Ponderings, wonderings

Where have communities gone? They still function so far as giving inhabitants a place name to associate with and providing most of the essential basics in order to live, but how many of these nessecities can be provided within the community? Food is good place to start. How much of Wilsonville, OR foods come from within 20 miles? What I gather is that no one has surveyed local consumers, merchants and producers for the answer. The area is within one of the richest agricultural lands in the state, with adequate rainfall and favorable climate, yet grocers shelves are lined with carrots, lettuce and spinach from Southern California and oranges, grapes and kiwis from South America. The city largely forgot about food production in the design phase, but design is eternal, always changing and shifting with necessity. Who knows, in 6 years suburban homes may be bulldozed and reclaimed as small farms. Rosy picture surely, here's to hoping that suburbia comes to their sense before that. And what of this habit of tossing your trsh for someone to pickup. Curbside pickup still exists even as municipal budgets nationwide shrink, this service is still offered here. Across the river Canby has faired exceptionally better in their development, contructing residences around farmlands hence allowing ample space for communities to produce food within sight of tthe kitchen.

Have we really devolved into hoards of nuclear families that simply exist to work, consume, watch tv and repeat the process? One would gather that from the mindset most us are in, as we stand idly by and watch our country be bankrupted into a third world nation. Ignorance is blissful and we'd rather sit aside and watch CSI than help nieghbors start a garden plot or confront what is really happening.

Is letting wealth trickle down striking fear in the heart's of wealthy folks?

I have been pondering these questions lately and trying to decipher why I have become a proverbial invasive, maybe transplant or non-native may be more appropriate as I have yet to reproduce uncontested as an invasive specie can. Call it wanderlust or itchy feet, but there is something unsettling about knowing that indigenous communities have never strayed too far from thier homes. Maybe it is because they know that all they'll ever have is right at their feet. Soil to bring food forth from and ancestors who stewarded the land for centuries insuring future generations will have the opportunity to use that same earth.