just laura

I love this poem every time I see it, and don’t think I’ve
posted it here before. For more on him, there’s target="_blank">a nice interview you can check out. -Cat

Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front
by Wendell Berry

Love the quick profit, the annual raise,
vacation with pay. Want more
of everything ready-made. Be afraid
to know your neighbors and to die.

And you will have a window in your head.
Not even your future will be a mystery
any more. Your mind will be punched in a card
and shut away in a little drawer.

When they want you to buy something
they will call you. When they want you
to die for profit they will let you know.
So, friends, every day do something
that won’t compute. Love the Lord.
Love the world. Work for nothing.
Take all that you have and be poor.
Love someone who does not deserve it.

Denounce the government and embrace
the flag. Hope to live in that free
republic for which it stands.
Give your approval to all you cannot
understand. Praise ignorance, for what man
has not encountered he has not destroyed.

Ask the questions that have no answers.
Invest in the millenium. Plant sequoias.
Say that your main crop is the forest
that you did not plant,
that you will not live to harvest.

Say that the leaves are harvested
when they have rotted into the mold.
Call that profit. Prophesy such returns.
Put your faith in the two inches of humus
that will build under the trees
every thousand years.

Listen to carrion — put your ear
close, and hear the faint chattering
of the songs that are to come.
Expect the end of the world. Laugh.
Laughter is immeasurable. Be joyful
though you have considered all the facts.
So long as women do not go cheap
for power, please women more than men.

Ask yourself: Will this satisfy
a woman satisfied to bear a child?
Will this disturb the sleep
of a woman near to giving birth?

Go with your love to the fields.
Lie down in the shade. Rest your head
in her lap. Swear allegiance
to what is nighest your thoughts.

As soon as the generals and the politicos
can predict the motions of your mind,
lose it. Leave it as a sign
to mark the false trail, the way
you didn’t go.

Be like the fox
who makes more tracks than necessary,
some in the wrong direction.
Practice resurrection.

“Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front” from The Country of
Marriage, copyright ® 1973 by Wendell Berry

I’m taking a six week glass blowing 101 class on Monday nights. It’s been delightfully fun and way more involved/challenging than I’d
predicted. I highly encourage it… though it has the potential to become addictive!

Seattle Glassblowing Studios in Belltown (5th and Blanchard): http://www.seattleglassblowing.com

My instructor Julie rocks: http://www.jkbglass.com

Week 1: Paper weight

Week 2: Blown glass ornaments/balls

Week 3: A lovely “rustic” tumbler

Week 4: Slightly “abstract” vase

It holds flowers and I’m very proud!

Heating my gather in the glory hole.

Shaping my gather on the marver.

Blowing the bubble into my gather to hallow it out.

Stretching my bubble into a soon-to-be vase shape.

Working with molten glass in a 2000F furnace makes for hot nights.

Kenya rounds up zebras for starving lions

Nairobi, Kenya (CNN) — Kenyan wildlife officials are ferrying thousands of zebras and wildebeest to a park in the country’s south to feed starving lions and hyenas, and prevent a conflict with humans.

The animals will be hauled from four locations to restock Amboseli National Park’s population, which lost 80 percent of its herbivores in a recent drought, said Kentice Tikolo, spokeswoman for the Kenya Wildlife Service.

“It was the worst drought in 26 years,” Tikolo said. “The Amboseli ecosystem was severely affected. … Lots of herbivores died, carnivores don’t have anything to feed on, and have been attacking neighboring livestock.”

The imbalance has sparked a row with villagers who lost animals in the drought and have threatened to kill lions and hyenas preying on remaining livestock.

Should the zebras be brought in to help the lions?

“There are only 2,000 lions left nationwide, and we are concerned because the numbers are dropping,” the spokeswoman said.

“Maasais are getting angry and threatening to spear them — the human versus wildlife conflict is getting out of hand — and our carnivores are already greatly endangered.”

About 4,000 zebras and 3,000 wildebeest will be transferred to Amboseli. The zebras will go first. The wildebeest will follow, after calving season, Tikolo said. Once at Amboseli, they’re expected to breed and sustain the lions over the long term.

Shipping the animals from Soysambu Conservancy in the Rift Valley and three other nearby locations will cost about $ 1.4 million, according to Tikolo.

The animals are herded into a funnel-shape enclosure using helicopters and loaded into trucks to Amboseli. From there, they are released into the wild, she said.

Tourism is the second-largest source of foreign exchange in the east African nation. About 20 percent of the income comes from tourism, with Amboseli as the second -highest earner, Tikolo said

Lions are among the big five — the list of top wildlife tourist attractions in the nation. Others are elephants, leopards, rhinos and buffalo.

I recently made a short vacation to Mexico. :) It was my first trip out of the country in over a year (since biking across Vietnam!), and it was most needed and much too short. It was a good time though, and I’ll try to post some pics here.

WHERE: Merida and Tulum, the Yucatan, Mexico

WHEN: February 2010

WHY: I picked Mexico, and the Yucatan specifically, because I was going to do the trip with my boyfriend David. He’s been to three countries in Europe, but otherwise hasn’t traveled much, so I thought Mexico would be a good intro to Latin America and developing countries in general. (He said he’s a “level 3 traveler” and that I’m a “level 15 traveler,” and asked me to go easy on him). Silly boy… I’m just excited to go adventure… it doesn’t have to be something crazy. So Mexcico seemed good – a new language, new culture, less developed, but still easy to navigate, close to home/short flight, similar time zone, some familiar foods, etc. I think it was a lovely choice! I also opted to rent a car in the Tucatan because of its versatility…. if we were feeling lazy, we could just lay on a beautiful beach and drink margaritas. If we were feeling more adventurous, we could drive out to ruins and climb around, explore cenotes (underwater caves), and maybe hit towns that were decidedly more Mexican and less tourist. Also, escaping cold, rainy Seattle in February to a warm sunny place sounded delightful. And as an added bonus, I learned a little Spanish when I was 14 in high school, so it would help us get by when out of the touristy areas. :)

At Mayapan ruins near Merida