No Particular Thing at All

One of the writing strategies I've learned is that when you can't think of anything to write just start typing.
However, don't use this as a conversational tool.

I wrote a  "My Children's Story" for a class in indigenous agriculture that worked out pretty well. My kids love it anyway. I'm considering writing more of these as a way to share our family history before they are too old and cool to care.

The point of the exercise was to emphasize that most ancient knowledge was passed down in story form and that most modern humans can't tell much of their personal history because many of us don't even know our own story. That is the disturbing commentary of our time, we've stopped sharing the instruction manual.

From the class I've gained a healthy respect for indigenous people. The annihilated tribes and the few that remain were/are not ignorant barbarians, but very complicated societies that function in harmony with nature, not in opposition to it. I'm just learning about the coastal Salish tribes that managed resources in the Pacific North West for more than 15,000 years. Unlike the tribes of the vast American prairies, that were few and far between so of course they left a small footprint, Salish tribes were numerous, lived in close proximity and managed to live sustainably long before it became the buzz word.

I was surprised to learn that indigenous tribes manage their territory. My idea of a hunter/gatherer society was like a browsing animal "pick stuff up and eat it, no stuff, no eat." Forgive me lord for I am a product of my biased grade school text books.

Far from being savage, these people had brilliant ideas. Way too many to condense here. One little example to facilitate basketry is that they selectively burned small portions of riparian areas so that the willow would grow back in abundance, straight, and of uniform length. They didn't need an industrialized technology because fire is a more elegant solution to meet the need.

Sheesh, and then they had time to tell stories to their children.

http://baynature.org/articles/jan-mar-2006/wild-gardens

Life isn't fair, but I can be.