Sometimes it is good to take a step back, and to look at things from a distance. Like traditions. Like pumpkin carving.
Now pumpkin carving is kind of a minor tradition, and one mostly for the young folks.
Today our journey started with a field trip to the local pumpkin patch, run by one of my very favorite local agriculture preservation activists. He and his wife are salt of the earth, I kid you not. True blue. And they welcome school buses of kids every fall to help show them where food comes from. (Not the store.)
Not only do they grow amazing mind-blowing sweet corn and other goodies that I and other locals look forward to all year and then silently cry when we taste their sweet, sweet perfection again. Corn will never look the same, not unless they raised it or you raised it yourself.
Anyway, I digress.
These things kind of make no sense (carving gourds into scary faces to scare away evil spirits on All Hallows Eve????) and yet it is part of the shared collective, some weird bonding glue of mutual understanding. Traditions can both make no sense, and yet oddly make everything tie together.
And my kids loved it. The gooey pumpkin seeds and guts. Drawing the design. Mom, doing her best not to cut herself or anyone else in the process of carving. The pretty good if I do say so myself result.
It was an opportunity to remind my kids that this time of year signifies harvest, and plenty, and the lack to come, and how being prepared pays off.
And a chance to talk about a farmer, and how I admire him and his family, and tradition, and the rest, as we carve that silly pumpkin, gooey guts and seeds and all.
Anyway, time to light the masterpiece.
Memories made. Traditions passed. Future memories to come made.
Roast the pumpkin seeds you did?
My understanding is that these carved pumpkin faces and such were a way for ancient people to feel some control over random disease, tragedy, and peril. The plagues of Europe were not good. Former tragedies before that either. Interesting stuff to read up on, and to be glad you missed!
Roast them with sea salt we will. Another tradition.
My pumpkin kindof looks like an Angry Bird. Oooops! Not very scary. I tried. 🙂
Pumpkin seeds:
http://www.food.com/recipe/roasted-pumpkin-seeds-13549
I have no artists in me and next to know fine motor skills left
Thank God for those carving kits because the 1st one I did looked like a special ed kid’s handy work
There is a new post at Spawny’s
https://spawnyspace.wordpress.com/2016/10/26/the-missing-men/
Traditions 🙂
We wanted our kids to look back saying “we used to always…” so our entire family life hangs together by traditions. Game nights and movie mornings and disco nights (just that everyone picks a song and we dance in the living room), sit down dinners and bedtime reading and seasonal celebrations (leaf catching every fall! And a puddle jumping walk). If you’re not intentional about those things, it’s so easy to let everything slide and do the minimum to survive. And then you don’t have a family or a home, just people in a house.
And of course date nights (neither my husband nor I enjoys going out at all, but it’s always a nice occasion for lingerie). Helps in getting through the crazy phases without going nuts.
Sometimes we don’t feel like it, and it’s a hassle and we’re tired, but doing it anyway is investing in memories. We never regret any of our traditions.
Apropriate video, fun for kids too.
Our kids enjoy carving pumpkins and eating pumpkin seeds. Since getting a home with a yard we even grow our own pumpkins. This year each kid laid claim to a pumpkin back in July. I guess dad gets the one that is still on the vine. 🙂
My wife watches a kid for a single mom while she is at work. This week, my kids gave him his own pumpkin. You should of seen how proud he was to show his mom that he has his own pumpkin to carve.
Good traditions are important for families.
That’s so sweet, GoFigure! Thanks for sharing that heartwarmer!
Bloom need your help.
Go over to Judgybitch and read the last few entriez especially the last blog post.
Janet is heavily into her Kav Maga training and her trainer. All the signs are there of falling for her trainer. Endorhines from combat together, 25 hours a week with him, seeing her husband as a good man but not being a man.
Pay attention to her use of word choices and language. The subtleties. Many are warning her but she doesnt see it. Her husband is a er doctor so obviously not a beta, used to making decisions but even he cant compete with a combat instructor.
If Judgybitch, one of the outspoken advocates for men and one of the most red pill aware women on the planet can fall for AF hypergamy then we are all doomed.
You are respected in the sphere and as a woman you may be able to help.
Go and comment. please.
Horseman, I don’t really know her or follow her blog but I will look. It’s probably good she’s putting this out there and getting some feedback vs. keeping it all in her head. The hamster is strong, and has a way of talking a women into doing something she knows she shouldn’t if she’s not careful! I hope she will stay true to her marriage, and cut off contact w the other guy if tempted. Women tend to emotionally bond to someone then get physical, vs. guys doing physical but not emotional. Dangerous territory… For sure (not saying she is or isn’t, just how it can happen, to anyone!)
Carving a Jack O Lantern was one of the few happy memories of my childhood. And yes, oven baked pumpkin seeds are a fucking awesome snack. Good post, RPG.
This is my humble opinion on the matter concerning JB, so to everyone here who knows I’m quite vulgar in the way I speak to please take what I say with a grain of salt as I know you all do. So, without further ado, mgtowhoresman, seriously dude, stop being such a goddamn white knight for JB, let it go. RPG, you were very gullible to fall into this nonsense. It’s none of your business if JB decides to ruin her relationship with her husband. It would be one thing if JB were your next door neighbor or one of your neighborhood friends, but you don’t even fucking know this person. You admit yourself you don’t even follow her fucking blog. Fucking hell woman, let it go. Cue Frozen theme song.
You are right George Liqour American, it’s not my place.
Perhaps to say this a different way, none should be surprised that AWALT potentially. As soon as one thinks, “except her” they are kidding themselves. And I say that because I am a woman, I know the weird thoughts I have. One doesn’t have to act on them, but hypergamy is REAL. No doubt in my mind.
I’m surprised at your level of introspection, RPG. Most women from my own experience aren’t capable of that… especially in terms of accepting All Women Are Like That. Curse free post? There’s a first for everything.
I’ll take that as a compliment, GAL. 🙂 Thank you.
Lol didn’t you use to rail at awalt?
It’s true, TON. GLA, these guys helped me see the light. And I also am a big believer in knowing one’s limits and weaknesses.
I think going from doctor husband who gave you 3 children and sticks with you even when you’re being publicly uppity, to dude who dominates you physically for a fee is hypogamy, not hypergamy.
(Anonymous gossip yay)
HHW sums it up well she does
I will say this about JB, I am willing to give her the benefit of the doubt because if one gives a casual glance at her most popular headlines on her post archive and between her blog and social media presence, she says inflammatory things towards feminism and feminists regularly. She gets death threats from tireless SJW’s 24/7. So she is clearly set on edge with her obsession with self defense and Krav Maga being her only outlet for that level of stress. Were I in her shoes, I would be set on edge too. Her husband and family are indifferent towards her or appear that way because she does a really good job shielding them from it (online death threats). My two cents.
I don’t know JB and just read her stuff for the first time, but I will say she does not know what it means to be a man. Therefor, she should not judge weather her husband it good at it or not until she actually learns what ‘good at being a man’ means.
I’ll give you an example; being a man does not mean I can beat the living crap out of my wife and enforce my will. Being a man means I have never raised my hand to her in the 16 yrs we have been together and I will not for the next 16 yrs either, yet I still lead the her. This takes much more self-control then beating her to a pulp would.
There are other good examples shared on her blog. RPG, maybe we should have a post on what it means to “be a good man” or “good at being a man” as JB put it. Maybe some woman might learn how to recognize one.
One more post Idea from JB site. You could wright about what it means to be sexy. JB seems to think sexy is a competition, but it really is more of a attitude/mind set.
I would prefer not to see JB dump her hubby and blow up her family. If she does, I don’t think I wil be reading her anymore. A lot of her credibility stems from the fact that she has a healthy working marriage. However, all I could would be to leave comments and that ishn’t very effective.
She can be screamingly funny when she sets her mind to it. I haven’t seen too much of that lately.
Gofigure,
I don’t think it would help much if women know the difference between good and bad on a conscious level. In these matters, it seems ths hindbrain has the first and last word.
Fuzzie,
You are probably right, but I believe in treating women like humans and humans have the capacity to reason. If some.most people choice to not use reason or to ignore reason; so be it.
What gofigure said!
In our family we observed that my brothers at first glance had no idea which girls were genuinely nice and which were nasty. And my sister and I never could immediately seperate charming jerk from actual good man. That took a long, long time of getting to know them, before we figured out what our opposite sex siblings could sense within seconds. No accident that my husband was a friend of a brother.
And definitely agree that as a woman, you don’t get to say what makes someone good at being a man.
Let the men in comments describe what makes a man good at being a man. I’ll ask my husband.
Gofigu7re,
I really wish that it were different.
No go figure you are confusing being good at being a man and being a good man
The ability to commit violence is a man’s 1st duty. Proficiency with violence keeps a man’s shit from getting stolen, his wife from getting raped, his older childern from being sold as slaves and his infants from having their fragile skulls smashed against a tree.
Without that skill set he is at the mercy of the world around them. Which historically is brutal. Women tingle at alphas because it speaks surrival and security to her lizard brain ie vagina
Being a good man and being good at a man are not one and the same, you can be both but they are different skill sets, attitudes, actions etc.
Women, and clearly large number of men, cannot understand what it is like to be a man. Nor can a man with working man parts understand what it’s like to be a woman.
Women are not qualified in any fashion to discuss any topic regarding masculinity. The notion that they are is a sign of a subjugated male.
The notion you are a good man because you’ve never raised a hand toward your wife means your notion of being a good man is driven by the feminine imperative.
Sex is a competition. As a man you win the girl. She wants you because you are better then the other men she can pull.
Right now it appears JB’s simp…. I mean husband is loosing the battle for its wife’s affection to a better man. Better ad in better at being a man.
You can hold on to all the blue pill feel good nonsense you want, but your wanting something to be so doesn’t make reality
Ton,
Sorry but you are wrong. My notion of being a good man is not driving by the ‘feminine imperative’. It is driven by my faith in god. It has absolutely nothing to do with ‘feel good nonsense’. Doing what is right is very often difficult and does not ‘feel good’ at all.
As I have pointed out to you before; you are the one who is mistakenly following a female imperative as evidenced by this statement: “Women tingle at alphas because it speaks survival and security to her lizard brain ie vagina” and this one “Sex is a competition. As a man you win the girl. She wants you because you are better then the other men she can pull.” You think that you need to follow the females ‘lizard brain’ and it controls you so completely, that it baffles me how you do not see this. On the other hand, I do not care what works for women, I expect women to become more….. shall we say better women.
While I am completely aware of the relationship between men and violence, voilence itself has little to do with ‘being a good man’ or being ‘good at being a man’. Though, you can definitely argue it has a closer connection to the later.
Ton,
You can dispense with the references to me being blue pill.
but your wanting something to be so doesn’t make reality
I agree with this completely but would add; just because something might be reality does not make it true.
GAL
Agreed. JB proves beyond a doubt AWALT. Even those who proclaim red pill.
MGTOW in general, self sufficient minimalism and the occassional pump and dump for fun are the logical response to the world at large.
Thank god I can retreat to the farm and spend my days fishing and riding and chasing deer in the woods. Let the world of Killery and Mercle and the rest eat itself.
Show me where the Almighty says though shall not physical correct your wife
Show me where the Almighty says though shall not physically correct your wife. Or though shall not “commit domestic abuse”
You forget I am very familiar with the Bible
All of civilization is based on being better at war then the people who want your shit. Want ever you think you have in this life because you refrained from violence is “yours” because other men are willing to be violent in someone else’s behalf
Ton,
Hahahaha,
Show me where the Almighty says though shall not physical correct your wife.
When did I say this?
Show me where the Almighty says though shall not physically correct your wife. Or though shall not “commit domestic abuse”
Where does it say to do this?
You forget I am very familiar with the Bible
I didn’t say anything about your familiarity with the bible.
All of civilization is based on being better at war then the people who want your shit. Want ever you think you have in this life because you refrained from violence is “yours” because other men are willing to be violent in someone else’s behalf
As I already said I am familiar with men and violence and war and the sacrifices people have made to get civilization were it is.
I love how you try to put words in my mouth. How about you deal with the truth.
I also noticed that you still can not accept that fact the most basic animalistic female behavior is what dominates and controls your life. You will try and rationalize anything just as long as you do not have to face the fact that you are controlled by the desire for females.
Hahahahaha. Keep on keeping on!
Power can be expressed by other means than violence…
(Hoping to fan the flames of this discussion)
HHW,
Power can be expressed by other means than violence…
Men of Power start wars.
Men of Power do not fight in wars.
Men of Power send violent men to fight and kill other violent men.
Men of Power use lies/deceit to convince men they are doing the right thing.
Men of Power gain more power by using violent men for their own purposes.
Men of Power sit in their palaces/banks/ivory tower while other men die.
Men of Power do not care about the lives of other men.
In short: Men of Power use others as pawns.
Gofigure, what about power on a smaller scale? Like within a family or community? The power to inspire people, the power to make people listen, want to listen.
I’d even say women have power men usually lack – a soft touch that can soothe, a warmth that can make a kid feel amazing (I once read it described somewhere as: a woman who can make a child happy when he didn’t get anything for Christmas – now that’s being good at being a woman!). To put people at ease, to soften that violent man, healing heartaches. Where a man can take control without even raising his voice, a woman can do other things. A man can be gentle enough that a child falls asleep in his arms, but the woman is still softer and more comfortable, her lullabies more tender.
Different situations call for different influences, different ‘power’.
I have a woman in my life who can make me laugh at things I cry about. Now that’s a superpower (you’d agree if you’d ever seen me cry). My husband can calm me, and distract me, make me feel safe. But that relative works a special kind of magic that a man could not. Even if he said the same words, the man would still be more intimidating, could not set thay particular kind of mood.
…is what I meant with power.
Oops, now I’ve changed the topic, rather than egg you guys on.
Bloom – i thought i had commented, but my wp gets messed up sometimes. anyway … what sweet memories your girls will cherish for forever! you’re a great mom!