Monday, August 08, 2005
What can you do with a pile of crap?
August 8, 2005
Anticipating people’s reactions is a favorite pastime of mine. I attribute this to a mix of neuroses, none of which I apologize for much anymore. I also refuse to apologize for the title of this blog: Compostcompote. (Okay, I wanted to call it Compost, but some joker already beat me to that simple, elegant title.) To clarify, compost – as opposed to compostcompote – is a mixture of rotting materials, amended by generous additions of dried manure. When allowed to achieve its ultimate state of decay, compost becomes the finest building block of any garden, infinitely superior to any and all human-engineered fertilizers and without the toxic pollutants.
Ignorant people love to poke fun at compost piles – “look at that big pile of crap!” – and at those who create them. Well, let these people pay ridiculous prices for mega-fertilizer and groundskeepers. I suspect that they live rather sterile lives, separated from growing things, from decay, from life itself, which is intrinsically dirty. If you’re afraid of a little crap, you’ll never know the bliss that is a warm, organically grown tomato, raised from seed and harvested from your own, compost-filled patch of earth.
There’s crap, and then there’s crap. What we do with the crap in our lives makes all the difference. We can combine it with other things to create something positive, or we can sit around and gripe about it. “That’s a bunch of crap!” Sure it is. Now what?
This blog will be my online compost pile. In it, I’ll put all the odds and ends of things that I’m obsessing over: writing ideas, stuff that really burns me, topics that pique my curiosity, and anything else that seems appropriate…or even inappropriate. No doubt, a portion of it will be crap. To quote one of my many writing instructors, “you’ll never be a successful writer if you’re afraid to suck.”
In that spirit, here goes…
Anticipating people’s reactions is a favorite pastime of mine. I attribute this to a mix of neuroses, none of which I apologize for much anymore. I also refuse to apologize for the title of this blog: Compostcompote. (Okay, I wanted to call it Compost, but some joker already beat me to that simple, elegant title.) To clarify, compost – as opposed to compostcompote – is a mixture of rotting materials, amended by generous additions of dried manure. When allowed to achieve its ultimate state of decay, compost becomes the finest building block of any garden, infinitely superior to any and all human-engineered fertilizers and without the toxic pollutants.
Ignorant people love to poke fun at compost piles – “look at that big pile of crap!” – and at those who create them. Well, let these people pay ridiculous prices for mega-fertilizer and groundskeepers. I suspect that they live rather sterile lives, separated from growing things, from decay, from life itself, which is intrinsically dirty. If you’re afraid of a little crap, you’ll never know the bliss that is a warm, organically grown tomato, raised from seed and harvested from your own, compost-filled patch of earth.
There’s crap, and then there’s crap. What we do with the crap in our lives makes all the difference. We can combine it with other things to create something positive, or we can sit around and gripe about it. “That’s a bunch of crap!” Sure it is. Now what?
This blog will be my online compost pile. In it, I’ll put all the odds and ends of things that I’m obsessing over: writing ideas, stuff that really burns me, topics that pique my curiosity, and anything else that seems appropriate…or even inappropriate. No doubt, a portion of it will be crap. To quote one of my many writing instructors, “you’ll never be a successful writer if you’re afraid to suck.”
In that spirit, here goes…
