Brexit, Europe

The UK vote's still uppermost in my mind. I've been reading a book about the Thirty Years War (1618-1648) called The European Tragedy, a real doorstopper of a book that goes into the politicking on the continent leading up to (the part I've read so far) and during the War in tremendous detail. And it sounds familiar: the dynastic fights, and those over resources, religion (Catholic, Lutheran, Calvinist). Of course, it's mainly a story of leadership and personal ambition, and you imagine, beneath that, ordinary people trying to get on with their lives, buffeted this way and that by infighting higher up the socio-economic scale. A thousand years of war in Europe, at least. The building of a supranational entity, the European Union, seems so hopeful, even when it is floundering--at least in part following a financial crisis that started in the US.

Does this sound like an argument for a retreat into Little England, Little France? I don't mean it to. I like to think about young people all over Europe being able to call the whole continent their country.

Saturday I harvested lavender again at the Farm, then, since it was hot, took cover and tied it all (lots, but only 10 or 12 plants, with six of us working) in sheafs in the shade of a building. My fellow harvesters were a couple from Iran and two young women from Berkeley. They are involved with the UC Berkeley urban farm and wanted to see how the Stanford farm works. The Iranian couple brought pickled garlic for us to taste--because the garlic is also being harvested at the moment, though not by us.