Category: Philosophy

Thoughts About “Right Living”

~ George Crawford ~ 3 Comments

The great Philosophers have long thought about how to live a good life; good not only for ourselves but for the betterment of others and the world around us. One of the tenets of the Buddhist Eight-Fold Path is the concept of Right Living. I think this would have been far easier and less complex in the Ancient World since so much of our activity influences and is affected by events unseen and far away from our daily life. Few of us see our food grown or clothing made or even our children being educated. Here are some of my thoughts on Right Living:

Right Living

No one should suffer for your convenience.

You can live comfortably without sweatshop products.

Most things we want we don’t truly need.

Only a little effort is required to avoid unscrupulous food.

Choosing to not shop can be an act of defiance.

3:00 a.m. thoughts, GT Crawford

Things to consider…

  • Grow your own food.
    • Forage.
      • Grow a garden
        • Keep chickens.
          • Know the source.
            • Buy direct from the grower or maker.
              • Hunt and fish.
                • Make it yourself.
                  • Fix it.

Stuffthatkeepsmeawakeatnight

Image source: https://wsimag.com/wellness/23162-meditation

Don’t Forget to Enjoy the Ride

~ George Crawford ~ 3 Comments

I know this year has been very strange for most of us but please remember…

Life is Short.  If you’re fortunate enough to live with the means and privilege and food security, consider yourself lucky.  When I feel low or unhappy, I always want to remember the people subjected to abject poverty worldwide through no fault of their own.  It seems that the privileged, the comfortable, and those with the least to complain about are the most vocal and judgmental and superior. Please, be kind.

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One final paragraph of advice: […] It is not enough to fight for the land; it is even more important to enjoy it. While you can. While it’s still here. So get out there and hunt and fish and mess around with your friends, ramble out yonder and explore the forests, climb the mountains, bag the peaks, run the rivers, breathe deep of that yet sweet and lucid air, sit quietly for a while and contemplate the precious stillness, the lovely, mysterious, and awesome space. Enjoy yourselves, keep your brain in your head and your head firmly attached to the body, the body active and alive, and I promise you this much; I promise you this one sweet victory over our enemies, over those desk-bound men and women with their hearts in a safe deposit box, and their eyes hypnotized by desk calculators. I promise you this; You will outlive the bastards.   Edward Abbey   

“Edward Abbey from a speech to environmentalists published in High Country News, (24 September 1976), under the title “Joy, Shipmates, Joy!””

The Tobasco Donkeys, a little known musical group working at the Philmont Scout Ranch recorded a song using Abbey’s words in one of the verses.  It fits well.

Everyone Should Cultivate Manual Training

~ George Crawford ~ 3 Comments

Does this mean we should neglect our intellect? Absolutely not.

In fact, the opposite. We should strive to cultivate both mind and body to become the most perfect specimen we can become, daily.

I came across this passage while reading a bit this morning from Amateur Joinery in the Home (1916) by George and Berthold Audsley and thought it would be worthwhile to share.

There is a lot of good advice here but the above sentences stuck with me while taking the morning walk. “One never knows when life or limb may depend on the expert use of the hand and ordinary tools.” This could be applied to so many facets of an interesting life and is the basis of human survival that has put us where we are for a million years.

I have been using the down time afforded us by the events of 2020 to catch up on an ever-growing list of books and articles I have been amassing for decades. When I was working in archaeology full-time, the hundreds of pages of reading most weeks necessary just to keep current pushed many other interests into side avenues. I hope you all are using your time in a way that works well for you. In the mean time, this book is available for anyone with an interest in tools and working with their hands. It may even inspire new projects.

Click here to download a pdf file of the book. Amateur Joinery in the Home.

Woody Guthrie’s New Year Rulin’s

~ George Crawford ~ 4 Comments

New Year’s resolutions from Woody Guthrie’s notebook 1943.  It was an interesting time; the world was at war, America was coming out of an economic depression coupled with huge crop failures and sleazy bank practices, and the Guthries had made their way West to California with record numbers of displaced migrants looking for a better life.

Woody Guthrie Rulins
From 1943: https://www.woodyguthrie.org/index.htm

1. Work more and better

2. Work by a schedule

3. Wash teeth if any

4. Shave

5. Take bath

6. Eat good – fruit – vegetables – milk

7. Drink very scant if any

8. Write a song a day

9.  Wear clean clothes – look good

10. Shine shoes

11. Change socks

12. Change bed clothes often

13. Read lots good books

14. Listen to radio a lot

Some are personal but most of these transfer well to anybody.  We all need improvement…

15. Learn people better

16. Keep ranch clean

17. Don’t get lonesome

18. Stay glad

19. Keep hoping machine running

20. Dream good

21. Bank all extra money

22. Save dough

23. Have company but don’t waste time

24. Send Mary and kids money

25. Play and sing good

26. Dance better

27. Help win war – Beat Fascism

28. Love Mama

29. Love Papa

30. Love Pete

31. Love everybody

32. Make up your mind

33. Wake up and fight

Science and Self-Correction

~ George Crawford ~ Leave a comment

“One of the reasons for its success is is that science has a built-in, error correcting machinery at its very heart. Some may consider this an overbroad characterization, but to me every time we exercise self-criticism, every time we test against the outside world, we are doing science. When we are self-indulgent and uncritical, when we confuse hopes and facts, we slide into pseudoscience and superstition.”

 

Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark, p. 27

Your Rights vs. Doing the Right Thing

~ George Crawford ~ Leave a comment

Chesterton, G.K.

To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same
as to be right in doing it.

G.K. Chesterton

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c0/Three_acres_and_a_cow.JPG
Chesterton self-portrait based on the Distributist slogan “Three acres and a cow.”

I’ve had an interest in Chesterton for quite a few years now and have really enjoyed reading his philosophy.  I’m no expert, but know that I find myself in congruence with many of his thoughts.  His famous and odd novel, The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare was my first real introduction beyond reading some of his more famous quotes and I suggest it for anyone as an interesting story.  It is a story of anarchists, detective work, poets, and Edwardian politics; what more do you need?  I certainly don’t agree with many of his tenets but he is a gem of a thinker for sure.

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMmY4Y2E5MTctYjFiYy00ZTE1LTkwYzUtMWU1NDRmOGRmYzc1XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNDUzOTQ5MjY@._V1_UY317_CR21,0,214,317_AL_.jpg
He was quite a “looker” too.

For further reading, here is an interesting article, giving a glimpse into the man and his thoughts: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2008/07/07/the-back-of-the-world

Our personal education should never end…

Thoughts on Labor – 1854

~ George Crawford ~ Leave a comment

“The aim of the laborer should be, not to get his living, to get “a good job,” but to perform well a certain work; and, even in a pecuniary sense, it would be economy for a town to pay its laborers so well that they would not feel that they were working for low ends, as for a livelihood merely, but for scientific, or even moral ends. Do not hire a man who does your work for money, but him who does it for love of it.”

Henry David Thoreau, Life Without Principle 1854

thoreau1

It is far easier to excel when you find something you can love to do.  The one who does what he loves will do a far better job than the one who is just putting in the time for money.