Speaking of Black Friday

I need someone with more tech savvy than I have to make a movie for me. It could be pretty short; nothing more difficult than what your average 15-year old kid posts on youtube.

It would only require two clips, to be played back and forth and back and forth 10 times or so.

Clip One: Lemmings running down the hill and jumping off a cliff
Clip Two: Shoppers rampaging the mall on the day after Thanksgiving.
Soundtrack: The Benny Hill Song

There you have it. Make that, and the point should be obvious.

Thanksgiving Week Note

Apparently one major store is opening at 12:01 a.m. on Friday, so Christmas shoppers can get a head start. And another major chain is opening at 4:00, as the banner ads on the local paper's website so proudly proclaim.

I guess it's time for my annual reminder:Brought to you by the Fine Folks at buynothingchristmas.org

Back and Gone

Home for a night, and off again.

We returned to find the forest to our north and west gone. Vanished to the cutting blade while we slept. What once was deep forest is now stripped bare. What had been woods beyond our yard is now broken earth.

In honor of the land, I give you Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front, by Wendell Berry.

Love the quick profit, the annual raise,
vacation with pay. Want more
of everything ready-made. Be afraid
to know your neighbors and to die.

And you will have a window in your head.
Not even your future will be a mystery
any more. Your mind will be punched in a card
and shut away in a little drawer.

When they want you to buy something
they will call you. When they want you
to die for profit they will let you know.
So, friends, every day do something
that won't compute. Love the Lord.
Love the world. Work for nothing.
Take all that you have and be poor.
Love someone who does not deserve it.

Denounce the government and embrace
the flag. Hope to live in that free
republic for which it stands.
Give your approval to all you cannot
understand. Praise ignorance, for what man
has not encountered he has not destroyed.

Ask the questions that have no answers.
Invest in the millenium. Plant sequoias.
Say that your main crop is the forest
that you did not plant,
that you will not live to harvest.

Say that the leaves are harvested
when they have rotted into the mold.
Call that profit. Prophesy such returns.
Put your faith in the two inches of humus
that will build under the trees
every thousand years.

Listen to carrion -- put your ear
close, and hear the faint chattering
of the songs that are to come.
Expect the end of the world. Laugh.
Laughter is immeasurable. Be joyful
though you have considered all the facts.
So long as women do not go cheap
for power, please women more than men.

Ask yourself: Will this satisfy
a woman satisfied to bear a child?
Will this disturb the sleep
of a woman near to giving birth?

Go with your love to the fields.
Lie down in the shade. Rest your head
in her lap. Swear allegiance
to what is nighest your thoughts.

As soon as the generals and the politicos
can predict the motions of your mind,
lose it. Leave it as a sign
to mark the false trail, the way
you didn't go.

Be like the fox
who makes more tracks than necessary,
some in the wrong direction.
Practice resurrection.