The small and local must survive somehow

That title is another line from America's great troubadour/poet Greg Brown, from the song Your Town Now, album Over and Under. It's  bland out of context, so here are some selected verses to give it that (very slightly edited for this a-cappella, written format): 

I used to go out quite a lot,
chase the chase and shot the shot
I'm all done with that somehow
and it's your town now
it's your town now

These days the mighty eagle sings, 
of money and material things, 
and the almighty Dow, 
and it's your town now, your town now.

Where are the young bands gonna play?
Where're the old beatniks gonna stay,
and not before some corporation bow?
and it's your town now.

You young ones it's up to you
to fight the fight and I hope you do,
Oh I see in your eyes that you know how
and it's your town now.

Don't let 'em take the whole damn deal,
Don't give up on what you really feel
Ah, the small and local must survive somehow,
if it's gonna be your town now,
Is it gonna be your town now?
Is it gonna be your town now?
Is it gonna be? 

I chose the  title to accompany this pic:

This cool yin-yang sofa-thingy is a new piece of furniture my friends and hosts, Pat & Scott, purchased for their Oceanside home; I helped settle it into it's new home. (And yes, that's Hunter S. perched center stage.  Being alone for a week gave him a case of the attention deficits, so he inserted himself into every shot for awhile.  He's mellowed out some since then.)  I post this picture here partly because I just think this is a very nice a piece of furniture that deserves to be displayed, and partly to reveal a bit more of my Shangri-La "cabin" in the sky.  Every morning I struggle to fully comprehend that I'm actually awake, that this is real, and not some beautiful dream. But the main reason for posting this is more conceptual, the idea behind it being the central point.  And while the implications of it's yin-yang shape are myriad, that's not our topic today.  No, the idea I'm referring to has everything to do with the title of this entry; the survival of the small and local. 

Pat & Scott had been thinking about replacing their old sofa, a bit worse for wear, for some time. What spurred them on to finally follow through was a phone call from a neighbor, alerting them to the plight of a neighborhood furniture store.  Hit hard by the incredibly incompetent Bush era ("The Dark Decade") economic non-policies, this local merchant is on the ropes, and the community was activating to show their support, by going in and buying stuff.  Any little bit would help, if even only emotionally. Thinking only of maybe a cutting board or some such, Pat & Scott found themselves captivated by this piece, and made the (sort of) impulse decision to buy it to replace their old couch. 

The point here isn't my friends taste or impulse control.  The point is how their community was paying attention to what was going on right down the street;  small, local merchants are simply outgunned in any pricing competition with the big box corporate retail machine, and need the support of their communities if they are to survive.  The bottom line for all of us is that if we want to do more than bemoan the disintegration of local economies, we must be willing to sacrifice on cost, look instead to quality, and consider the systemic effects of our economic decisions.  So you can't afford a new couch?  Fine; just don't turn around and snap one up on sale at The Wallmart next week just because "it's an incredible deal!"  Wait, save, and pay a bit more at your neighborhood furniture store for a piece who's value goes beyond low sticker price for mediocre-to-shoddy quality. Shopping only for "bargains", while satisfying to our innate sense of mercantile competitiveness and short term bottom line, is in the end no bargain at all if it leads to the demise of cherished local cultures and economies.  "Value" is not simply a matter of cost.