This is late, but better formed. It has been 4 months since I have written to this site and I have gained perspective on the web and beyond. I am starting a teaching credential program at National University near by in San Jose at Night and have been taking care of our, now 11 month old, son Taylor during the day. When Taylor naps I have been busy building a salvage woodshop in our garage. It has been very fulfilling building on the roots of my Grandfather's woodshop/garage, while inside raising the next generation of our family with Amy!
I stayed particularly close to home and close to my thoughts this holiday season. It was a strange pull on my emotions to witness our floundering economy, and to have "buy EVERYTHING" blasted into every sensory input for the entire month(1.5 mo.?) of December. But It is easier for me since the 00's were my first TV free decade! This New Years started a new era for us. We are learning how to manage a family together, start businesses and generally be more efficient and effective both individually and as parents(who are going to have a walking talking toddler in a few months!). Strange as change often is, there is a theme of simplicity that seems to ring through all of it, almost on its own. So I maintain that if I keep my mind on simplicity, the puzzles of change will work out.

I salvage "waste" building materials and build home furniture and crafts, such as this picture frame, out of it. One of the beauties of the craft is in saving perfectly good materials from the landfill where it would become the next generation's problem. On a walk today, I saw this scene(picture) at a new development in our neighborhood. The typical building process is so wasteful, it makes my heart heavy to think about. At large scale "cookie-cutter" development, there is no room for mindfulness of resources. Waste is just factored into the cost of business. Whats worse is that new construction uses such crappy materials that not much of it is even worth salvaging. Most of my salvage comes from remodels and rebuilds. In these cases they are removing good, sturdy older wood and replacing it with laminates(particle board), flimsy aluminum and plastics.
This craft is one of symbolic beauty more than anything, and it is very satisfying. It is tough to want to build ones livelihood from it since it would be necessary that our building practices stay the same, not to mention it is logistically tough. Financially it wouldn't necessarily be impossible if one found their niche among the population that could afford to purchase it. But again, this would also assume the status quo in building would remain, else you'd be out of a job.

David Lynch is among a handful of film makers that really refined my sense of the art. I'm not not saying that I have a refined taste in films, but rather, they refined my perception and thought process while watching films. Every film has something to offer, but a David Lynch film is so full of genius that I am exhausted half way through. They are marathons of intellectual might that I used to take very seriously as an exercise of my mind and my perception of society.
Catching up on BoingBoing today, I ran across his latest project Interview Project. I have since distanced myself from film media for various reasons and I never really dug into who David Lynch was beyond the director of "Blue Velvet" and other such masterpieces. But it turns out he is also into meditation and has a foundation to further his practice and mission.

In today’s world of fear and uncertainty, every child should have one class period a day to dive within himself and experience the field of silence—bliss—the enormous reservoir of energy and intelligence that is deep within all of us. This is the way to save the coming generation. --David Lynch

I spent a good deal of time this memorial day weekend working in the front yard. I had some help one day from my sister in-law and cousin and that made the work speed by as we shared stories not worth repeating, but no less meaningful(not to mention funny!). [For some really good writing on the subject of (repeatable) stories, check out this posting by our friend Chad working in Chattanooga on a farm.] I tried to share my thoughts praising manual labor, I think maybe a little bit got through, but they peeled off after a while to play cornhole. Can anyone blame them! Our pile of weeds mounded up tangled with a green plastic mesh that must have been put down under the sod when it was laid decades back. I continue to work through my difficult feelings on labor, suburbia, living, and the environment.

One thing about the Blogosphere that I hold true is that it is GREAT at spreading/echoing ideas. I like this idea written over at boingboing about the economic situation. Its a conversation with the editor of Rolling Stone where he says we should be making koan-style one liners saying the truth about whats going on with the banking fiasco. As American as the situation is, and as much as everyone feels like it is our capitalist obligation to ourselves to prop up business as usual, it just doesn't feel right, like Morpheus says in The Matrix; "...it's like a sliver in your mind". So I am echoing this line, "debt is not a good product". I know the banking industry is more complicated than boiling it down to that, but ultimately the nations largest industry survives because they make money with money. Can't we found our country's well being on something else more meaningful and fulfilling for more people?