THE INFLUENZA — After Sandburg
- The Virus comes on little cat feet
- It sits looking
- Over Harbor & City
- On Silent Haunches
- And then moves on.
I can’t think of a better explanation for the Corona virus than that little piece of 20th century poetry, one word changed from “Fog” to “Virus”, as you see but might not understand, lacking a foundation in your basic pre-millenium literary bullshit.
Did you have to memorize that poem back in grade school? Well, we did. I, along with 35 classmates in the room at the tim, was ordered to memorize it, and it was positively the last thing I bothered to memorize.
Why?
Because if you truly memorize a thing, it tends to persist. Good, bad or indifferent, that’s not how my mind operates, if and when it ever does.
This is particularly true in the Age of Google. You don’t have to remember a thing — just google it and you’re home free!
So before we begin today’s exploration of “How to make a living when you can’t make a dime”, I’ll take a moment to explain what’s actually happening here on Planet Earth in Year 2020, which I warned you half a century ago would be a Hell Year.
On the Planet Barbizon, a dark sphere off in the deepest reaches of the Solar System, out beyond Pluto, exists a massive colony of viral entities, who call themselves “Barbies”.
These creatures are incredibly small — the same size as your average “common cold” virus, but they have an intelligence and a ferocity unmatched in the galaxy.
Not long ago, they crash-landed in Wuhan, China and began their alien invasion. The rest is history, or soon will be.
Meanwhile, we have to make a living, knowing full-well that this invasion, once begun, will never actually end.
Actually, it’s all part of a plot to make some time for you to do your spiritual work while the entire world sits quietly waiting for you to clean up your past karma and get on with it.
Mutation is the viral answer to extinction.
Humans have to wait a long, long time to mutate. A virus can mutate in a split second and stay mutated.
Try to keep up with that and see how far you get.
Meanwhile, we have to make a living, and it’s not just the workers — the bosses are going out of business and won’t be able to reopen.
Trump’s calculation is that it’s only going to be Democrats who are wiped out, and he’s probably right, so for him, delay and Derailment are the only right answer.
That’s what you’re going to see. Delay and Derailment.
And people are going to ask, “Why?”. Never ask a bully “Why?” — he just kicks or punches harder — and frankly, he doesn’t know why. He just does it.
That’s Trump’s entire plan. Pardon me while I laugh.
At the end of all trails, all stories, all unfolding, there is a door, beyond which the living cannot go, and it’s a good thing they can’t — they wouldn’t like the calm sweet gentle breath of scented perfumes, the distant sound of rolling thunder, the swirling clouds and splashing streams.
Naturally, I’m referring to our Prosperity Path Virtual Ashram, situated at the moment in the Second Life configuration, mirrored in the Godd™ Engine.
You get the entire package when you wear the Godd™ Particle, but enough commercial, let’s get back to the program.
This is Mill Street in Grass Valley, California sometime around 1920 — a car expert could tell you more precisely, and it still looks pretty much the same now, thanks to the historical society and the local merchant association.
When you find a photo like this and you OWN it — this only refers to antiques, not copyright photos — you can easily scan it and create a postcard, greeting card or even better, an ELECTRONIC card, and how you dress it up is entirely up to you.
Then, using SOCIAL MEDIA, you promote the FREE e-card and get people to your website in that way.
Of course, if there’s nothing for sale or rent or trade, or there’s no service for sale, then you’ll have flushed the opportunity right down the toilet.
Look, you’re not shipping anything out, and they’re not receiving a package in the mail. It’s an entirely online electronic transfer in the form of a download of some kind, and exactly what kind of transfer mechanism is used, is once again, entirely up to you.
A lot of stuff is entirely up to you now. You don’t have the buffers you had in place, and there’s no outguessing what’s going to happen — we haven’t even talked about the potential for “roundups” here, into “recovery tent cities” from which they never emerge.
Scary? Yeah, so was Auschwitz, Bergen-Belzen and other WWII resorts for the very Jewish. This time, it’s not just them — it’s everybody.
A virus doesn’t distinguish between red and blue, black and white, tall and small, or any other characteristic. If you’re a virus, it’s strictly “You seen one human, you’ve seen them all”, and alien viruses are no exception.
All our foods are prepared in a full commercial-style kitchen, all surfaces are wiped, all fridges kept clean and fresh, all foods handled ONLY with surgical gloves, but we’ve been doing this for DECADES.
It’s time to stop making fun of us “clean freaks” who wash their hands at every contact, who guard against closeness with sniffling family, friends and neighbors, and who shy away from handshakes and hugs.
In short, we who are members of the “Antisocial Media” network, and we’re here to help in this crisis, if you’re stuck in the middle of a food chain and can’t get sustenance from any other source.
Trail mixes are easy for Cloister Kitchen personnel to make, package and ship without touching or breathing on anything.
Under ordinary circumstances, we would not do any of this — the food service is strictly for Work Circle members who cannot obtain food in any other way or who feel the need for Cloister Sacred Foods, which cannot now be obtained at in-person events such as a Bake Sale.
We’re a church. We can have Bake Sales. It’s the Law. This is a Bake Sale which was triggered by the worldwide emergency, for the benefit of our church members.
What’s Available from Cloister Kitchen?
The Trail Mixes will vary depending on your tolerance for certain nuts — some aren’t good for just anyone, and some don’t keep very well and are therefore not recommended for long-term storage.
So what happens to our Work Circle Members if their supply chain is disrupted and they can’t get food, but they can receive packages?
The answer is — we’re a 501(c)3 Not-For-Profit California-Based Religious Organization. We can do any humanitarian thing we want.
Problem is, we haven’t the money to just give it away or ship it or any of that, so you have to chip in. We’ll be happy to send you some of our food stash, but we need you to help us pay for it, so we can keep on sending out emergency food rations to our members.
The law says it can only be for our members, period, and technically, it qualifies as what the law terms a “Bake Sale”. We are permitted one per 90 days, and in this emergency, the bake sale is whatever day you ask for help.
Gorby’s Emergency Rations are available to any of our Work Circle members, not the general public, and you can find out more about it right now:
The Blue Corn Chips just don’t survive shipping all that well, but if you like tiny bits all crunched up in a bag, and what’s more, you want something from the Ashram kitchen, I guess this is your opportunity.
Prices will vary depending on a LOT of factors, not the least of which is shipping costs and even availability — at some point, shipping and trucking will break down, and then you’re left with what you have in the fridge until the emergency is over, which might be “never”.
Calculate the actual food you’ll need, what you really MUST have each day, and try to find some way to store that somewhere safe, somewhat darkish and very cool and dry.
If that doesn’t work for you, try anywhere there’s a spot to dump it.
Never store food near ammunition. I don’t have any real reason for saying that — it just sounded right.
No flour in these cookies, nothing to get hung about, no added sugar or sweeteners, just pure goodness in a huge wonderfully flavored and textured cookie that will sustain, give energy and provide relief from the oppressive danger all around us.
Keep in mind that, due to extreme care in the kitchen, these don’t roll off the production line — we’re gonna be on the slow side getting your Bake Sale Order out the door, so plan AHEAd.
This incredibly rich and filling BIG cookie is something you won’t eat all at once, and won’t need to. If the need arises to move quickly away from an unpleasant mob scene, this is a good sustenance food to throw into your Bugout Pack.
What? You don’t have a Bugout Pack?
Drive this in your Final Getaway when the mob overruns your neighborhood looking for scapegoats and loot.
Yes, looting is the final solution to every mob agitation, and this time is no exception, so stay away from mobs, and don’t investigate that weird moaning sound coming from the next block over.
Just hunker down and wait for the frenzied wave to pass you by. If it doesn’t, jump the ship. If there is no ship, you’re ship out of luck.
I actually DO make backpacks, designer backpacks — but I recommend you get a fairly ordinary and camouflaged backpack for around $100 at Sports 5 or some similar shop — don’t make a big deal over your backpack — at a certain point, a great backpack becomes a target.
I have an infra-red reactive camo pack — it looks like broken field leaves and such under infra-red light — that I’m sure I can carry successfully, even now at the fragile age of 78, without actually falling down and going boom.
No flour, no added sugar other than what’s in the fruits and nuts and seeds that we use in these exotic Spirit Foods that are so much a part of our daily life and Medicine Circle.
It just suddenly occurred to me that you might be under extreme “fight-or-flight” pressure, maybe even be “on the run” away from a wildly insane crazed and driven mob, or by some natural disaster, which is all too common in California these days, and you need a burst of extra fast energy to take you out of the danger zone.
Well, under those circumstances, this combo is what you want, unless you can get food locally without harm or danger — if all you have is what we can send you, this is your best bet for instant upness.
The last time this happened, spring of 1918, half a billion people were infected by the H1N1 “bird flu” virus, which has since that time erupted in several mutated forms.
With no vaccine to protect against influenza infections, with no antibiotics that would address the secondary “bacterial” infections, they worked to control the outbreak by isolation, quarantine, lots of handwashing, disinfectants and limits on public gatherings.
ALL of our public gatherings are now strictly online, and we have plenty of them, without fear and apprehension.
If you want to sample some of our Herbal Garden Teas, you can order sample bags. You can call, text, message or otherwise communicate your interest, and we’ll make sure to get a sample kit on the way to you asap.
We will hope that shipping remains possible through this emergency, but it might break down somewhere along the line, given the hysterical and furtive nature of the present administration.
We can’t count on the Federal Government to help us, so get ready to help yourself and your family and friends as best you can.
We’re all in this together, every single living creature that is threatened by Covid 19 and by the fear-driven aftermath of its passing, the mob hysteria and scapegoating that always occurs after every such disaster, thus adding to the tragedy with futile violence and disruption.
Stay out of the way. Never get between a looter and his loot.
What I do know is that they contain NO flour of any kind, and the sweetness comes from coconut and seeds and just a bunch of yummy stuff, all of which is horribly expensive and doesn’t keep very well, but boy, it’s definitely one of the yummiest things you will ever ever eat!
This is Michele’s famous secret recipe, but soon her secrets will be out! She’s working on a Cloister Kitchen Cookbook that features all our secret Sacred Foods recipes, and you can make them there in your own home, once the emergency is over.
Until then, as Uncle Claude says, “We ship”.
Our granolas are concocted according to ancient recipes from the 1972 summer workshop season — several of our guests at Red House that year were experts in the field of cooking and survival foods, and they helped us formulate these breakfast cereal style mixes.
Of course, there’s no flour of any kind in this, just nuts, seeds, berries and things that go bump in the night.
Just kidding about the bumps.
Spices grow in our 1/2 acre Herb Garden, thanks to Cameron Watson, who put in the beds and planted the signs to identify each of the herbs.
We grow our own, and we harvest them safely, gloved up and masked, as you’d expect, but we do it for an entirely different reason — extreme pollen — and what’s more, we’ve been harvesting that way for YEARS and YEARS.
People used to get freaked out listening to my “Contamination Talks” given back in the 1970s and 80s, but now those talks are important information when dealing with the Corona virus on a personal household level, which is what this is all about.
Those nuts are from the North End of Gorby’s Garden, where we have nut trees planted since we first moved here some 45 years ago or more — it sorta all runs together.
The nut trees are bountiful, and so are our other kinds of trees, many different kinds, all very productive except one stubborn little peach tree over by the grapes.
The grapes are absolutely out of this world, but hard to ship successfully, however, when we dry them and make raisins, they ship and store exceptionally well.
Bath salts are another issue entirely. I have dozens of different ones, each for a different situation, occasion or difficulty.
Contact me for more info on bath salts — I’m just now sorting all this out for online distribution — it’s all been in the shop until now.
Yes, at the Gold Claim, we can grow stuff, and we do. In addition to that, we have of course our farm acreage, where we grow most of our foods.
We can actually produce enough food to feed a large number of people, but you can’t just show up here and ask for it — it takes MONTHS to grow your food for you, sometimes even a YEAR for some of our mushrooms, particularly the Shitake mushrooms, better than anything you can get in a store!
Golly, this chapter is getting long — it’s taking me a couple of minutes to scroll down to the bottom of the page. I’ll be loping along to the next chapter, where we can meet again to continue this dissertation.
See You At The Top!!!
gorby