Another WONDERFUL post. The short bit of bird chirping was calming. Your observation about Target, not so much. I imagine what you observed distresses each of us in DIFFERENT ways. It is hard to justify but depending on our POV we make some excuses (I'm busy; I'm important; staff picking up after me is part of my entitlement at Target, etc). I have read recently about a rural grocery in MN that operates unattended. A rural food desert. The response of the community is EVERYONE helps make it work. A great working definition of COMMUNITY. I think we were never meant to live so close to each other. In a rural community, it only works when everyone can count on each other. It is a 3-minute listen for those that are interested in renewing their faith in our shared humanity.
That is an incredible story! I can see that working -- it's kind of a commons idea, when you think of it. And the whole point of commons is that everyone is responsible for making it function.
Glad you liked the bird chirping! I'm pretty lucky to live near that kind of thing, so it's nice to find ways to share.
I wondered about you out in the woods when all the hailstorms were pummeling everyone out here; I'm happy to know you survived. I would miss you if you hadn't. We – and our modest tomato crop – were lucky enough to avoid the drubbing.
That Target story is all too familiar, isn't it? More and more I've been trying my best to live by this simple directive from a Zen monastery in Hawaii:
"At Chozen-ji, we expect that every student train to live selflessly, putting others before themselves and taking responsibility for their community. But rather than ask students to take a Bodhisattva vow or otherwise stay only conceptual in this endeavor, we get delightfully gritty and practical: Serve others food before yourself. Do the dishes. Wipe the bathroom counter even if you're not the one who got it wet. If you see a weed, pull it."
It really is that simple, isn't it?
Target in Missoula is being remodeled. I've avoided it for weeks, which isn't difficult because I generally don't ever need to get anything there. But the stories I hear? And can you imagine being one of the understaffed workers there? Oof. Hellscape!
Chris, the night that big storm came through the camp host came around just as we were all getting into tents to sleep and said she'd had a 15-minute warning and we should all get under cover. I pulled my kids into the truck (which is a '79 Chevy and is not a comfortable place to hang out!) and we ended up falling in and out of sleep waiting for the storm that didn't come because it shifted slightly north and got West Glacier instead. We just got a light drizzle. I had to leave the two days later but my spouse and daughter and extended family and friends got hit with a big hailstorm (grape-size, not golf ball-sized) at 4am on Sunday. It was an adventuresome and not exactly restful weekend.
I'm glad both I and your tomato crop survived, too! I was really worried about our own garden and nearby farms, but it seems to have missed our house.
That Zen monastery advice is exactly what I needed to hear. It really is that simple.
The Target employees I saw trying to right everything looked tired but cheerful, though that might be because it was finally free of crowds. They seem to have a good team there, which I imagine is fortunate.
That birdcall was absolutely lovely. I think we're going to try and capture the call to prayer at our mosque and add it to our next newsletter. So h/t to you!
As for Target, I noticed that the last time we were in the U.S. and I chalked it up to the store being woefully understaffed so that the normal amount of stuff just getting dropped instead of put back neatly just kept piling up until it reached a tipping point and even conscientious customers just gave up...
That would be awesome! I love the call to prayer. That brings me back to a trip to Turkey when I was 20, waking up at dawn and listening to that call in a hostel ...
I think it's the understaffing (which is true everywhere). I still have trouble with not putting one's own things away! I found myself straightening stuff on hangers as I was looking for the elusive pajamas. On the other hand, I tend a little toward the OCD end of things when it comes to tidiness ;)
I usually love the call to prayer. We stayed in Thailand for three months right next to a mosque with an incredibly loud, incredibly screechy loudspeaker that just about did us in.
I confess that while I'm very good at putting stuff away at stores, I'm not so good at home. Each time we arrive at our next nomad stop, I'm determined that This! Time! Will! Be! Different! And the first week is. By the first week, whichever place I'm storing my clothes looks like an F5 tornado struck.
That sounds extremely off-putting (the loudspeaker not the clothing tornado!).
I grew up in a ... let's say *extremely cluttered* household. Which it was also my job to dust and vacuum and clean the bathroom(s) of every weekend. It's given me an allergy to clutter, which probably explains a lot!
Well, my husband finds the tornado pretty off-putting, which is why I hide it in the cabinets so he doesn't have to look at it. Funny about your childhood. I grew up with a mother who wanted everything "perfect." I didn't mind the neatness but sometimes it seemed like her furniture was more important to her than anything. Consequently, I vowed never to treat "things" like they were so incredibly precious that if they got damaged, I'd flip out.
Oh, yeah, I get that, too. Weirdly, my spouse, who is naturally untidy, is much more fussy about things like furniture and I'm always "this is meant to be used!" I like raw wood (and dislike anything with varnish) for that reason--if it gets scratched, you can just sand it!
The stories I could tell you about my mom's furniture getting scratched with two boys in the house. To be fair to her, she grew up pretty poor and her furniture was proof we were middle-class. But, man, some of the stories...
Antonia,
Another WONDERFUL post. The short bit of bird chirping was calming. Your observation about Target, not so much. I imagine what you observed distresses each of us in DIFFERENT ways. It is hard to justify but depending on our POV we make some excuses (I'm busy; I'm important; staff picking up after me is part of my entitlement at Target, etc). I have read recently about a rural grocery in MN that operates unattended. A rural food desert. The response of the community is EVERYONE helps make it work. A great working definition of COMMUNITY. I think we were never meant to live so close to each other. In a rural community, it only works when everyone can count on each other. It is a 3-minute listen for those that are interested in renewing their faith in our shared humanity.
https://www.npr.org/2022/07/14/1111577588/a-rural-minnesota-self-serve-grocery-store-could-be-a-model-for-other-food-deser
That is an incredible story! I can see that working -- it's kind of a commons idea, when you think of it. And the whole point of commons is that everyone is responsible for making it function.
Glad you liked the bird chirping! I'm pretty lucky to live near that kind of thing, so it's nice to find ways to share.
I wondered about you out in the woods when all the hailstorms were pummeling everyone out here; I'm happy to know you survived. I would miss you if you hadn't. We – and our modest tomato crop – were lucky enough to avoid the drubbing.
That Target story is all too familiar, isn't it? More and more I've been trying my best to live by this simple directive from a Zen monastery in Hawaii:
"At Chozen-ji, we expect that every student train to live selflessly, putting others before themselves and taking responsibility for their community. But rather than ask students to take a Bodhisattva vow or otherwise stay only conceptual in this endeavor, we get delightfully gritty and practical: Serve others food before yourself. Do the dishes. Wipe the bathroom counter even if you're not the one who got it wet. If you see a weed, pull it."
It really is that simple, isn't it?
Target in Missoula is being remodeled. I've avoided it for weeks, which isn't difficult because I generally don't ever need to get anything there. But the stories I hear? And can you imagine being one of the understaffed workers there? Oof. Hellscape!
Chris, the night that big storm came through the camp host came around just as we were all getting into tents to sleep and said she'd had a 15-minute warning and we should all get under cover. I pulled my kids into the truck (which is a '79 Chevy and is not a comfortable place to hang out!) and we ended up falling in and out of sleep waiting for the storm that didn't come because it shifted slightly north and got West Glacier instead. We just got a light drizzle. I had to leave the two days later but my spouse and daughter and extended family and friends got hit with a big hailstorm (grape-size, not golf ball-sized) at 4am on Sunday. It was an adventuresome and not exactly restful weekend.
I'm glad both I and your tomato crop survived, too! I was really worried about our own garden and nearby farms, but it seems to have missed our house.
That Zen monastery advice is exactly what I needed to hear. It really is that simple.
The Target employees I saw trying to right everything looked tired but cheerful, though that might be because it was finally free of crowds. They seem to have a good team there, which I imagine is fortunate.
That birdcall was absolutely lovely. I think we're going to try and capture the call to prayer at our mosque and add it to our next newsletter. So h/t to you!
As for Target, I noticed that the last time we were in the U.S. and I chalked it up to the store being woefully understaffed so that the normal amount of stuff just getting dropped instead of put back neatly just kept piling up until it reached a tipping point and even conscientious customers just gave up...
That would be awesome! I love the call to prayer. That brings me back to a trip to Turkey when I was 20, waking up at dawn and listening to that call in a hostel ...
I think it's the understaffing (which is true everywhere). I still have trouble with not putting one's own things away! I found myself straightening stuff on hangers as I was looking for the elusive pajamas. On the other hand, I tend a little toward the OCD end of things when it comes to tidiness ;)
I usually love the call to prayer. We stayed in Thailand for three months right next to a mosque with an incredibly loud, incredibly screechy loudspeaker that just about did us in.
I confess that while I'm very good at putting stuff away at stores, I'm not so good at home. Each time we arrive at our next nomad stop, I'm determined that This! Time! Will! Be! Different! And the first week is. By the first week, whichever place I'm storing my clothes looks like an F5 tornado struck.
That sounds extremely off-putting (the loudspeaker not the clothing tornado!).
I grew up in a ... let's say *extremely cluttered* household. Which it was also my job to dust and vacuum and clean the bathroom(s) of every weekend. It's given me an allergy to clutter, which probably explains a lot!
Well, my husband finds the tornado pretty off-putting, which is why I hide it in the cabinets so he doesn't have to look at it. Funny about your childhood. I grew up with a mother who wanted everything "perfect." I didn't mind the neatness but sometimes it seemed like her furniture was more important to her than anything. Consequently, I vowed never to treat "things" like they were so incredibly precious that if they got damaged, I'd flip out.
Oh, yeah, I get that, too. Weirdly, my spouse, who is naturally untidy, is much more fussy about things like furniture and I'm always "this is meant to be used!" I like raw wood (and dislike anything with varnish) for that reason--if it gets scratched, you can just sand it!
The stories I could tell you about my mom's furniture getting scratched with two boys in the house. To be fair to her, she grew up pretty poor and her furniture was proof we were middle-class. But, man, some of the stories...
That raw wood sounds fantastic!
My desk is a map of worn spaces and scrapes and gouges, all signs of consistent and regular use. This is what I love most about it!