Lunatics and Nerds

But tell me, where do the children play?

Pencil and pen sketch :)

Well, I think it's fine
Building jumbo planes
Or taking a ride on a cosmic train
Switch on summer from a slot machine
Yes, get what you want to if you want
'Cause you can get anything

I know we've come a long way
We're changing day to day
But tell me, where do the children play?

Well, you roll on roads
Over fresh green grass
For your lorry loads
Pumping petrol gas
And you make them long
And you make them tough
But they just go on and on
And it seems that you can't get off

Oh, I know we've come a long way
We're changing day to day
But tell me, where do the children play?

Well, you've cracked the sky
Scrapers fill the air
But will you keep on building higher
'Til there's no more room up there?
Will you make us laugh?
Will you make us cry?
Will you tell us when to live?
Will you tell us when to die?

I know we've come a long way
We're changing day to day
But tell me, where do the children play?

- Cat Stevens

---

While watching the documentary The Lunatic Farmer, about world renowned farmer, Joel Salatin, the Cat Stevens/Yusuf song above came to mind. Dad driving. Me, nine years old. We’re singing, windows down. Hair flying.

What is my grandchildren's future?

It's been another heavy week of reflection.

“Deep down, very few of us want safety to suffocate freedom.”
- Joel Salatin

We are a suffocated society.

“I would suggest that a culture that views its pigs as just mechanical objects to be reprogrammed and manipulated will view its citizens the same way, and ultimately God the same way.”
― Joel Salatin, The Marvelous Pigness of Pigs: Respecting and Caring for All God's Creation

Saw a headline called “Revenge of the Nerds” - about the new oversight office and who on God’s earth wouldn’t want overspending, over-control and ridiculousness to be accounted for? You can’t work your entire life, like a mouse on a wheel, trusting governments top down to do the right thing with your hard earned tax dollars, only to find out that the waste is beyond hideous. This holds no “side,” no colors, no football teams. This is real life where people are dying every day who put years into their work to fund what? Certainly not their “free” healthcare or the appointment that’s taken a year to get. Certainly not doing something about the least of these on our blessed streets. I don’t need to elaborate.

The devil writes checks. He is not creative. He spends your money and he screams loudly when his hand is caught in your pocketbook.

But back to manipulation. Is that what it’s come to? If you don’t fall in line and put up with nonsense then you are a lunatic or a nerd? The smart ones are the ones who listen to government before God, dutifully buy drugged up food, drugged up healthcare and approve zero oversight of their money? I know I am partly smart in this game.

“Historians tell us that Talleyrand once told Napoleon, “You can do anything with bayonets, Sire, except sit on them.” In the language of the court this meant that obedience to the law ultimately depended on cooperation, not force.”
― Joel Salatin, Everything I Want to Do Is Illegal: War Stories from the Local Food Front

We have to live. And not by force.

Hell, for 13 years my calico cat is a metaphor for taking back our life. She spends our hard earned money, destroys literally everything she comes in contact with, loves us hard, hisses at anyone who dares enter her sphere, and continually has us in her clutches going backwards as we cleanup her carefully placed floating fur balls. We go back to the drawing board and work harder for her. God forbid she screams at us. Lately, to her dismay, I have taken back our house. She’ll survive.

Everyone will survive. The kids will survive. Fire Social/t.v. will tell you the opposite.

It begins with the care of each other and the earth. It’s about respect and “a cross where time and eternity meet,” as writer Madeleine L’Engle stated. A cross to bear and carry into eternity with each other. To live a purposeful life. To be vulnerable to live it your way, with all the tools we were given from birth. Some of us will need help along the way, but not all of us. Discern. Don’t hate on the goodness of those who were born to care.

Generalization is the devil’s most beautiful sounding instrument.

For now I have an osteopath, within our healthcare plan, use natural oil on my skin, hair is going gray, take a few supplements and try to eat healthy. For my severe arthritis I take cbd oil (non thc). This might make me a lunatic. I have yet to become truly unhinged. In fact, if it weren’t for our health “care” system I might try and go to a normal doctor for a few things. In a way, I am really grateful it’s been so messed up. I’ve gone deeper into how I am made. How I was uniquely created to battle while simultaneously funding Gates. Follow the footprints to the pharmacy.

If you're not of a practicing faith, but are of the Darwin belief, then you would naturally believe in survival of the fittest. If you have faith then you would believe God gave us exactly what we need to survive. We accept that. And the consequences of our choices. This is living free without suffocation. During the pandemic it was widely apparent that what was once building natural immunity was no longer acceptable. Full control. We saw videos of people being dragged from their homes. Pastors were arrested. I will never unsee a little corgi following his/her kicking/screaming owner to the paddy wagon, only to have a monster of health take a shovel and beat the dog to death.

For decades, our bodies were already being subjected to never ending needles to prevent virus and flu after virus and flu. Yet they keep coming. Why is that? Is natural a good option? Is trusting a mad and greedy scientist better than trusting in our amazing bodies? Are all scientists mad? We know they are not all infallible. Is letting others decide for themselves a decent and caring way to carry the cross? To let it be. To do it “my way.” And let them do it their way.

Let go and let.

We could no more combat open borders with needles for this and needles for that, than the warrior could combat war with just one needle. Yet that is the real war. Needles.

Despite our fears of disease, humans and animals, were made to migrate, adapt and defend.

How we approach our health is entirely up to us. And it’s okay. There is a “reasonable” amount of treatment. Life-saving treatment is a choice. My dad chose to keep two vital body parts, with the threat of death looming. Dad discerned two different doctors were too quick to speak about removing his precious parts. Another doctor gave him the power and control over his body. Dad bought 17 more years with an experiment. His choice.

“I warn my Christian friends to be extremely careful about what they become righteously indignant about. When we demand salvation by legislation, the law of unintended consequences kicks in.”
― Joel Salatin, The Marvelous Pigness of Pigs: Respecting and Caring for All God's Creation

Joel is one of the most amazing men I have ever read about. He sees the entire picture. A devout Christian Renaissance Man, Joel is not a hypocrite. I love this quote:

“While preachers rail against bringing junk into our homes via TV, the Internet, and pornographic literature, few bat an eye at a home stashed with high fructose corn syrup, potato chips, and Pop-Tarts. Indeed, some even suggest that the cheaper we eat, the more money we’ll have to put in the offering plate. And to top it off, they denigrate anyone who would suggest part of caring for children is caring about what they eat.”
― Joel Salatin, The Marvelous Pigness of Pigs: Respecting and Caring for All God's Creation

And this:

“Gravity tends to pull fertility downhill. Hence fertile valleys and infertile hilltops. But wait, many times the most fertile soils are on hilltops. How could that be? Herbivores graze in the fertile valleys and then trudge up to the hilltops to chew their cuds and lounge. Why the hilltop? To watch for those nasty predators. The herbivore-grass, predator-prey relationships are foundational to moving those biomass-stored sunbeams around on the landscape. Without animals, the anti-gravitational movement would be impossible. Without the predator, it wouldn't be incentivized. Truly, this whole ecosystem is fearfully and wonderfully made.”
― Joel Salatin, The Marvelous Pigness of Pigs: Respecting and Caring for All God's Creation

Going forward, it’s high time we all embraced the idea of creation and all that it has provided, from earth, minerals, bones and rocks for paint to an entire natural ecosystem. We were never meant to survive industrialized —> litigious everything.

Layers upon layers of suffocation.

My personal prayer is while many are living in fear of losing their social security, I stare at my husband’s blue collar hands disappointed upon the recent news his retirement is now 67. We are 64. But we are faithful to believe God’s got this. He made us stronger than we knew. This goes deeper than just one “side.” There are 20 hidden layers to every blatant blame statement and we will never find it on Google.

Cheers to the lunatics who cast the corporate and government henchmen aside, to deliver the “good goods” and why oversight nerds matter in the bigger picture of our nation’s real health. They aren’t writing checks with our money.

I know we’ve come a long way
We're changing day to day
But tell me, where do the children play?

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well. - Psalm 139:14

and my favorite:

Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? - Matthew 6:26

Farm behind mom’s house.