Mending time ; with plum tomato seedlings .

 

.

 

Seed from Califorinia .

Mini-greenhouse, (dome removed), from Canada ; (and it works) .

Ping-pong table from Mexico .

Thread from China .

Trousers from Bangladesh .

Classic Singer sewing machine from Elizabeth, New Jersey ---

 

--- and to look inside is to see another day and age . Essentially the entire drive-train, (and much of the body), is made of metal . It was built like a 2-ton Buick ... Just keep the thing lubricated and clean, (the lint from piling up in the bobbin bay), replace some external parts from time to time, (such as needles and the rubber tire on the bobbin winder), and it can be passed down for centuries . And this was only intended for home use (!)

 

I think it was built to last because it was built for a culture where people expected things to last . I do not know, but believe, that back a few generations ago, clothing was routinely patched ---

 

( In my experience, the crotch seam fails first . It can be important to patch to both its right and its left, and to match the grain of the patches to that of the original fabric . )

 

( Thread tensioning isn't too good, i use my right thumb . )

 

--- and that this wasn't a sign of material poverty, but of material practicality . Of resilience .

 

Absent some catastrophe which befalls the rest of the world, America will never be great again, in relative terms, the way we were great in 1946 . It's unfair to sell that dream to people ; and i think implicitly unkind . But we can become a more resilient culture . We can turn away from buying a disposable lifesyle off of container ships ... to some extent .

 

I am wearing those trousers now . In public .

 

.

 

I am blessed to be rich enough in time that i could do this .

Done