In light of the increased pressure from the new breed and other zombies out in the county and my desire to create something of value for current generations as well as those who come after, I've expanded my efforts. I was going to just write this blog and collate the data I've collected over the last few years, but now I'm working on something else. I'm collecting all the written reports I can get my hands on, everything passed between the people who make New Haven run no matter how high or low on the totem pole.
I know, it sounds wonky and strange, but for posterity I think it's important. I've asked for a permanent relocation of one of my old solar cells, which Jess and I had given up to the clinic. With all the new ones coming from North Jackson, simple and inefficient as they might be, there isn't a lack for power in critical areas. One of my little cells will be more than enough to run my laptop and printer for this project.
And it's a big project. Hundreds of pages of written material have been delivered so far. Right now I'm incapable of doing much with them, not until I can get more battery storage than my dinky little portable solar charger can handle. When and if I can start charging up the chain of batteries in my house again, I'll begin the process of photocopying those documents and keeping a running set of volumes detailing the way we choose to live.
I talked yesterday about doing something important, finding something that fit me perfectly, and this is it. The blog matters because it's informal and an easy way to digest a lot of information into an easy to understand format and spread it to those of you lucky enough to have a cell signal. Collecting reports and messages, putting them all together and distilling that information down into meaningful data is the other half.
You can tell a lot about a person and a people by how they communicate. I don't think we as a community are on the wrong track necessarily, but course correction is vital. I've said it enough times that it's almost a joke, but we cannot make it long term unless we evolve with our circumstances. You can see the truth of that hard fact of nature in the undead that assault our defenses; we kill a lot of them at one time, and they retreat from the dying ground long enough to adapt. Then they hit us again.
By reading and absorbing all that information from the movers and shakers in New Haven, I have a chance to see patterns in how people think and react. Hopefully I'll be able to call out and correct people who are leaning heavily toward bad ideas or solutions without considering other options. We learned that lesson with the Louisville crew, and thankfully we didn't repeat it with the Exiles.
I'm not at all saying I'm going to be some morality police or the ultimate arbiter of what is right or wrong. I don't know that my moral compass isn't skewed in one direction any more than the next person's. The entire impetus behind this project comes from reading over my own words for the last year or so. Looking back at my posts, I can begin to see how I distanced myself from people, how the cracks started forming inside me. I don't see New Haven having that problem on the whole, I just want to put everything I possibly can out there in the open.
Yes, these volumes will be available for the citizens here to read. One thing that I have in abundance is paper and toner for my printer, two items which (unsurprisingly) were not on anyone's list of things they just had to have when The Fall came. By disseminating the information I gather, we'll be crowdsourcing how we react to events. My hope is two-pronged: on the one hand I'd like to make sure that we've got checks and balances so people can call out the leadership if they think we're about to make a mistake. On the other, I'd like to think that by doing this we're writing a sort of bible for those future generations. Not on how to act, but on how best to determine how to act and react.
I don't know that it will work. I know it isn't going to do a damn bit of good if I'm the only one behind it. I can shout my opinions from the rooftops and it won't change a thing at this point. So far we've done a good job as a community in making our voices heard, participating in votes, and managing course correction. I'm not doing this to address some glaring flaw in how we live and function. I'm doing it to make the process of course correction easier and faster.
Pat, Will, Becky, Jess, and all the others have been very supportive of this idea, which I've been jabbering about since yesterday. None of them have smacked me in the mouth to shut me up about it, not even when I walked into Courtney and Steve's house last night without knocking and interrupted them having sex.
So, I guess it isn't a terrible idea. People seem to like it. Makes it easier for folks to get the facts, meaning we won't have to call huge (and increasingly huger) town meetings to talk to everyone at once. I absolutely promise you this is the one and only time I'm going to write about that side of my job in any detail. It's going to be boring and time-consuming, but I am excited about it and had to share. I will of course share any relevant findings from my record-keeping, but I won't bore you with the details.
Except for today. You're just gonna have to deal with that.
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