Pauline von HellermannAug 18, 2023
#ClimateDiary at my mother-in-laws making tea just now and really like her Tea Rations tea caddy and all the instructions on it. Fully struck again that maybe this is what we need, a full mode-switch to war like emergency - this kind of messaging from government, what we also had for #Covid. libertarians won’t like it but it’s not that hard and 70% of us do go along with what we are told
#ClimateEmergency
Show threadFelicity ShouldersAug 18, 2023
@pvonhellermannn This reminds me of what I was taught by my grandmother (who also taught me a shortening-only pie crust recipe from during the US’s WW2 rationing!), from growing up during the Great Depression:
“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without.” Tea leaves into compost, coffee grounds to repel slugs, egg shells to nourish plants…I’m not perfect at all this, but I think of her when I do it. And when I repair clothes :)
Show threadPauline von Hellermann
@faerye this reminds me in turn of what @alx recently wrote here, that grandmothers are undervalued yet so important and wonderful!
Aug 19, 2023 at 2:08pmWeb
Show threadAlx 🐈Aug 19, 2023

@faerye yep, here the post @pvonhellermannn

https://mastodon.design/@alx/110860158995837611

I owe my grandparents a lot too: in terms of repairing and making in general, my (maybe too romanticised) memories of them are actually informing my dissertation, as I wrote in my recently published chapter:
"Making for them was a way to reaffirm their identity; make sense of the urban environment that was so different from their rural origins; a vision of a different life; a way to connect with their granddaughter."

Alx 🐈 (@[email protected])

I have a softspot for grandmas. Here an interesting episode on how the role of grandmas and elder people in communities is often underestimated and antagonised, which often results in conflicts and undermines the work for embracing or giving up knowledge and practices in medicine and healthcare, using an 'innovation through tradition approach' https://onehealthtrust.org/news-media/podcasts/grandmas-and-global-health-the-role-of-culture-in-health-promotion/ #OneHealth #Tradition #Medicine #Culture

mastodon.design
Show threadAlx 🐈Aug 19, 2023
@faerye @pvonhellermannn but to get to your initial thought, I don't think the self-sufficiency style of my grandparents was necessarily informed by the war propaganda (despite they both lived through the war). They grew up in (very) rural Sicily, and self-sufficiency was more a matter of survival that evolved in identities, rituals, and ultimate cultures. Being self-sufficient for them was an accomplishment, not (only) a constraint. At least, I think it's a much nicer story to embrace.
Show threadFelicity ShouldersAug 19, 2023
@alx @pvonhellermannn Your quote reminds me of my other grandma (and grandpa), who were both amazingly ingenious and knowledgeable at making things. I still have furniture she made or we made together, and odd zones of very specific competence she taught me. She was enigmatic in some ways and hard to deeply know, but I have these very practical artifacts of her love and care. ❤️