Throughstone #21: Hunker Down or Step Out?

I’d rather live the contradiction than have to choose. The deepest truths often live in the crevices of contradiction, and right now, in a moment of intensifying authoritarianism, (out)bursts of war, and economic uncertainty, we feel the competing tugs of hunkering down and stepping out. Do we buy more seeds or take to the streets? One is an expression of security, and the other a vocalization of insecurity, be it our own or of others. Both matter. And each one imbues the other with meaning.

It is time to (help) plant a garden. It is time to show signs of what you stand for and what you’re not willing to tolerate. It’s all gone too far–way too far for a country that has imperfectly tried to set an international standard for justice, equality, and the rule of law. So we have to do two things at once: be prepared for the consequences and demand the alternatives (that we apparently took for granted), by whatever means best fit our circumstances. 

Homesteading often feels like an act of rebellion, although it’s as quiet as it is grounded. Solar panels, livestock, gardens, forests, and springs all offer a sense of security and an ability to really hunker down, if necessary. However, now is not a time for rural retreats but for rural advances. It’s our moment to step up and out and give voice to the values that sustain us in our rural lives: truth, interdependence, love, fairness, hard work, and diversidad.

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“Throughstone 250” is a purposefully constrained blog project. As a long-winded Southerner constrained by Vermont’s limited porch season and the Yankee penchant for paragraphs of three words or less, I’ve opted to aim for semi-regular (i.e., consistent in their irregularity) reflections of precisely 250 words for the foreseeable future.

250 means something right now. Maybe more than we anticipated. It’s symbolic but incredibly important…and a 250 word count seems much less constrained than a 5-7-5 syllable count for a haiku. 

Like many others, I’m struggling to make meaning out of these tumultuous days. I’ve always found it useful to try and write my way out of tough spots. Looking for throughstones is just one more effort to try and generate some meaning from the mayhem.