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["Lynn Wigglesworth" <lynnw1366 AT hotmail.com>]

Great diatribe, James. For me, it describes the spirit of homesteading. It 
reminded me that the original name for Gaia, the Earth Mother, was Ge.

I also believe that what we post and what we choose to discuss says a lot 
about what is most important in our lives. And Bev; I think discussions of 
health are very relevant. Our health is one of the most important assets we 
have on a homestead, and mantaining it is of primary importance. We can 
learn from each other. I've gotten a lot of good health tips from people on 
this list..

Lynn Wigglesworth

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <Clansgian AT wmconnect.com>
To: <homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Friday, December 19, 2008 10:54 PM
Subject: [Homestead] Optogeorgia


> Optogeorgia.
>
> Do you know anyone named George?  The common Greek word for ‘farmer’ is a
> combination of  ‘Ge’ (earth, land, as in Geology) and ‘Eorge’ (work, as in 
> the
> root word for Energy and Ergonomics).  So ‘George’ means ‘works the land’.
> While the state of Georgia is named after King George, that same form is 
> also
> the Greek word roughly for ‘farming’.  I wanted a word for the point of 
> view
> from a homestead, from one who works land.  Do you recall W.C. Bryant’s 
> poem
> "Thanatopsis" (A View of Death)?   So I figured Georgiopsis would be ‘A 
> View
> of the Homestead’ but that doesn’t really serve the concept here.  A view 
> FROM
> the homestead would be Optogeorgia, a glimpse from the point of view of
> working the land.
>
> The view from the homestead is a unique one, a vision not shared by those 
> who
> have not been there.  It will change the person’s perception forever.  The
> homesteaders on this list, probably all modern homesteaders in fact, have 
> also
> see how the other half lives.  Been there, done that.
>
> The things you notice, the mental processes you employ, and the evaluation
> and conclusion of everything is changed forever once someone has seen it 
> as a
> homesteader.  I’m not talking about pontificators and wannabes, but 
> someone who
> has stood there by the garden, or grain field, or flock or herd and known 
> that
> how they were to fare for the coming season depended on the Earth (the ‘Ge’
> part of the word) directly.
>
>
>
> Take a ride through the country from the nearest town to your homestead 
> with
> a non-homesteader and when you arrive ask them what they saw along the 
> way.
> Then make that same trip with a subsistence farmstead and ask what they 
> saw.
> "Those dead trees at the bend in the county right of way, I noticed how 
> much
> fire wood there was in them.  And that overly wide shoulder at the bottom 
> of the
> hill, if there were a way to fence it that would be, what, three or more
> weeks pasture for a cow.  That vacant spot between those two buildings, I 
> couldn’t
> help but mentally calculate how many cabbages you could fit in three.  And
> all those leaves and trimmings piled up on the median …. that would fill 
> up
> three compost bins."
>
>
>
> Admit it …. you do that, don’t you!   Non-homesteaders don’t.   The world
> looks like a very different place from the perspective of ’working the 
> land.’
> ‘Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also…’ type of thing. 
> If
> the first thing you think of is ‘how is this affecting my money’ ‘whose 
> out
> there trying to get my money’, it is irrefutable evidence whence your life
> emanates.  But if your first reaction to any news is how this affects what 
> will
> come from your land, that too tells where your life is.
>
> But it is a mistake to equate homesteading with gardening or farming.  A
> land-centric life changes everything.  If you are not dressing to impress 
> people,
> you clothes cost nearly nothing and last for ages.  If you are not on 
> someone
> else’s schedule, you don’t have to have a way to get places with 100%
> reliability.  If you are working the land for your living, you  will not 
> fall prey to
> self-induced diseases nor have the time or attention to spare to invent or
> imagine them.
>
>
>
> Once your primary focus is off what’s happening with your money or your
> source of money and placed on what your land is yielding, every aspect of 
> life is
> seen differently.
>
>
>
> Half-baked and fearful views about what is going on in the world now are a
> dime a dozen.  Yet here on this list are a good number of people I happen 
> to
> know for a fact have their boots in the muck, their hands in well worn 
> work
> gloves, and their weathered eye on the field.  It is those people’s views 
> I want to
> read because they are unique, seen from this Optogeorgia, a land-working
> view, viewpoints not easily had from elsewhere.
>
>
>
> It’s just getting to be a little more effort to sift out the pearls from 
> the
> rotting oysters amid all the verbose blather here.  But that comes and 
> goes on
> this list as it does on most.  First, I suppose I am reminding myself, is 
> to
> consider the source.  Is the view coming from the worker of the land, or 
> is it
> from some other focus … or none at all?
>
>
>
> I just wanted to add this diatribe so that I can refer to it and to the
> concept of  Optogeorgia.
>
>
> James
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