Did you know that one-tenth ($12 billion worth) of all the goods imported to the US from China last year were imported by Wal-Mart alone? I did not know that. (until I read this NYTimes article on Wal-Mart's imminent super-store entry into California, and the relation to our current supermarket strikes.)

There's buying things on the basis of what's the cheapest. And there's buying things while taking into consideration all of the factors behind that cheapness, and where we are taking our own society with that pursuit.

Not that I have any good ideas for practical large-scale alternatives. But it just makes me uneasy.

I also have a sneaking suspicion that even wanting to live small-scale, on a little farm somewhere, growing my own food, while at the same time having all the modern conveniences (high-speed internet, etc), is not practical either.

If I were growing my own food, then I'd really have to be a vegetarian, because despite the tales of my great-grandmother chopping the heads off chickens without a moment's thought, I would prefer not to do any such thing my own self, not to mention anything to do with hurting cute fuzzy sheep or large-eyed cows or remarkably intelligent pigs. Ah, my Tennessee ancestors are rolling their eyes at me right now; citified fancy girl, 's what I am.

Although, I am told that the farmers in those hills of Tennessee would get so attached to their own pigs that they would have to swap off when the time came for killing them, because no farmer could stand to kill his own. So maybe they're more forgiving of my sensitivity.

This ramble along the brink of my stream of consciousness brought to you by the Monday of the last week of daylight savings time.

contents of the purple tricycle are copyright 2003 carrie lynn king unless otherwise noted.