking what they refer to as the great mystery and have found among other things the way to live with not only each other but with mother earth herself, all the creatures upon her as relations and to most of all if intent is great enough to gift one with a sentient relation to act as a gateway to the intelligence of the universe which this one has but only in a limited fashion the tools to understand the deeper things that are available, but bug says that over time this will become greater and site? i says no. but the book says the nazi party was outlawed in germany at the end of ww ii , how can you outlaw words,that just sounds way to stupid for me even.


the reason the sense of the i stays in place is its constant reminder by being in the vicenity of its reminders

it flashed on me so hard that people are afraid to love,!!! why is that? why are we afraid to love? thats crazy, were not afraid to love are we? so what is love? this thing that we are afraid of, what is it,? what does it mean? to love something.
how bout man loving man? not necessarly to have sex,i mean you love a turtle does not mean you want to have sex with a turtle does it ? hummmm told ya i had a sick bone, that is really an uncomfortable thought huh? sex with a turtle, but how does one know unless one tries, right? i mean you could go on a turtle date or something, go to the beach, see a beach movie, watch whales. hold appendeges or what ever. talk about the really good things in life, you know like suntan lotion, mesqueto netting,
greater as it is needed or just simply desired.
the spirit guide as they are called can be anything, even clouds or rocks or trees or the river, don't know how it works, only that it does and the voice, image or whatever or however its manifested just is, and thats that,.... ok bug says this is simple and everyone knows it, the word is not the thing, the word rainbow is not the rainbow, so in trying to covey what rainbow is and what it looks like leaves one only the tools as memory to understand what a rainbow is.. right? thats assuming one has never seen a rainbow,,,she says this is also one of the great mysteries as to why the confusion among two leggeds is so rampant, what we call communication is really one of a response to a response to a response and the response has nothing to do with actuality except as the fact that that is reality at that moment, that that whole thing is the truth about the moment,and it is only a proximation to what is actually being discussed and works ok for most things but totally fucked when it comes down to the really important things,like who's dick is bigger and what does ownership really mean and why is it that we as humans have less sensitivity then a nose hair. i mean how exactly is it that we feel no oneness with the suffering of our fellow humans or the suffering of animals when we put them to the guillotine
to satisfy our gluttony for the flesh of our relatives? don't get me wrong i eat meat from time to time but the minute delicious comes into the mind i think of putting myself in this poor creatures place and somehow the flavor is just not quite the same.

well heres something that i was asking langosta about and it had to do with health, i was thinking about immunity systems and how that worked and she explained to me that all living things have immunity systems and that these things kept them from being eaten, sure i scratched my head at this but she went on to explain that also the condition of the two legged's immunity to being eaten was simply that the immunity systems or the things we eat are of the nature of one of two things, either when they are eaten their systems are fastened to ours and enhance ours or act as poisons to us and then inhibit further eating of that particular item. she said this one of the key factors in human health and longevity and also some of those that we choose to eat bring about the condition of mind explanation of which has already been spoken of, but also she says that the ingesting of processed manufactured man made stuff that comes in a box or sack and not straight out of the ground that one is doomed to the deterioration of the brain and consequently the mind, ( they are different she says). but more then that she says is that processed shit i mean (food) is a real poison and the diseases inflecting people also make them less sensitive to everything that is encountered in daily life and allows people to get pissed off and go postal at the drop of a hat.


just think of it, every school shooting that has taken place lately has been kids or adults under the influence of some god forsaken mind altering so called healing drug!!! ridden comes to mind and good ole prosaic of course, that wonderful little psyche item that drove one of my kids grandfather to almost successfully commit suicide.
ok this is enough blither for one morning, but am alarmed at the amount of crap that the children as well as the adults put into their mouths, and friends that watch television tell me that this shit is on 24/7 with no escape!!
god help us
peace
aho
mf&bug

Anonymous said...

Dang MF..... that was long but you had me ROFLMAO with regard to sex with a turtle.... I am sure that somewhere on the coast here there is a local who has tried it!

Man I agree with you about the shyte that we eat...I am no expert but the way kids are today ADD and a whole host of other behaviour afflictions I believe are directly related to the added flavor enhancers, the aspartame, the added color, the added MSG, the added preservatives and the list goes on and on.

I read a while back how wheat flour is blamed for a list of ailments that certain humans have. Digestive dysfunction and all, but have you ever picked up a loaf of bread, or say a pre packed muffin and looked down the list of ingredients. There is very little in that product that is actually flour, and maybe just maybe that preservative, and trust me there are many types of food preservatives today as so goes the miracle of a chemical society, is designed to KILL bacteria and you know it probably does not care whether it is helpful digestive bacteria or the breakdown to mold under the right conditions bacteria. Then you think that if a person say over the course of 35 to 50 years of eating these foodstuffs can safely believe that they will not take a toll you are but fooling yourself. Oh yeah flour is bad for you alright, back in the days on the farm I saw my share of fat mice in the old wheat bin much to the satisfaction of the barn cats....
On this matter here is an article I found interesting...
http://en.epochtimes.com/news/8-5-9/70483.html
Looks to me a couple of sumo wrestlers are about to get at it...lol

All kidding aside if you did not know it already one really does need to investigate a poison called Aspartame. Again I read some place that it works very well to kill ants.

Anyway not sure if this will get posted, been having a problem that way lately.. but if it does Hello to all....

Ely

Anonymous said...

holy shit how in the hell that happened i do not know, fuck!! sorry about that guys. freeacre can you fix this mess? damn, never happened before.
mf

Anonymous said...

...uh, I'll have whatever Montana Freeman is having...

Hi, Ely!