outside

Outside the 2%

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I live and work in an urbanized area. For most of week, I get on a bus or walk from place to place, go to work, go to the library, and otherwise interact with others in an urbanized fashion. People from Albany are pretty urban, by no means is Albany a farm town — although there are certainly many rural areas around Albany.


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Yet, despite all the time I spend in Albany, the city really is just a little dot on the map compared to vast lands around it. Drive less then 20 miles in any direction, and chances are you’ll be in a mountain town, a farm town, or some kind of national or state forest.

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Albany is a large enough of a metro-area to have a very urban feel to it. It’s cities have all of the regular urban problems, from drugs to gang violence. But your never very far from the rural hinderlands, and truly rural areas that are largely independent from the city’s regular activities.

Sun is Setting

With the cold weather of the past two months, I’ve spent much too much time in city. But getting back up to Vermont I’ve come to realize all I’ve missed, outside the 2%.

A Cold Winter’s Day Five Rivers

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On a very cold Saturday afternoon, I decided to drive out to Five Rivers and take some pictures. I wanted to get pictures of the setting sun, but it did not happen due to the snow squal that came blowing in. Here’s what I got.

CCC Sheds

Pavilion Along the Pond

After Dark

Helderberg Mountains

Blowing Snow…

It certainly was cold enough there when I was walking. If it had been nicer, I probably would have headed out of town.

McMansion Hidden By the Snow

Snow Drifts Across the Field

Blowing Snow

Chopped

Deer Pics…

The deer really aren’t all afraid of humans at Five Rivers. You can almost walk up and touch them, as they know that hunting is prohibited in this area.

Why Are You Photographing Me?

White Tail Walking Away

Deer in Apple Orchard

CCC Sheds

Getting Outside Our Shells

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It seems too often as a society are in denial about how our world works. Our modern, technocratic society often denies us experience and knowledge about how things work. It often covers and hides the evil that lurks in our world.

It is amazing how much of society is devoted to hiding the truths that make up our society. We cover buildings with complicated siding and paint, to deny their function. We build great landfills, farms, and energy producers far away so we don’t have to see or think about them.

Plowing Day's Trash

I’m sure insiders would argue that technology or morals demand that how our world work be hidden. They will say that we outsiders don’t really understand how things work, and that our misunderstandings of the inside will lead to misguided policy.

We should always be asking how does something work. We should be looking behind the wallboard, and questioning and pushing the insiders to do better. We should try to step out of our comfortable world, and try to do better.