The Star Ledger reported yesterday's Wall Street debacle with the expected calamitous tone:

The Dow Jones industrial average was on its way to plunging 504 points, erasing about $700 billion of wealth in a matter of hours.

Star Ledger, September 16, 2008

Wealth is one of those words we think we know, wrap our lives around the concept, but forget to connect to biology.

Ultimately everything of value is connected to the ground, the sun, the air, the water.

I just picked enough basil to make a nice batch of pesto to share with my love when she comes home tonight. The basil looked just as green today as it did yesterday.

Two packs of basil seeds (~140 of them) from Pintetree Garden Seeds will run you $2.20. Throw them in the ground, get them some sunlight, and they will grow. And grow. Then grow some more.

(Some folks believe cussing at them will make them tastier, but I cuss so much it's tough to run a controlled experiment to test the hypothesis.)

I peeled some cloves of garlic, just as pungent as yesterday. Cost me about 2 bits, would be less if I wasn't too lazy to throw a few cloves in the ground in April.

A handful of pignolis, pine nuts, cost under a dollar.

A splash of olive oil on top of it all, maybe a buck or two more.

Not one of the ingredients lost a molecule's worth of value in yesterday's run on the market.

No wheat berries dissolved. No yeast expired that weren't going to expire anyway. The monarchs are still headed to Mexico. The sanderlings are still noshing on coquinas in Cape May.

Ultimately everything of value is connected to the ground, the sun, the air, the water.

Not saying the Wall Street debacles's not going to put a dent on the redistribution of wealth to those who already have it.

Donna Puzella, who owns a chocolate shop with her sister, said she might not see her business affected until the holidays....

"I have no idea what's going to happen with them. I'm very worried," Puzella said. Are there even going to be corporate gifts?"

Star Ledger, September 16, 2008

I live in north Jersey. I realize a lot of people are going to be hurt.

Still, trusting several zeroes after an integer trumped up by speculation, greed, ignorance and a faith that it represents true wealth is the kind of hubris that can kill a civilization.

Today's learning objective?

Ultimately everything of value is connected to the ground, the sun, the air, the water.

Some call it Creation, some call it nature, some call it God, some call it Gaia. There are a lot of words used by a lot of cultures that recognize the mystery.

What you won't hear it called is money.

No new ideas here--Wendell Berry pervades my thoughts, as do Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin. If children truly learned what's worth anything, I fear expect our economy would collapse.





Photos from the National Archive.