i would not wear it if anyone else had made it

Red is teaching Willow how to weld things with the shouldering irons in the hammock shop.  Willow made all manner of presents for people he cares for, including the polypropylene rope one for me in the picture below.

The simple truth is the thing is not beautiful and had anyone else made it and had anyone else given it to me i would not even consider wearing it.  But Willow is not anyone else and he likes it that i wear it and i am proud to show off his handy work.  Tragically, he burn his hand on an iron shortly after making this one, so it might be the last of this for of artwork for a while (Bochie is encouraging him to “explore other medias”).

“The meatloaf is terrible.” Willow says to be as he hands me his plate.  Perhaps 90% of the meat i eat these days is food he has decided he does not want.  Perhaps 20% of my overall diet is food he does not want.  I am a political vegetarian mostly, some small amount of it is for health reasons (inspired by Forks over Knives)  but it is more about climate change and energy use than it is about animal rights and careful nutrition.  Dumpster diving is more important to support as a cultural practice than it is to be strict in ones dietary practices – at least as far as i am concerned.   As a clever digital nomad once said “We can live off the waste of western civilization.”

And if we are clever perhaps we will.