An Open Letter to Barclay and Apple

"And then… just two weeks after agreeing to start helping to do these things…

My computer, and all of the things I had kept with it, were stolen.

Gone."

~Me, in the letter below 

Hello Barclay and Apple!

So, here's my story.

When I purchased my Macbook Pro two Februaries ago, it was a difficult but well-thought-out decision for me.

I knew I did not currently have the financial muscle to buy the computer straight up. But I really needed a personal computing option for the things I was about to embark upon.

What things, you ask?

I was putting together a creative project, recording 6 a cappella groups, doing audio, video, and graphic design. I had some capacity for that. But not nearly with the power I needed. Thus, I created the need for the Macbook Pro.

Here was my rationale: I was bussing tables at a restaurant, after graduating with a degree in Philosophy. I wanted to start doing things with my time and talents. This was a good challenge, and right up my alley. I thought: “Spend the money now, as an investment into audio and video and graphic design… Use it to get proficient, then start earning money doing all three of those things. You’ll be able to pay off the computer in the 18 months of 0% APR financing.”

I’m pretty good at convincing myself and others.

We did a decent job with the project. I moved up from bussing to serving tables as well. We experienced a few setbacks on the project. (Okay, more than a few). The computer was a workhorse.

After the Spring, Summer, and into the fall, I was pretty burnt out and had learned a lot from the project. And then my life took a pivot.

In August of 2012, I heard about this thing called The Freedom Café. It was an idea: a non-profit café, where people came in for coffee and tea (free cup!) and then donate. And because it’s a non-profit, relying heavily on volunteer labor and overhead donated space, the donations would go to cover the cost of coffee and tea. From there, anything over the base cost could be donated to a non-profit working in the field to end Human Trafficking and Slavery.

The church group that I had been meeting with was talking about doing some sort of local food movement thing, discussing sourcing, and had just done our first Community Garden.

Now, we heard about this Café idea (in Amherst, MA), and it matched up. We wanted to try it in Durham, NH.

So, in August 2012, I took the role as the General Manager of the Freedom Café of Durham (Then called the Freedom Café @ UNH).

A society based on Wendall Berry's Agrarian Vision?

I've been reading through, slowly, Berry's essay on "Racism and the Economy."

I say slowly because every paragraph or two I have to put the book down and process and think through what I'm reading. 

This is just an update on that thinking. 

The big thing from what I'm reading is this complete belief and adherence to a neighborhood-based economy, of sorts. He mentions how he's for neighborhood grocery stores and school, for the same reason that he's for neighborhoods. And he keeps railing against top-down approaches to anything. 

But I wonder if anyone has taken this super-communal based approach to society and either theoretically or experimentally extended it out to its natural conclusions?

I'll keep updating with thoughts as they come. 

I think the ideal is beautiful. Ugly at times but beautiful. I'd want to live there myself. But I wonder how we get there and how we move about? I wonder; what is the point of living for Berry?

Here goes more reading!