The Spiritual Reformation of Civilization and Other New Age Bullshit

I know I just said to burn the libraries, but I’ve got to recommend this new book, As the World Burns: 50 Simple Things You Can Do to Stay in Denial a graphic novel by Derrick Jensen and Stephanie McMillen. It’s AWESOME! You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll…get really angry. I confess sometimes (once a year or so) I wonder if I’m wrong about this whole civilization thing because how can I (and my small group of compatriots) be the only ones who clearly see what’s going on. Maybe there is some point to it. Maybe it is all part of some cosmic plan and the year 2012 will usher humanity into a “planetary transformation, a massive shift in human consciousness, and the movement into a new realization of being on the Earth.”(1) Heck, maybe that plan will even include a new and improved civilization.

Ask Penny #2: The Nightshade Controversy, Is potato spelled P-O-I-S-O-N-?

Author holding jimsonweed capsule with exposed seeds

Penny’s Pill Popping!!!

November Update: A New Home, The Quest for Health, and Time To Get A Job

You may have noticed I wasn’t writing for awhile. That’s because I’ve been preoccupied with other things. Getting established in Portland has not left much time for rewilding. About 4 weeks ago, around the same time Urban Scout bought his motor home, I moved into our friend Shaun’s basement. He’s also a rewilder and also from Pennsylvania. Add in our roommate Brooke and Pennsylvanians make up the majority in the household (3 out of 5). As I like to say, although they may be separated by thousands of miles, PA and Oregon are next to eachother in the alphabet.

The basement was damp, dusty, and full of junk when I moved in. But with some elbow grease, a little paint, and Craigslist I’ve transformed it into a Portland pad any hipster would be proud of. It’s still a little clammy, but I have a space heater and the best part is the rent is super cheap. Here are the after photos. Unfortunately, I didn’t take any before.

Burn the Libraries

I generally don’t care much for poetry, but I do have a favorite, The Tables Turned, by the Romantic poet William Wordsworth. Andy, my boyfriend at the time, sent it to me on a series of postcards when I was first getting into rewilding. The first poem below provides the background for the second. According to Wordsworth, they both “arose out of conversation with a friend who was somewhat unreasonably attached to modern books of moral philosophy.”

Carrots Gone Wild!

My First Feral Failure

Here is a true story I wrote when I was 16. I’ve retyped it from one of the authentic paper copies of The Stat, an inflammatory zine I co-edited in high school, complete with the original run on sentences, typos, awkward phrasing, and youthful idealism:

Rabbitstick Recap

Beyond Body Ecology?: My Shit Talking Debut

I’ve been struggling with my physical and mental health for many years now. The troubles began my freshman year of college and have never gone away. Without going into too personal of detail let’s just say they include:

-depression/anxiety
-fatigue
-chronic back and neck pain
-urinary tract infections
-sexual dysfunction

The severity of my symptoms has gone up and down over the years. At my worst I felt as if I was running a constant low grade fever and was unable to stand up or walk around for more than a few hours before having to lie down and recoup. When I first started experiencing these troubles and found that the medical establishment wasn’t willing to do anything except shower me with handfuls of free antidepressant samples, I did a ton of research into natural medicine and of course ran into complex and contradictory dietary information. For some reason I don’t recall I decided to go with the raw food diet. I followed this diet with varying consistency for about a year and a half. It did help, but not enough to be worth the difficulty and social alienation.

Early September Update: Giving the Penny Hope and Purpose