It’s Complicated.

Sometimes I think I might have been happier if I’d been born in another era. Probably, I wouldn’t, but maybe I would. It depends on how much actual happiness I derive from modern medicine, dish-washers, and the other conveniences we have vs. not having to be a slave to computers, tv’s, and the sort of constant barrage of electronic voodoo that often circles our heads. Maybe 1940, but without the pending World War?

One of our favorite sayings around here is, “Let’s just bug out of here and go grow corn.” Only, now that we’ve seen “King Corn”… well, maybe we could grow some nice lettuce or something. King Corn actually serves as a perfect illustration of what I’m talking about…

This is a documentary about a couple of guys, fresh out of school, who decide to learn about the corn industry (here’s a good synopsis if you want more details). Anyway, they lease one acre of land and grow “corn”, but along the way, they learn all about what has happened to corn over the past few decades, and how it’s basically become something that isn’t really even suitable for food. It’s become this complicated, subsidized, by-product of the former lovely food we think of eating at barbeques. Also, it’s a completely convoluted process trying to sell the stuff. What a nightmare.

This is exactly how I don’t want our life to be. I don’t want to waste time looking after an over-abundance of stuff, or trying to make it work correctly. I don’t want things to look tasty on the outside, only to find them indigestible in reality… literally or figuratively.