I’m reading the book ‘My Ishmael’ by Daniel Quinn. I’ve never read his work before. ‘My Ishmael’ is the second in a series, but this is where I began. It doesn’t matter that I have not yet read ‘Ishmael’ but I most certainly intend to go back to it after reading this treasure. I cannot recommend this book enough!!!!
The story highlights how, because of our food being locked up, our culture is the way it is in the way we are all entrained to survival through enslavement and victimization. Sounds pretty heavy as I write it in the sentence here, but the tale is written in such a way that one does not feel disempowered. In fact, quite the opposite. The more I read, the more empowered and aware I feel!!!
Our food is locked up. I never could understand why certain HOA’s will not allow members to grow a garden (‘we don’t want our area to look too agricultural’ what?!?!!?!), or what certain people have against a vegetable garden growing in the front yard of a city home rather than a lawn. (Grow Food Not Lawns). Or why it takes such a long debate and petitioning to allow fruit trees and bushes in medians and parks rather than just decorative species. Our food is locked up.
He or She who controls the food controls the masses. Consider it. If you were not reliant upon purchasing food from others how much more independent would you be? How much more empowered would you feel?
Our food is locked up. So in our times of genetically modified organisms, not only is our food locked up, but the seeds for growing it are becoming more and more so as well. What is an already difficult lifestyle with which to make a living, the farmers who have bought into GMO’s cannot save seeds from year to year and are reliant upon chemicals to feed and chemicals to assist by eliminating competitive plants in order to grow a crop. I cannot imagine the cost savings these same individuals might have if they could at least save seeds. Save a seed, go to jail. So now is not only the food locked up but so are you!
I’ve been learning how to grow sustainable food in our harsh environment on the plains of northern Colorado. I admit, it’s not easy! I can also see that if I did not need to work fulltime in order to provide money to purchase the food and housing that my family needs, it would be a totally different story. I would be more sustainable just from the very fact that I would have the time it takes to grow, harvest, and store the food we need. I would also have more time to grow and harvest the medicines we need.
Oh look where I’ve gotten to now. Not only is our food locked up, but our healthcare is locked up! How many of us feel disempowered to the healthcare system. How many of us are dumping our money into that chemicalized and fractured system. If we were empowered to trust our inner knowing and to participate in the WHOLE we wouldn’t need someone who only sees us on an occasional basis to medicate the symptom. We would understand the source of our ill and would know how to address the issue from the causal level. We would, as a culture be supporting one another in seeing deeply into the source of our dis ease. We would know which plants in our own backyards hold the key to helping unlock the block to wellness. We wouldn’t feel the need to eradicate what doesn’t ‘fit’ into our vision (is it really ours?) of a manicured lawn with chemicals. When in fact these very chemicals that are used to make our lawns look “healthy and green” are quite frankly a good source of many illnesses!!!!
Our food is locked up! Let your food be your medicine! Be in relationship with LIFE. When one considers how much stems from our food being locked up, one can see the deeper way this whole paradigm controls every aspect of our lives.
Our food is locked up! What’s wrong with this picture?