The words are resonating deep in my soul, almost as if the writer had observed the same changes I have witnessed. It comes as no surprise to me that their suggestions - once some of the cornerstones by which we lived, operated and took to heart - may instead now represent the very things which are slipping away from us. The three concepts discussed are:
- Support local food systems
- Invest in the local economy
- Participate in community building activities
These don't sound like terribly difficult topics, do they? I didn't think so, but when stacked up against the demands of today's fast-paced world, such ideas seem of little importance. To those with priorities that center around "doing more faster" and "saving time", such old-fashioned ideas probably seem insane or ludicrous even, and gradually our society raised on instant gratification began to be okay with shoving aside anything which seemed to get in our way. Why go to the family-owned grocery store when with the click of a mouse a box can appear on our doorstep? Even if we wished to get in the car and physically visit such a place, a small business may not be considered acceptable by today's consumers, who flock to the big retailers which cater to every whim and craving imaginable. After all, aren't we programmed to think that two options for a product might be unacceptable when one can now have eight? As it became "too time consuming" for us to visit a nearby farm for fresh produce and eggs, then the butcher AND grocery store too, did it also get too easy to just eliminate such steps from our lives?
Perhaps as we did so, rejecting the choices available in our own communities and instead leaving down to drive to the supercenter 40 minutes away, maybe we began to lose ourselves as well. No longer did we need to engage in conversation with neighbors and local residents as we had in the small local stores, because here we could just fade into the blur of faceless individuals. While circulating within these massive buildings surrounded by so many others, we'd found a place requiring even less effort on our part; we were now in the comfortable zone of the land where no one knows our name. And maybe, as we lost a need to engage with the people we live next door to, found ways to avoid talking to one another, perhaps that is when we began to lose ourselves.
Farm & Dairy | 1.17.17: "Restoring rural America: community building in the modern era"
