Mingle and mangle 2015 consumers' and Christians' Christmas

In the fading afternoon light the bright nylon inflatables catch the eyes of passers by, complete with their own blowers to keep air pressure, along with lights to internally illuminate to figure. In this case the figure of Saint Nicholas (a.k.a. Santa 'claus) astride a motorcycle stands out for its juxtaposition of jaunty biker culture with kindly bewhiskered gent in red. Then there is the giant teddy bear, quoting the Santa costume trimmed at sleeve and hat brim in white fur. Lastly at the far right and sheltering under an evergreen, there are Mary and Joseph surrounding a cradle, pressed from solid plastic and set glowing with bulbs inside the figures. Perhaps they date to the 1980s whereas the inflatables come from the 2000s. In addition to the range of scenes or characters from popular (Santa) and commercial (Mickey Mouse in Santa costume) culture of the year end holidays, manufacturers also have a selection of inflatables for late November (Thanksgiving Day in USA; the 4th Thursday of the month), and perhaps most of all for the end of October (Halloween). So there are a few households that put up a display in October, November and December, while others do none of this public lawn display.
       If asked about reasons to add the electrification and increase their energy bill, perhaps they would respond in one or more of these ways: it is for my (grand)children (or neighbor kids), it brightens the December darkness, I got this on sale after last year's holiday season ended, it is fun to set up and look at each night, it is my contribution to my street's community spirit. But, of course, without actually posting the questions to a cross-section of residents, the list of suppositions is little more than imagination of just one writer.
       A symbolic interpretation might go like this: The Santa figure is suited to a nation of immigrants, since strangers can be a source of unexpected benefit. The biker reference seems to bring the story out of the land of reindeer and onto the streets of a motorized society where people can be together and still be separate or isolated. The bear hearkens to the original Teddy Bear - something fierce and dangerous that now is cuddly and suited to childhood reveries. Meanwhile, dwarfed by the blower and big dimensions of the inflatables (just so much hot air?) there the figures going back to the 2000 year old story and the holy scripture that has conveyed it generation by generation. I wonder how well these relative proportions mirror the larger patterns around the regions of the USA, both in rural and urban places, among the many varieties of ethnic groups comprising the society at the moment.

Daily ebb and flood of young eaters wasting food

the menu for hot lunch is turkey with gravy on mashed potatoes; pizza option (R)

 Long gone are the times of war time rationing and recycling of fats, fiber, bone, tin, and so on. The slogan of the 1990s onward at the municipal level has been "reduce - recycle - reuse" but school buildings and their districts typically are preoccupied with convenience and lack of complication since their attention is taken up with educational outcomes measurable by standardized tests, not necessarily the more intangible results of eating habits and other lifelong attitudes that students take from grade level to grade level until at last they reach the age of majority, vote, earn money and consume what is necessary for livelihood and also what may be unnecessary but fits into the large sector of Discretionary Income. 

This picture from the food server's standpoint looks across the heated serving line to the cafetorium (dual use as dining space and stage front seating for performances and other school or community events, with overflow space when the folding wall connects to the adjoining gymnasium). The logistics have been tweaked in the 16 years since the building opened in 1999. Recess was a big attraction to many and so they'd tip much of their lunch into the bin before excusing themselves to play. To respond the school changed the sequence so that recess begins the sequence and lunch concludes it. Minutes have been calculated to line them up and move them through the serving line with barcode scanner to track choices longitudinally (brown bag is a cold lunch option, but comes on a Styrofoam tray - no bag in sight; pizza is a daily menu item -alternating from triangle slices to rectangle cheese stuffed crust; and the day's hot lunch - 15 menus that rotate daily; almost no students carry a lunch pail or bag from home and come through the line merely for a choice of white, chocolate, or strawberry flavored milk).

Usually 3 or 4 dining room monitors hover like a pit crew, ready equipped with spare packets of plastic flatware and straws for those dropped or lost, and armed with scissors to snip plastic containers open. They catch spills, tamp down rising voice levels, coach the slow eaters along, and at the end they give a 2 minute warning with a call-and-response rhythmic clap (1-2, 1-2-3) and hand gestures (finger to lips or the raised hand showing the universal, school wide code for voice level 1 - the lowest). 

It would be instructive to mount a time-lapse camera above the waste bins to gauge each grade level's rate of non-eating in general, as well as patterns specific to each of the 15 menus in the rotation. This daily ritual, five times a week during he 180 day school year, is a powerful and mostly non-verbalized lesson in (lack of) respect for food, the pressure of time to eat something, and the need to get along institutionally (not getting out of hand for the sake of the whole assembly there dining). And among a few of the food line servers there is a routine to instill the rudiments of giving and receiving, as in "would you like a roll with your turkey and gravy on mashed potato?" (the menu for the photo here) : Yes, please? No, thank you? You know what to say.

In summary, an important part of schooling happens outside the curriculum, lesson plans, desktops or LCD projector screens. A few decades ago a seriously injured writer turned to his classmates who'd graduated from high school maybe 20 years earlier to ask them what parts of their learning mattered still today; or what things they'd discovered to be truly useful and important in life that *should* be broached during the growing up years. Apart from literacy and numeracy, the survey responses included things like: what is normal development of one's body (range of normal), ways to find and keep a job, how to get along with difficult people, what pitfalls and advice concerning personal finance and the world of investments should one be familiar with, what are some of the sources of contentment and meaning in one's life. In the case of the 20-25 minutes allowed for eating at the elementary school, pictured here, there is socialization going on, but also great material waste and habits to accept and continue to do the same uncritically and unconsciously. Surely there must be other, better ways to carry out this important and pleasurable activity around the school district and indeed the entire country.

Thinking about Halloween in small town middle Michigan, USA

A stone's throw from my front door is the main east-west road through the town of 7,000.
There on the corner is a house that stands out from the maybe 10-15% of homeowners who make an effort to create a display or express Halloween themes. Whereas some will erect inflatable nylon creatures with light and fan running internally, and others put window decoration or a lawn ornament that references death, creatures of the night, and fright - typically in colors of black (night) and orange (fall leaves, pumpkins and other colorful gourds), a few houses include lots of detail and wordplay (false tomb stones with pun-like names such are Herbie Lowe, a play on 'here below').
     Question: what is the appeal or aspiration being expressed in these tableaux for the passersby to view? There is no contest or competition in any formal sense. But for some perhaps the motivation is an annual activity for family participation that celebrates a curious day - knocking on the doors of neighbors and strangers with the expectation of being given free candy that is safe and desirable.

---3rd annual zombie fun run, "Run for Your Life" in city park to raise money for new Spray Park.

click image for full-size view

Native Americans - online in the state of Michigan

Bicycling on one of the streets in Traverse City, the logo on one of the SUVs parked on the side displayed the logo for the Grand Traverse Band of Indians. Census-wise there are relatively few who classify themselves as Native Americans or Pacific Islanders in the USA (less than 1%, although specific counties will have concentrations; for example in Oklahoma, New Mexico, or Arizona). So except for casino billboards on the highways, airwaves, and Internet there is relatively little visual presence of Indian persons, property (like the truck parked on the street), business products and services, or issues important to Native people.

In a word, for people living around the state of Michigan, at least in the southern, most populated parts of the lower peninsula, the subject of Native Americans can be summed up with the word ignorance; sheer lack of experiences, first-person connections, public discourse and news media, textbook presence and so on.

 [caption: screenshot taken from webpage - URL at top left of the image]

See also album of images on this subject at https://www.flickr.com/photos/anthroview/albums/72157673270576798

Streaming recyclers among the consuming public

This unwelcome bin began showing up early July 2015 under the 3 year contract with the town government to replace the recycle tubs (18 gallon capacity). Whereas the tubs could hold a week or more's worth of plastics, glass, paper products and metals, these new 96 gallon behemoths may well fill up only every 4-6 weeks. Having fewer stops to make on the route saves the company time and personnel costs, but it falls to the householder to put the eyesore someplace in the meantime. Around this same time a radio talkshow with recyclers in Washington, DC and in Seattle came to the conclusion that the move to supersize the bins did not produce savings as planned because residents grew more careless about sorting and preparing things for the curbside pick-up. As a result, the sorting facility had to filter out the contaminants (non-recyclables). The upshot is that what once just about paid for itself (value of materials equaled the costs to run the service) now ended up costing more to run than the original tub-based system. Going bigger just seems to mean less care, and more consumption.

walking through Clinton County 4H Fair, July 27-31, 2015

The trend to live in cities rather than farms began with the factory jobs offered when industrial power and methods of producing and distributing goods took off in the middle and later 1800s. For middle Michigan, perhaps the process of urbanization was slower. And while automobile factories drew shift workers from surrounding bedroom communities, the local livestock auctions and farm servicing companies carried on until the Great Depression and WWII conscription and war production pulled even more off the farmland. And yet during all these years the 4H movement established itself, originally as a way to introduce new methods and infrastructure to farmers by getting the kids to learn in the local clubs. But the times changed and unified TV viewing experience of a few channels expanded with video tapes and then DVD recordings, followed by a cable channel plethora and then Internet and most recently streaming services. With these competing sources of information and entertainment, the delight from face-to-face, cooperative effort seemed to be displaced or somehow was less insistent than the blinking and beeping electricity-powered sources for spending one's time.
       This walkthough of the fair grounds mid-morning and mid-week (Wednesday) shows a quieter scene that one might have seen 15 or 30 years earlier when summer vacations consisted of local kids looking for interesting things to say, do, or watch.
       Highlights include passing glimpses of the dairy pavilion (left hand side) and the viewing stands (right hand side) while the young people in the ring are showing their quaffed and cleaned animals to the judges for comment and evaluation.

Early July scene mid-week along highway M-115 in Cadillac, Michigan at William Mitchell State Park.

To join the others under the trees and walking distance from the two lakes that straddle the isthmus most people buy, borrow, or rent a camping trailer or RV (recreation vehicle). The section reserved for tenters (people sleeping under nylon or canvas) is relatively small and hard to see by comparison to the wheeled, portable living spaces shown here. The convenience of having a familiar place to sleep, cook, and take care of some personal grooming gives campers reason to haul their trailer north from time to time on the weekend or for whole weeks at a time. It is hard to beat the feeling of certainty and security with light, heat, water and electricity all in one place, especially when the outdoors is less than glorious. And yet there is the view that your means will affect your ends; that is, the manner in which you conduct your life affects the kinds of things that are visible or audible in your experience. By analogy and using the "life is a journey" metaphor, the person traveling on foot v. noisy motorbike v. biplane v. jumbo jet will all have different experiences of a place. So too of camping - the more gear that separates you from the elements, the less of those textures and rhythms will you perceive. Thus to live in or a few steps away from a camper which is neatly parked next to other ones is bound to be a different experience to living out of a tent with few tenters nearby.

Golf and tennis? Forest succession and water tables? - it's a matter of time horizon

Looking toward the outdoor seating of the clubhouse at the golf and tennis country club with a view of the long narrow Lake Leelanau, there is a certain feeling of contrast between the business of leisure sport on carefully tended grounds and the therapeutic separation from one's working routines on the one hand, and the rhythms and structures that organize the rest of the plants and animals that share these spaces on land and water. The humans live one golf or tennis season to the next, concerned with providing a level of service and model for business that keeps things solvent from one generation of owners and members to the next. But in the much longer sweep of time, in geological or glacial age time frame of 10,000 years, the daily business decisions and the weekly grooming of grounds and buildings have little impact on the shape of the land and the flow of water, the action of freeze-thaw cycles and the prevailing pattern of winds that deposit the next generation of seed in shade or sun, leading to another cycle of birth and decay. And so, when looking at the pleasing care of the grass and pavement, as well as savoring what is offered on the menu, it is salutatory to zoom out to a wider point of reference and see that the life cycle of the trees and the generations of fish and frogs operate by entirely different directions, all the while intersecting the concerns of the people who keep the golf and tennis facilities in tip-top shape each outdoor season.

Sign of the times? Call up the experts - consultants for bankruptcy

As seen at the intersection this evening, heading east.

The public discourse, popular culture, peer to peer conversations all contribute to reproduce the dominant worldview of consuming goods and services; the more the better. But the results of easy credit (short term indebtedness in fact) can confuse or disorient a person into the self-image of unlimited means to satisfy desires for more stuff. This roadside advertisement is a symptom of "Affluenza," as the documentary named this sickness of consumer society that has run amok.

thar she blows - wind turbines of Gratiot County, Michigan

As seen Wednesday, June 10, driving north on US-127 (click image for full size view with turbines on horizon, above the road line.

towering wind turbines on the horizon

In this flat landscape of steady winds the renewable source of wind power makes sense, although for local and migrating birds the moving blades are a worry. And for residents downwind the sound carries. One person spoke of wintertime ice building up under certain conditions and then potentially launching off the swinging propeller to land like some sort of modern-day catapult projectile.

mass migration on Memorial Day 3-day weekend

The busiest roadways in USA are the end of May (the northbound stream of cars on M-115 near Cadillac on Friday about 2:30 p.m. pictured here) for the 3 day weekend of Memorial Day; the traditional end of summer vacation season on the 3 day weekend of Labor Day (itself the first Monday of September; and the 4 day weekend of Thanksgiving (3rd Thursday) in November.
The urge to spend some happy hours among those one knows best, whether relatives or friends or both, drives people to their cars. For most people the roadways are the single biggest risk factor in their lives. And being more heavily trafficked on the start and the end of the holiday weekends, the danger is that much higher. In the recent decade or two the state police in Michigan, together with volunteers, have offered coffee at the highway rest areas to help ward off drowsiness or at least to demonstrate to those stopping that the problem is worthy of care. This widely dispersed pattern of social bonds comes from the ease of transportation, personal or by commercial services of rail, ferry and motor coach. So for the past 150 or more years, to pack up and visit others for a weekend has not been out of the ordinary. But in the grand scheme of human experience, it is not the norm, either. It would be interesting to peer into each of the cars in this stream to know what fills the compressed social space: silence, audio book or music or talk radio, conversation, cellphone or other mobile devices, print materials occupying the minds of those aboard? Multiplied across all the highways filling up in the afternoon of the holiday, the sum total of engagements is likely staggering.

Swampers (livelihood in Okefenokee Swamp until 1937 national wildlife refuge designation) and Strangers - local knowledge

Tour service near east gate to the national wildlife refuge (10 min. west of Folkston, GA), 3/2015.

On a recent trip out of state to the Okefenokee Swamp far from the familiar climate of snow and ice, the contrast of being a local resident with insider knowledge to being a sojourner, just passing through, became clear. While enjoying the mild temperatures of Florida, the street organization and the design of traffic flow were unfamiliar. The names and faces also were strange. Of course the English (and Spanish) language, though sometimes accented to varying degrees, and many of the franchise business were the same or of a recognizable category (regional chains of grocery or hardware or convenience store, for example). And being a tourist meant setting each day’s schedule with little or no routine, responsibility, or recurring commitment. This lack of daily or weekly structure lent a sense of freedom and feeling of being unencumbered. But it also meant lack of connection to groups and individuals nearby, except for ones based on commercial transaction of hotel, restaurant, fuel for the rental car or any other purchases made along the way. In other words, being out of one’s element tends to leave on on the sidelines of local life; a spectator to the rhythms of the day and cycles of the season. What remains open to engage on equal terms to long-time residents with their layers of local knowledge, then, is the natural world outside of human affairs: bird watching, eco-touring, botanical observations and insect sighting. Then there is the historical and archaeological perspective: imagining what stood in a given location before the present scene, either the Big Events marked by brass plaques edited by historical commissions, or ones unmarked by label text but narrated in history pamphlets or detectable to someone with an eye for material culture and traces of by-gone times before gas-powered automobiles (e.g. narrow streets and no built-in garages; no parking lots), before telephones or electric power distribution, etc.

    After a few days of living in hotels and eating at recommended restaurants with some local ingredients or styles, it was time to make the transit back home. What things constitute “home”? What connections and meanings are available in a place long lived in, compared to the meager meanings one can extract in a few hours or days spent someplace? Whether it is out of state but in the same country, or it is abroad in a place based on different language and culture, the defining elements of “being a local resident” are much the same and set apart those with many days lived in the spot from those with few memories layered there. Knowing a place by “face and by name” means that the streets and landmarks are familiar old friends or at least acquaintances. Naturally a person’s habits, work, or leisure make some places more familiar than others. So there may be corners of a town or city that remain unknown or only dimly familiar. A stranger may see only the surface elements of a spot, while a local may have personal memories either good, bad or indifferent tied to the same place.

    Next to knowing a location “by name or at least by face” there are the responsibilities (school and clubs, work, family and friendly interactions) and recreational involvements of hobbies and community that introduce structure and shape the schedule of one’s day, week and each season of the year.

    Then there are is the “local knowledge” of being able to identify what a person, place or thing signifies; what meaning there may be in a given piece or news or local happening, or indeed opportunity for business or civic undertaking. The analogy to foreign places is “cultural literacy”; that is, recognizing what something or someone means as well as knowing what something means. Also analogous to foreign situations comparing insider and outsider experiences, there is “social proficiency” in knowing how to go about solving a problem, whether it is mending clothing, purchasing a specialty item, or finding the answer to a complicated (social or material) problem. Strangers  would bring their own toolkit of methods, but locals would have a much wider range of immediate solutions. The third analogy from foreign experiences besides cultural literacy and social proficiency is linguistic fluency; that is, being able to express oneself as well as to interpret the meanings of those who are all around. When the comparison is between local and outsider of the same nation-state or at least the same (native) language, then regional differences of inflection, accent or (local) vocabulary are relatively small and do not overly lead to different experiences of the local terrain. Whether one’s spoken signature style was learned in the north, south, east, center or west does not greatly set apart local and outsider at the onset. However, because locals can hear that “you aren't from around here” then they can take extra interest in assisting you (the host-guest function of ancient times), or on the contrary dismiss you as being inconsequential to the local affairs that most interest them.

    In summary, being an outsider in a warm, sunny place for a few days, where the language is about the same as home, but everything else is unfamiliar, the reasons for feeling like a spectator became clear: the bases for engaging in meaningful schedule and purposeful interchange were limited to commercial transaction for traveler services (food, transport, lodging, guiding), to observation and inquiring into the natural environment and seasonal cycles, and to some study of historical events and the observable material traces of bygone times. Then in turn the return to home ground quickly restored the familiar routines of the day and week: preparing meals, keeping house and yard and pets, answering mail and email, and catching up with work left temporarily aside. Knowing one’s life space “by name or at least by face” (as people normally say of those they recognize) is what makes a place familiar, day by day, as new memories and projects and envisioned possibilities take shape, layer upon layer, making meaning of one’s life.