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In a “help wanted / seeking jobs” group that I follow in my local area, people commonly laugh-react posts from job-seekers who need accommodations. Whether from a disability, or childcare issues, or what have you.

Today I saw the post below:

Looking for part time work between hours of 630am and 2pm any day of the week. Limitations: can’t lift heavy things or do physical work requiring strength or endurance, need the ability to sit or stand when I need, not interested in being a caregiver for elderly, children, or animals. I am allergic to most animals. Also need a quiet workspace. I need frequent breaks from conversational/social interactions due to my Autism or a quiet and low social job overall. Part-time office work maybe between 8am and 2pm? Currently no positions available unless someone knows of something?

My response:

Honestly these conditions do not sound unrealistic at all. It sounds like the majority of office jobs I’ve ever worked. What the people laugh-reacting this post might want to consider is that these conditions might not be unreasonable, period. Even if a person doesn’t have disabilities.

Could it be that (for example) even retail workers deserve a chance to sit down when they need it? In some countries, cashiers actually get to sit on a stool their whole shift if they want. It’s no impediment to working the register and interacting with customers.

We are moneymaking units for the owners! Workers make the profits for the owners. Something to ponder!

Next time anyone is tempted to put down a person with disabilities for being up-front about their needs & constraints, consider that their requests might be helping us all. Maybe all of us need to stand up for more reasonable working conditions that don’t result in blowing out our backs and hips and knees, unnecessarily interrupting our mental processes, and so on.

I will be so happy when nobody even notices or cares that I arrived by foot or bicycle to a meeting, gathering, or other event.

As an environmental activist and social-justice activist, I am working for a world where non-car-ownership is totally unmemorable and commonplace — because everybody has access to their daily needs without having to own their own car.

Right now we basically have a system
of forced car ownership in most parts of the USA. It’s a regressive tax on the poor, and a burden on the nondriving public as well.

The most dysfunctional example I can think of of this, is our local nonprofits’ food distribution events, where the flyer says you must show up in a vehicle; no walk ups. So many problems with that. Starting with maybe the person would be able to afford food if they weren’t forced to own a car. I speak from experience. A big part of why I never had to seek any food assistance during my “lean years” was that I was not burdened with the expense of car ownership.

(And not incidentally, it’s also really a burden on the driving public too!)

And also a burden on older people who are getting to where they probably shouldn’t drive but they still kind of have to.

I always cringe when people brag about how their elderly parent or grandparent is still driving, like that’s a good thing. If I’m going to be the stud-ette of my nursing home, I’d rather have it be because I was a successful advocate for public transport and walkability.

PS. This gives me an idea! Anyone who wants to join me in caravaning by bicycle (or foot) to upcoming events, give me a shout! There is safety in numbers, I know a lot about riding (and walking) safely, and this weekend the moon is going to be quite bright as it will still be almost full that evening.

PPS. For more content about environmental issues etc., please like and follow my FB page DEEP GREEN book by Jenny Nazak,

Someone in one of my ladies’ groups suggested joining & supporting ACLU.

Good suggestion. In recent years I also became a life member of Veterans for Peace and NAACP.

Social justice, climate justice, demilitarization … It’s all connected.

Commented in response to a post in one of my women’s groups expressing hurt & confusion about the blue bracelet thing:

What may feel like hate and division, is actually constructive critique and an opportunity and necessity for us to evolve in our understanding.

I know a lot of us white women are feeling confused right now. The best advice I can offer is to follow Black women who are feminist and anti-racist educators.

Are you on TikTok? If so, you are welcome to friend me. Most of the videos I repost are from Black women who are feminist anti-racist educators.

If you’re not on TikTok, there’s a book called Hood Feminism, by Dr. Mikki Kendall. This book answers a lot of the questions and confusion I’m seeing from you and other fellow white women in this group.

There are many other books as well. We can and will totally get on the same page!! But we have some learning to do. There are so many resources out there to help us catch up.

You are welcome to friend me on Facebook if you like as well.

PS. One of the characteristics of “whiteness” is a fear of and aversion to confrontation. So we shy away from it. And therein lies a lot of our problems. Because then anytime we try to talk straight with each other it sounds like punishment or hate. We can overcome this conditioning. It’s sort of like exercising a muscle. Also, awareness is key.

One educator I’ve learned a lot from is Desiree B Stephens. She’s on TikTok and also has a substack. Things I used to take personally, I realize are just a part of our cultural programming and can be changed. This is a big part of our work!

I wrote the following just now and one of my women’s groups, in response to people who are feeling very vulnerable and lost.

Yes! We get ourselves resilient. Physically and emotionally. We can think of each of ourselves as one node making up a resilient net of protection.

As much as possible, we take care of our health using highly accessible plants we can grow in our yard. Aloe; greens; herbs. Fruit trees. We teach our neighbors how to be resilient. We collect rainwater so we are never have to be dependent on municipal systems. We share with our communities. Share knowledge, and share resources.

Emotional resilience. A big part of this is just finding our people. Yes, therapy and so on can be needed as well. But a lot of times, what we really need is just a few people right near us who we can talk to. Find those people. IN WALKING DISTANCE please. We all need people who are right around us. (I don’t know how any of you have survived without this. But now is the time to change it.) They are there. They are looking for you too.

Here’s a book recommendation. This was written by one of the leaders of one of the climate-resilience groups I belong to, Deep Adaptation, but it is very very deeply applicable here in this situation as well.

Eye of the Storm, by Terry LePage.

Also, definitely follow Sharon Astyk If you aren’t already. Sane, grounded wisdom on everything from dealing with pandemics to planting a garden to taking care of the people around you.

Also, check into the old traditional ladies networks that women used to use in wartime. Knitting circles, gardening clubs, etc. You don’t have to be a champion needleworker either.

Now that I’m in my 60s, I find it easier and easier to go under the radar as a harmless old lady who’s into plants and beads. There’s a lot of power in being in a segment of society that’s not considered desirable or worthy of attention.

Anyone here is welcome to send me a friend request as well. Some of us already now connected and getting ready to arrange local meetups. But no matter where in Florida you live, feel free to send me a friend request.

Pirate-UP, ladies!! (If you haven’t yet listened to Rachel Maddow’s very practical talk, where she refers to tapping into our inner pirate, you are in for a treat, go watch it — It contains nuts-and-bolts next steps for defending democracy.)

And (separate comment in response to same post):

I think that if Social Security gets eliminated, all of us will be in a similar boat and there will be deflation. I am a Boomer and have no kids. But I could live on the small income I get from my freelance work (writing, speaking, teaching, art) and from the rent that my housemates pay.

One thing I suggest my fellow Boomer women consider doing, if we haven’t already, is pay off our mortgages. Even if we have to cash out our 401(k)s to do it.

It’s amazing how little I can live on with a paid-for house.  And there’s a certain deep feeling of security.

I do a lot of other thrifty things too, like I arranged my life so I don’t need to own a car. And I can get along without electricity other than what’s needed to charge my phone.

All the little things can help us feel more secure, and be more secure and resilient. So that we can be in a better position to protect the vulnerable people in our lives.

As a white woman who is post-menopausal, and has some basic low-tech survival skills (which I teach to my community, those who will listen), I feel a lot safer than people in a number of other categories. So I am looking out for those people.

And in reply to someone who said she’s getting her handmaid costume ready:

I am souping up my green eco-warrior uniform, which I wear as an eco activist/educator, and adding sort of a sassy old lady pirate vibe ha ha. (the eco warrior uniform is an old army jumpsuit I thrifted, and then cut/sewed into a jacket and pants and embellished it.)

And regarding one commenter’s concerns that Social Security will be abolished:

I think that if Social Security gets eliminated, all of us will be in a similar boat and there will be deflation. I am a Boomer and have no kids, But I could live on the small income I get from my freelance work (writing, speaking, teaching, art) and from the rent that my housemates pay.

One thing I suggest my fellow Boomer women consider doing, if we haven’t already, is pay off our mortgages. Even if we have to cash out our 401(k)s to do it.

It’s amazing how little I can live on with a paid-for house. And there’s a certain deep feeling of security.

I do a lot of other thrifty things too, like I arranged my life so I don’t need to own a car. And I can get along without electricity other than what’s needed to charge my phone.

All the little things can help us feel more secure, and be more secure and resilient. So that we can be in a better position to protect the vulnerable people in our lives.

As a white woman who is post-menopausal, and has some basic low-tech survival skills (which I teach to my community, those who will listen), I feel a lot safer than people in a number of other categories. So I am looking out for those people.

In response to a comment from someone saying they had just joined ACLU and suggesting others do the same:

Good suggestion. In recent years I also became a life member of Veterans for Peace, and NAACP. Social justice, climate justice, demilitarization … It’s all connected.

Further exploration:

• “Trump win gives us a ‘really big to-do list’ to defend democracy.” (Rachel Maddow; MSNBC) (6-min talk). Practical steps, and a very inspiring call to get scrappy, and channel our “inner pirate energy.”

• “10 ways to be prepared and grounded now that Trump has won” (Daniel Hunter; wagingnonviolence.org). “The key to taking effective action … is to avoid perpetuating the autocrat’s goals of fear, isolation, exhaustion and disorientation.”

Today I started my first attempt to make vinegar at home, using some nice beautiful ripe prickly-pear cactus fruit that I espied on a plant at the parking lot down by the beach.

The ingredients are simple: prickly pear cactus fruit; sugar; nonchlorinated water. I googled and found this video. Very helpful!

How to make pear cactus vinegar (Creative Adventures channel on YouTube).

For this little first batch I am doing an experiment, which departs from her method in that I did not peel the fruits. And also did not do anything else to remove the glochids. I just cut off the wide and of the fruits.

This is based on my experience making smoothies and wine from prickly pear fruit back when I lived in Texas. The glochids, the tiny fine little spiny things you don’t want to touch, seemed to get dissolved by the process so it removed the need for that considerable labor of removing them.

We will see how it actually goes, with vinegar, when I taste the vinegar with caution in a month or so.

In the meantime, if you try this, I recommend you exercise caution and follow one of the methods for removing the locus. Other creators use a torch to sear them off. Or boil the fruit.

She has also posted an update video, which I haven’t seen yet but will share in the comments below. I have now subscribed to her channel Creative Adventures.

Update on the pear cactus vinegar: 2-week point (Creative Adventures on YouTube).

You can see my photos of the beautiful magenta liquid mixture sitting on my kitchen counter here on my art & design by jenny nazak page.

What an ungracious thought I had today. About, of all things, coming upon a giant pumpkin on the sidewalk!

The thought came to me when I arrived at my neighbors’ house to drop off some plant cuttings. Sugarcane recently harvested. Plumeria which was “harvested” by the hurricane. And chaya — Mexican miracle spinach tree — hurricane-harvested also. I had so many cuttings that I was really glad that several neighbors were eager to get some.

The young couple’s house had been the scene, this past week, of major neighborhood Halloween fun. They are generous hosts and really got into the spirit with the decorations and costumes. And they got a bunch of us motivated as well.

Their yard had been festooned with giant skeletons, inflatable haunted houses and gnarled trees and such, and way too much more to list. When I arrived with the plant cuttings, I noticed that the decorations had been partially disassembled. And on the sidewalk outside their fence was a whole giant pumpkin. Not a jack-o’-lantern carved, but a whole intact pumpkin.

And what do you suppose my first thought was? Gratitude to see a whole huge perfect pumpkin that I could cut up and toast the seeds, and use the flesh if I chose?

No, it was more like a feeling of obligation or responsibility. Like, well I can’t let this pumpkin go to waste so I’m going to have to take the time to cut it up. And spread the seeds out on trays and put them in the solar oven or toaster oven. And so on. Basically focused on the amount of physical labor for cutting and cleanup etc.

Granted, I have always had a lazy streak in general. But sometimes there’s something about gifts from nature that really bring it out. I think maybe it’s the fact that a very big gift from nature is not something you can keep and postpone. You have to deal with it right then, or as soon as possible, because it’s perishable. Even if you feel busy or preoccupied with something else, as I did in that moment, you simply have to make time for the gift.

Another challenge is that such gifts tend to be large (bulky or numerous or both), so not amenable to just being tucked into a corner of a fridge or cabinet. They have to be processed and compacted; sorted; containerized if appropriate.

And, maybe your situation is different but in my situation, the task of utilizing a gift from nature is something I tend to have to do by myself. As opposed to having multiple people near me who want to enjoy the fruits and divide the labor. (I do seem to be meeting more people near me who are similarly minded though, so that may be changing.)

What a negative attitude though! Not the attitude that I want to have.

Fortunately, the more I focus on the thought of delicious pumpkin seeds seasoned with chili powder and so on, toasted in the oven — and yummy soups and maybe breads made with the pumpkin meat — the more the spoiled-brat attitude starts to fade.

But there is definitely something about a hectic, time-is-money, money-driven society where gifts from nature are just seen as taking up time and labor. Money is like this artificially concentrated form of nature’s bounty. Something that doesn’t need processing and chopping; something you can just spend on anything.

People who are a lot better than I am at growing food, sometimes grow tons of food but then they don’t want to deal with cleaning and preparing it so they end up giving most or all of it away. Maybe next time I’ll suggest working together and dividing the harvest.

All in all, today was a success. Several neighbors wanted my various plant cuttings. And I definitely do want the beautiful sidewalk-foundling pumpkin, even though I’m going to have to use some elbow grease to chop it and scoop the seeds out and toast them batch by batch.

Some years back, at the Kerrville Folk Music festival, one of the regulars was lamenting the fact that people kept passing up pounds and pounds of beautiful pecans that had fallen from the many nearby trees. They were bags of pecans on the picnic tables but people kept passing them by.

When I look back, I think maybe some people just didn’t know how to crack a pecan shell, and maybe it would’ve been good if some of us had tried to show some people. And then again, a lot of us are just spoiled by the ready availability of nuts that have already been removed from the shell for us. So maybe the thing to do would have been to give out little cups of nuts that we had shelled.

I do sometimes find it easier to tackle a gift from nature if I have in mind not only my enjoyment of it, but also the idea that it’ll be enjoyed by one or more other people.

Anyway. Food for thought, literally. This blog post itself, too, was sort of a bounty of nature that I had the option to ignore, or embrace.

My general take on the interplay between money-driven society and gifts from nature:

— A person who earns a lot of money is less likely to have much time or motivation to make use of gifts from nature.

— And, a person who earns less money (either voluntarily or otherwise) is more likely to have time and motivation to make use of gifts from nature. And the gifts will be worth relatively more to that person.

— For some, a viable path to transitioning out of the purely-money-driven economy is to reduce one’s need to earn, and reduce one’s money job hours accordingly. Thus allowing time to harvest nature’s gifts. (Including time to learn how to do that.)

Pictures of the giant magnificent pumpkin being prepared for culinary enjoyment.

PS. My favorite tip for harvesting very large gifts from nature is, do it outdoors if possible! It drastically simplifies the cleanup.