Large Fierce Mammal

“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

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 garniture 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 garniture 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. (more…)

Love Thine Enemy

By LFM

T’is said to love thine enemy
Is much to be admired,
And I only learned just yesterday
It’s something I desired.

It happened near a month ago,
I met a man one day,
The fate of whom converged with mine
On roads where trouble lay.

So I sought the village Constable,
But nothing came of that,
Except my problems triplified
By foeman’s tit for tat.

Day by day he earned my wrath,
Yet still I stayed my hand.
Resolved to love my enemy.
On that I took my stand.

But as I meditated late
One sleepless troubled night,
My eyes grew wide, my jaw went slack!
I saw the blessed light!

Into the darkened street I ran,
My deepest love to share!
Toward my erstwhile foe’s abode,
No moment did I spare!

A glorious night of love we shared,
Just him and me alone.
I loved to hear him scream the while
I broke his every bone.

I loved the way he flailed about
‘Til near the hour of five,
As long and lovingly I skinned
Beloved foe alive.

Now, some will say my path was wrong
But n’er will I defend it.
I’ll only say it worked for me,
And highly recommend it.

Laura’s Pie

By LFM

The deadly Water Hemlock
Grows upon the rocky shore
Of a backwoods lake not far away
From Widow Woodrow’s door.

Her given name is Laura
But her maiden’s lost in time.
And if any knows what age she is,
He’s silent as a mime.

The oldest crone from round about
With shaken head will say
She can’t recall when Laura looked
Much different than today.

But everyone alive recalls
She’s married far and wide,
And every time her widow’s name
Has changed as husbands died.

Of course this raised suspicion,
And there even was a meeting
Where local women armed with Birch,
Set forth to dole a beating.

But though Laura’s cabin lies
Where those she picks will find,
No finding can be done by those
Who’re lost and stricken blind.

A hundred years ago it was,
When all this came to pass.
And Laura still can turn a head,
She’s still the comely lass.

Those short lived few who’ve come to know
Her skills on plate and bed
Have cast all cautious cares aside
Until each one was dead.

Her best and brightest recipe
Is Apple Hemlock pie.
You don’t really have to like it.
All you have to do is die.

Our research department has been slaving away since last year to bring you only the most choice cuts. (The Witchfinder General’s Library by Andy Fairhurst – a featured artist in this year’s Dark Sentiments)

October again, and the harvest is in, by every definition of the word. Welcome to another season of Dark Sentiments!

If you’ve never experienced it before, “Dark Sentiments” is an annual series that appears here every October, each day of that month presenting observations and tales of people, things, doings, and goings on that come from the dark side of Nature, human and otherwise.

Darkness, as it inspires me, isn’t limited to expressions of evil, mayhem, and bad outcomes. Something can also be considered “dark” if it is unknown, misunderstood, or incorrectly interpreted.  So, depending on your sensibilities good reader, I believe that if the title of the series, let alone its author,  didn’t dissuade you from stepping inside, then you will find some modicum of entertainment in what follows. Nevertheless, you may also come to find, albeit too late because by then the arrow will have already found its mark, that some portions are best avoided by those imbued with that tortured combination of empathy, clarity of visualization, and a propensity for nightmares.

My inspiration for the dark poetry that has appeared in previous seasons, and continues to be featured here, comes to me through tendrils that lead back to a multitude of personal explorations, discoveries, waypoints, and encounters, all of which have contributed to making me Me. It also comes in no small part from a love for the works of Edgar Allan Poe and Robert Service, from which I find myself seeking an atmosphere of the sort that might prevail if the two found themselves snow bound for a month in a lonely cabin far from anywhere.

Welcome to Dark Sentiments 2012. We hunt the night so you don’t have to.

The sky is grey, the moon is full, and Dark Sentiments returns tomorrow for a third season as dark as six feet up a Moose’s ass.

In case you’ve never experienced it, take a walk on the wild side with this retrospective from the past two seasons. The intro to the inaugural season of Dark Sentiments is here. From there you can either navigate through the remaining 30 days, or scroll through them from here. Note that the pages list articles in reverse order, so you’ll be scrolling from bottom to top and flipping them backwards to find the titles.

Likewise, Dark Sentiments – 2011 kicked off here. The list of titles is here.

Apologies for some of the linked and embedded files in past articles being temporarily inaccessible. We’re working to fix that.

Fortify your gullet and gird your loins for tomorrow.

“Man has a large and highly adaptive brain – nearly as smart as a Crow – along with this pesky opposable thumb – one on each side unless you’ve gone through life being called “Lefty”. We Man critters can imagine and build solutions to problems that Nature didn’t give us the speed, wings, teeth, fur, claws, armor, sense of smell, or eyesight to solve otherwise.” ~ Worldly Wisdom Wednesday – Archaic Revival

In its usage as a noun, the Oxford English Dictionary defines a “tool” thus –

1. A device or implement, especially one held in the hand, used to carry out a particular function: gardening tools

• a thing used to help perform a job: computers are an essential tool; the ability to write clearly is a tool of the trade
• a person used or exploited by another: the beautiful Estella is Miss Havisham’s tool.
• Computing – a piece of software that carries out a particular function, typically creating or modifying another program.

2 A distinct design in the tooling of a book.

• a small stamp or roller used to make a tooled design.

3 Vulgar slang a man’s penis.

• a stupid, irritating, or contemptible man: that guy is such a tool

Today I’m going to simplify the meaning of “tool” into two words – force multiplier. (more…)

Three completed containers. The orange one was made from Gatorade packaging, the other two from water bottles. Click the picture to enlarge it. (LFM photo)

I recently encountered this idea on one of the forums I frequent – rugged, sealed, screw top containers for carrying a small supply of pain killers, anti-allergy meds, or whatever; built out of a single plastic bottle and two bottle caps.

The originator of this idea employed a sealant for waterproofing but that didn’t sit well with me, particularly after I checked the MSDS info on it. Undaunted, I crafted my first one for a solid snap fit into the cap that forms the base and found that, try as I might, I couldn’t blow air through the seal it made out of sheer friction and the natural flexibility of the materials. They’ve been twisted and thrown repeatedly against the floor without failure so I would say they are a sound design without the toxic additions.

This is just a preliminary announcement to share the coolness. I’m making a complete colour coded set for Mrs. LFM’s purse, and there’ll be a how to tutorial here soon.

Red onion & Blueberry Jam on baked Brie, all atop toasted multi-grain baguette. (Mrs. LFM photo)

Getting the most out of life demands an adventurous spirit, decisiveness of action, willingness to experiment, and the ability to recognize the line that marks the place where only stupid lives. This applies to every area of human endeavour, finding its most profound expression in the realms of food, drink, and sex. I’ve said before, and will restate now, that by observing your approach to food and drink, I can divine all I need to know about your skill in the boudoir – and so can your date.

Here’s a recent discovery courtesy of the fall 2012 edition of Inspired magazine. The original recipe with more mouth watering imagery can be found here, but as is usual in our kitchen, and with no disrespect intended to the brilliant creators of this recipe , it was given the full on Mrs. LFM treatment. Presented today for your biting pleasure – Red Onion and Blueberry Jam.

Tomorrow is supposed to be a rainy Sunday, so get out and acquire the ingredients you don’t have on hand, possibly including someone to snuggle up with, pick out a movie, and let Nature take Her course. You must never fight Nature.

First, a word about ingredients. In cooking, it’s generally true that the freshest and best quality ingredients will yield the best results. Nevertheless, there are a few of areas in which you can find wiggle room where geographic location, local availability, season of the year, or the fact that you are an impoverished university student rear their heads in the face of your endeavour. Fear not, don’t be afraid to substitute if necessary, and never falter! (more…)

“… humans are predisposed to seek two things – community, and a comfortably identifiable social position within the community.” ~ Worldly Wisdom Wednesday – Archaic Revival

Today I’d like to present a little gem that serendipitously hit me in the ear while I was on the road yesterday.

This interview with writer, humourist, and ethicist Randy Cohen aired on the CBC Radio show Q, and contains much enlightenment gained in the course of his years writing The Ethicist column for The New York Times. Particularly in its references to community as an influence on the behaviour of its members.

Enjoy the interview here. Consider it study for a future test.

Last week we talked about what Gandhi called “swadeshi“. If you haven’t read that article before this one, go do it now. We’ll wait.

Gandhi proposed a veering away from the British model of centralized control of resources and industrialized production power in favour of localized, self-sufficient community based government and production of necessary commodities at that local level. He envisioned that trade between communities would be minimal because of the level of self-sufficiency each would attain, but communication would be constantly open. Why? Because intercommunity communication is essential to building and maintaining consistent standards of ethics and conduct within a culture. It is essential to the transfer of ideas and knowledge. Without communication, communities become estranged, even as people do on an individual and family level.

Government offices are a shining example of this in their interactions with other agencies of the same government, and with the population they were set up to serve. Interagency competition and limited, if any, communication beyond the official party line they’re required to parrot results in no real communication at all, an atmosphere of distrust and disdain, and development of compartmentalized and essentially closed “cultures” that alienation induces to retreat behind walls of fortification to do their own thing. That means, for the most part, only perpetuation of the culture’s values matter, and no thing of real value to the Culture at large gets done, no matter how much money it costs.

None of this should surprise us because humans are predisposed to seek two things – community, and a comfortably identifiable social position within the community. The human grasp of community is limited in terms of the size of the population it can, or indeed should, grasp which is why the terms “global village” and “global economy” are bullshit of the most aromatic kind. We all know what they mean, but in terms of the Way of the Wild as it applies to Man, they are meaningless.

At the opposite extreme from globalization is the concept of what was once called “survivalism”, and has since come to be referred to as the “prepper” movement – people who have lost confidence in their government along with the ability of everything in their society to perform as promised – and so conclude they are on their own to see to them and theirs, in perpetuity if needs must. Taken too far, behind those ramparts of isolation I talked about earlier, this is as meaningless as globalization. Approached intelligently though, with an eye to the long haul and Simon and Garfunkel notwithstanding, it lies closer to the Truth if it springs from an understanding that you are not a rock, nor are you an island. You will need community as the Way of the Wild in Man requires.

The Archaic Revival: Evolving through the Survivalist Mentality to the Unity Mentality is the title of an article by Christopher Renzo published to the Keen Awareness blog on 24 April 2012. While the piece could benefit from a thorough proof reading, and I certainly cannot lay claim to embracing everything Mr. Renzo has ever written, I do feel he has hit a relevant nail on the head with this observation:

Observe and question the main stream avenues of social influence.  Observe the main stream media, observe government, observe religion, and observe big business.  Do these institutions disseminate views and objectives that support unity and harmony or do they keep the illusion alive that we, above anything else, are different and separate from each other?

Be observant as to what you watch and listen to, your mind is registering everything, even those things which it can not readily discern.  Be careful to see that maybe the major avenues of social dissemination are subliminally telling you that you are an individual who is not good enough, not pretty enough, not strong enough, and not rich enough to be labeled a “success.”  What is a success anyway?  Is something a success when it proves that you are “better” than another person at something?  What was that magazine trying to tell you about beauty and how you relate to it, what is the hollywood star telling you about how wonderful it is to be rich, popular, and influential?  Are these people really better than you?  Better yet, are these people fundamentally different than you?

There is no such thing as “better” only as far as you believe something or someone can be better.  Do you fear you must be better than someone else in order to secure your piece of the pie?  Is there not something fundamentally wrong with this way of life?

How are we to move from the survivalist mentality that has us competing against each other in a race to the bottom of consuming Earth’s last resources to a more harmonious society that thrives and allows the Earth to function optimally?

And that leads me to one more thing before we wrap up today’s discussion. Man has a large and highly adaptive brain – nearly as smart as a Crow – along with this pesky opposable thumb – one on each side unless you’ve gone through life being called “Lefty”. We Man critters can imagine and build solutions to problems that Nature didn’t give us the speed, wings, teeth, fur, claws, armor, sense of smell, or eyesight to solve otherwise. Lest it be thought that the Way of the Wild in Man is limited in scope to being maxed out at 18th century technologies, let’s combine today’s examination of community, communication between communities, and a tool you may have heard about called “the internet”. I’ll leave you with that reference, supported by Maxim XI from The Art of Worldly Wisdom by Balthasar Gracian:

Cultivate those who can teach you.

Let friendly intercourse be a school of knowledge, and culture be taught through conversation: thus you make your friends your teachers and mingle the pleasures of conversation with the advantages of instruction. Sensible persons thus enjoy alternating pleasures: they reap applause for what they say, and gain instruction from what they hear. We are always attracted to others by our own interest, but in this case it is of a higher kind. Wise men frequent the houses of great noblemen not because they are temples of vanity, but as theatres of good breeding. There be gentlemen who have the credit of worldly wisdom, because they are not only themselves oracles of all nobleness by their example and their behaviour, but those who surround them form a well-bred academy of worldly wisdom of the best and noblest kind.

Used properly by thinking people, a tool like that might just do a lot of good.

But more on tools next time.