Mrs. Peasant Goes To The Movies: Against the Sicko Cinema of the 70's

Edmund Blair Leighton: The Accolade 1901 
Henry VI the Good of Wrocław is knighted

But to be a person is to be precisely in a story 

and it's narrative is what gives coherence and meaning to events. 

Otherwise they are just random. 

It's just one damn thing after another.

                                              

-MALCOLM GUITE 

I wasted a lot of time as a teenager in the 90s and early 2000s watching really awful films. I wish I could enter a montage of all the faces I made walking out of the darkened theaters. There were all faces of confusion and anger from the wasted time with no payoff. I tried for years to get into indie films and the award winning films. I went to see the films the critics in the paper thought were excellent. I thought all of them were literal trash-Trainspotting, Pulp Fiction, Three Weddings and A Funeral, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Evita, and The Ice Storm. Everything I saw was bad. So, I gave up on new movies for 15 years. 

When I met Mr. Peasant, he introduced me to so many great movies. Mr. Peasant is an English major, and he is all about the story. We watched tons of free old movies on Tubi and bought DVDs for a dollar at the thrift store. I cherish all the great films we watched together! Mr. Peasant picks the movies, and I watch them. 99% of the time it is wonderful. But there have been a few of Mr. Peasant's picks that aren't so wonderful. All of the films I don't care for happen to be from the 70s. 

Mr. Peasant requested that I write about my ideas on film. You see, friends, I am very particular about what I will NOT watch. I am a visual person, and I have a list of images I don't care to see. I don't want these images in my mind and certainly not in my dreams. Some images are so excessively gross I don't find them entertaining at all. The key word is excessive. I know that life is filled with monsters and sin. I just don't need to see every gory or lustful detail. I can fill in the blanks after a brief suggestion of an event.  Many people have grown desensitized to scary and sexy stuff. I have not. I call these movies SICKO films, and I don't want to watch them. 

Mr. Peasant and I love a good western. He was so excited for me to watch The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. I love the music of Ennio Morricone and was excited to see the film. I hated the movie. I literally spent half the film with my eyes closed. I didn't like when they tortured the guy for 5 minutes. I also hate movies where there is no hero. None of the characters are good. Why do I even care what happens to a bunch of bad guys? That movie is a sicko, violence for violence's sake. The mental exercise of rooting for the least evil guy is not very satisfying. It's not really a win. Maybe it would be a tragedy type story except nobody cares. The viewer has no emotion toward any of the characters, and there is no feeling. 

The Knight Errant b John Everett Millais 1870.  
"The distressful maiden has been despitefully used by robbers,
who have been dispersed by the gallant knight.
Some of them can be seen in the right distance.
This is the only nude female figure painted by the artist."
(From the Tate Gallery)

The second type of film I don't want to watch are films where the stories are wonky and disordered. There is no good guy. All the characters are shades of bad. It forces you to root for the least bad person. Since there is no hero, I can't really invest in any of the characters. These are the films that you walk out of the theater thinking, what the hell was that about? Or, if I am being charitable, you might think wow. They have no real endings, or the endings are gray or a big weird shock. I call these movies "art films," and I don't want to watch them.

I remember shouting at the TV screen when the first Rocky ended. I hated the first Rocky. I couldn't believe he didn't win the fight. I couldn't believe I sat through that entire film and the main character got his ass whipped in the end. I looked over at Mr. Peasant and said, "Is this an art film or something?" I remember asking Mr. Peasant to explain the ending to me. It reminded me of movies from the 90s with letdown endings, the kind of endings where they punk the viewer with realism. It's a movie. It's fiction, so make it magical. I would much rather watch The Karate Kid than Rocky. If I want realism, I'll read the newspaper. I like a happy ending. Rocky is an art film. Quentin Tarantino reveres Rocky as a rare film of optimism from the 70s. 

The art/sicko film throws all the soda flavors in one cup and dares you to drink it. What if you just want a Cherry Coke? Once you are in a state of grace, you look at the world differently. I only see the beautiful order of God and the disorder of sin. I have custody of my eyes, mind, and heart. I do not want to let lust or indifference come into my heart. I always want a hero. I always want the bad guy to be seen for what he is. I never want to root for evil, adultery, or sin. I want a reason for watching. I like watching a film about something disordered becoming ordered in the end. I want to catch the bad guy. I want to finish the quest. I want to have fun watching. I want to see them get together in a one and only romance. I want an ending that is ordered. Or, I want the ending to reveal the darkness of the disorder. I want disorder to be shown as sad, dark, and bad. I want the sky to be blue and the grass to be green. I want a Cherry Coke. That is why I hate 70s/90s films because what they call "daring" is really just nihilism. 

Joan of Arc - John Everett Millais 1865

Mr. Peasant On The Trade Off Problem

From How to be Happy an old catalog, 1901.

There are no solutions only trade-offs.

THOMAS SOWELL

We have heard a variation on this theme many times. The theme is that every solution breeds new problems. When making decisions, we are forced to weigh the costs and benefits of those decisions. No perfect solution exists or can exist. That is the nature of existence.

We hit the trade off problem whenever we go shopping. For instance, you can buy a toolbox in either blue or red, but you can't have it both ways. Every positive decision comes with a negative. Choosing one thing means not choosing the other thing. This doesn't seem like such a big deal in this example, but it is a big deal in many other examples. Should you buy metric wrenches or standard wrenches? I have learned that you need both.

There is a magic solution to the trade off problem, but it is a false solution. This is the solution known as "one size fits all." With the wrench example, you could buy an adjustable wrench and learn to live with stripped bolts and nuts. There's a reason adjustable wrenches never took over.

Mr. Peasant's practical solution to the trade off problem is "one size fits most." I have learned that every solution has its limits. I personally went through this journey when trying to decide between a 4 wheel drive pickup versus a 2 wheel drive pickup. The 4WD has more utility because you can go off-road and drive in the snow. For me, these situations are exceedingly rare. The rest of the time is spent paying more for gas on the 4WD and the all terrain tires that never leave 2WD. I had to choose between utility and fuel economy, and I chose fuel economy. Over the last decade, that has turned out to be a genius decision.

I went with the vehicle that covers 80% of what I need in a truck. That's close enough. If I need something more robust, I will have to seek out alternative solutions such as renting a truck. This flies completely in the face of the larger culture that wants as many options and features as exist. This would be the smartphone with a thousand apps or subscribing to more streaming services that can possibly be watched because there aren't enough hours in a day or a lifetime.

Goldilocks or The Three Bears, 1911. Jessie Willcox Smith 

Why do people go to such excess? I think it goes back to that old maxim that says that it is better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it. The problem with that maxim is that it never accounts for the cost of having a lot of things that you don't need. One of those costs is the rent on a storage unit for all that unused stuff that you might need.

I find myself living in agreement with the wisdom of Yvon Chouinard who said, "The more you know, the less you need." This is hippie wisdom that people in the homesteading and prepping communities would be wise to learn. What we think we need will always be larger than what we actually need. This is because we don't know anything.

In my experience, I find those 80% solutions to be the best. What happens when those solutions aren't sufficient? This happens. I have learned to follow the strategy of the Marine Corps known as "adapt and overcome." That covers the 20%. I also refer to these strategies as the "white trash option." The result is that my method is a quilt work of improvisation and intentionality. I keep the intentionality at 80% and the improvisation at 20%. That is a nice ratio.

Another issue that comes up is choosing "tactical" gear and options. This is opposed to "practical." What is the difference between tactical and practical? I would say the difference is about $200 because this is how much you will pay more for a Goruck tactical backpack as opposed to the JanSport practical backpack. At the end of the day, a backpack is a compartment with two straps. Those tactical backpacks have those cool looking MOLLE straps, but I have rarely seen anyone actually use the things. Generally, you want to carry your gear inside the bag instead of outside of the bag because this is practical. But I digress. . .

Something is called tactical because it is designed for a narrow purpose or activity. Something practical is designed for general purpose activities. I have learned over the years to aim for the practical while eschewing the tactical. That is a way to achieve "one size fits most." Tactical is "one size fits one."

You can get away with using a tactical backpack to carry books to class the same way you can commute to work in a Jeep Wrangler. Why would you? This hit me decades ago trying to work in a pair of jungle combat boots when I just needed a basic and more comfortable pair of work boots. Those jungle boots looked bad ass, but they were crippling on a concrete floor for twelve hours a day.

Woman and child buying shoes. Drouin, Victoria 1944

I remember in high school in the 1980s that the local National Guard unit had Army Jeeps. They also had a basic Chevy pickup truck they painted camouflage. That pickup truck was their preferred vehicle for doing anything. It even lasted into the Humvee era because it was so practical.

Tactical isn't just limited to military type stuff. Hippies get into the act with their mountain bikes and gravel bikes when they would find more use in a beach cruiser bike. The same applies to trail specific shoes that are basically sneakers with some traction on the sole. The term the hippies use isn't "tactical" but "technical." It is the same animal. Your wallet gets lighter without any benefit over the practical option.

The bottom line is that marketers and businesses seek to undermine your confidence in the practical option of one size fits most. Because you know little, you need more stuff. A better investment of your purchasing dollar is to spend more time and money reading in an effort to know more. When you know more, you need less stuff. This knowledge boosts your confidence and allows you, Gentle Reader, to tune out the frequent pitches for your hard earned dollars.

Thank you for reading!

What Happened then stories. 1918. Ruth Dyer 

In Praise Of The Brother Printer

Portrait of Jean Miélot, The Scribe at Work. 1456. Jean Le Tavernier

A printer consists of three main parts: 

the case, the jammed paper tray 

and the blinking red light.

                                   

                            -DAVE BARRY

Today, I want to share with you a printer that made our life so much easier. I have hated every printer I've ever known. In the offices of my workplaces, I dealt with huge machines that jammed up all day. In my home, our personal HP ink jet printer went through ink cartridges like an old chain smoker. We were always running out of ink. I think we got 20 pages per ink cartridge. And even though we weren't heavy printers, it would always run out of ink during the most important and time sensitive moments. In those hectic deadline situations, our HP printer always failed. The fifth page would be nothing but faded lines. We would rush to Walmart and pay $25.00 on a new ink cartridge. During Covid, we bought a DIY ink refill kit to save money on HP ink.  One morning before an important appointment, I went to print a document. Of course, I had to refill the ink. My hands were black with ink, and the pages came out smeared with ink globs. I was trying not to get ink on my clothes before our appointment. And that, my dear readers, is when I lost it. Having a bad printer made everything chaotic.  

Unidentified female office worker sitting at a desk using a large computer. 1981-1990 circa

I know a product is awesome when I never have to think about it. This is the case with my Brother printer. I've had it for three years. It is the easiest printer I've ever used. It has never jammed or smeared ink. It has a paper tray that can hold 250 sheets of paper. Best of all, we are still on the first ink cartridge three years later! I found out about it from a woman who runs a money saving website called Southern Savers. She prints out a lot of coupons and did the math on the most economical printer. She stated her black and white Brother printer was the best printer. Boy was she right. Here is her old post with the Brother printer model number and ink info HERE. Listen to what she says about the Brother printer:

The Brother Printer is a black & white laser printer.  It can print 500-700 sheets with the toner it comes with and then you can replace the toner with a high yield cartridge for around $20.  The replacement will print 1700-2000 sheets!  For the cost of one inkjet replacement you have a new awesome printer!! Seriously guys, I have 2 of these and haven’t replaced the toner in either of them in the past year.

We bought a Brother HL-L2320D in July 2022 from Staples. It came with the ink cartridge that we are still using. Unfortunately, that model is no longer available now. I truly believe that any Brother laser printer would be dependable. And for the mid tech users like us, they have wireless printer models that can use wires.

When you break free from your ink jet printer trap, you can finally use your printer and not just for your updated car insurance cards while keeping your fingers crossed praying it will print. You can print fun things. In my opinion, a printer is a really fun overlooked analog tool. It's a way to take online information and make your own hard copy. Today, I use my Brother printer with abandon. I print recipes. I print out letters to my family. I print out prayers like our favorite daily Auxilium Christianorum Prayers. I print my Clemson University garden planting date guide (4 pages long) for my garden binder. I have printed a typed list in alphabetical order of all our DVD titles in our collection (easy site to alphabetize.) I even printed out our primary election sample ballot, so I can research candidates better. I print out all these extra things because printing is no longer difficult. Printing is cheap and fun. Please buy a Brother printer and break free. It might cost a little more upfront, but you'll never have to think about printing ever again. And, that my friends, is priceless. God bless you and thank you for reading!

Illuminated page "Ave Maria, gracia ple[na]",15th century. Robinet Testard

Letter R Crop Crop of folio 52r w:Heures de Charles d'Angoulême

Mr. Peasant On The Low Hanging Fruit Of Frugality

Boy Scouts pick fruit for jam. Cambridgeshire, England 1944

Beware of little expenses; a small leak will sink a great ship.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

Frugality is a tough sell. Nobody wants it. They prefer to keep blowing money without a second thought on the matter until circumstances force the issue. The truth is that people want to do better, but they don't want to do better today. The needed change will not come a moment sooner than too late. Then, desperation takes over which leads to very poor decision making. With money, the desperation leads the desperate turn to the usurers who are quite happy to exploit this desperation. A better way is to turn to this handy guide that generates savings immediately.

When people think about frugality and saving money, they have visions of refinancing mortgages and loans, clipping coupons, and hiring some sort of financial advisor. If that financial advisor is worth a damn, he will share the tips in this post than I am giving to you for FREE. None of these tips are sophisticated but are just plain common sense. The problem is that they all involve some form of deprivation and doing without. Frugality is more about having fortitude than brains. Here is the low hanging fruit of frugality.

1. Give up cigarettes.

Vices are expensive, and cigarettes are a very expensive vice. In my state, the average price for a pack of smokes is $8.50. Assuming you smoke a pack a day, that amounts to $255 per month. The price is even higher in other states. New York State is the most expensive at $14.55 per pack which amounts to $436.50 per month. People can argue and bicker over this "injustice," but assuming you are in the right, it is still going to cost you a lot of money. Many people could solve their money woes just by giving up this one vice. Just cutting back on the smokes will generate hefty savings. I won't get into the savings on healthcare expenses. That is in the realm of high hanging fruit.

A girl drinking wine and a boy smoking a cigar, 1893 Albert Roosenboom

2. Give up booze.

After tobacco, alcohol is the next most expensive vice for many people. On a unit price, a can of Budweiser beer will cost a little over a dollar in my state. Wine and spirits are obviously more expensive than beer. The real expense is a drunk driving conviction and the need for a liver transplant, but that also gets into the high hanging fruit. On a single serving basis, one beer is not so expensive. But who drinks one beer? People like to get hammered, and this costs money. I don't know of anyone who gave up the booze who was not better off for it.

3. Give up gambling.

A single ticket for the lotto is not so bad, but many people are addicted to those scratch off lottery tickets. You don't need to go to Vegas or Atlantic City to become a gambling addict. Your local convenience store is now a casino. I have heard of people blowing their entire paychecks on these scratch off tickets.

4. Give up Starbucks.

I don't consider coffee to be a vice, but Starbucks has made coffee cost as much as a vice with a single venti serving of java costing as much as a pack of smokes. There are people who drink Starbucks daily, so their caffeine habit becomes as expensive as any nicotine habit. Fortunately, the answer is to get cheaper coffee at Dunkin', McDonald's, or the Waffle House. Brewing your own at home is even better. I would recommend investing in a good travel mug or a Stanley thermos for taking hot coffee with you on the go. Personally, I think Starbucks is a scam. Anyone who goes there on a daily basis is an idiot.

Elderly couple eating at their home on Lamont Street N.W. Washington DC, 1942

5. Give up fast food, convenience store meals, and microwave meals.

Paying for food you didn't make yourself is a massive expense. You're paying someone to make it for you, but it isn't cheap. Buy your ingredients and make your own food even if it is just a sandwich. People will claim they don't have the time for this, but this is utter horse crap. It takes me less time to make my own sandwich than to watch someone else make it for me at Subway and then pay them for the convenience. Microwave meals are essentially fast food that you make at home.

6. Give up soda pop.

Soda pop is sugar water, but a can of the stuff will cost you a dollar now. You can probably save a bit more by getting a generic store brand in the 2 liter bottle. Mrs. Peasant does this with her once a week purchase of diet soda. She only buys one per week for a treat with her Chef Boyardee Pizza on Sunday.

At this point, the Gentle Reader is howling in indignation and despair because Mr. Peasant is removing all of the joy and pleasure from life. My defense is that I think you can have the same level of joy and pleasure but at a fraction of the price.

I don't drink soda pop except on the rarest of occasions. I prefer to drink tap water. I put a splash of cranberry juice or muscadine juice in it for health benefits, but I stick to water and coffee. I don't do booze or soda pop. I don't feel deprived at all, and there is something to be said for being properly hydrated.

7. Give up cable, satellite, and streaming subscriptions.

I don't expect people to give up entertainment, but I do expect people to stop paying so much for it. I cut the cord on cable a long time ago, and I stopped paying for Netflix when they were still delivering the DVDs by snail mail. I recommend watching over the air television on an antenna while you can still get it for free. I also recommend watching free streaming services like Tubi and Pluto and the free content on YouTube. I don't watch very much visual content, so my entertainment comes from reading used books and listening to the radio on my 20-year-old Sony Walkman. (Sports fans will be happy to know that they can cancel the football package and listen to all their favorite games on the radio for FREE.)

8. Adjust your thermostat.

This is a Mrs. Peasant tip. She sets the thermostat at 78 degrees in the summer, and 58 degrees in the winter. If this sounds extreme, this is where the electric company recommends you set your thermostat. You can set it higher or lower if you're not going to be home during the day because of your job and whatnot. I am used to the summer setting because I am a lizard and prefer to be acclimated to warm weather. In the winter, I break out my house hoodie that I wear exclusively around the home. It is almost 20 years old now and still does the job.

Couple in a Train Compartment, 1895. Ricardo López Cabrera

9. Give up expensive travel and entertainment.

There is a certain type of person who cannot enjoy life at home. They have to go out on the town each weekend and spend two weeks of vacation each year on an exotic cruise or relaxing at a resort. I don't know how anyone can relax if they are living paycheck to paycheck and can't make ends meet. When Mrs. Peasant needs to get out of the house, she goes to the thrift store or to the garden center. In the past, we have been to parks, libraries, museums, the zoo, and kitschy roadside attractions. They have all been fun and done on the cheap. Otherwise, our life is a staycation. Home is a sweet place to be.

10. Give up that flagship smartphone.

The Peasants use durable flip phones that last longer than the cellphone networks. These phones are not cheap but don't cost anything close to the $1000 plus flagship smartphones that people buy every two years. Sometimes, they drop the smartphone and break the screen. This is why they pay insurance on these things like you would with an automobile. This is crazy.

Charles of France, Duke of Berry. 1701- 1725. Nicolas de Largillière

11. Give up fashion.

I gave up fashion in high school and wear work clothes and boots until they disintegrate. Fashion by its nature is short term and expensive. The expectation is that you will change your entire wardrobe twice a year in spring and fall. I don't even change my wardrobe twice a decade. I recommend establishing a uniform for yourself like Steve Jobs did and wearing that gear for as long as it lasts. The interesting thing you will note is that no one is paying attention to what you are wearing. You have to wonder why you are dressing to impress people who don't care except for their own clothes that they are wearing.

Conclusion

As I said, frugality is a tough sell. These tips are falling on deaf ears, and I am OK with that. Just stop whining at how hard your life is and how you are up against it. The reality is that your lifestyle is a choice, and choices come with consequences. I find the consequences of frugality to be easier to bear than the consequences of being a spendthrift. If you are a spendthrift, do us a favor and suck on it as hard as you can. Your misery is free comedy and entertainment for the rest of us who know better. (Listen to The Ramsey Show for some of that free entertainment.)

I don't feel sorry for the grasshoppers in life. No one is up against it. The thing that the person earning $40K a year has in common with someone earning $240K a year is they both have no savings and live paycheck to paycheck. Where does it all go? Most of it goes to the things I just wrote about. I think the average person can save at least $1000 a month just with the low hanging fruit. That amounts to $12K per year.

The high hanging fruit of frugality involves living in a modest home and buying used vehicles while eschewing high price toys like a motorcycle or a boat. The irony is that many people could afford the payments on these large purchases just by going for the low hanging fruit of frugality. Personally, I recommend going for all of the fruit of frugality. The low hanging fruit is for those folks already in trouble and need to generate savings today. This is when they hear the repo man coming down the street to take back their stuff. But that is a topic for another post.

Thank you for reading!

Mrs. Peasant's Bookshelf: Clutter's Last Stand by Don Aslett

The New Novel, Winslow Homer. 1877

Butterfly in the sky, I can go twice as high.

Take a look, it's in a book, a Reading Rainbow!

I can go anywhere.

Friends to know,

and ways to grow.

A Reading Rainbow!

I can be anything.

Take a look,

it's in a book.

A Reading Rainbow.

-READING RAINBOW THEME

Today, I'm going to share why I have a book collection and why I think it's important. I also want to introduce you to the book I am reading and LOVING, Clutter's Last Stand by Don Aslett. There is one area in our home that I can't seem to declutter. This area is our book collection. I find the books to be both beautiful and useful. It is the one area besides the garden that I feel the joy of the abundance. Just like a garden, I am constantly devouring my books. My bookshelf is a stocked pantry for my mind. 

When I was a little girl, my father would drive us kids to the downtown library and let each of us pick out 5 books. I felt like I was in heaven. I spent hours on the carpeted floor flipping through beautiful picture books of Hummingbirds of North America and books on caring for rabbits and paper crafts. The library had a feeling of wonder and abundance. The shelves were organized and I would quietly escape reading a book in a corner of the library where you wouldn't see another soul for hours. But I digress. . . My favorite books were the non-fiction and reference books. Some of the reference books were so treasured, you couldn't even check them out! 

Shelves of Central Library, IITD, 2024

My parents, my brother, and my husband were all English majors. My father was an encyclopedia salesman. I come from book people. It is in my blood. I even love the smell of old books. Over the years, I have created my own library on topics that relate to my weird interests. These topics include 80's Christmas Books, health/food as medicine books, gardening, frugality, spiritual Catholic reads, fairy tales, Peanuts paperbacks, and home repair. I have found most of these books used for under a dollar. My reference library is my analog Internet. I can't tell you how many times I've solved a problem or found the answer by pulling a book from my bookshelf. It's a great feeling to not be tied to the online world. 

When I read my books, I don't usually read them all the way through. It is rather boring to read a cookbook or a gardening encyclopedia from cover to cover. I skip all around when I read my books. Sometimes, I'll just look at the pictures. Other times, I will read a chapter that interests me like tomatoes, soil making, or ground covers. Sometimes, I just like to take bites and eat them slowly. For example, I like to read the intros to my Southern Living Christmas Books from the 1980s just to smile. I nibble through my books like a book mouse. Or, I search for an answer like a detective mouse. Eventually, I read through my books over and over again. My books are like old friends that I visit with over tea many times a year.

I am currently reading Clutter's Last Stand by Don Aslett from 1984. The book is 275 pages of every type of clutter and bad thinking that keeps us stuck. It is the most comprehensive clutter book I've read. And trust me, I've read lots of them. One of my favorite things about the book are the awesome 1980's illustrations. I love the expressions and the silliness of the illustrations that leave the reader never missing photographs. It is filled with tough honesty and humor which I love. It really dives into the psychology of clutter. I am enjoying it! It has wording which is gloriously dated but so true like this passage:

"Junkees are afflicted with the endless urge to have more. Enough is never enough. The have-notters want some, the have-enoughers want more, even the have-too-muchers want more. Ever wonder why most frauds, schemes, cons, embezzlements, etc., aren't committed by the have-nothing desperate but by the nice well-to-do citizen? People with plenty, position, and more things than they can already use are often the people who defraud to get more. Jails are filled with people who never could get enough."

I hope you never feel guilty over your active personal library. I also encourage everyone to enjoy their books more. When we enjoy and read our books, they become a treasure instead of a dusty hoard. Make the time and read your books. Thank you for reading and God bless you! 

"Dig". Poster by Sadie Wendell Mitchell. Part of the artist's
 "Girls Will Be Girls" poster series. New York, 1909.

Mr. Peasant On The Good Old Days

Gibson family in living room of house he (conveyor belt operator) built. Chattanooga, TN,1974 

A conservative is a libertarian who has been mugged.

JOHN STOSSEL

I have been watching John Stossel since the 1980s. I have always liked him especially when I was a libertarian. I am not a libertarian now. I got mugged by reality. I am now a born again conservative. I drifted from conservatism at the same time I drifted away from religion. I came back to religion as a Roman Catholic convert, and I came back to conservatism as a paleoconservative which could be described as a "reality based libertarian." I lost things in my apostasy, but those things were replaced with better things in my repentance.

The problem with libertarians is that they pay no attention to the social and cultural side of the ledger. For them, it is all about free markets even if it leads to things like fentanyl and child pornography. A libertarian can be described as a common sense free conservative. That lack of common sense is what makes folks like me appreciate John Stossel's viewpoints while feeling that he is overlooking colossal things in the process. This is especially true in this Stossel video:

Bigger Homes, Better Cars, Longer Lives: The Truth About Today

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KJTWmRrneo

Ecconomists set up models that seem like pure genius in their analysis, yet they smell like so much bullshit. In the case of this video, Stossel makes the claim that we have better lives today because we have bigger and better stuff even if we can't afford that stuff. He makes the claim that we couldn't afford the stuff we had in the eighties or before that. The good old days were not so good. Our dissatisfaction has kept pace with our "prosperity."

I debated where I should publish this post as I like to keep economic and political topics to my personal blog while keeping my posts about voluntary poverty and intentional living for this blog. Ultimately, this is a Peasants post because it addresses the dissatisfaction so many people feel in our prosperous economy.

Here are some recent headlines I pulled from DDG:

I’m 53, Make $500,000 a Year and Live Paycheck to Paycheck. I Want to Retire At 65, But We Only Have $200,000 Saved.

Earn more, save less? How lifestyle creep is quietly destroying your wealth; experts on how to break free

Living Paycheck to Paycheck? You're Not Alone—67% of People Are in 2025

8 Ways To Escape Living Paycheck-to-Paycheck — Without Sacrificing Your Lifestyle

I make $55,000 — but after rent, student loans and a bit of savings, I'm stuck living paycheck to paycheck

I'm a single boomer living paycheck to paycheck. I've been too busy living in the moment to plan for retirement.

27-year-old first-grade teacher lived paycheck to paycheck due to impulsive spending: ‘It became so stressful’

11 Signs You’re Actually Upper Middle Class Even If You Feel Like You’re Struggling All The Time

Those headlines tell the story. The reason people struggle today can be blamed on monetary inflation, out of control government spending, student loan debt, and crazy medical bills. What doesn't get blamed is the lifestyle inflation these people have embraced with each increase of the paycheck and swipe of the credit card. They buy new cars instead of used cars. They eat out instead of eating at home. They pay for Starbucks instead of Maxwell House. They pay for streaming subscriptions they don't have time to actually watch. They buy toys on credit. They upgrade to bigger and bigger McMansions and take out home equity loans to upgrade them even further.

Maxwell House Coffee ad, 1950

What makes all inflation happen is the expansion of credit which comes from the expansion of the money supply. Today, credit card debt stands at $1 trillion. When money is cheap, everything becomes more expensive.

I agree with Stossel that the good old days really weren't so good. When I was a kid in the 1980s, I saw the same lifestyle inflation and living paycheck to paycheck I see today. I knew kids in high school who drove brand new Mustangs and Camaros that they bought with co-signed loans from their parents. Things have always been ridiculous, and I think they will remain this way.

We remember the good old days because of the intangible and immaterial factors that Stossel and his Cato Institute economist do not address in their analysis. The USA is spiritually and culturally bankrupt. We can argue that the movies are better today because of better special effects, but no one wants to watch them because the stories and acting are so awful. The same can be said for the music that is now sonically flawless and utterly unlistenable. Libertarians cannot address this issue at all. The only people who can do this are conservatives.

Gaining the world can never compensate for the loss of our souls. What causes dissatisfaction comes down to happiness. Material prosperity should make us happy. It doesn't. Only the few figure this out.

I figured this out when I was a teenager in the 1980s. I don't know why I got it when others didn't. Clearly, reading the Bible put this into my head. The effect of it was to make me eschew lifestyle inflation which I have done to the present day. I don't care to buy or own much because I know those things don't make you happy.

Sunlight and Shadow. Winslow Homer 1873

As a thought experiment, I like to compare my present life at 50+ to my life at 15. When I was 15, my relaxing activities were reading books, listening to music on the radio or cassette deck, and watching movies and TV shows on cable or videocassettes I got from the rental store. Today, I still read books, listen to music on the radio and the CD player, and watch movies and TV shows on the DVD player or on free streaming. The only fundamental difference between today and yesteryear was that we cancelled cable in favor of the internet. My pleasures remain fundamentally the same except they are more plentiful and cost less today than they did in 1985.

What I have not done is buy expensive toys, new cars, a bass boat, a beach house, and a whole bunch of things I have never cared to own. I have always lived a life that was materially superior to royalty from a century ago. What royalty had was status. I have never had status, and I have never cared about status. This is why people would rather be a king shivering in a castle than a blue collar guy with central heat and air.

There has never been a better time in history to be a nobody than in the USA today. The problem is that everybody wants to be a somebody. If they can't be a somebody, they will settle for more expensive pleasures as a consolation prize. When these things fail to satisfy, they double and triple down on the errors as they run up their credit cards and spend themselves into foreclosure and bankruptcy.

The solution to the problem of lifestyle inflation is to learn contentment. When you are content, you find that you have more than enough for your needs. How do you find this contentment? You won't find it reading an Ayn Rand novel. You find this contentment in religion. God is the only satisfaction for the empty heart. Once you put God on the throne of your heart, everything else in life finds its proper place and becomes more enjoyable.

How America Lives, Ed and Amaline. The Ladies' Home Journal, 1948.  

Once upon a time, I told Mrs. Peasant that I would give her a materially better life than the one she had, but that no one would envy her. I kept that promise, and no one envies us. Her great gift was her ability to enjoy the non-material satisfaction that life brings when you know the Lord. Her capacity for this enjoyment is greater than my own.

The Noble Peasants don't care what is happening with the Jones family. We don't envy them, and we certainly don't compete with them. They think us to be poor, and we are happy that they think this way. It saves us from spending on things to impress them when we don't even like them.

I watch the Jones family struggle with their expenses and lament their inability to escape living paycheck to paycheck. I think it is a sad way to live, but they are not interested in the solution. I have never met anyone interested in the solution. If they were interested, this blog would be more popular than it is now.

I have learned to just be grateful to God. I am grateful for Him supplying our material needs, but I am even more grateful for Him teaching us how to live with contentment in our peasant lifestyle. More money never solves the problem because the lack of money is not the problem. The problem is bankruptcy of the soul. We call them the good old days because people used to know the things that have been forgotten.

Thank you for reading!

Moonlight, Winslow Homer. 1874

Mrs. Peasant's Homemade Coffee Can Flower Pots

 

An Old Woman Holding a Flower Pot.
After Frans van Mieris the Elder (1635–1681)

When the world wearies

and society fails to satisfy,

there is always the garden.

MINNIE AUMONIER

Somehow, Spring is almost here. I have lots of flower seeds, and no pots to start them in. Luckily, I had some metal coffee cans and some old paint. This project isn't the most amazing or creative which is precisely why I want to share it. Gardening is supposed to be fun. I kept telling myself that while making these pots. When did gardening become so serious? When did gardening become so expensive?

When I would garden on my balcony at our apartment, I never felt ambitious. Gardening on my tiny balcony felt fun. Growing was rolling the dice, experimental, and nothing but joy when ANYTHING grew. Now that I have a large yard, I have bigger ambitions. I have lost that sense of wonder and awe of creation. So, in the spirit of using what we have and enjoying gardening poorly, let's make some coffee can pots! 

You will need: 

-a metal coffee can (save the lid for the bottom)

-a hammer

-a large nail

-newspaper or paper bags

 -acrylic paint

-a paint brush

Both IGA brand coffee and Chock Full O Nuts use metal cans.

These sweet paper butterflies were a gift and have wildflower seeds in them.

Is there anything more nerdy and fun than a good old fashioned experiment? I am doing an experiment to see which method is faster for growing sweet potato slips. I have two sweet potatoes sitting in a jar of water and two potatoes in soil. I'll let you know the results.  I planted my Christmas gift wildflower seeds from a dear friend. I am starting Mission Yellow Marigolds seeds, too. I am also using up old flower seeds. I had a very old pack of coleus seeds and snap dragons. They may or may not be any good. I intend to finally use them up and uncover that mystery. Everything I am planting should come up within 7 days. If they don't come up, then I have enough time to start new ones. 

I encourage you to use what you have lying around for pots. Start some old seeds that you've had forever. Maybe start an experiment. Lets get back to gardening that isn't so serious. Try to have a little fun, relax, and enjoy the process. After all, my friends half the stuff will be a failure. So, let's enjoy gardening poorly. God bless you and your gardens. Thank you for reading!

In Praise Of Old Pickup Trucks

Pick-up truck above Calumet River Wall, 1973

City boys got pickup lines. Country boys got pickup trucks.

UNKNOWN

When boys are boys, they like to play with toys, When boys become men, they still play with toys except the toys make more noise. This sounds like a bad nursery rhyme except this fairy tale is true and tragic. Men who never grew up buy toys to drive around. Men who did grow up give up those toys and drive old pickup trucks.

A Toyota pick up truck, Sonoma, California. 2025 

A sports car is a toy. Men buy these to impress women and each other. Other men choose a Jeep which is an expensive toy they like to take off-road and flip over in remote places. Other men with Jeeps will come to his aid and assist in rescuing the Jeep. This will be a bonding experience for them. It sounds ridiculous to me.

Soap Box Derby, Glenwood Avenue, Raleigh, NC, July 30, 1940

Other men will buy pickup trucks except these shiny new trucks cost a fortune, are way too big, and drink up a lot of gas and diesel. I call these trucks "redneck limousines." Men buy these toys to pull their other toys--boats, RVs, ATV trailers, etc,

A real man is a working man. He drives an old pickup truck. It can be a compact truck like an old Toyota, or it can be a full size truck like a square body Chevy from the 70s and 80s. The main thing is that the truck is not a toy or a redneck limousine. It is the vehicle of a working man who needs to get work done. It isn't driven to impress or to play. It isn't a toy. It is a tool. Tools are what divide the men from the boys.

The working man is not a boy. He does not drive a toy. I am sad to say that the boys outnumber the men these days.

When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child. But, when I became a man, I put away the things of a child.

1 CORINTHIANS 13:11 DOUAY-RHEIMS

Thank you for reading!

Julius Dilbeck, retired miner in his pick-up truck. Clairfield, TN 1970

Mrs. Peasant's Diary for Ash Wednesday 2026: Worldliness, Overthinking, And What Happened To Conversation Hearts?

Child reading. Jessie Willcox Smith 1905

And seek not you what you shall eat, or 

what you shall drink: and be not lifted up on high.

For all these things do the nations of the world seek. 

But your Father knoweth that you have need of these things.

But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his justice, 

and all these things shall be added unto you.

                   LUKE 12:29

All the information, all the choices, all the opinions, all the ideas and tips leave me feeling sad. Can there be a point where tons of information becomes a terrible thing? I think I am information-ed out. My father sold encyclopedias, and he loved to answer my questions with "Well, look it up." I find even answering a simple question today on the internet to be difficult. Having to sort through hundreds of answers is tiring. Most of the time, after I research a topic I am even more confused. Try looking up how to grow a tomato. You will find a Masters Degree worth of reading material on how to grow a tomato. I just give up. I sort through hundreds of reviews to buy something on Amazon. I scroll through endless options. I see the whole world's issues. There is just too much of everything.  All of the news and information and ideas becomes super distracting along with all of the hours of time I waste on worldly things. I'll spend more time finding a pair of socks online than reading my Bible. I used to grab some at Walmart, and they'd last 8 years. It is getting harder and harder to not get sucked into the world and the things that are fading away. I am getting older. Why should I care about this or that? 

Carlo Maratta (1625-1713) (follower of) - The Madonna Reading

I am glad it is Lent. We can cling close to the Lord and focus on him. It is a chance to be less attached to this world and permission to ignore all of the noise. The world has always been a wreck, but we can actually hear all about it today. We hear every story and every update for every tragedy in every state, in every country, and the whole world. When I hear about a tragedy, I pray. When you love someone and you really want the best for them, all that matters are the eternal things. I can barely care about people I know as they deserve. How can we care about billions of people? My heart is just too small. 

Sweet Hearts Candy, Scott Ehardt 2005

I am still wondering what the hell happened to the little boxes of Conversation Hearts? I couldn't find them this year. I tried googling the answer, and it went nowhere. Now, we need AI to decipher the answers from the sea of information slop. I have a hard time decluttering books because they quickly answer my questions even after all these years. 

May the Lord be in my mind, on my lips, and in my heart. Thank you for stopping by. God bless you this Lent. 

Christ in the Wilderness - Ivan Kramskoy 1872