Let’s look at a variety of topics, this week.
1. Nail soup
2. Morals
3. MLK
Okay,
Nail soup:
en.wikipedia.org/…
The story of nail soup, is the story of a con artist, who goes to the public square, of a small village,
with a metal pot,
builds a fire under the pot,
and puts water in the pot,
and puts a large nail, on a string, in the pot.
The con artist claims, “The soup will taste great, as is, however……
it would taste a lot better, with just a little….”
Then, the con artist tells each villager about one nice additional item,
such as,
potato, carrot, onion, meat, salt, butter, rice, etc.
The villagers, one by one, bring those things to the pot.
Soon, that con artist pulls the nail out of the pot,
and, both he, and the villagers, all enjoy a nice meal.
I bring this up, because, while cooking a package of macaroni and cheese,
I failed to understand the amount of water to add.
It said five cups.
I thought it said five quarts.
I was working with a five quart pot,
so, I added four quarts, of water.
Now, I had nail soup.
So, I started adding things:
salt,
sugar,
Accent,
red wine vinegar,
spicy hot spices,
and some cheese.
It already had about a quarter cup of corn oil.
I make a bowl of this, to eat,
using frozen bread, one slice, broken up,
one more slice of cheese (pasteurized process American),
with a few ladles of my seasoned nail soup.
This is my advice to home cooks, when you feel your dish of stew or soup needs something,
and you are not sure what,
my advice is,
oil or butter or cheese,
or all three, or any two,
salt,
sugar,
Accent,
red wine vinegar,
and spicy hot spices.
That is my essay on nail soup.
This should help us to avoid dismay and depression,
when we do not have exactly the right ingredients that we were hoping for.
Doctor it up, fix it, and eat it.
That seems like a worthwhile prepper skill.
Next topic:
Morals
We always need to deal with morals.
Morals is a good example of the things we need to do,
no matter what,
but thinking like a prepper,
should make us more keenly aware of what we need to do.
Those things we need to do:
stay physically strong and healthy,
stay financially stable,
maintain moral standards, in all we do.
So, if we explore morals, in this diary,
that is part of prepping.
My contribution for today is:
we must separate actions from the whole person.
I know, actions come from the person,
and actions affect the person.
However,
all of us have done at least a little bit of actions,
that we see as rare exceptions to our usual pattern of behavior.
And, certain folks, mainly Republicans,
have two patterns, very different from each other.
The pattern of Republicans in their words,
words about religion and politics,
that pattern is often truly awful,
claiming gay sex to be a sin, for example,
and claiming Democrats are evil, and trying to harm others.
But, those same Republicans live most of their daily lives,
with a very different pattern.
They treat their spouses with love and respect,
they take care of their children.
They do well at their jobs,
serving the customers,
doing what their bosses tell them,
and bringing home the paychecks.
They are not evil persons.
I have family like this.
We all know they are not evil persons,
but we can forget it,
and one of the things that helps us forget the dedicated personal lives of Republicans,
is the habit we may have,
of calling the whole person bad.
When two parties do not agree,
each one says the other is:
stupid,
crazy,
and bad.
We need to stop that.
We need to say:
That behavior,
not the whole person,
but certain behavior we are talking about,
that behavior,
is:
stupid,
crazy,
and bad.
The behavior, not the person.
I thought about this, as I was reading the Rules of the Road diary,
and so many commentators felt that we need to feel free to call Republicans,
Bad Persons.
Totally bad, all bad, no good inside them.
This little essay, is my response to all that.
MLK
We have MLK day, on the calendar.
We have BLM protests.
But in an article I read,
it was pointed out that too many wannabe white allies,
are aware of the literature,
aware of the books we all should read,
but too many of us white folks simply have not actually read the books.
When I read that article,
that made me order a book:
Where Do We Go From Here:
Chaos or Community?
www.goodreads.com/…
In 1967, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., isolated himself from the demands of the civil rights movement, rented a house in Jamaica with no telephone, and labored over his final manuscript. In this prophetic work, which has been unavailable for more than ten years, he lays out his thoughts, plans, and dreams for America's future, including the need for better jobs, higher wages, decent housing, and quality education.
I am forcing myself to read a little bit of that book,
right now,
and to give you a small part of a book report,
in this diary.
I like to know when, in what year, things were written.
So, I look at the copyright date, on the copyright page.
If all the pages were numbered, it would be on page six.
This book has a copyright date of 1968.
The introduction has a date of 2010.
I always study the table of contents.
Sometimes, I feel as if I understand the whole book,
by way of reading the table of contents.
For this book:
Introduction by Vincent Harding (2010)
Foreword by Coretta Scott King
(I delivered room service to her, in about 1987, in Hays, Kansas.)
Chapter One: Where Are We?
Chapter Two: Black Power
Chapter Three: Racism and the White Backlash
Chapter Four: The Dilemma of Negro Americans
Chapter Five: Where We Are Going
Chapter Six: The World House
Appendix: Programs and Prospects
The introduction,
written by Vincent Harding,
(I need to look him up, on Wikiedia, to figure out who he is)
written in 2010,
is thirteen pages long.
The Foreword, written by Coretta Scott King,
less than two months after her husband was killed,
is one page long.
In that one page, I gathered three main points:
Her husband carefully analyzed the cause of our “national discord,”
and determined that cause to be, “...the ingrained white racism of American society.”
She wrote that he also called out poverty, as a major problem in America.
“He spoke out sharply for all the poor in all their hues,...”
She also wrote about poverty causing troubles in “international relations.”
Alright, I will quit for now.
In case you wonder,
why do I need to write about the problem of white supremacy attitudes,
in a prepper diary?
Same reason I wrote about morals.
No matter what our situation,
normal, day to day living,
dealing with short term disasters,
or, if we are actually forced to deal with life with no grocery stores,
in all situations, we must interact with others,
so,
we need to think about our moral reasoning,
so we are not quick to make enemies,
and,
we need to think about white supremacy and poverty problems.
Thanks for reading.