S1:E10 - The commodification and gentrification of traditional ways.

Today's ramble is about the gentrification and commodification of #traditional ways.

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Mom's Strange Magic is for the people who've been told they're too much, too weird, or too sensitive. The ones who know things they can't explain. The ones the system walked past.

momstrangemagic.com

#podcast #history #culture #wellness #storytime

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Hello and welcome to Pollen Season. I'm Kim, the voice and face behind Mom Strange Magic, and I am here to talk about a lot of things today, but I'm gonna try to do it in a nice form and without taking too many tangents. Let's see how I do. But you know, I'm gonna ramble. As I come back, you know, I feel like I say that it's like that one time at Bandcamp, as I'm walking the path back to my work, I have been seeing things that were not so prominent when I first started back in '94. And yes, back in '94. So like 32 years ago when I was like um uh a younger weird lady down the street. I mean, literally, uh right down the street from the college that I attended, next to, you know, whatever. Anyway. Um, and sort of like 94, and this is when I was like going to the, you know, like I was like, um, excuse me. Um, I was full of myself. Uh, you know, I mean, that's that's it happens sometimes when you're the 20s are the time for you to just really kind of make that prefrontal cortex go the extra limit. So uh, you know, I'm in my early, you know, in my early 20s, and I'm you know learning yoga and just whatever crystals, herbs, tarot, the whole nine yards, you name it. And um, and I was the weird lady down the street. And in fact, on uh a sign that I put on the door of my apartment um at one point said, Welcome to Kim's halfway house. If you're not all the way here, you're halfway there. Um and so yeah, and I learned from people who could just walk me back their life and their connections and things, and so it just it felt really grounded, and I felt very okay with learning these things from representatives of those lifestyles, modalities, whatever. And as someone that grew up in the country, and um, you know, some of the kids that I went to school with were also from rural poor areas and in Kentucky, and so we could identify with each other. We were like, hey, do you remember eating sticks of butter as a kid? And they were like, Yeah. And uh we did. We did eat sticks of butter. We also ate crackers and milk, or if it was um if it was a good week, you ate cornbreaded milk, and just I don't know, just to to have that and to talk about things that our our peers and our classes and just that we would meet thought were just out, you know, like you you didn't wash your clothes every day, like heck no, we didn't. Um, you didn't have a dryer, no, you didn't have this, no, like it was not you know, and I can remember moving from the farmhouse to this big bigger house that had like air conditioning, you know, it's like felt like we'd just moved on up, but I was still in the country and like whatever anyway. Um, and as I began my journey to where I am now and all the ups and downs and whatever, I wanted to make sure that I was engaging in appreciation and not appropriation. So if I wanted to, if I'd had a dream, for example, about um indigenous Americans uh or indigenous North Americans or those indigenous to the United States, this land that that I'm in, I would seek someone that was, excuse me, allergies, they're bothering me. Anyway, um to ask them and to say things like, hey, I'm not trying to be part of your tribe or part of your belief, but I've had this dream and I need help interpreting your understanding it, my language skills today are are interesting. Um and then they would give me some answers, right? So I would get these clear answers, and it would be helpful to me on my path, and and it was usually met with, hey, thanks for being respectful of my culture and my faith system. Same with when I was dreaming about Hanuman a few years ago, a few years ago, more like whatever. But anyway, um, everything's just a few years ago when you get to be my age. And uh I sought out people that followed the Hindu faith system to ask them about what these dreams might mean. And I have always tried to get to the source of things. So when I started looking into my family history 10 or so years ago, more in a more complex way, other than you know, learning that my birth certificate dad was not my real dad, and things like that, I was trying to really get some good data that would be helpful for the health issues that some of my kids were facing and the health issues that I was facing, and trying to give that mostly verifiable information to geneticists so we could find the correct type of tests or diagnostics that were needed to give some answers. And as I start started going back and started learning and and also at the same time taking classes and everything. Anyway, um, because I wanted to learn and understand, and I I started to see this very interesting pattern, and that pattern was let's take something that minorities have done, particularly minorities that are that lived in poverty, and let's let's make a dime off of it. Let's take the cultural appropriation to the next limit and sort of slap on this wishy-washy of the gods call who they call. Well, that's okay, cool. Um or you know, it I the examples here are myriad. They're myriad examples, and I really started to have some really deep feelings about this. I did not want to claim my ancestry, right? I could I'm I'm Scandinavian, uh, you know, like I'm my father's side is they can't get any more Scandinavian than they are, unless they were just to go back to, you know, Sweden and Denmark. Um and so I can say I'm 50% Scandinavian, Dutch, uh, or not Dutch, Danish, Swedish Scandinavian. Um, and if you know anything about you know the the little the little bickers between Denmark and Sweden, it's kind of funny that within me there is a genetic um rivalry. But anyway, and then to you know uh on the other parts there is a lot of broadly, well, not broadly, it's north European sort of resting in um kind of that North European uh Scotch-Irish English with uh these kind of rogue dips into Germany and Iberia and Spain and France, and then it dips over into the Middle East, which is kind of interesting. But that's that's old data, and we don't need to go there. So pretty much I am in conclusion, that makes me kind of broadly North European, which includes the Scotch, the Irish, the English, and the Scandinavian, you know, down the down there in that North, North Sea kind of area. But anyway, and while I do have percentages of other things, um I am pretty much uh a Caucasian European, right? And to to work within that construct, I would have to really have access to the the old ways or the old teachings or whatever, and that's that's not what I have. I was raised Catholic in the United States in the poor area of Indiana, and so that's kind of from where I came. So my background is this sort of mystical and magical country life with the overlay of the mystical and magical aspects of the Catholic Church at that time in the 70s. Um, so you know, I I kind of my mentors would have been things like Hildegard of Bingen or Joan of Arc, you know, like I would have had these saints that did incredible things and that had these abilities, and that crossed over into kind of the traditions and healing paths of some of the folks that I remember as a child that would do that had saints too. They would pray to the saints, but they weren't Catholic, or they would but um it would just be or to they'd pray to the angels, right? That's a that was a huge thing, very, very big. Angels is very big, it still is, but anyway. And so they would combine this kind of folk Christianity into who they were, and that's from that's where I come from. That's those are my people. Um and I can extend that into my maternal side, those were my people too, uh northeastern Kentucky, uh pedigree collapse, and the 17, you know, just these people were agrarian, they would have had, you know, they would have been, they would have had Jesus in a root and gone from there. They would have not been called witches, things of that nature. All stuff I have talked about before. Um but so now I see a lot of commercialization of culture. And I mean, I I understand that all of us are trying to make some money, I really do. But what really gets to me is when that commercialization also sort of panders to the stereotypes. So, for example, um, you know, if I were gonna go out and start whatever doing what, you know, I don't know. It's a tough thing. It's a tough thing to talk about as someone who does work that is smack dab in the middle between what can be seen as conventional um care and what can be seen as maybe not so conventional care, and knowing that there are so many people that aren't able to have the things that they need, but I also have to feed my family and pay my bills, and that in this world that we have set up, trying to be an authentic person doing something to get paid for it, which in some way would have happened. Please stop with the whole like healers didn't do anything for money. They they they did. Do you you actually would anyway? I'm not gonna get into that. Um, let's just say that this fantasy of not paying people that do the kind of work that I do is just whatever, you know. You don't have to pay me in cash, bring me, you know, do I need to stock my larder with with things, you know, like you don't anyway. Um it's about reciprocal exchange. So but when I see, and and this gets me in, you know, the the deeper I get into my family history, I can definitely say we were Appalachian adjacent, right? So my people were right at the place where the mountain meets the valley. So they were not necessarily in the mountains, but they were not out of the mountains. And I'm not gonna go around saying I'm Appalachian when basically my family just skirted the those boundaries. Um it they were, you know, they were they were walking in the middle way. No, I know where I get it. So they weren't either like the valley people and they weren't the mountain people, they were the in-between people. And they would have been influenced by the people in the Appalachians, and they would have been influenced by the people that lived in the valleys, all the way coming down from you know, New Jersey into Pennsylvania, or from Pennsylvania and New Jersey down through um that area into Virginia over into Kentucky, they would have definitely followed the the least chaotic line from where they were down alongside the mountain into Kentucky. So I'm comfortable saying that my ancestors were Appalachian adjacent or Appalachia adjacent or whatever. And um, so I really follow that a lot. I follow this a lot, and I I see a lot of stereotypes making videos, and and I I know we gotta laugh at ourselves. I mean, I live in an area that is the butt of um every local joke, especially if you lived in if you live in counties that surround the county where I live. And so I've literally I've heard it all. I've heard it all. And I understand, you know, we can poke fun at ourselves and things like that, but this is I'm not out here trying to make bank on that. And I understand that that's that's this is my thing. Not everybody feels like this, and it it does I don't know, it's it's hard to deal with because I see I get on social media, right, or even just on TV. I mean it's always been like that, the Beverly Hillbillies and things like that. But but I I see things that I grew up with as a child turned into million-dollar escapades with none of that going back to, you know, it's like ancient tricks of the ancestors and things. And it's like, but it the things that you're doing, the poor people in the regions that you are pantomiming are still doing that, and now they can't get the things that they need because you know, this whole traditional lifestyle or whatever, like and so the you know, here's the here's the cold hard facts. That was the traditional lifestyle because there was no other way to live. You had to live that way. There we didn't have Walmarts and Costco's back then. Um we had the land, we had the weather, and we had the best that we could get. And so and and we we enslaved people. So, and I mean I'm not laughing at the enslaved people. What I'm saying is is that this getting the traditional lifestyle, whatever, dude, whatever. Um, there was no choice in the late 1600s, there was no choice in the 1700s, there was no choice in the 1800s going up into the 1900s for many people. All right, even if you lived in the big city, you had to rely on somebody, you had to, oh my gosh. So the the traditional way being a trad person means just getting by. It means surviving on whatever you can find. So if we want to be get super traditional, let's act like first humans that um had to figure out what to eat so they didn't die. And if they did eat something that went bad, how to have no one else eat it and die off. So, like, let's let's really just sit with that for a minute and and ponder that. So now um, if I were gonna follow suit with what I've seen, I would now make a$5,000 an hour consulting to get you to be most traditionally like first humans, and we could crawl around on our hands and knees in a yard that just got sprayed with chemicals to find the plants that wouldn't make us shit or pants. Just saying that's real tradition right there. Um, and you know, on the back of that, and it and this is why I'm very careful when someone's like, Oh, you're an herbalist, what herb should I take for my sciatica? I will never answer that question um without an intake. I will never answer that question until I know what your history's been like. I'm not gonna answer that question just generically like that, because I can't, I can't the the what might be helpful for your sciatica might not be good for your liver. I don't know what's going on. And so I see people that are like, go eat the mushrooms in your yard, go forage from the the land, go do this. And they're showing people uh in a way that is not hands-on and with no liability, right? No liability. They uh if you if you decide to go eat weeds in your yard, oh, here's a cat, it's Tootsie. Um, if you decide to go eat weeds in your yard, that's on you. Just because I said that you can make your own witch hazel from this kind of tree to put on your face doesn't mean that I'm there forcing you to put that on your face. So when you make this whatever you think is witch hazel and it peels your skin off, it gives you caustic burns, um, they're not responsible. And then, you know, then they will go on and talk about the people that do the kind of work that I do and the manner that I do it. Hold on. Tootsie. She being cute. She's sitting on my desk. Um, we are made out to be hucksters and shysters and just out for money, and literally, I'm, you know, and that's not a critique on these people, and I'm not ranting about them. It might sound like I am, but I'm truly not, because again, it's not my karma, it's not my life. I it's I'm not being judgy. I'm I honestly I think I'm just trying to understand, and I'm trying to understand this in the context of what I do, right? Um, I want to be the best that I can provide to people, and I don't want to send them off with something that is not gonna work for them. And if I'm gonna, when I learn, you know, what their background is, how they were raised, I'm gonna work to find what that culture they grew up in, what works for them. And so I don't know. Maybe I'm just an old person shaking my hands at the clouds and being like, you kids get off my internet or something. But I'm really in this weird space of trying to understand how to provide what I do in a culture that puts me down in favor of influencers and with toxic personalities and really bad information. And I don't know if I'm ever gonna find that answer. I don't know if I'm gonna be able to have peace about it. I don't know. Um, I do get a lot less fired up now though when I see, you know, someone like drink hydrogen peroxide to get rid of parasites. You know, that's my favorite example. Um, or you know, just and and I and and and then like on the opposite side of this are like the other influencers that that shame other influences, like it's like, what is going on here? I don't understand the the tier system. Um and all of them are they use their very elite cre you know, like, well, I have a degree in nutrition, so therefore I can tell you not to whatever, or I'm uh got 92 PhDs in biblical whatever, or I'm uh this and and uh and you know, or I I mean I I've been there. I used to be like, here's my 92, you know, here's all my credentials and my years of experience. And now I'm like, I just do things. I do things. If you like these things, then we can work together. If these are not the things for you, let's try to find somebody that can do do those things for you. Um but you know, it's it's like there are literally people that are starving, people are dying, people can't get health care, people are alone, and the internet and social media, Tootsie. She she's like, okay, don't get on your soapbox. I'm like, I'm trying. Um, I mean, 2026 has uh many people feeling like they're running in place in a dumpster that's on fire. And they they want to try to find food to eat, they want to have a place to live, they want to be able to survive without health care. They you know they there are things that they want and need, and maybe I'm I maybe I'm getting to my point here. Um but they they tootsie calming me down. She's like, Mima, settle down. And I think what really gets me here is what I have seen in my life as a young child growing up country AF, is that if we put down the people that we don't like, and if we do things in in that manner, then somehow we get to keep the power. And you know, if we make those people sound uneducated or wrong based on our own myopic views, then we get to assert the dominance, we get to be the dominant paradigm, and so you know, the other parts of this that make me just you know, is is I don't want to be a part of that. I I don't want to be a part of that, and I think that's the gist of this week's podcast is you know, how does one stay true to oneself while trying to support their family and not caving into the siren song of selling yourself out to the dollar, you know? So that's it. And Tootsie needs something. Um, and I've got a busy day ahead of me, so I'm going to end this podcast now. Just out of the blue, like we're done. Um, a few announcements. So I have moved my website off of Patreon. I listened to what y'all were saying, sending my way. The it just really felt like a money grab sending you to Patreon, and I get it. I I do. I was I'm doing my best. So I'm kicking it old school uh with blogger. You can still go to ouch cat. Uh you can go to ouch cat. No, go to mom's strange magicallrun together.com, and that will drop you off at blogger. And I know it's the Google, but that was my OG place, man. That was the place where all of this kind of began. That and WordPress and Live Journal, but WordPress has gotten to the point where I don't, I really don't want to get another uh certification. And while I am happy to pay a web designer, um, I need to be able to use it, and it's just not functional for me and what I need. So what's great about this is that I can put everything that I ever wanted to put on to this little blogger, and it should work well. So again, it's momstrangemagic.com, and thanks to those of you that said, Hey, could you take this off of Patreon? Um, fantastic. I really I do appreciate help like that. And uh yeah, so that's all I got for today. Thanks for joining me. I will see you next week.