roads that conform to the human foot
Jun. 20th, 2023 04:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
asakiyumePaul Salopek, this morning, talking about traveling in rural Yunnan Province, China:
The human hand and foot. I'm not holding this up as a way everyone should live--not at all. (I want there always to be thousands of different ways to live.) I just really appreciate how this show what people can do. We're not merely catalysts for automated processes.
Almost without being aware of it, [we] are losing touch with the human hand itself, what the human hand can make ... This realization paradoxically gelled when I stepped over the Myanmar border into China, possibly because I had these conceptions that I'd be walking into the most industrialized country in the world. And I didn't. Instead ... not only [are] the houses all handmade, but the roads to reach them were conformed to the human foot. People were still moving between them on foot or on bicycles or, on occasions, by pack horses. And even the tools to make this environment, I noticed, were handmade.
Source: "Writer Paul Salopek started a global journey ten years ago. Where is he now?" NPR Morning Edition.
The human hand and foot. I'm not holding this up as a way everyone should live--not at all. (I want there always to be thousands of different ways to live.) I just really appreciate how this show what people can do. We're not merely catalysts for automated processes.
no subject
Date: 2023-06-20 09:40 pm (UTC)I like that a lot. And none of them data-scraped, please.
no subject
Date: 2023-06-21 04:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-06-21 03:20 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-06-21 04:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-06-21 01:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-06-21 05:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-06-21 11:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-06-22 06:40 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-06-22 11:45 am (UTC)Tangenting
Date: 2023-06-21 01:51 pm (UTC)Going by public discourse you'd think agriculture was a minor enterprise, and mostly not worth considering.
Re: Tangenting
Date: 2023-06-21 02:20 pm (UTC)Smiling at "engagement with a traditional craft seems to be displayed as a performance art choice when personal." I know what you mean!
A lever for power, too
Date: 2023-06-21 03:09 pm (UTC)I speak as a veteran victim of
1. Housework is unimportant to me. I don't notice it or care about it.
2. Housework takes no time and no skill.
3. I can't possibly do housework because I don't know how and have no time.
4. Why is this place so filthy/disorganized?
Re: A lever for power, too
Date: 2023-06-21 05:49 pm (UTC)Re: A lever for power, too
Date: 2023-06-21 06:53 pm (UTC)And I left out "Your standards are too high! I can't measure up!" which also goes dandy with 4.
Re: A lever for power, too
Date: 2023-06-21 07:33 pm (UTC)