Hello all,
My name is Noah Clawson. I am the partner of Libby Parise (owner of Felixology) and author of Mandelbrot the Tree: A Fractal Story. I would like to thank everyone who has visited our store. Your patronage, support, and positive feedback has been instrumental in our success.
For many of us, these are times of strife, anxiety, and fracture. That is why we aspire to be a sanctuary for folks of all stripes and a purveyor of community. In this spirit of tolerance and collaboration, we plan on hosting group discussions. We hope by doing so we can heal fractures, ease anxiety, and diffuse strife.
I will start by floating some topics that interest me. These ideas are only intended as a starting place and not meant to be definitive or restrict other ideas. On the contrary, we heartily encourage everyone to comment and offer their own suggestions.
Okay… Here we go
Topic 1: Beans and Grains: How to Buy, Store, and Cook Them
My rationale for this topic is that I’m concerned that we might experience rapid inflation. I would like to work as a community to ensure that all of us have access to affordable, healthy food items that are easy to store in large quantities. As part of this discussion group, I’m hoping we could discuss how to create delicious recipes with beans and grains. MAYBE WE COULD CREATE A COMMUNITY COOKBOOK! Of course, we don’t need to be limited to grains and beans – whatever works. Any ideas comments or questions?
Topic 2: Recycling to Facilitate Alternative Energy and the Promoting of Peace
This is a bit complicated. Basically, we would focus on learning what elements/materials are indispensable for the devices of alternative energy. We would then focus on how we could facilitate the recycling of such materials and direct it towards diversifying our country’s energy portfolio. By doing this I hope to accomplish three objectives:
A) Move the production of Alternative energy devices into the hands of the middle class and away from the oligarchs.
B) diversify our energy portfolio so that fossil fuels are less a cynosure of corruption.
C) Avoid international conflict and war: At the time of this writing, Trump is advocating seizing control of Greenland. One of the reasons he cites is that Greenland has the rare Earth elements and minerals necessary for electric cars and tech devices. Alternative energy will do us little good if we had to engage in global wars to sustain our supplies of raw materials.
Topic 3: Create a “Masshole Hillbilly Alliance”
This is a bit of a pie-in-the-sky idea, but here goes: Forge an alliance with folks in West Virginia to create a folk music festival. The festival would emphasize Appalachian and New England folk music.
I have a few ideas here.
- I would like to forge a positive alliance between red states and blue states
- I would like to celebrate our culture in a way that both blue states and red states can feel proud – seems like folk music would be a good way
- I would like to help improve the economic situation in areas of the country that are downtrodden, such as West Virginia.
I know this idea would take a lot of networking. Hopefully, there are people in the area who know folks from West Virginia who would like to participate in this idea. I think we could conduct groups on Zoom that connect people from different parts of the country. I do know that there are a lot of people in this area who are passionate about folk music, so I think this idea is viable.
I would like to emphasize again that the ideas I have proposed are just seed ideas. They are only meant to get us going and start discussion. I encourage everyone to comment below on the above ideas and offer your own ideas. Disagreement, if respectfully done, is welcome. We want to listen and start conversations.
Thanks again for your support and patronage,
Noah