A different kind of gas lighting

I hope I haven’t jinxed us. Today I finally pulled the winter floor mats from the jeep and rinsed the salt, sand and grit off of them. Some time over the summer they’ll get a thorough cleaning. Meanwhile the summer mats have been pulled from storage and are on their way to the front floor hooks that hold them in place. This may be the weekend in which we shut down the snow blower for the summer season. We’ll test it again come September or October.

winter’s salt streaks on the jeep’s hood

Photo by J. Harrington

I’ve been thinking about, fantasizing actually, what life might be like if all my tools and toys were electric instead of internal combustion powered. The chain saw and micro tiller are each two stroke powered so I have to keep looking up the proper oil/gas ratio. Neither has a very large gas tank so I have to keep a supply of gas stabilizer around and remember to use it. Of course, every once in awhile I forget and that means the tool gets a trip to the shop to get cleaned and tuned so it will start again.

At the moment, I have a battery powered leaf blower and pole chain saw. Recharging batteries is much easier and less complicated than keeping two or four stroke gas engines running properly. If I’m not dealing with gas / oil mixtures, I have to remember to do at least an annual oil change in the snow blower and push mower and tractor. None of this is terribly difficult but it is more work than changing a battery and placing one in the charger.

Have any of you read or seen descriptions of how life might be better and/or simpler with a low carbon life? I’m just beginning to think about the details. I know that the information technology I’ve come to rely on, computers, cell phones, all the chips and software in the jeep, often seem to be more trouble than it’s worth. I still miss the CD player we used to be able to order in our vehicles. Too often my cell phone play list and my jeep sound system end up speaking different languages or not talking to each other at all.

Meanwhile, corporations like Apple and John Deere present major obstacles to the right to repair effort. This presents another front on the make it simpler, easy to operate and repair. Much of the contemporary complexity we’re faced with looks to me like it’s as much to increase corporate profits as to provide a better product.

I know, I’m once again sounding like a pro-luddite, or maybe like Wendell Berry. There’s a lot to be said for either or both.

The Contrariness of the Mad Farmer

by Wendell Berry

I am done with apologies. If contrariness is my
inheritance and destiny, so be it. If it is my mission
to go in at exits and come out at entrances, so be it.
I have planted by the stars in defiance of the experts,
and tilled somewhat by incantation and by singing,
and reaped, as I knew, by luck and Heaven's favor,
in spite of the best advice. If I have been caught
so often laughing at funerals, that was because
I knew the dead were already slipping away,
preparing a comeback, and can I help it?
And if at weddings I have gritted and gnashed
my teeth, it was because I knew where the bridegroom
had sunk his manhood, and knew it would not
be resurrected by a piece of cake. ‘Dance,’ they told me,
and I stood still, and while they stood
quiet in line at the gate of the Kingdom, I danced.
‘Pray,’ they said, and I laughed, covering myself
in the earth's brightnesses, and then stole off gray
into the midst of a revel, and prayed like an orphan.
When they said, ‘I know my Redeemer liveth,’
I told them, ‘He's dead.’ And when they told me
‘God is dead,’ I answered, ‘He goes fishing every day
in the Kentucky River. I see Him often.’
When they asked me would I like to contribute
I said no, and when they had collected
more than they needed, I gave them as much as I had.
When they asked me to join them I wouldn't,
and then went off by myself and did more
than they would have asked. ‘Well, then,’ they said
‘go and organize the International Brotherhood
of Contraries,’ and I said, ‘Did you finish killing
everybody who was against peace?’ So be it.
Going against men, I have heard at times a deep harmony
thrumming in the mixture, and when they ask me what
I say I don't know. It is not the only or the easiest
way to come to the truth. It is one way.

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