Ponies in the Poop Pile: Ten Potential Positive Outcomes of the Economic Meltdown
By Pat Racimora on May 12, 2009 at 5:30 PM in American Consumers, Bank Bailouts, Bank Failure, Credit Card Companies, Depression, Economy
An optimist has been defined as one who would, should a ton of crap be dumped on his doorstep, jump right in and rummage through it, convinced that there must be a pony in there somewhere. I tend towards optimism.
So, while not for one second denying that millions of citizens have been significantly harmed by the economic decline, disaster often has a way of encouraging the the best in human nature to come forward. As our society appears to increasingly embrace a narcissistic, materialistic morality, bearing witness to what this has wrought may shake us all up in a good way.
Here’s my list as to how that could happen.
1. Valuing experiences over accumulating tangible things. The research substantiates that happier people are less interested in stuff and mostly find their joy in experiences. And maybe the best things in life are not free, but some come close. To wit: a picnic in the park, walks through the closest pretty place, potluck dinners with a few friends, bird and other small critter watching (scrub jays are a hoot, especially if you have peanuts–shells and all–to offer them), and checking the paper for free events. (Many communities have slews of them every week.) It kind of takes getting used to after spending $10 for a movie and $20 for a dinner out, but it grows on you. “What is the most fun thing we can do that doesn’t cost anything (or very little)?” A great game for tough times.
2. Finding and exercising your creative self. You may have received a handmade card from a child. That beats Hallmark every time, yes? And with cards now costing as much as a gift did a few years ago, it’s time to get back to the joy of making things from scratch. Cards, wrapping paper (recycle those grocery bags and magazines with a great collage), clothing, beaded jewelry, playing with a food recipe, whatever. I have always taught my students that what is truly special about being human is our capacity to create something from nothing, to transform an idea or raw stuff into something that arose from inside our own selves. Pure joy awaits.
3. Valuing used goods. Just because it is new and no one else has touched it doesn’t mean it’s better. Increasing numbers of my friends are unabashedly buying clothing from thrift and second hand stores, not because they are absolutely forced to, but because it is fun. The bargains and “the look” can be stunning. They also like the idea of giving items another round of wear. Other friends are finding that some old things can be fixed, and sometimes they can even do it them themselves (from which they get the joy as described in #2). Money is saved in the process and for the environment, well that’s #4.
4. Helping Mother Nature. When errand times and routes are planned to conserve gasoline, and when stuff is reused or recycled, we help protect the environment. Bad economic times may help instill some good habits.
5. Learning what you don’t really need. A friend said recently, “You know, I have had to spend wisely because my job was furloughed, but I don’t miss a lot of stuff I thought I absolutely had to have. And I found some good less expensive replacements for things I needed. I’m feeling kind of proud of myself.” I think most people would be able to save money if they realized that some of what they want to replace is quite good enough as it is.
6. The joy of helping others. Another solid finding from the happiness research is that accumulating wealth and material things is not a marker of a satisfying life. One of the primary sources of life satisfaction is quite the opposite—giving of oneself to others. This current economic situation means for most of us that the need is no longer just about writing a check to some charity and sticking it in the mailbox. Rather, the needs are much closer to home now. The local school is short on basic supplies, the food bank is desperate for donations, a niece lost her home and needs a refrigerator for an apartment, a neighbor’s home was stripped bare by burglars when they were away for the day and they need a lot of things that the rest of us can spare. Giving is getting up close and personal—and doing it nourishes our souls.
7. A good time to drop bad habits. For those who eat or drink way too much, smoke, are dependent on unnecessary chemicals, to work on cutting them out not only saves cash but will help out with health costs–if not now, down the line. Indeed, taking care of ourselves in every way not only will cost less but maximizes the chances of a more vibrant life (while saving the rest of us money as well).
8. Grow some food. Even those with small places, so long as you have some sun and a place to put a pot or two, you can know the real taste of a tomato. I only recently started “farming” my yard. I made some mistakes (trying veggies that really don’t like my climate) but the successes are glorious. Besides tomatoes there are herbs, zucchini, oranges, peaches, pomegranates, guavas, and carrots. They don’t taste anything like what you buy in the store. They taste like…heaven. Maybe you don’t save a ton of money, and it does take some time to watch over them as they grow, but there is something deeply satisfying to be found here. Back to the land, I guess. (Oh, and help our landfill crisis by putting veggie, fruit scraps, and coffee grounds in a big container that you turn from time to time, and after some weeks you will have the greatest soil ever. You don’t absolutely have to add worms. The right bugs will find it on their own.)
9. Remembering how to save. I was so good as a kid. I would save up those pennies until I could buy something really cool. Then adulthood hits—earn a dollar and quickly spend it on something that beckons from TV. After all, we had to have “one of those” to be perceived is as successful human beings, right? Americans are not saving, and the ramifications are destructive for us all as the bankruptcy rate skyrockets and many people cannot even buy what they really need. Maybe after things settle down (fingers crossing here) savings accounts will become popular, and having one a source of family pride.
10. Lessons passed on to the children. If we do come to value each other more, conserve better, appreciate what we do have more, and place an emphasis on meaningful experiences and maintaining good health, our kids will pick up on it. Now, that would be priceless!
What do you think? Any ideas to add or expand upon?
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spending more time with family ..especially those precious little ones.
Ah yes, foxyladi, my cats. They do cheer me up!
11. Making new friends in the bread line.
12. Manufacturing a new line of body-piercing pitchforks.
13. Growing some hemp.
14. Watching Al Gore’s private plane fly over on its way to a rally against global warming.
15. Sneaking into Mexico for better job opportunities.
LMAO, J.J., Good Ones!
My friends and I keep making plans for what we’ll do in the bread lines. We are going to play go fish or cribbage. Maybe we’ll make up poems. We haven’t got it all figured out, but are hoping to stay together. We are going to make signs or put it on our shirts-”Bots, don’t stand next to me!” or “Bots to the end of the line!”
I hope there are soup lines, too, because one of my friends is allergic to wheat!
You know, back when Napolitano was equating the Mexican border with the Canadian border… and pretty much calling them equal in terms of security… at first, I just brushed it off as more senseless ninny fodder. But then, I did think about it some more, and it could make sense… if you were talking about keeping Americans inside the borders from leaving. Then, from a security standpoint the borders would be equal. In fact the Canadian border would be the greater risk, if you look at the fence from this other side.
Speking of theMexican border, I read an article yesterday about some border town in Mexico where the drug cartel is fighting another drug cartel to control a smuggling tunnel in the town that, of course, comes out in the U. S. I wrote Dick Durbin and suggested we simply pour concrete in the tunnel, since we know where it is, and then erect a wall and sink it about 20 feet in the ground so they can’t re-dig the tunnel.
If I can think of this, why can’t the government think of it?
Calling all Illinoisans: Go to the DUMP DICK DURBIN website and support the grassroots movement to vote Durbin out of office. It’s a very interesting site. The author says Durbin is using citizenship as a commodity to recruit votes.
Pat,
The real lesson going forward is that sometimes you have to take stand and defend your country
Not for one day, but for a lifetime.
The left will soon realize that punishing American Capitalism and power really means punishing and destroying themselves.
What we will learn beyond anything is a renewed Nationalistic pride in the United States and the urgent understanding of what’s really important to defend.
This crisis will produce a yearning for the traditions and heritage of this great country.
We can all see now that our very way of life is in jeopardy.
By 2012 the constitution and the declaration of independence will be the defining issue of the election.
Today people are relearning those and other documents that keep them free,prosperous and still the envy of the world.
A magnificent red white and blue tidal wave is building which will soon crash down on those who dare hated America.
omg…WELL SAID!! Couldn’t agree w you more!
Yes very well said…SM…..
We never realize what we have got till it’s gone~~
Yes, we will get through this. It may not be easy, but we will prevail. When we do, let us institute whatever measures it will take so that into perpetuity, that we never again forget what it means to be American.
we are AMERICANS..we have been through bad times and we always prevail.we will this time too..
remember the old saying.
it.s always darkest just before dawn..
Beautifully written Mossy! Barry is already bringing reasonable conservatives and liberals together…wouldn’t it be funny if his presidency is best known for causing a reawakening of American values, and a renewed appreciation for American freedoms?
Pat, this is such an incredible post. I couldn’t agree w you more. Perhaps this “recession” is what our society needed. It has become much too selfish and materialistic.
I do alot of the things on your list already and am a happier person for it.
Thanks wodiej. Yeah, me too. Happier person for it.
Go Seattle Moss!! You are so right!
In the mean time, I do put up a lot of food in the summer, some is grown by me or my best friend and some I buy at our local Amish stands. I give my canned goods away at Christmas time and everyone likes it and I don’t have to wonder what to get people. Every year they wait to see how I’m going to present it. What kind of baskets or whatever.
We have an Amish farm nearby and every Saturday I am there for fresh veggies. Yum.
Great cartoon Pat! Someone left a big pile of manure in our front yard, and I’ve been watching it, hoping that a unicorn would crawl out of it any day now, but I’ll settle for some pretty ponies!
So far, all I can see is maggots.
Big Obama donor sinks big bucks into attacking him over flyover.
A wealthy Obama donor who turned on the president is launching an attack on Obama over the Air Force One flyover screw-up, linking it to his big spending policies, an assault that may involve radio and TV ads in a preview of what to expect in the 2010 midterm elections.
The donor, businessman Fred Tausch of New Hampshire, announced in February he’d be sinking some $100,000 into assaults on Obama. Now he’s adding the flyover snafu to his list of grievances, tying it to “wasteful spending” in a direct mail piece sent out to his state’s voters.
A thousand words can be found Here.
as SM said above, more and more people are going to say “ENOUGH”.
Starting with the movies and Hollywood. We don’t need to watch their movies, and we don’t need to care what they think or what they do, or what they think that we should do. We could do without Hollywood entirely right now.
Amen to that! Add them to the others on the ‘do not watch’ list: MSNBC, CNN, etc….
Yes indeed. I just put Netflix on hold too. I’m not going to support Hollywood until or if they come to their senses.
What I notice is that the excess so many of us indulged in was an attenpt to buy satisfaction. Now that I have leisure time, I’m not much interested in shopping for clothes or “stuff”.
Recently bought a pair of inexpensive flats to replace a pair worn out. Chose well enough to wear them until they couldn’t be worn anymore…replaced as necessity not just because. I have to keep appearance up, etc., for job searches but find that about every other hair cut works just fine at Great Cuts for $16. Lipsticks, cosmetics get used up to the end of the tube, bottle, with a brush to get the last drop out.
I’ve cut waste in many other areas as well. I found a nicer apartment in my complex for less rent and a very nice first month’s discount with a big sunny patio where I can have some vegies in containers this summer. Amazing how amenable landlords can be when you do your part, pay on time and are a great tenant. Since it’s only a few steps down the pathway, no moving van required. For now, off to the Farmer’s Market for some locally grown tomatoes, zuchinis and baby lettuces. Can’t do that when working. Hope by the time I have a job again, my own tomatoes will be flourishing.
Yes, it’s nice to get back to basics; having time to help family and vise versa.
Make that until or unless they come to their senses.
Pat — I’ve been threatening that, if things got really rough, I’d plow up the back yard and plant potatoes, green beans, corn, and tomatoes. No one takes me seriously.
Over these past 8 months, I’ve been happy spending much less. For one thing, there’s more time to do the things I like to do.
(It’s time to throw some lizards, snakes, and newts under the troll bridge…swarmy for the smarmy.)
We tilled up half our backyard on our 1/4 acre Florida subdivision lot. We have tomatoes, lettuce, green beans, sweet potatoes, onions, watermelons and even some corn. You know, we have about 20 tomato plants, each makes an average of 50 tomatoes. So, we are giving a lot of produce away to neighbors as well. We aren’t using pesticides, so that is a win also over grocery food. Plus, we hand drilled a water well in the backyard to water it with. Now, if we have an outage of water, from a hurricane we have our own well. Yes, change has killed hope as we may have knew it before, but there is still hope to be had. I feel really fortunate to have grown up on a cattle ranch, and I know how to do these things already. I am thinking about building a site to help teach others.
With your climate, can you harvest something year ’round, or is there a growing season even in FL? My growing season would be about 5 or 6 months. My next door neighbor has put out tomato, pepper, and squash plants in her flower bed for years and reaps beautiful tomatoes.
Your neighbors are lucky to enjoy some of your yield.
We are doing two seasons here skipping the hot summer months of July and August except for watermelons etc. that can take the summer heat, with rotating of the crops. We usually only get about one or two frost days a year here in Tampa. Just enough to keep my bananas from fruiting. My wife has been doing a lot of research into what plants do better when planted together. She has been canning vegetables. Next time, we are going to put corn with beans, so the beans can climb on the corn and mix in squash. That is what the Indians used to do from what we have read. Next time we will have even a better harvest. We have two neighbors now who have borrowed our tiller and put in gardens themselves after seeing ours do so well. I also have three neighbors, who I have volunteered myself into helping them put in wells. So, yes there is plenty to do that doesn’t cost a lot and that doesn’t consume a lot of resources.
well that sounds great…. Docelder..
I am thinking of setting up a info site for natural beauty products etc some items we all use can be made from simple herbs oils we have in the home. Plus relieves the stress many are under at this time of economic crisis!
I hope you have a generator too, since the power usually goes out with the water in a hurricane. I have my own well, being in a rural area, and I know from experience that wells need electricity to run.
So be sure to have a generator if you want water when a hurricane comes through. Of course, you won’t need it for the garden, since a hurricane dumps gallons on it, and flattens it into the bargain.
I have my garden in a wire enclosure with a wire roof, horse, deer, dog, cat and bunny proof. I already have two small green tomatoes on my plants, have 12 tomato plants going, eight beans, seven peas, four cucumber and a couple each of cantaloupe and watermelon. Also have lettuce planted in the part shade of the two-board high edge of the garden. The lettuce is almost ready to eat, with the second planting coming along to be ready in time for the tomatoes and perhaps cucumbers. The cukes have a couple of little cucumbers on them, almost cornichon size. We added in to the sandy soil that is here and already very good for growing, a couple of bags of potting soil, about 4 bags of Jungle Growth which has timed-release fertilizer in it, and a few dried piles of horse poops, of which I have an abundance from my eight horses. This has made for a wonderful growing environment for the veggies and they are popping out of the ground like they are on springs. The beans are three feet up their stakes and the peas are almost two feet tall and flowering already.
The mulch we are using is old hay from the round bales the horses had all winter. When we re-do the garden for the winter crop, the hay and some more horse poop will be tilled into the garden. I am planning to cover the wire with plastic come winter so I can grow tomatoes and other things, including broccoli, over the winter. By the time we till it over for next spring, there should be about another six inches of organic matter tilled into the garden. Those of you who live in driving distance of a stable can get all the free horse poop you want. Just ask them.
It may be emotionally satisfying to do so and the products may taste better, but I do not think it will be cheaper especially if you include explosives, water, fertilizers, bug control, and keeping away gofers, molds, mice, birds, raccoons, rabbits and the neighbors.
Rich
Explosives? What kind of gardening do you do? And it does save money, check the price of tomatoes and other veggies out at the store. And bear in mind, if you grow your own veggies, you can cut down the trips to the store. When the garden is producing, I can go to the store once a month for meat and coffee, sugar, flour, etc. and then eat out of the garden for the rest of the month. I use meat from the freezer, cook or prep fresh veggies, make biscuits with the flour and voila!! Dinner!! And if you can plant a couple of fruit trees, you can go out and pick your dessert, or the pie filling, off a tree. And all with one trip a month to the store. Saves gas, and money. If you get your fertilizer naturally from a compost heap, or neighboring farmers or stables, you don’t have to add any chemical fertilizers at all. If you spend a bit on some wire to enclose your garden, you can keep deer, cats, dogs, bunnies, and other rodents out. Then you can cover it with plastic for a winter greenhouse for another crop. If you use the homemade stuff to keep off bugs, such as soapy water, you can do without the other sprays and powders. It can be done, you just don’t use modern shortcuts. Remember, our forebears managed to grow gardens and live off them for generations before manufactured garden products were available. It just takes a little time and effort, and the research to find out how to do it. With the internet, that won’t cost any gas or travel time at all, just some time and effort.
Explosives? Yup!
If your Florida lot is on limestone, aka, “cap rock,” someone will need to shoot a little dynamite so that enough rock can be removed and replaced with real soil (deeper than the 2″ of “muck” on the bottom of your sod). That way you can actually cultivate the soil rather than just dull the edges if your garden tools.
For an experienced blaster, not a big deal. Friend of mine was an experienced Civil Engineering contractor, and we did my yard 30 years ago on a Sunday morning, while the neighbors were at church, and the little “THUMP” didn’t even awaken my sleeping wife. No cracked plaster or glass.
The dog didn’t miss it, though.
Didn’t hit rock even when drilling post holes for the fencing. The soil here, North Central FL, is very good for growing just about anything. My place, 30 acres, was a watermelon field before it was a commercial hay field. Now it’s a horse farm with great pasture and a lovely veggie garden. South FL may have a problem with lime rock, we don’t. We do, however, have all the benefits of being on the limestone shelf as far as water and pasture go, it’s just not that close to the surface here.
Outstanding, Pat - great toon, and your list is great, as are JJ’s additions!
And to add yet other (fun ones) for me:
1. Watch lots of baseball on tv (or go to a game - the Braves give you a free ticket for your birthday - can’t get better than free! AND, they let you take in your own peanuts and Cracker Jacks!)
2. Watch the sunset
3. Play fetch with the cat (no kidding - he loves it!), and generally loving on all the animals (just got back from grooming Jordan, the horse)
4. Spend more time reconnecting with old friends
5. Spend more time at No Quarter!
Well done, Pat!1
One can almost always find the positives (as well as negatives) in every situation. You might just as well choose to be an optimist, it is better for your health and makes you a more effective person to boot.
Great job Pat! I was laughing hard at the “ponies in the poop”, but then as I read the article, I was really touched. You are right, a more responsible, simpler life is better. How did America get so greedy and materialistic? Time to get back on track.
Thank you kindly, socalannie
Great cartoon and presentation, as usual, Pat.
I’ve never felt like I needed to keep up with the Joneses. Having grown up on a Kansas farm during the dust storm era, we lived the simple life. Raising pigs, cattle, chickens, ducks and turkeys. Growing wheat, corn, sorghums, clover and garden crops was the life we led. Not easy, but rewarding. We only had the elements to contend with. Snowdrifts and icicles on trees in the winter, too mumch rain or too little, dust storms, crickets, locusts, blister beetles, rats, mice and wolves. We learned tht life isn’t easy but it is challenging and there were good times and bad. That was my life 75 years ago, and the challenges of today are no worse. You learn to become a survivor or you go down for the count. No need to complain if you can be creative. Many opportunities and choices are at hand. If not everything is ideal, and things are tough, “You make do.”
Great ‘toon, great message
Life can be rich without being rich.
Stan Davis
Lakewood, CO
Henry David Thoreau observed that he was richer than J. Paul Getty because he had all the money that he wanted and Getty didn’t.
Nice cartoon. The optimist is one who may or may not look for the pony, but will certainly look at the pile as an opportunity to use the situation to their advantage. An optimist is one who looks at a situation, takes some time to analyze it and then starts to look for opportunities for creative solutions. A pessimist may get stuck in anger or despair and become convinced that there is no solution. In every situation there is always someone who figures out how to make money during the worst of times. This is true in our time also. So if we look what is good and use this to create solutions for making things better, who knows what is possible?
Rich
Thoreau died 30 years before J. Paul Getty was born.
I did read the quote in which someone said he was richer than Rockefeller because he had all that he needed and the rest of the quote implied that Rockefeller did not.
Can’t find the exact quote.
This is a beautiful post, Pat. Thank you for this.
Certainly, we could all do with a little more introspection, a little more reaching out to our neighbors, and a lot less American Idol, no matter what the economy is doing.
I live in the Ozarks where folks are used to doing the “free” things, just ’cause we like to! My old friend, Benson Fox, used to say that folks here wouldn’t notice another depression, as they hadn’t realized the first one had ended. Recently, a friend’s daughter did a documentary for her class at the AR high school for science, math & the arts. It was about some of the folks she knows around here & why we came here and why we stay. It was a lovely, touching portrait of some folks (including me) who are very independent and self-sufficient and the joy we derive from our way of life. The best thing about it was that this girl really gets what’s important, and that’s because she was raised to care about things that many in our culture have forgotten about- the things Pat is talking about. And hey- if someone leaves a heap of dung on our doorsteps, we not only look for the pony, we scoop up the contribution to our compost pile & say “Thanks”! As Madame Arcati said in “Blithe Spirit”, “Try to look on the bright side!”
I grew up at the foot of the Ozarks. A beautiful childhood. One of my uncles farmed watermelons, cantaloupes, strawberries, black and boysenberries. Of course they had a vegetable garden for the family as well. I remember Saturday mornings in the summer finding a bushel basket of all the good things he had left for us on his way to market at dawn. We also had a little vegetable garden and my mother canned everything she could store. She and her sisters would often have a day together when they would “put up” jams, jellies and the best bread and butter pickles ever. My grandparents lived in town about a block away from us but had a very big, deep lot where they had a barn and a cow for fresh milk and she churned butter for everyone in the family during WWII. Always Sunday Supper at their house with the whole family around a big round oak table.
The farm side of the family were natural musicians as well. One bitter winter during an ice storm, we were stranded at the farm. We gathered in one big room with a big wood stove, my cousins bringing out their guitars, fiddles and mandolin. They sang and played all night while I dozed on my father’s lap before being tucked into the feather bed. One of my most treasured memories of our family from those days. When we moved to California after the war, it all changed to a more materialistic life…but even then they brought a lot of their old habits with them…gardens, self-sufficiency…
Thanks for that sharing those childhood memories, Martha.
An excellent list. Thank you.
Thanks Pat, for reminding us what actually is important…
http://storyofstuff.com/ a very good short video which addresses some concerns