Saturday, July 30, 2011
Books for sale: field guides, gardening, and more
We have lots of books for sale, mostly gardening books, field guides, and foraging books related to the mainland US, which won't do us much good in Hawaii. See my Discount Permaculture "Books for sale" page for a full listing with prices. I'm keeping the list pretty well updated as people buy them.
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2 comments:
[Sorry to post this here, Norris--I tried to email it but it bounced back from the old email address. Feel free to take it down from here, as it's very much just a message to you. Ben]
Hi Norris,
I like to check in on your blog from time to time, just to get a sense of what you’re up to and how everything is going, and did so today for the first time in a bit; that means that I just read about your Hawaii plans and move. So while I know that’s older news from your perspective, it’s very new to me, and I wanted to say three things, the first straightforward enough, the latter two more complicated and certainly just my own take but hopefully not completely useless.
1) First, congrats on figuring out where you guys want to go and being so close to getting there! Seems like it should be a great place to take the next steps toward which you’ve been working for so long, and I sure hope it feels positive and productive once you’re there.
2) Second, I do have to say that, as your friend—obviously a less close friend than once, but I still consider you a good and lifelong friend and always would—I’m worried about what might happen to you there. I know you’ve been separating from civilization for a while now, but I also feel in Portland that you had plenty of ways to stay connected from time to time, things to fall back on when the separation felt too much. The Hawaii plan, at least as detailed in the bullet-pointed post, feels much more fully separate and without those easy ways to reconnect. So I guess I’m just asking that you give yourself a break if and when you need it, and, y’know, go to cities or towns, reconnect with civilization in one way or another, and generally just try to take care of yourself even if it means not achieving your objectives 100% of the time or immediately or etc.
3) Third, and I know most butting-in-more-than-I-should, but: you wrote in the book review/response post about having kids, and specifically made it seem, in your final paragraph at least, like that might be something in your plans or future. I certainly hope so, as I know you’d be a great Dad and I think it is one of the most amazing things we humans can do and experience. But I really, really, really worry about the thought of you guys trying to have kids while already living the Hawaii plan—having kids is just crazy and exhausting and overwhelming enough, without, as you wrote of the book’s family, trying to do it in that environment. So, while I know the plans might be too far down the road, I wanted to say that if you truly want to have kids, my most heart-felt advice would be to have them while still somewhat more connected to civilization, and then try to move fully into the disconnected life once they’re old enough to be a part of that (rather than born into it). Obviously there would be difficulties with that way of doing it too, but I just think having kids while trying to make that new life work would be, well, impossible.
Again, just my two (or two hundred?) cents, for whatever they’re worth. I wish you the very best no matter what, as I always would. Take care,
Your friend,
Ben
PS. My new email is railtondad@gmail.com; I think I emailed you from there before, but in case not.
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