Concerning the stack-ems and pack-ems, they ARE cheaply built and seem to get larger, higher and uglier as time goes on. The “vacation flats” are called condominiums here, huge multi-storied concrete monstrosities that can take years to build, usually on valuable shoreline. Both are popping up everywhere. Quality build does not always guarantee quality neighbors. It’s not this high rise sustainable Utopia that you might want it to be. So wonderful to be surrounded by stupid shouting people. Banging on the walls, thumping the ceiling overhead, yay! That’s just what I want to deal with after a day at work! And your “high density living” sounds a lot to me like Agenda 21/2030. Are they pushing that heavily in Europe? (I ask because you sound a little European. We don’t call them flats over here.) Where you will own nothing and better be happy about it? Or else? At least in our little suburban worlds, we could chose to have a garden as space would allow. More so than on a 6x10’ patio that you might get over there if you’re lucky. We could try to mitigate the destruction that has been done, such as re-planting native vegetation in our yards, not using toxic fertilizers that cause run-off in to the Indian River Lagoon, etc. A nearby neighbor has been growing a food producing garden in his front and back yards for months now. And by the way the concept of the ridiculously perfect green expanse of lawn wasn’t born in America. It was brought over by the English. Things are a little more spread out over here, as well. Even in the vicinity of the crappy apartment complexes. One could live in an apartment and still have to travel 30 miles to their jobs. We make do with the system we are born in to and any number of rantings from little Greta Thundberg, entitled little creature that she is, is not going to change that. “The American Dream and the American way of life are quite frankly crazy town in the eyes of most of the rest of the world.” This comment is interesting. We’re not all crazy over here. I don’t know how much television or mainstream media that you are exposing yourself to, but it might be a little too much. Over here, for a long time the big invisible boogieman was the Muslims. They were all made out to be crazy, too. And maybe some of them are, just like some of us are, like some of the boogieman Russians are and on and on it goes. Lots of us here (but not nearly enough) are aware that the media has created a laughingstock of our country and are embarrassed and sickened by it. Not all of us worship celebrities and sports figures or have fainting spells over Donald Trump. Like anyone, we want beauty in our worlds. Our souls are wired to appreciate art and beauty and for many of us, it’s a mainstay of our lives. Whatever we chose to believe in. Nature is not a random and soulless machine. You just haven’t been paying attention.
Colleen
PS: This is my favorite poem.
There Will Come Soft Rains
There will come soft rains and the smell of the ground, And swallows circling with their shimmering sound;
And frogs in the pools singing at night, And wild plum trees in tremulous white,
Robins will wear their feathery fire Whistling their whims on a low fence-wire;
And not one will know of the war, not one Will care at last when it is done.
Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree If mankind perished utterly;
And Spring herself, when she woke at dawn, Would scarcely know that we were gone.
Re: Reply to materialist atheist
Concerning the stack-ems and pack-ems, they ARE cheaply built and seem to get larger, higher and uglier as time goes on. The “vacation flats” are called condominiums here, huge multi-storied concrete monstrosities that can take years to build, usually on valuable shoreline. Both are popping up everywhere.
Quality build does not always guarantee quality neighbors. It’s not this high rise sustainable Utopia that you might want it to be. So wonderful to be surrounded by stupid shouting people. Banging on the walls, thumping the ceiling overhead, yay! That’s just what I want to deal with after a day at work!
And your “high density living” sounds a lot to me like Agenda 21/2030. Are they pushing that heavily in Europe? (I ask because you sound a little European. We don’t call them flats over here.) Where you will own nothing and better be happy about it? Or else?
At least in our little suburban worlds, we could chose to have a garden as space would allow. More so than on a 6x10’ patio that you might get over there if you’re lucky. We could try to mitigate the destruction that has been done, such as re-planting native vegetation in our yards, not using toxic fertilizers that cause run-off in to the Indian River Lagoon, etc. A nearby neighbor has been growing a food producing garden in his front and back yards for months now. And by the way the concept of the ridiculously perfect green expanse of lawn wasn’t born in America. It was brought over by the English.
Things are a little more spread out over here, as well. Even in the vicinity of the crappy apartment complexes. One could live in an apartment and still have to travel 30 miles to their jobs. We make do with the system we are born in to and any number of rantings from little Greta Thundberg, entitled little creature that she is, is not going to change that.
“The American Dream and the American way of life are quite frankly crazy town in the eyes of most of the rest of the world.”
This comment is interesting. We’re not all crazy over here. I don’t know how much television or mainstream media that you are exposing yourself to, but it might be a little too much. Over here, for a long time the big invisible boogieman was the Muslims. They were all made out to be crazy, too. And maybe some of them are, just like some of us are, like some of the boogieman Russians are and on and on it goes. Lots of us here (but not nearly enough) are aware that the media has created a laughingstock of our country and are embarrassed and sickened by it. Not all of us worship celebrities and sports figures or have fainting spells over Donald Trump.
Like anyone, we want beauty in our worlds. Our souls are wired to appreciate art and beauty and for many of us, it’s a mainstay of our lives. Whatever we chose to believe in.
Nature is not a random and soulless machine. You just haven’t been paying attention.
Colleen
PS: This is my favorite poem.
There Will Come Soft Rains
There will come soft rains and the smell of the ground,
And swallows circling with their shimmering sound;
And frogs in the pools singing at night,
And wild plum trees in tremulous white,
Robins will wear their feathery fire
Whistling their whims on a low fence-wire;
And not one will know of the war, not one
Will care at last when it is done.
Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree
If mankind perished utterly;
And Spring herself, when she woke at dawn,
Would scarcely know that we were gone.
Sara Teasdale