The old that is new.

Over the last two weeks I have been relating to a very keen and clever young man. He is into sustainability, building a resilient society for when "peak oil" hits us and all this stuff. Now I am all for it. I think we have to do stuff related to climate change and the big changes ecologically that are hitting us at an alarming rate. He is working with young people, raising awareness, encouraging resilience and generally getting them on board. But it is funny that sometimes I had to bite my tongue.

He brought some books in to add to the church library. He saw them as revolutionary books but as he went through them there were several I had, and I thought I could easily add to his library on the subjects. He earnestly told me that the people from the church could borrow them if they were interested. His implication was that it would be good for them to get on board with this "new" lifestyle. Most were about vegetable gardening and such things. I felt like saying that the generation in church could probably have written the books! The types of things he was doing were the sorts of things their generation learned and did as part of providing for their family. They repaired things rather than threw them out. They made jams, preserved fruit, grew vegetables and composted way before it became the fashionable thing to do. He was telling me about some "new" way of ripening tomatoes, and I nearly said, (Like a belligerent old man) "Now listen here son, my wife has been doing that for forty years!" or another time I nearly said, "Hey I have been growing vegetables since I was eight years old!"

I held my tongue. I am delighted that young people are latching on to the ways of life that have been neglected in recent generations. I think they will be better for it. In my experience there is something that creates a wholeness and inner completeness about working the soil, watching things grow and seeing where food comes from. Such activity puts us in touch with the rhythms of life, helps us appreciate the forces of nature and enables us to taste life more fully. Rain becomes something appreciated and not just a nuisance. Gardening, living more basically gives us a good "grounding" in life. It even gets us more prepared for death as a part of life.

I may suggest to this young man that as part of his work he sit down and chat to older people. They will have great knowledge and experience to offer him, and it may just close the gap between generations.

I could not help thinking of the song, "I was country, when country wasn't cool."

What a week of exercise...so far. Saturday- quick walk up Mt Cargill. Sunday- small run. Monday- a bit of a spin on my wind trainer. Tuesday- early morning spin on my wind trainer and some weights. Today an early morning spin on the wind trainer and this evening a 9 K run. My legs felt a bit "heavy" tonight though. I hope to spin tomorrow morning then I will have a rest day. I may yet get thinner and fitter. :-)

I talked today with an old friend on the phone. He is now well into his eighties. He was a clever man, a manager in his working life and very quick witted. Now he has considerable health problems and it seemed to me as we talked on the phone he had slowed up quite a bit. Where as once he would respond quickly with some retort, now he seemed to have to think about each sentence. I felt a bit sad. It felt like a part of him had gone. Getting old is a bugger! ... though as someone said to me the other day, "If you're not getting old, you're compost!"