| Compared with the way things used to be,
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| | fragile or non-existent immune system of
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| we have it so very soft today. It's easy
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| | the starving and poisoned host.) The
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| to take our modern conveniences for
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| | church would help allay the pain by
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| granted. We can fill our days with
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| | harnessing hunger to spiritual purposes.
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| leisure, bustle around in comfy autos,
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| | Lent made virtue of necessity, coming as
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| work only 40 of the 168 hours in a week,
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| | it did in the final months of winter when
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| chat with therapists, read philosophy,
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| | barns and larders were growing empty.
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| shop for unnecessary stuff to clog our
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| | Feast and famine were linked to spiritual
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| closets and garages, climate control our
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| | purification and gave meaning to hardship
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| dwellings and complain about the softness
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| | as well as hope for better times. July
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| of our mattresses. In the year 1000, even
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| | was particularly tough since the spring
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| when agriculture had been around for some
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| | crops had not matured and the barns were
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| 10,000 years, life was entirely
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| | empty from the previous year's harvest.
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| different. In Anglo-Saxon society, a
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| | Starving was common in the balmiest month
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| precursor to the modern West, the
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| | of the year when so much toil in the
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| possibility of famine was ever-present
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| | fields was necessary. Every single hour
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| and memories of the last one made dread
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| | of the August harvest month was filled
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| and fear a part of everyday life. Looming
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| | with urgency, since everyone knew from
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| natural disasters were constant specters.
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| | the pains of July what was in store for
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| Domiciles were not the neat and clean
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| | them next year if they did not fill their
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| hygienic environs we experience today.
| |
| | larders now. Work was not a right, a
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| They did not smell of disinfectant or
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| | place to lobby for benefits and ease. It
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| exhaust from engines wafting in the
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| | was a life and death struggle. The
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| windows, but the exhaust from every
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| | contrast between then and now is
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| manner of farm creature and humans always
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| | astonishing. They were on the verge of
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| hung in the air. Manure was everywhere
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| | starvation; we are fighting an epidemic
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| with each one having its characteristic
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| | of obesity. They might have to subsist
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| bouquet of fragrance. The human nose in
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| | for months on potatoes or stale bread; we
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| the year 1000 could certainly not be so
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| | have a glut of food options at our
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| prissy as ours today. Latrines were
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| | instant disposal. They had shortened life
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| located at or near the back door and moss
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| | spans and were highly vulnerable to
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| was toilet paper. Flies filled the dank
| |
| | injury and disease. We live longer but
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| and earthen floor homes where there were
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| | suffer cruel lingering degenerative
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| few if any hard surfaced utensils and
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| | conditions. It is clear from a realistic
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| there was no understanding of disease
| |
| | view of times gone by that it was not the
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| vectors or antiseptic. If you dropped
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| | advent of modern medicine that brought
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| food on the filthy floor, you picked it
| |
| | relief, it was, as I mentioned in a
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| up and ate it with relish. Five baths a
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| | previous article on SARS it was the
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| year for monks was thought to be
| |
| | plumber bringing public utilities and
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| fanaticism by Saxon standards of personal
| |
| | with that the possibility of hygiene and
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| hygiene. In time of famine, their law
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| | the trucker distributing food supplies
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| code permitted fathers to sell their sons
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| | that brought us our present long lives.
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| aged seven or above into slavery.
| |
| | For them it was a daily struggle for
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| Infanticide was not a crime. Communities
| |
| | survival. Necessity and muscle ruled the
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| of 40 or 50 starving emaciated people
| |
| | day. It was the physical stress of
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| would join hands at the edge of a cliff
| |
| | enduring cold, harnessing 8 oxen to a
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| and jump. Some chronicles report that
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| | plow to break new soil, hand harvesting
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| "men ate each other." They would comb the
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| | and making their own way every moment of
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| forests for beechnuts overlooked by the
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| | the day. It was the true helplessness and
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| wild pigs and would grind acorns, beans,
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| | victimization (unlike modern day
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| peas and tree bark into a flour to bake
| |
| | contrived social "victims" clamoring for
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| as bread. Hedgerows were scoured for
| |
| | rights and handouts) from floods,
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| paltry herbs, roots, nettles and grasses.
| |
| | droughts, winds and rain that could wipe
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| "What makes bitter things sweet?" asked a
| |
| | out their only hope to avoid starvation
|
| Yorkshire schoolmaster. "Hunger." A
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| | in the coming year. For us it is a
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| "crazy bread" of ground poppies, hemp and
| |
| | surfeit of choices requiring intellectual
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| darnel gave our poor starving ancestors
| |
| | decisions - decisions that make the
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| some relief with visions of paradise.
| |
| | difference between whether we experience
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| Molds that laced the rye that was aging
| |
| | full health or its slow insidious
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| contained a variety of mycotoxins (and
| |
| | ruination by mindlessly partaking of
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| lysergic acid [LSD], the psychedelic drug
| |
| | every offering that promises yet more
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| of the "60s) that could not only make
| |
| | ease and flavor just because it is there.
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| people appear mad but would severely
| |
| | For further reading, or for more
|
| weaken the immune system, permitting
| |
| | information about, Dr Wysong and the
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| disease to run rampant. (Note that the
| |
| | Wysong Corporation please visit or write
|
| cause of the great plagues and epidemics
| |
| | to .
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| was not the disease agent, but the
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| |
|
