Imagine...

Most of us imagine a world in which we have everything we ever dreamed of.  We imagine being wealthy when we are far from it.  We imagine being a model when we are asymmetrical and thick, we imagine being loved by all when we are prickly pear difficult.  We imagine what we don't actually have.
But what if we imagined something else.
What if we imagined ourselves a hundred years ago---and not in some fairytale castle or living a romance novel life with servants and mansions---ourselves in our great-grandparents lives.

Imagine a world in which those terracotta flower pots that are currently considered plain and cheap and easily disposable were the tool that allowed your family to start a vegetable garden inside so that you produced more produce than all the other farms.

Imagine a world where blackberry brambles on the fence are a treat not an unsightly eyesore that is difficult to remove--no one wants to cut and carry that thorny stuff.

Imagine a world where instead of mowing the grass, the goats, sheep, chickens and milk cow enjoyed all that yard immensely.

Imagine a world where a trash truck never ran and nothing came in a paper wrapper or thick plastic container.  Where all your trash fit in a tiny heap in the backyard and was biodegradable.  Where, if you lived in town, rag pickers showed up after your worn out linens and clothes.  Where people used their linens and clothes so long that they DID wear out.

Imagine a world where a pair of shoes was nice and two pairs was just luxury--never mind that they were both over 3 years old.

Imagine a world where blankets were made of scraps of material and stuffed with whatever to bulk them up, then used---actually used for warmth in the winter and not just folded on the end of the guest room bed or hung on a wall.

Imagine making sauerkraut, making soap, making clothes, drying meat, drying fruit, canning vegetables, not to be crafty but to have cabbage and meat and fruit and veggies in the winter and to have soap and clothes--at all.

Imagine having a garden and a milk goat and chickens, not to be rural, but to eat and to sell to those near you that wove material and tanned leather and hunted but didn't have a garden or milk or eggs.

Imagine hand-pumping water out of your well and bringing it to the stove that you have stoked up with pieces of wood that were gathered and split and seasoned and heating it in a big metal bucket or soup pan and filling the galvanized tub that is less than 3 foot across and maybe 20 inches high so you can scrub the dirt off your body--and don't be shocked, but more than a few families with limited water would limit that to 1 tub a week for the family.

So, can you imagine?

Can you imagine those ancestors of ours imagining a world where water came hot from a pipe into a tub bigger than their body and where they could soak daily if they wanted?

Did they imagine going places at 60 miles an hour?
Did they imagine buying shoes enough to fill a shoe rack--their shoe rack, not everyone in the family.
Did they imagine soap that was never so harsh it made your skin burn?
Did they imagine getting new clothes when they had 2 outfits and neither was worn out?
Did they imagine anyone ever needing a walk-in closet?
Did they imagine not needing to know how to hunt or cook or sew or milk or preserve food?

Or did they also, just imagine being wealthy, where wealthy meant having servants to do all that cooking and preserving and gardening and repairing and water-hauling and soap making.

Maybe we all just need better imaginations.
Maybe we always have.