Resourcefulness

     "One and done" seems to be the christening chime of every new consumer item in Western culture. "Disposable" this and "recyclable" that. Even with the economic recession, things are built to be thrown away when their use has been fulfilled. No longer is the extra screw from the remote saved in a can to fix the clock when it breaks - a new clock is simply bought to replace the broken one.
     The GI generation seems to be the last great generation of repairman. The white collar classes seem incapable of getting dirty. Even gardeners use gloves to dig around in the dirt. In the great classics of adventure, most written while Britain ruled the seas and explored the deepest jungles, men knew how to work with their hands. Gun jamped? Clean it out. No matches for the fire? Rub sticks together. Cheer crying woman? Buy the biggest bouquet of flowers and actually know what each flower symbolized.
     Yes, these are Romantic examples and emphasize the tragic portions of life while avoiding the hum-drum. However, there is a net social lose as these skills pass from the working knowledge of a population. Many men no longer know how to check their engine, change their oil, or jack a car because AAA will come to the rescue if the car breaks down.

     My favorite book has long been The Swiss Family Robinson. Why? Stranded from society, the family salvages what materials they can from the wreckage of  the ship then proceeds to create nearly every aspect of the European civilization they left behind. Robinson Crusoe also does an excellent example with resourcefulness from the most obscure items to make a fully functional life.
     But why is resourcefulness important in our modern technical age? Does it achieve anything purposeful? With increasing limitations in resource gathering, re-usability has once again become desirable if still limited to the materials used. Gold, used in computer processing units, is heavily recycled both for value and rarity as is platinum in catalytic converters.
     Resourcefulness teaches thorough mastery of the environment while retaining frugality which was highly valued by Benjamin Franklin and the Romantic authors of the nineteenth century from all nationalities. Resourcefulness allows independence since much can be done with very little. Isolation and limitations are reduced to inconveniences, not crippling disasters. Independence is liberating.
     In this sense, yes, subsitutive capabilities achieve an economic aptitude and unrestrained personal liberties. The more you can do with what you have, the fewer things cease progress.
     Resourcefulness is always valued in war. Whether an invention that does your particular need exists or not,, little aids a dying man or outnumbered troops in their immediate needs. Improvisation is a skill useful for the highly experienced mind since physical resources are easily overcome with creativity and flexibility. The general that adjusts his strategy to increase the advantages of the natural topography stands a larger chance of survival if not outright success, and the man that is ingenious enough to use a razor as a bayonet may yet live to fight again.
     The next time an ordinary item becomes useless for its purchased purpose, ascertain its worth by applying its properties to a new task.

 __    
Agatha Tyche

Cynicism

     Bitterness is a highly concentrated acid that resides in a region around the heart. If this gland's container is punctured, scared, or shaken, that acid may begin to leak. Since the gland will continue to produce acid as before but exposure will spread to the rest of the body, the container is rendered useless but can almost certainly be repaired. If th container is not patched, the concentrated acid will destroy the heart, erode the stomach, damage the liver, and puncture the lungs. If left untreated the acid may also infect the brain and poison its perceptions into a illogical insanity of hate.

     The cynical mind has been poisoned by its own views. Understandably, some event or person has ruptured the regular bodily processes and created a perverse, embittered mind. While the bitterness supplies a sort of adrenaline affect that enables the user to bear considerable burdens beyond normal bounds, the price is mental sanity and a shortened life.
     But if cynicism provides a limited "superpower" of life, isn't it worth the price? Cynicism sucks the joy from life; no circumstance can provide happiness to the cynic. Optimism is worthless because beneficial events only serve to increase the bitterness as the user recognizes the vanity of false joy. Pessimistic to the core, apathy and depression stalk the cynic in all aspects of life. Without doubt benefits can be found, especially within the determination to hate and striving toward destruction of the hated ideal or being.
     Theodore Roosevelt's launched an entire crusading speech against the blasé of life and cynism.

"The poorest way to face life is to face it with a sneer . . . There is no more unhealthy being, no man less worthy of respect, than he who either really holds, or feigns to hold, an attitude of sneering disbelief toward all that is great and lofty, whether in achievement or in that noble effort which, even if it fails, comes to second achievement. A cynical habit of thought and speech, a readiness to criticize work which the critic never tries to perform – these are not marks of superiority but of weakness." 

     While you may defeat the opposition of life, you do it at the cost of yourself. Again, another famous, oft-quoted man of the American past, Ralph Waldo Emerson, cautioned against the burning hatred of dissatisfaction and enmity in life.

“Don't hang a dismal picture on the wall, and do not daub with sables and glooms in your conversation. Don't be a cynic and disconsolate preacher. Don't bewail and bemoan. Omit the negative propositions. Nerve us with incessant affirmatives. Don't waste yourself in rejection, nor bark against the bad, but chant the beauty of the good. When that is spoken which has a right to be spoken, the chatter and the criticism will stop. Set down nothing that will not help somebody.”

     Embrace the life you have. Accept your faults, the faults of others, and the rainy-day circumstances that force the barometer to weight heavily on your life. Cherish the moment and embrace challenges to prove yourself to those that contest your merits.

 __    
Agatha Tyche