Large Fierce Mammal

Father and Sons in a Teachable Moment. (Mrs. LFM photo)

“Everything in Nature is about efficiency and balance, which is why life is, first and foremost, an exercise in energy management. For example, the Way of the Wild demands of each parent that their offspring be made self-sufficient as quickly and efficiently as possible. A tool need not be a physical artifact – rest assured that skilled parenting is a Tool – but to be True it must help, not hinder, such processes, and must never represent a brilliant answer to a question that was never asked.” ~ Worldly Wisdom Wednesday – Tools

I have previously written on the subject of garniture in which I explained the term as it applies to the topic both then and now:

There’s a very old word that sees little use today, but that I still persist in using – garniture. While it can refer to any item used to embellish or “garnish” something, I exclusively employ it in its other meaning – an assemblage of useful and related equipments, usually connected through common features of design, and representing key elements in accomplishment of goals considered important to the bearer. For example, there was a time when a well heeled gentleman might commission a serviceable gathering of accoutrements bearing designs, colours, and/or embellishments that made it obvious to the beholder that each item was part of a set, and in no doubt as to who owned it. In those days this might include arms and armour for the battlefield, items specific to hunting pursuits, clothing, and equestrian equipage. In my own small way, I adhere to these principles today, as do some of the people I know, whether they have a word for it or not.

It should come as no surprise, however, that because a Tool need not be an object you can hold in your hand, likewise a garniture need not be an assemblage of physical artifacts. In fact, the very best and most important garniture one can assemble isn’t made of matter at all. It exists purely in the mind in the form of knowledge, skills, wits, and personality. Properly crafted, honed, and maintained, they will comprise, just as described above, a serviceable gathering of accoutrements bearing designs, colours, and/or embellishments that make it obvious to the beholder that each item is part of a set, and in no doubt as to who owns it. I would posit then that the Way of the Wild demands acquisition and diligent maintenance of the Tools that will form your Garniture, Tools that can never be broken, worn out, stolen or legislated away. That are always with you even when standing naked as the day you were born.

Aspects and attributes both supplemental and symbiotic are where the Truth lies.

A garniture is a very personal thing for even as two or more people may go forth in pursuit of the same interests, their Tools may appear to the uninitiated observer to be, at once, similar and inexplicably different. To be incorporated into a garniture, a Tool needs must fit into its bearer’s mind geography, and of course, be True —

A real Tool then must be a True force multiplier – thus a True Tool, and to be that it must fit into one or more vital categories including, but not limited to, making a heretofore impossible job possible, a hard job easier, a risky job safer. In addition, it must conform to the following absolutes, each of which is so important that the order of their presentation is of no consequence –

• It must be maintainable.
• Its durability and longevity must not constitute a built-in guarantee of waste.
• Life with it must be superior to life without it.
• Neither its use, nor the job it was devised to perform, shall represent the creation of an equal or greater problem while solving another.
• It must not represent the lesser of two or more evils.
• For any given task, it must provide a dividend in the form of time expended, materials used, and/or energy required.
• It must exist to do a job that is necessary within the context of sound ecological and ergonomic practice.

In short, it must serve within the balanced Economy of Nature, and not the wasteful “economy” of dollars and cents in which the soothing buzzword “sustainable” really describes business practices that will permit continued rates of growth and consumption – business as usual – with a smaller discernible impact. For any organism, getting through a day requires expenditure of energy and resources for the purpose of acquiring more energy and resources. Simply living in place requires at least a “break even” on that balance, but a higher return is required if the organism must hunt and catch its prey, for reproduction, the rearing of young, migration, overwintering, or hibernation.

In a world that defines every occurrence as an existential threat only to be explained and managed through officially approved channels, advice from social media “influencers” and undeniably skilled people with very niche skillsets, presented convincingly but inaccurately as having broad spectrum applicability, one wonders how we made it this far at all.

This marks the introductory episode in a new series under the heading of “A Thin Veneer“, treating subjects relevant to Life outside the veil that is the reality of that term.

I’ll sing my own self out with this:

We humans are here today because our ancestors were better at adapting to change than change was at outpacing their adaptability. Some of them survived the last ice age wearing animal skins while hunting the Woolly Mammoth with weapons made of wood and stone. Upheavals happen – those that die die, and those that survive either adapt or die. Terrible to contemplate, but stupid to forget, and wasteful to drain valuable energy worrying about. Just be ready and adaptable so you don’t embarrass your ancestors.

Remember –

“As long as you are alive you will be subject to the vagaries of the universe, and no matter how well heeled, beautiful, or lucky you think you are, your life will always be as vulnerable to unforeseen influences, for good or for ill, as the ship of any ancient mariner. Ancestors with far simpler tools, but far more knowledge based fortitude. than most who think themselves entitled to whatever quality of life they have achieved as of today understood this – one does not aspire merely to survive; one aspires to LIVE to the best of one’s ability given the circumstances!” ~ Dark Sentiments 2011 – Day 21: The Intention to Live