I take solace in knowing that, even if I can only help just a little, it has to be enough. That’s just how it works—I cannot give more of myself if it doesn’t leave anything left behind. Because then I’d be dead, and I couldn’t help anybody else.
I like to garden in my free time, and I’ve slowly converted all the abandoned flower beds in our townhouse block into gardens. Corn, beans, squash, carrots, onions and chives, (way too fucking many) raspberries, and a cross-section of fresh herbs in every bed to naturally ward off most pests (and be yim-yum). Free food! I think I harvest maybe 10 to 20% of it myself, and I turn it into chili. I tell the neighbors they can have some for free, and their friends can have some too, if they ask. It opens up conversations, and I know it’s made a difference in some folks’ lives.
One comrade cannot fix the whole planet. If you can’t do a lot, a little is okay. You don’t need to be personally executing landlords—giving your neighbor some soup helps, too.
I don’t have a garden of my own, but I have a family member that lets me plant stuff in theirs, I might give them a visit and see how those flowers are doing
That sounds rad. My family won’t give me an inch of their property to plant food crops on. Their loss—24/7 fresh herbs is tight as hell.
But the garden is just my thing. It’s an example. Praxis isn’t just restricted to setting up an anarchist cell to blow up the Francis Scott Key Bridge and blame it on a cargo ship. It can be giving your neighbor a pan of fresh cornbread because you “made too many” (and know they’re behind on rent). Or making your home a safe place for GNC kids in the neighborhood.
Just do what you can. It is enough. You are enough.
(If anybody has any advice on how to deal with raspberries like how Mao dealt with sparrows, please let me know. Holy fuck, I should not have planted those.)
I take solace in knowing that, even if I can only help just a little, it has to be enough. That’s just how it works—I cannot give more of myself if it doesn’t leave anything left behind. Because then I’d be dead, and I couldn’t help anybody else.
I like to garden in my free time, and I’ve slowly converted all the abandoned flower beds in our townhouse block into gardens. Corn, beans, squash, carrots, onions and chives, (way too fucking many) raspberries, and a cross-section of fresh herbs in every bed to naturally ward off most pests (and be yim-yum). Free food! I think I harvest maybe 10 to 20% of it myself, and I turn it into chili. I tell the neighbors they can have some for free, and their friends can have some too, if they ask. It opens up conversations, and I know it’s made a difference in some folks’ lives.
One comrade cannot fix the whole planet. If you can’t do a lot, a little is okay. You don’t need to be personally executing landlords—giving your neighbor some soup helps, too.
I don’t have a garden of my own, but I have a family member that lets me plant stuff in theirs, I might give them a visit and see how those flowers are doing
That sounds rad. My family won’t give me an inch of their property to plant food crops on. Their loss—24/7 fresh herbs is tight as hell.
But the garden is just my thing. It’s an example. Praxis isn’t just restricted to setting up an anarchist cell to blow up the Francis Scott Key Bridge and blame it on a cargo ship. It can be giving your neighbor a pan of fresh cornbread because you “made too many” (and know they’re behind on rent). Or making your home a safe place for GNC kids in the neighborhood.
Just do what you can. It is enough. You are enough.
(If anybody has any advice on how to deal with raspberries like how Mao dealt with sparrows, please let me know. Holy fuck, I should not have planted those.)
Haha oh man, I live in a hot climate so I can’t help you there. You should get some tasty berries after a frost though, right?
Nooooooo I want to kill them! They spread faster than all the mint I planted on a golf course that one time!
Look, make me 500 mint raspberry pies and your problem is solved