what i mean by 'aspiring peasant'

By peasant I mean that I want nothing more than a quiet, earthy life that takes more note of the cycles of the seasons and the position of the sun more than the financial quarter or current presidential administration.

By aspiring I'm nodding to the fact that it is, in fact, expensive as fuck to live simply and cleanly. A simple life disconnected from the worst of industrial consumerism sometimes feels like a luxury only attainable by the extremely wealthy - because the entire lifestyle of a peasant was based around an extremely localized economy that no longer exists.

"Craft goods" and "artisinal goods" and "handmade goods" used to go by another name: "goods". You might have few things, but they would be of high quality and you would probably know the person who made them.

Now, today, living a life surrounded by beautiful (if rustic) things made nearby and with very little (if any) environmental, ecological, or negative social cost - that's some hoity-toity shit.

Because the easy/cheap route is to get disposable plastic shit form Target and cut-rate industrial food from Walmart. In order to live simply and cheaply you have to eagerly participate in the ecological destruction of the planet, help make the GDP go brrr, and contribute to the oppression of people whose faces you'll never see.

People see this and it makes them feel real bad, so they come up with reasons and excuses the current way of doing business is fine. "Capitalism" "the market" "ableism" "next year" whatever they've gotta tell themselves to assuage the conscience.

Thanks, I hate it. I say "fuck no."

I say there are better ways to provide a community everything it needs. And I know nobody is going to take my word for it, so we're just trying to DO it.

But it's hard as fuck to spend all day every day swimming upstream and sometimes I get tired.

So when my kids bring in a little harvest like this, fresh produce from the garden, I like to take a moment and just savor it.

Are we there yet?
Oh, god no. Not even close.
We'll be at this for decades before we live up to our own standards.

But are we closer than we were?
Hell yes we are 💪🏼