One of the difficult concepts to overcome is the life long training we have received that a commercial business or the government can provide better solutions than we can create ourselves. Using homemade or repaired items is a form of self sacrifice due to lack of money or an putting the needs the earth above ourselves.

These are “interesting” times. And I haven’t seen much coming forth from the Resilience community lately. Interesting times are when we should look to that community most closely, I think. So, in an attempt to replace the depressing with the pro-active, even the Polyanna-ish if only as a catalyst, I’m going to set a little dish of . . . well, something . . . on the table to see if anyone can be enticed.

Lovie and I just got in from picking beans and tomatoes in our backyard garden. We're pickling the beans and the tomatoes are going to their usual fates: grape tomatoes into our mouths by the handful and in salads, the medium-size tomatoes to salsas and the food dryer. I trust your gardening has been a tasty success so far. We had fun back in the spring with gardening topics. This time I'd like to talk about harvesting. Next week more on post-harvesting and so on. More below:

Welcome back to the fall/winter season of Resilience :=) Let’s talk about what climate change is doing to rainfall, how that affects our buildings, and the importance of the humble eavestrough. I learned something about eavestroughs (sp?) this past spring and summer and thought we could kick off with this topic as the fall rains approach in some parts of the continent. More below:

I hope you're all well and flourishing. It's Labour Day Weekend. My summer was busy and yours? I've been gardening in the friggin' heat of climate change. The plants have gone magoo: they love tropical Ontario. I have a salad forest, several beds of vegie jungle, runaway sunflowers, and oh the tomatoes. Be happy for me: Ive got ten new rosa rugosa plants - from seed. More hello below.

Six years after we left our inventive hero,

(If you're wondering, JtC lifted my suspension. We cleared the air, agreed to disagree and agreed that occasional differences between friends is part of life. A rather stoic arrangement, one could say.)
Welcome to Part Four.
Part One can be found here:http://caucus99percent.com/content/resilience-how-stoic-marcus-aurelius-...
I find the teachings of Stoicism a great help in strengthening my ptsd-scrambled brain.
It has been universally beneficial to regular folks for 2,500 years now.
You may find it a useful, practical guide to strengthen your mind in these turbulent times.
Previously, I had written a 3-part essay series on the Stoic teachings of the Roman Epictetus that makes for a brief grounding in Stoic practical basics. You will find it in the Resilience Group Essay Queue:
http://caucus99percent.com/content/stoicism-trauma-survivors-part-13

This is a four-part series on the thoughts to himself of the Roman Stoic, Marcus Aurelius, emperor of Rome.
I present an introduction on what Aurelius means to me, who he was, and then his thoughts without comment: for they speak clearly for themselves directly to the reader. More below.

Hello, dear friends. Welcome to Part Three.
I find the teachings of Stoicism a great help in strengthening my ptsd-scrambled brain. It has been universally beneficial to regular folks for 2,500 years now.
You may find it a useful, practical guide to strengthen your mind in these turbulent times.
Previously, I had written a 3-part essay series on the Stoic teachings of the Roman Epictetus that makes for a brief grounding in Stoic practical basics. You will find it in the Resilience Group Essay Queue:
http://caucus99percent.com/content/stoicism-trauma-survivors-part-13

This is a four-part series on the thoughts to himself of the Roman Stoic, Marcus Aurelius, emperor of Rome.
I present an introduction on what Aurelius means to me, who he was, and then his thoughts without comment: for they speak clearly for themselves directly to the reader. More below.

I have always tried to be able to 'do it myself', with a particular interest in keeping older skills alive. I am not sure it fits the definition here, but I think of it as a component of 'Resilience'...being able to do things for ourselves instead of relying on help, especially from far away.

JtC posted a helpful essay yesterday that kicked off a discussion about c99 and issues.

Johnny said this in conclusion:

Surely I understand that electing the right politician will help with the issues before us, but my point is that this site was never fixated on electoral politics up until very recently, and hopefully someday and someday soon we can get back to the issues.

How does one think productively about the issues? One begins with first principles.
Defining the issues must begin with first principles or anything and everything could be relevant.
What then constitutes first principles? More below.