2 Oct 2009

won’t you be my The End is Neighbor – energy in roundabout ways

Posted by Teapots Happen

April 21, 2008

Writeup below originally posted on Myspace 4/21/08:

So I’m sitting here trying to work on my post-apocalyptic wasteland warrior movie website, and Jessi’s home, reading a book I had lying around called

Stop.

The above (before the Stop) was all I got written before Jessi looked up and racheted up the coincidence factor on me …

OK, where was I …

I’m sitting here trying to work on my post-apocalyptic wasteland warrior movie website, and my roommate Jessi’s home hanging out nearby, paging through a book I had lying around called “Fire of Life (The Smithsonian Book of the Sun)”.

So naturally I get sidetracked into a conversation that starts on primitive sun-worshippers and progresses to the formation of galaxies and the impossibility of knowing what existed before time began in a Big Bang … anyway, conversation quickly goes from the Sun and science to how the Universe is incredibly fucking weird to the point of being mystical.

I end the conversation and leave the room for a minute, I can’t remember why, and when I return, my iTunes (on random shuffle of 21 days worth of music) is playing the song “Energy in Roundabout Ways” –

Which is of course all about the Sun, and how we are stuck on a rock that would be barren without the radioactive, chaos-inducing rays at the root of it all:
Leaves of plants use energy from sunlight to make food.
This process is called photosynthesis.
Animals and people feed on the plants and obtain the energy they need.
Sunlight also keeps the surface of the Earth warm, and makes it possible for us to exist.
In fact, almost all of the energy we use on Earth comes from the suns rays.
And, almost all of the energy we get from the sun comes in roundabout ways.

In roundabout ways,
The sun gives energy,
In roundabout ways,
The suns energy has been stored in the past,
In the plants and in animal bodies.
Time marches on they are coal, oil and gas.
Energy in roundabout ways.

Ancient plants and animals died, and were buried under Earth and sea.
Their fossil remains were changed into coal, oil, and gas.
Today we use these fuels as energy sources for our modern civilization.

In roundabout ways,
The sun gives energy,
In roundabout ways,
The energy in moving water and wind
Has been brought into play by the sunlight.
Energy from wind and water becomes
Energy in roundabout ways. 

Sunlight heats the oceans, and makes the water evaporate.
Later, this water falls as rain to form rivers and create water power.
Winds are also created by the heating of the earth.
The energy of wind can push sailboats, turn windmills, and operate electric generators on farms. 

In roundabout ways,
The sun gives energy,
In roundabout ways
–

We laugh.

A ‘mere coincidence,’ no doubt – but nontheless, the Universe seems a little more connected, a little more capable of winking.

Thinking about the slippery distinction between ‘mere’ and ‘meanginful’ coincidences, I decide to post a blog about the subject on Myspace – it kind of makes a nice continuation on the riff from the “Davis/Carlson” synchronicity, and I haven’t written anything on here in awhile.

…

But when I get onto Myspace I am sidetracked by Charley’s latest Bulletin (he’s a prolific bulletin poster) – it’s called ” is my rudy, a strikebreaker?” and I think of ‘Rudie Can’t Fail‘ and ‘A Message to You Rudy‘ and I wonder, “what the fuck is that about?” so I open it and even though it’s long and I’m supposed to be on a mission I still scan through all of it because Charley is a compelling writer.

At the very end of his bulletin, I really tune in when he started saying something that resonates with me:

I hope to convince people to form their own tribes knowingly and self consciously. to think in their mind what people they know care about their subsistence and existence and formally make their own tribes and traditions for their own families mutual assistance. to know that not all friends and family members can be part of the tribe and that is what it is.

the time will come when the economy will tank and that is when informal organization will be a good idea for individuals that want to subsist and survive in hard times.

a man or woman alone does poorly on the road or in the wilds.

And that’s a theme that’s been coming around my social scene lately, from my movie website to joking about who will have or lack what skills when we’re roaming the wasteland in my V8 Buick battling for gas to friends who really have stockpiles and contingency plans for when the system falls down.

(… and now a post apocalyptic song called “Old World for Sale” that I’ve never heard before comes on the shuffle as I write that sentence – all about Fire, Life, and the fall of civilization …)

So I start to write Charley back, to tongue-in-cheek suggest that the Wasteland Warriors website may prove to be a valuable resource to study in preparation for post apocalyptic survival. I do not see any notable coincidence in his sending his bulletin out while I was working on a post apocalyptic website – but I would see it as a link in the coincidence chain, momentarily …

Because rather than responding to Charley, I decide I need to stay SOMEWHAT focused, and instead post the blog about coincidences, and I so I start writing in a brief style, expecting to summarize the whole minor amusement within a paragraph.

But I’ve only gotten into the first sentence when Jessi – across the room and unaware of what I’ve been reading and doing online – looks up from the Sun book – now open to a picture of some capable looking folk baking bread in a primitive hut, and says,

“You know, America’s gonna be fucked if anything happens that causes this whole civilization to crash.”

–

So I laugh again, and set to writing a longer post than I’d planned …

–

Ha- and as I sit here in Sept 2009 preparing this blog post , my ipod, shuffling through 5322 songs, spits out the song “Everybody Loves the Sunshine” …

synchronicity

surf to a random post