Our Environmental Language (12/3/2019)

I was reading an article by Dipesh Chakrabarty about earth ethics and spirituality in relation to the thinking about our world and the environmental crisis. Mr. Chakrabarty discusses among others the philosopher Martin Heidegger. In the essay he describes how Heidegger, as I understand it, differentiates between the words planet and earth. I am probably getting it completely wrong, but to me it seems like Chakrabarty and Heidegger see word planet or global more as hands off while the word earth is anthropomorphizing this world we are living on; making it more our own. Whether true or not, I like this notion and it got me thinking. 

Maybe we need to step away from the terms global warming and climate change since they do not seem to impact us directly. There are still too many people who do not seem to give a crap about the environmental collapse that is predicted in our future; the sixth extinction. Maybe our approach has been the incorrect approach all along calling it global or world or even climate. Are they to esoteric; maybe we need to incorporate the word earth in the term and weather or extremes? 

While difficult to digest at times, Mr. Chakrabarty’s essay had another (to me) noteworthy passage in it where he discussed Ludwig Wittgenstein. It seems that Wittgenstein mentioned in his book “On Certainty” that we question about buildings how old they are, but we never ask that about the mountains behind those buildings on the earth they have been constructed on. In other words, here again we have lost that relationship with (or focus on) the earth. But in essence, what is more valuable, the buildings themselves or the mountains or the earth those buildings are constructed on? It reminds me of the Buddhist statues in Bamiyan Afghanistan that were destroyed by the Taliban. While they were old and valuable, many of the Buddhist scholars reacted to destruction with “nothing is permanent.” At least nothing man-made. Boy, you should have seen that lady’s reaction when her son hit our mailbox a few months ago and destroyed it completely and instead of getting mad, I burst out laughing. When she wondered why I wasn’t mad I told her just that: “well, nothing is permanent” and this is a good teaching moment to her son and actually her whole family. 

Nothing is permanent.  A few months ago, our maibox was taken out by a boy driving his truck.  He was supposedly adjusting his seat and lost control.  He swore to his mother he was not texting.  I died laughing when I saw this and his mother and he could not understand why I was not pissed (actually neither could I).  However, it defused the situation and it all came out fine!

What I am writing here is in no way original thinking; however, Mr. Chakrabarty’s essay was published in the Divinity magazine published by Harvard University. He did not really go into this idea of relabeling what we call global warming or climate change; however, he wants to approach it from a spiritual angle. That is fine with me as well. However, having lived through a political climate where politicians are masters of relabeling their opponent or calling them names, I feel this may be our only choice in saving our earth. 

I am not yet sure what I am proposing. All I know is that what we construct, build, or make is not permanent. Even the pyramids in Egypt are slowly deteriorating. However, the earth will keep rotating around the sun, just like our neighbors Mars and Venus with or without us. Wouldn’t it be nice if it did it with our children or our children’s children actually living on it?  Unlike that Mars and Venus which still appear lifeless, although scientists still think they may have harbored life in the past?

By the way, talking with my brother-in-law, who actually is a Heidegger expert (he wrote a couple of books about Heidegger) over our Thanksgiving meal.  It seems that Heidegger predicted some form of environmental catastrophe or collapse. Regretfully, my brother-in-law did not go into any detail, except to say that Heidegger did not envisage a rosy outcome. Finally, Heidegger wrote a book on language; well, maybe it is time to look at our use of language as I mention in this post and re-brand our environmental language!

Climate change alarm bells are going off (11/27/2019)

It was again in the newspaper today, we are experiencing a climate change crises, or better a global warming crises.  The United Nations issued their report on Tuesday November 26, it seems, which tells us that during the past decade the global average temperature has already risen 1 degree Celsius or for us non metric stone-age folks 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit.  Moreover in the age of Trump the CO2 emissions in the USA last year have increased 2.7%.  This seems to be a reversal from what we were trying to do under the Obama administration of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.  This alone should be reason for impeachment, if not by us, at least by our children or by the unborn children he is trying to protect to gain brownie points with the religious crowd.  But is seems, they be damned once they are born.

My wife and I were discussing whether it would behoove us to eat more vegetarian.  But then I was thinking, living here in Virginia would it be better for the environment to eat tofu produced in California or chicken and pork slaughtered here in Virginia?  Yes, those animals eat plant based food and produce a lot of waste.  However, the transportation cost from farm to my dinner plate surely must be less and thus the energy to transport them.  This is an interesting debate to have with yourself and to question with everything you do.  I really think we have to live more purposefully; make decisions in our every day life, with the environmental end in mind; and be concerned about leaving a livable planet for future generations.

A colleague of mine bought a large property with a home on it that might not be the mansion that many of us would want to live in.  It is a simple home; however, like her handle on Instagram which includes the word "homesteader", she and her husband decided to make is a homestead and try to become independent to some extent.  The first year they were there, they raised chickens for the slaughter, planted a garden, which did not do very well (the soil was to heavy), planted an orchard, all the fish in their pond died, but they had fun trying to find solutions and at least make a start.  I really think this may be a way of fighting the global climate change crisis, grow things locally and if you grow enough, maybe you can sell some of it at a farmer's market or barter.  She chronicled it all on Instagram.  Granted she is not there yet.  A lady down the street seems to want to do the same on her half acre lot.

I myself, what am I doing?  Our yard is wooded, and our vegetable garden is somewhat of a failure since it is mostly in the shade and we are still working stiffs.  I promised myself that I would revive it when I retire.  We try to heat with wood whenever we can, don't use fertilizer or pesticides.  For the rest we do eat vegetarian one or two days a week (no tofu form California though).  I bake my own honest bread.  Can we do better in battling global warming?  I am sure we can.  I would love to put solar cells on our roof; however that would mean cutting trees, which would raise the internal temperature in the house in summer (more air conditioning?).  On top of that, mature trees take out more CO2 out of the air than lawns or smaller trees or young trees.  It is all a question of alternatives.

I just love the profile of this tree on Yorktown Beach.  Again, trees are very productive in removing CO2 and other pollutants from the air. 

But again folks, we need to be aware of what is going on.  We are so close to that point of no return.  The UN says global emissions need to fall by 7.6% starting in 2020 to meet the Paris climate accord.  And then to see we increased it by more than 2.5% last year.  Let's resolve to live purposefully and as I mentioned in one of my posts, "Plant a tree" and consider climate change in our every day decisions, from eating to sleeping.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Those stupid trees (11/21/2019)

It has been blowing like crazy this past weekend. There is a coastal storm offshore, and it is whipping up the wind to occasional speeds of 50 miles per hour or for you metric folks close to 80 km per hour. We could hear it howl around the house. Since it is mid-November there are a lot of fall leaves on the ground and they are blowing all over the place. It is interesting to see how we had a ridge of leaves at the leeward side of my car. When we left to go to a social at church in the morning it was there, when we came back it was gone, blown away. However, three hours later in the afternoon the ridge had returned.

Since it is mid-November, you think it would be an opportune time for all the deciduous trees to release their leaves with such a strong wind like this and set them free. But no, or better hell no. It is like they did not realize that in two weeks from now they will be doing this anyway, so why not now? Usually, at least all the past 19 years that I lived here; the trees have lost all their leaves by the end of November, if not the first week of December. We already had a good (early) frost, which also seems to be a signal to many of these trees that it is time. But hell no! They are not letting go. If they would drop the leaves, at least then all those leaves would fly to my neighbor and I would not have to deal with them. My neighbor on the side where the wind comes from does not have any trees, so I would be safe from that side. But now it means that I will have to deal with them after Thanksgiving. 

We have a lot of trees in our neighborhood. In the past I have written and complained how the folks in my subdivision build whole fortifications of leaves along the road <here>. They bag their leaves and then stack them three bags high along the road, somewhat in a display of “I can stack them higher than you” or “I can hide my house better than you.” These folks are mining nutrients out of their soil and sending to the landfill. Instead, they should be composting the leaves or at least grinding them up with a mulching mower. Moreover, I have also mentioned in my blog that last year in December we were out in our back yard at night with our headlights admiring all the small moving lights in the fallen leaves. It appeared these lights were reflections of our headlights in the eyes of minute spiders, it was absolutely magical. There seems to be so much life in those dead fallen leaves and that explains why all those birds in my back-yard hunt through them. Then to think that my neighbors haul them off to the dump. On the other hand, one of the advantages of all the piling along the road is that my male dog has something new to mark when we go for our daily walks. 

So, what is the possible reason for the trees to hold on to the leaves through this storm? One reason I think is our dry September and October; we did not have any rain for six weeks. Based on the ephemeral ponds behind our home, the groundwater levels are still very low; I would say at least 6 feet or more deep, while sometimes by now, it should be just a foot or two below the ground surface. Would it be that the drought we experienced caused this unusually late season? Is it caused by global warning? I don’t know, but all I know or remember from what I learned is that in some species the change in colors and leaf drop is caused by the change in day length or better night length. Here I am thinking about maples which usually start changing color by the end of September when the day and night length are equal. One thing we have noticed is that one of the maples in our yard that we have a love hate relationship with is finally coloring. This is almost a month later than normal. Our love of the tree is its bright yellow color in fall. Our hate for the tree is the sheer size, the fact that is seems to push out other plants and that it appears to lean in a direction that concerns us somewhat. In other words, we are watching it like a hawk. This tree is supposed to be empty by now, but no it is not. So, what the heck? 

Our maple is finally yellow.  As I mention it is approximately one month later than normal and I can only speculate that climate change and the drought this fall has something to do with it.

All that I can think is that nature this fall is all screwed up, and if you ask me this may be a sign of things to come. In this post, I will not explain how nature is supposed to act. However, nature does seem to be somewhat out of whack. I really wonder where things are going to end up, but I expect it is not going to be pretty. One thing I know, those darn trees are telling us something: climate change is accelerating, and I am not sure if we can turn it back.

Roots 3 (11/1/2019)

As most of you know, I make a feeble attempt to grow bonsai. I have been trying to do this (or faking to do this) for the past 30 years or so, and I feel I have not much to show for. A few of my trees may be getting there, but I still feel lost at times. One way to get learn more about it in the past was magazines and books. Nowadays, it is YouTube to the rescue.

As I mentioned before, one of my favorite YouTube channels is the “Bonsai Zone”, which is put on by the Canadian Nigel Saunders. Nigel has come a long way over the long years; however, I have one complaint. His videos are very long and tedious at times. Nigel literally tries to show you every step in the development of a specific tree that he is working on that specific day and the videos may run longer than an hour or more, which he thankfully cuts up in parts. I understand from a podcast that I follow, that YouTube encourages long videos on their most watched channels, and yes, I will keep watching Nigel. He is absolutely great. Currently I would not be able to do any better, although me wife keeps suggesting that we start a channel as well (The Naturalist Zone?). She proposes that she would handle the camera. My wife is a fanatic knitter (sometimes to my benefit) and she watches YouTube knitting channels. One of these channels (Fruity Knitting) even captured my attention because of the way they produce their program. They knit on their project, but they intersperse it with interviews of other knitters, go to shows, visit farms or regions, you know it.  It is full of documentaries and interviews while they also knit and give trick and how-to advise.

However, I really like the Bonsai Zone by Nigel. One thing Nigel emphasizes in his shows is the development of a good spreading root system before you concentrate on anything else. Nigel will actually take his viewers on walks to the park and the neighborhood to look at the roots and spread of or real trees. This has made me really conscious of the roots of my bonsais and of the trees I see growing around me during my walks.

I mentioned in my previous post that recently we spent a weekend in Westmoreland State Park. In addition to hiking in that park, we went for a walk in Caledon State Park, which is down the street. During these walks, I could not resist taking pictures of roots while thinking of Nigel’s message. What amazed me was that the American beech had what looked like the best or maybe the most obvious root development. 

I saw this beech in Caledon State Park and was duly impressed by its beautifully spreading root system.  These roots will feed a healthy tree and keep it thriving for a long time.

The roots of this beech growing in Westmoreland State Park are somewhat one sided; However, this tree was on a deep slope and the other side was less visible.

Another healthy root system on this beech.  This one is growing in Westmoreland State Park.

I actually found an oak with a beautiful root system at Caledon State Park.  Not that oaks don't have them, but this one was obvious and it was nicely above ground.

Now, this red maple had the strangest root.  It looked like a bulbous root where the small trunk came off.  I wonder if it was grazed or cut before.  Just very strange. 

I have written a number of posts on roots, ranging from our personal roots <here> to the roots of plants <here>. There are three more posts on roots and my bonsais, just look at the label section on the right and click on roots.

I also teach (preach) about the importance of roots in my workshops. In my soil workshop, I mention how the bulk density of soil will affect root growth. Bulk density is an indication of how tightly the soil particles are packed together and the tighter they are, the more difficult it is for the roots to push through the soil. A lot of traffic over the soil (like construction traffic, vehicles or simply foot traffic) will increase the bulk density and will make it difficult for plants to grow. In my soil amendment workshop, I tell folks how plant roots actually take up nutrients; while in my plant workshop, I speak about the symbiotic relationship between plant (roots) and mycorrhizae. 

You get the idea, roots are very important.  Furthermore, I tell my students that for the vegetation it is also “You are what you eat”; that the vegetation you see growing is a reflection of the soil, and that it all starts with a healthy root system. This is important in nature as well as in my bonsais.

Westmoreland State Park (10/28/2019)

This weekend I spent some time in a cabin in the woods at Westmoreland State Park in the Northern Neck of Virginia. It is one of the state parks we visit fairly frequently for a weekend in the off season, to get away from it all and relax. As we sometimes do, this year we were sharing our accommodations with Betsy, a high school friend of my wife, someone we have been friends with for more than 40 years.

It is just nice to be away from home and be out in the woods, sitting on the porch of this small cabin in the woods that supposedly was constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps sometime between 1933 and 1942. There are newer cabins in this row, but it is nice to be in an historic one like this. It surely is cramped and somewhat primitive (or read not well stocked), but so be it. I live in motel rooms for luxury.

This morning we had a big storm roll through and right now it is sunny and somewhat windy. The temperatures are unseasonably warm for this time of year, but so be it. We are living in the years of global warming, and we will just need to learn to live with it.

Why am I not out there, strolling through the woods? We brought Jake, our old dog with us, and probably because of all the driving and excitement his tummy is somewhat upset. Since the girls are such old friends (50 years and counting), I have no problem “dog sitting” while they have fun and are out visiting a winery or two. I have been reading my Kindle and just breathing in the nice mild air sitting on a rocking chair here on the front porch. I may go for a brief walk while Jake is sleeping. 

A great walk after the rains were done.  It was unseasonably warm of the 27th of October.  I was in shorts and t-shirt.

Westmoreland State Park is on the Potomac River. It is sandwiched between the birthplaces of George Washington and Stratford Hall, the birthplace of General Robert E. Lee. We have visited Stratford Hall; it is surprisingly non-confederate and they do not push the civil war there at all. It is really worth a visit. The park itself has some great trails and the bluffs are full of fossil shark teeth that are there for the picking. 

Fossil Beach at Westmoreland State Park.  This is a very picturesque area with a large wetland to the right.

What was the Civilian Conservation Corp that built the cabin that we stayed in this time? During the depression, President Roosevelt established the Corps to get the unemployed off the street and back to work. These young men were put to work for the good of humanity or the country by doing public works projects mostly to protect and develop natural resources including the development of state parks, building reservoirs and other public projects. Westmoreland State Park was established during that period and I am not sure if these were worker’s cabins or meant to be used for recreation. However, now they are.

As some of you know or could conclude from a recent post, I am currently reading some of Wendell Berry’s work. His latest work was a little rough, and I will get back to it, but I am reading his collection of essays “What are People for?” I hit an interesting quote that he has of Wallace Stenger, a writer, naturalist and birder who I had never hear off. Mr. Stenger was a professor at Stanford University, and wrote that thought “thrives best in solitude, in quiet, and in the company of the past, the great community of recorded human experience.” This is the reason why I do not mind sitting on this rocking chair being left alone to think, read and to record my experience. Mr. Berry goes on and writes that the recorded experience does not need the Pantheon of Great Writers, but that it includes us all rather than the “Harvard Five-Foot Shelf.”

As I mentioned in my post entitled “Remember Nature” recording my opinions, feelings and experiences as described by Mr. Berry has been the intention of my blog posts all along. In my blogs I try to record what I see, write down my feelings and opinions, part with some of my education and experiences, show some of my photographs, and maybe even have some fun as well. My writings will never win awards or be included on that shelf, and that is okay; I just hope that some folks read it and are entertained and maybe learn something from my musings.  And so, I hope that you enjoyed this post.

Au Naturale (10/18/2019)

The nice thing about teleworking or telecommuting is that it allows me to go for long morning walks with my dog Jake (I wrote a long post about it here). As I mentioned in my previous posts, we have cold mornings again, which knocks down the chigger, tick and mosquito population, and I can go out back into the woods again. One of my walks is about a mile and a half (2.4 km) long. It brings me through our neighborhood and then into the National Park which runs in the City Park. The City Park or Newport News Park is the woods I write about in my blog all the time. 

The look back after just entering the National Park from our neighborhood.  Don't tell anyone, but here is when Jake is off the leash and allowed to go his own pace and forest bathe as well.  He is too old to get in trouble and just enjoys smelling and looking around as much as I do. 

I noticed today during my walk that the second that I stepped over the boundary between our neighborhood and the National Park that my gate slowed down, my shoulders relaxed and even my breathing calmed down. I felt that my jaw did not clench and the space between my eyebrows relaxed. It was actually amazing. I was suddenly going for a stroll. 

Now when we walk our dog(s) (our other dog died almost a year ago now) in our neighborhood, we go with a purpose: to walk the dog, and/or to get some exercise, get our steps, raise our heart rate. In the woods, I go forest bathing, experience nature, enjoy myself and let nature come over me. I realize, when I walk through our neighborhood things have gotten slower. Jake has gotten older, and my knee has not been very happy lately. 

But it is somewhat boring walking in our development, you have seen that front yard only so many times; you meet the same people (dog walkers). Only once in the nearly 20 years that I have lived here have I been met with excitement; well actually three times, counting the other two times that I was almost run off the road, once actually breaking my ankle. The really exciting time was when I saw a well-proportioned nude lady walking through her living room. This happened about 15 years ago, so who knows, since I have been living here 20 years, maybe within the next 10 years I will be confronted with such a delightful view again (no nude guys please). I wonder if this is why I am somewhat tight when walking through our neighborhood, full of anticipation?  I just hope my poor old heart can take it when I get my next view to a nude lady in a window and that this millisecond exposure is not the end of me. While this may be the ultimate existentialist experience as I describe in a previous post <here>, I don’t want to go into cardiac arrest for something minor as that. I want to go out in a big way. 

However, it is those strolls in the woods that keep me going. Every day, I am just amazed by how the sun comes through the trees. What leaves have fallen off the trees. Yesterday, I was greeted by the call of a hawk; actually, it was probably warning me to stay away, or warning others of my presence. Today, I heard the call of birds that mimic the call of the hawk: blue jays. There was a caterpillar hanging by a thread from a leaf of a wax myrtle. There is always something to see or to explore. 

One of my favorite (small) forest trees, the sassafras is shedding its leaves.  Stay tuned, I am planning to write a post about this species one of these days.

Sunrise in the woods, I love the way the sun comes through the canopy and plays with the fallen leaves on the forest floor.

Folks it is really true, nature is not scary; it actually is good for you to go out there. Nature is good for your health and a one-time exposure can last you a week to two weeks. Just be safe and when you are a newbie to nature, go with someone you who has experience and who you trust. Lastly, enjoy and stroll, don’t be in a hurry.

Remember nature? (10/8/2019)

The pre-Socratic Greek philosopher Heraclitus is believed to have said “It is not possible to step twice into the same river.” The reason being that even seconds later conditions in that river have changed. Different water molecules would be running by and touching your legs, aquatic organisms have moved and even particles of sand and sediment have been washed away, down stream. You yourself have aged and you are not the same as a split second ago. This may be scary when you think about it, but on the other hand it could also be comforting.

I was thinking about this when I finally dared to venture out into the woods behind our home again. The night-time temperatures finally dropped below 60° F (15.5° C), which means the chiggers go into hibernation and it gets less uncomfortable to venture into the woods. 

The woods have definitely changed over the past half year. For one when we last walked outback (as we call it) is was very wet and we had to dodge puddles. However, we have been in a drought, lately. I do not think it has rained for at least a month and instead of coloring, the leaves are shriveling. I am just hoping we don’t get a forest fire back there. While it would be good to have a good ground fire in the woods behind our home as I discuss in some of my posts, it is so dry that I fear for a crown fire and our homes.  It has really become a climate of extremes.

It has been so dry that the ponds have dried up, and even the puddles in the road which usually stay wet throughout the year are dried up. The largest pond behind our home has just a little pool left in the middle.  I am not sure if it has fish in it, but it usually has a healthy turtle population and I wonder how they are faring.  All ponds behind our home are ephemeral (with the possible exception of the large one) and they are fed or reflection of the groundwater levels.  This means that the levels usually fluctuate 5 to 6 feet every year; however, this year they seem to have dropped more than that.  Surprisingly, some of the grass along the trail was still green, while the grasses in the lawns in the yards of our subdivision are browning up. The entire south-eastern U.S. appears to be drought stricken this year, and the temperatures are way above average for the year. 

This is a picture that I took two weeks ago of the large pond and the water has dropped even more.

During our car ride back from our Century bike ride on the Eastern Shore of Maryland (which was fun, by the way), we were listening to NPR’s Weekend Morning Edition Sunday. They interviewed Larch Hanson, a seaweed harvester in Maine. Larch quoted Wendell Berry from one of his essays in “What are People for?” Berry wrote: “People are for preserving memory of place!” I guess that is what I have been doing with my blog posts over the years; trying to document the subtle changes in the woods behind my home. However, at times, while blogging, I can’t help myself and I also try to document the changes in my thinking and the society and of course in the politics around me.

A photo of my wife and I taken by fellow cyclists during the century ride this past weekend on the eastern shore of Maryland.  We had a lot of fun.  It was cold and very windy (first cold day, hence the packed in look).

Hanson said in his interview: “The water remembers us!” I would like to make an argument that nature remembers us, as well. Whatever we do to her will come back to haunt us, as we are currently experiencing with global warming. Yes, what we are seeing will likely accelerate, and Heraclitus’ philosophical outlook on life will become more and more apparent. Nature around us will start changing faster and faster and not for the better, and soon we can talk about the good old days. This is why, as Wendell Berry mentioned, we better preserve the memories of how nice it was back then (read now) by documenting it in our writing and photography while there is still time.  This is what I try to do in my writing and I hope you do that too in your form of communication with your friends and loved ones.

Six random thoughts (9/27/2019)

It has been an interesting few days here in Virginia, or here in the US. I will try to go through some of them point by point, more to chronicle what is going on and what is on my mind. Most of it should probably not be new to many of you, but so be it.

1. We are in a drought here in eastern Virginia and we have a heat wave. Temperatures are still around the high 80s (or above 30°C). Normal temperatures should be somewhere in the low 70s (20°C). Our trees are wilting, the leaves are shriveling up and I actually have to water with city water. It seems that the hot, dry weather is not going to break for another week or so.
2. On the other hand, we had 40" or 100 cm of rain in coastal Texas, again.
3. Guess this is all a sign of global warming, the dreaded climate change. We had a huge conference at the U.N., which culminated in a weird standoff between the current occupant of the Whitehouse and the young climate activist Greta Thunberg (watch her speech <here>).
4. The climate week ended with a worldwide strike and we participated! (See the photograph below). I found it very important to join the youth and our Unitarian church members in standing up for the future of the world. I wanted to show my solidarity. As I often write in my blog, I think climate change is the most important issue facing humanity.
5. We are intensively training for a 60 mile bike ride in two weeks. This has raised my metabolism so much that in the past month I lost 5 lbs and it seems I am always hungry. The issue now is going to be adjusting after the bike ride. I would love to keep losing, but winter is supposed to come and that seems to curtail my biking. Climate change seems to impact spring and autumn more than the extremes: summer and winter, or the extreme hot and cold spells.
6. Finally, I have been glued to the news about the news about the possible impeachment of the current occupant of the Whitehouse. It seems that he runs the place like a mafia boss but with less class. What a surprise. It seems to be far worse than what Nixon did.

I tend not to post pictures of my ugly face but here is one of me during the Climate Strike on September 20th, 2019.  It is kind of a shame that the news of the corrupt occupant of the Whitehouse overshadowed all this and the conference on climate change at the U.N.   

Some six random points that I want to make sure that are recorded in my blog and on the Internet for posterity. Not that I expect that the climate conference and the revelations in Washington are not going to be etched in the psyche of this nation, the internet, or even this world.  However, I want to make my small contribution to it, just like me previous post, where I revisited 9/11.

September 11, a quick look back (9/11/2019)

This will be a very quick post, but looking back at all my "million" posts over the past years, I never really wrote about that day in history (or what we call here: 9/11).

Famous picture Stolen from Wikipedia

9/11 was a day has changed this country, we will never be the same again. We came together as a people for a few days and then plunged ourselves into wars that we are still in.  Soldiers fighting in Afghanistan or still serving in Iraq might not have been born on 9/11/2001.  Since that time we created new enemies and we still have old ones.  We have leaders who don't understand it or don't give a crap about it all.  In addition now they want to nuke hurricanes or send them astray with a sharpie pen.

Most of us know where we were when the towers came down.  I was conducting a vegetation study at the Lakehurst Naval Station (in NJ) on 9/11, when the MP (Military Police) came to check with us and told us a plane had hit the first twin tower.  At that time nobody understood yet that is was a terrorist attack.  It could have been an accident.  

We continued with our work.  However, a half hour (or 45 minutes) or so later, they came back and we were told that the second tower was hit and we were escorted off the base. When we got back to our motel we were stunned watching the news for a while, after which we got in the truck and drove back to Newport News, figuring out that we were probably not going to be allowed back on base for a while.

It was a solemn/stunned six hour drive back, listening to the radio.

Today, I am remembering that day, but doing fine.

Fall is in the air (9/4/2019)

It is September.  Fall is definitively in the air.  A little early maybr, but our two chrysanthemums (or mums) that we have overwintered for years now, are about to bloom.  So are the goldenrod in our back yard.  I am sure that the bees are looking forward to it and to other fall flowers.  Our first major hurricane (Dorian) has devastated the Bahamas and is on its way up the eastern seaboard.  My wife and I are training intensively for another century (bicycle) ride.  We took a long bike ride last evening and it was wonderful to chase our own shadows down the road and to look over the fields in the national park behind our home while the sun was starting to set.  It was gorgeous.  Wow, the rites of fall (not of spring).

This picture was taken recently during one of our training rides.  This is in the Colonial National Park in York County.

At work it is time to plan for next year's workshops, while preparing one more full day class and working on at least two more webinars.  Crazy as it may sound, every time I step in front of a class I have to fend of questions like: "Hey Jan, when are you retiring?" or remarks like "Hope you are not retiring soon!"  Guess I am starting to look old and acting my age.

Honestly, I do have retirement on the brain.  It would be nice hang it up and relax, work on my trees, sail, travel, hike, and just hobby.  However, it would also involve admitting that I am getting old and that the decline is setting in.  I wrote about that in a somewhat rambling post <here>.   But I do enjoy teaching and working with these folks.  I am still hoping that my love and interest for the environment will rub off on some of them and that they will follow in my footsteps and help to protect the environment or at least understand the need and the urgency to do so. 

We ask the folks that attend the workshops to do a review of the class and these are just two of the latest reviews I got in August.  I took a photos because they made a comment specifically about my teaching.

Another point for not retiring is financial.  The stock market did not fair well in August and with the political uncertainty it is difficult to rely on the savings right now.  The stock market rises or declines one or two percent with every tweet or twist and turn by the current occupant of the White House.  It feels like he is just doing it for kicks; just because he can!  There is talk about a recession.  In other words, I am not sure if this is the right time to call it quits, or just to hold on until we finally get rid of him and things stabilize.  That is, if things will ever be the same, or stable, again.  Oh god, here we go again, into my favorite subject of late, politics.  Stop it!

I really like fall or autumn as some call it, except for the annoyances of the storms (which according to statistics are getting more severe thanks to global warming).  It is getting cooler, the air gets crisp, the leaves are coloring and the shadows are getting longer.  I have written about my love of autumn every year except last year (check the keyword or label: fall colors).  

Animals, plants and yes, we people are all preparing for the coming cold season.  The squirrel are digging in my bonsai pots and I think they are hiding oak acorns in them.  All the moss has been dug up and thrown out of the pots, and next spring it will be weeding time.  Of course, they are hiding acorns elsewhere in the yard, as well.  Plants are translocating nutrients to the roots and trunks in anticipation of the winter.  I teach my students that this is the time that weed control may work best.  Even we humans are preparing for winter.  Some of us fatten up in fall, for the cold winter.  We have stored our firewood and are ready to light the stove when it gets cold at night.  Bring it on!

Hippies unite (8/20/2019)

This past week it was the 50th anniversary of Woodstock. Sirius XM celebrated this with broadcasting the old restored archived recorded music from the concert. It seems that 99% of the music was recorded, and only part of it made it on the record or the movie. While I did not attend the concert, I was 16 and I had just recently move to the Netherlands from an island in the Caribbean, it was the music from my youth and fun to listen to all that familiar music.

It was good to reminisce about the time that music was evolving, flower power, peace, love and ideals. Yes, we protested against the war, Joan Baez’s husband was in jail at that time for draft dodging and Country Joe McDonald sang his “Fixing to Die Rag”: give me an F, give me a U, …. (you can fill in the rest). One of my favorite tunes from that era is “I’d Love to Change the World” by Ten Years After, although I do not think they played that at Woodstock. They did play one of the best rock and roll tunes that weekend (I’m Going Home).

I wonder what has happened to all this idealism of those days. It seemed to all have gone out of the window with the election of Ronald Regan. We probably should not blame Regan; however, the hippies, the idealist, flower people of those days; grew up, got married and started raising families. They became middle-class. I have a friend or two who never changed; more power to them! 

Thinking back on my last post, where I mentioned existentialism, another friend asked during that same meeting where we discussed the spider what existentialism really meant. One of my answer was that the hippies of those days, the flower children, were considered the ultimate existentialists. In essence, it seems that most religions and philosophies have this belief that human life as some higher or deeper meaning (heaven, hell and other things). Existentialists do not agree, they say that there is no meaning to human life, unless we give meaning to it ourselves. Jean Paul Sartre, one of the fathers of modern existentialism wrote: “We are condemned to be free.” That was what the folks at Woodstock did, they were free and decided to adopt peace, love and happiness. 

The classic existentialist dilemma!

It seems that the hippie culture was a reaction the consumerism of the 50s and 60s and the pursuit of the “American Dream.” But, people started rebelling against it and they echoed Jean-Paul Sartre who said “You might think that there’s some authority you could look to for answers, but all of the authorities you can think of are fake.”

Fifty years later here we are again; we are living in a country which is going to hell. This country has a fake president who was elected by a minority of the population, who mismanaged his own fortune and was bailed out by his daddy and now explodes this country’s deficit and his daddy cannot bail him out any longer. He is a president who cuddles up to dictators wanting to be one himself, definitely not someone to look to for answers; he lies when it suits him.  It seems that we really are condemned to be free and to repeat the same mistakes. When Sartre mentioned that, he meant that you could not complain about getting lung cancer when you smoke, since you it was you free decision, choice or will to do so. Little did he know at the time that the tobacco companies stacked the deck against the smokers, but so be it. However, what Sartre is saying that if we just sit on our hands and do not do anything about what is going on around us, that is our choice; we should not complain. 

The old hippies tried to do something about it and spread love, peace, and happiness; they fought against the war in Viet-Nam. I am not sure if it worked; however, we need to become existentialists again! We “new hippies” of today need to spread love, peace and happiness as well, but also spread tolerance of other cultures, other races, different sexual orientations, a woman's right to choose, fight against global warming, work for the environment and save this world for future generations.

I wrote part of this blog with the help of this web page: https://owlcation.com/humanities/Existentialism-Explained

Symbols, symbols everywhere (8/9/2019) (somewhat r-rated)

In the natural world there are only a few species that fight each other to death or what we could call intraspecific killing (that is the same species killing each other usually for food or territory).  Different species kill each other regularly for food or other reasons (that is called interspecific killing). However, within the same species we have crimes of passion as we see in spiders, where in some of the species the female will devour the male, but at least when that happens, the male has accomplished something: the male is either still actively breeding or he has just spread his DNA in the form of sperm and eventually offspring when he (the daddy) is being eaten by his wife. As a friend of mine called it, an existentialist's dream, going out in flames, sometimes mid-ejaculation. 

The Australian Red Back Spider, is known for eating it's mate.  The males have two copulating organs and once the second one is inserted into the female he is in a convenient position for the female to start chewing on him and devouring him while he is ejaculating.

This reminds me of the story another friend of mine told about the time he served in the coroner's office of a major city. A city council member had died of a heart attack while having sex with his mistress. What a way to go! His mistress was testifying in court and crying, telling the judge: "Here I thought he was coming … <sob> … but … <sob> … actually, your honor … <sob> … he was going … <sob>." The city council guy went out in flames! But, can you imagine being the dead man's wife in the front row of that courtroom?

Wow, the symbolism behind these stories! It was probably not the existentialist’s dream, definitely not for the mistress or wife. For him, I don’t know, kicking the bucket this way; maybe it was?

These deaths are very different than those that resulted from the mass killings that we are seeing lately. This past weekend we had two intraspecific mass killings: one in El Paso, a city I used to frequent and love, and the other in Dayton, another city I visited quite often. Both killings were pure evil, no existential dreaming here, unless you are thinking about a nightmare. As of this writing, the El Paso massacre is the result of the racist hate speech being spread by the current occupant of the oval office and the refusal of his party to call him out on it.

We currently live in a time where symbolism is being used and abused by some folks like others use underwear, or at least I do. I change mine at least daily, and some throw symbols around like there is no end to it. What I am referring to are a lot of our politicians. I am so tired of all this political posturing in our country. We have gone through almost three years, where we have a president who is trying to undo everything that the previous president did. That is also all about symbols isn’t it? Just trying to make sure there is nothing of a legacy left; destroying everything, a scorched earth program. It is not going to work, people are smarter than that, so be it.

The first two years of the regime there was nothing the opposition party could do, and now there still is a Senate that can stonewall things. Now, this past nine months, the House can try to pass things, which they do, but it does not even hit the press or get published because the Senate (or let’s use our own symbols: Moscow Mitch) just ignores it. So it has gotten down to the only thing the House seem to be able to get noticed by is by doing its oversight and investigations; somewhat symbolic, as well.

However, for Republicans it seems to be all about symbolism:

• They are against abortion and protect the unborn child (the one you can't easily see and touch), but once the child is born, they don't want anything to do with it, to hell with the kid, ignore it, no health care, education or other protection for the child. Hey, we even endorse separating them from their parents and locking them up in cages.
• On morality, they were incensed when Clinton got his oral job from an intern, but now it is 18 or more and counting with their leader, we can even talk publicly about grabbing them by the genitals or rape them in a dressing room and they don't care.
• They were allowed to criticize the president and the country under Obama, but when the opposition does it, they call them non-patriotic, haul racial slurs at them and we need to “send them back” to their country.
• They call themselves “the Party of Lincoln;” however, they dogwistle to their white male voters and white supremacists at every turn and do not object or even say anything when the current occupant of the oval office makes either racist statements or obviously support racists or racist causes. Please, don’t even think that this isn’t the cause of, or catalyst for the El Paso shooting.
• They allow their leader to call countries “shit holes” and now we are in to calling our local cities rat infested and places no one wants to live. This is again used as a racial slur and to attack minority congressmen.
• They are pro-constitution when it comes to the second amendment, but freedom of expression or the press; the first amendment? It seems they have serious doubts about that. If you don’t agree with you, then you are the fake media. And, let’s forget the voting rights act.
• The deficit was purely self interest anyway and future generations were also just symbolism. Remember, they used to worry about the deficit but that has also gone out the window with the current occupant of the White-house.
• Finally, they seem to worry about their children and grandchildren but then don't pay any attention to climate change, a.k.a. global warming.

I will stop here, but as you can see they are so darn good at using symbolism when it is or was working in their advantage, and as long as the do not have to do anything for the regular folks. They are just looking out for their own self interest, the rich, their interest group. It just blows me away.

Our politics and politicians are for sale to the highest bidders.
Photo by Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash

Where will this end, I have no idea. One thing is for sure, we need to fight more, for a livable country and then a livable world. I am an old, angry, white guy, but for a good cause. I am a liberal, I am against the racism that is rearing its ugly head. I am not a socialist or a communist, but I do believe in a fair distribution of wealth. I have written about a lot of these issues in my blogs: for the environment and against a lot of what is going on in this country. I will continue to do so.

So be it.

Plant a tree and fight global warming (7/17/2019)

I wish it was so easy!

Boy, it is getting warmer on this blue marble floating in space. During the women’s soccer (or football) championships in France, they were complaining about record temperatures in Europe, and by this weekend, our temperatures are going to reach close to 100 degrees Fahrenheit, or 37.8 Celsius. As I write this (July 17, 2019), there was a news flash that Miami recorded the warmest low temperature early in the morning (84 Fahrenheit or 28.9 C). 

Thank goodness, nature is still able to cope with these extremes in our area. Where we live we have had approximately 6 inches (150 mm) more rain than average by this time of the year. At least there should be enough water in the deeper layers of the soil for at least the trees and other deeper rooting plants, but I may have to supplement the shallow rooted plants. 

Our ferns underneath the dogwood in our yard.  These ferns were dug up (saved) by my wife at a construction site she was permitting.  These ferns would have been destroyed if she had not dug them up. Now they are protected by our gargoyle and thanking us for our effort.  This is an example of plants that need supplemental watering because they don't root very deeply.

One way plants deal with the excessive heat is through evaporative cooling. Plants sweat, just as we do. Except with plants, we call it evapotranspiration. With us, sweating is an active thing, or at least with me it is. I actually get really wet when it is hot outside, and that is a great way of cooling, albeit somewhat embarrassing in public at times. Plants do not get wet, but they open their stomata (small mouth like openings) on their leaves and water evaporates though it, thus cooling the warming leaves. Most plant leaves are also very thin and small, which keeps them close to the air temperature prevents them from heating up in the direct sun light (like your car) and burning up. Pine needles are very good at this, which is why they grow throughout the southeast US. However, different plants have different ways of doing this. Some of you may have heard of quaking aspen; leaves from these trees start to shake (or quake) when the get too hot and they cool down that way. Cacti in the desert have a lot of water in their flesh that helps them in heating up very slowly. Moreover, the spines of cacti serve as suntan lotion and absorb radiation. The saguaro cacti also have fins that serve as cooling fins on the sides that are not hit by the sun. 

These are what we biologists call some of the different strategies that plants use to deal with heat stress. However, plants can only adapt or strategize that much! Eventually it gets too hot! In the tropics, some plants have adapted to that as well. They drop their leaves and go dormant, just like our trees do in winter when it gets too cold. However, there has to be enough water in the soil and they have to have stored enough energy to grow back when the temperatures get more hospitable, otherwise, they die. They usually grow back in the rainy season. Finally, here we have not even talked about how increased temperatures may also cause an increase in pests and diseases. You get the message. 

So, what is going to happen to the natural world or plants in our times of climate change? Alternatively, am I allowed to call it global warming, which is what it is? I frame this question this way, remembering that every time I mentioned global warming 10 or even 5 years ago in my workshops, I had students either rolling their eyes writing terrible reviews of my classes. There were at least one or two students that complained how I was “pushing my liberal agenda.” So I changed my tune and called it climate change and the complaints lessened over time. Guess what? Nowadays, I can talk about global warming again! 

For someone like me, who grows bonsai, life becomes more challenging. We use a much more porous growth medium that does not hold water. This means that we may need to water two times per day. Then those small pots can warm up very quickly and cook the roots, or at least give a leg up to mold and diseases. As you can see, it can be a challenge. 

For nature, it is another thing. I am only briefly going to write about plants and forest today and actually, we are not completely sure, but we can make a very solid educated guess. Plants in the northern hemisphere that live on the southern margins are going to have a challenge. What I mean is that they are already being challenged by the heat and cannot handle it much hotter. They will eventually disappear from the heat. This could be because they can no longer produce any viable seed, or because they simply die from heat stress. Somehow, nature will need to replace them and the problem is that native plants cannot move north fast enough to fill in the spots that have been opened up. These spots are often filled by invasive alien species. It is expected that invasive alien species will be able to take over larger tracks of land. The problem is these plants are often not very nutritious for local wildlife and insects. 

So what can we do about global warming, that is in addition to being political active and voting? The New York Times published an article not so long ago where they estimated that the planet has room for about 2.5 billion acres of forest that can be planted. While this will help in removing some carbon and reducing global warming somewhat, it is not enough. Can you imagine planting a forest of this size? So what can we do? Well, we can plant trees around our homes. If you are a loyal reader, you know I have been on a crusade against folks who cut trees around their home as soon as they move into our neighborhood. Trees are so much more efficient in fixing carbon than lawn. In addition, they modify the climate around your home. There is another interesting article about all this in a recent New York Times. So yes, in addition to growing my miniature trees, I also grow large trees in my small yard, although this makes it often difficult for me to find it difficult to find a sunny spot for my miniature trees.

Racism 101 (7/15/2019)

I was born in the darkest of Africa. No, not South Africa as many always want to guess since I am white, so South Africa is a good guess. However, I was born in what was called the Belgium Congo, in those days. In my young years, my family moved to the Caribbean. I will not bore you with my life’s story, but never in my early life did I encounter obvious racism in real life. Yes, my parents would make fun how folks on the island would exhibit status, by putting a TV antenna on their roof while obviously not having electricity at a time that battery powered TVs were not yet invented, or having a refrigerator on the front porch and not having electricity. Sadly, these disadvantaged people were mostly black folks, but again, to me that was more making light of the need to exhibit some form status and trying to keep up with the Joneses, than a form implicit racism. We had black families over and I was partially raised by Rosa our black housekeeper. 

This photograph of a mask was taken at an exhibition of Congo masks at the museum in Richmond, this past January.   It supposedly comes from the region I was born in.   Boy I would not feel comfortable going back there if our xenophobic leader would tell me to go back there.  Moreover, read the book: How dare the sun rise, by Sandra Uwiringiyimana which is partially set in that area as well and in the US, and you will also understand what the result can be of tribalism and racism 

The first time that I consciously encountered racism was during my first visit to the U.S. The passenger ship that we had taken from the island (Curacao) where we lived, to travel to Europe (Lisbon) had docked in Miami and we were allowed to take excursions. It was 1959, I was almost six years old and all I remember from that outing was taking a “train” ride through an Indian reservation and watching Indians do their thing. Half-naked Indians sitting in front of teepees, cooking above fires, etc. I have no idea whether these Indians were actually living there, or if they were actors and went home after the park or reservation closed for the night. However, I can clearly remember that it hit me as sad and exploitative. Closing my eyes, I am still on that open choo-choo train looking at those indians some 60 years ago. On the other hand, seeing alligators for the first time was kind of exciting, another thing I remember from that day.

Whether it was racism or tourism or a combination of it all, I will never know; however, the next time I noticed real racism was driving through the inner city of Baltimore with friends who we visited during our second visit to the U.S. four years later (1963). Our friends, who were Dutch, had recently emigrated from the island to the U.S. They were somewhat down and negative about the African American folks who moved into and lived in their neighborhood. They told us that when the blacks moved into a neighborhood, it was downhill from there. They were exploring to move out to the suburbs, away from it all. When we came back two years later in 1965, they had done just that and moved out. 

I think it was during my visits to Baltimore that I learned about the divide between black and white. At that time, in 1965, we had just left the Island of Aruba where we had lived for about 9 months. I remember so well that almost every afternoon after school, I would walk with a black classmate (friend) of mine to the harbor in Oranjestad to go fishing, and we would fish for part of the afternoon. If we would not go fishing, we would play soccer (football) or climb in either the mango trees or the tamarind tree in our backyard and eat the fruit. Fruit that was not ripe we would lay on top of the roof for a few days to ripen. We were completely colorblind although I had no idea what that word meant or that that word even existed. My father had a dark room where we printed photographs and that was where I learned the words black and white.

I think the sad part is that the common thread here is that the place I was exposed to racism was in the U.S., the country in which I now live; the country I have become a citizen of. I am sure that there was racism on the islands, in the Netherlands where we went on vacation, but it must have been hidden or more below the surface. Maybe my parents did not associate themselves with those people. Yes, we had the riots in 1969 in Curacao where half the town burned down, but my understanding was that these were more labor related than race; although some tried to relate them to what happened here in the US after the assassination of Martin Luther King around that time. However, I was young and naive and I am sure race played into it. After hearing what happened in the Congo, my parents were scared and we moved to the Netherlands fairly soon after those riots.

Where am I going with this blog post? I am a member of a religious community (the UU) that is mostly white and which has a “Black Lives Matter” banner hanging in front of the church. At home, we have a yard sign that says the same thing. I have written about this issue before <here>, where I wrote about my experience in New Mexico being stopped at immigration checkpoints in a vehicle with Mexican Americans, who were US citizens. I was the only non-citizen and experienced first hand that racial profiling in this country is real, but then in a ridiculous way. 

We have elections coming up where the leader of one party has been called a racist, actually acts like it or at least panders to them. This week he called out four female representatives of color with non white last names and two with non-christian religions and told them to go back to their country. Three of the four were born in the US and one is a naturalized US citizen. He has called neo-nazis good people.

It amazes me that in the 60 years since my first visit to this country there is still so much hate, fear and distrust to go around between the various races in this country. While it seems we made progress, I also see that in the past years we slid back. Maybe people filled with hatred and fear are coming out of the woodwork and dare to express themselves more? Whatever it is, it is going to take time to reverse this trend, but we are going to have to do it. We have to fight it and the people who refuse to call it out like many of the Republicans in congress and the senate who just shrug their shoulders and ignore what the guy at the top is saying.

Welcome to my brain, or on mortality (7/1/2019)

I sometimes feel the pressure of having to write and keeping my readers somehow updated with my thinking and my feelings. The problem is that at times, I just sit there and have very little to say. But then I am reminded of that article or blog I read once that said, even if you do not have to say anything keep writing, because practice makes perfect; moreover, who knows, something profound may come pouring out (so there may be hope). I wrote about that or about writing in general before <here>, <here>, <here> and <here>.

I have been in a funk since all the things that happened in May. Yes, I am slowly digging myself out of the hole, but hitting another landmark birthday recently (on that same day, my birthday, my father-in-law had a heart attack, he is OK), and now having a horrible backache with the pain shooting down my legs and actually numbing my toes does not really help either. You heard the saying “two steps forward, one step back,” or is it “one step forward, two steps back?” I just hope it is the former, not the latter. Interesting fact here the “f” in former stands for first (now get your mind out of the gutter) and the “l” in latter stands for last of the two choices. I had to look this up and here I learned something today.

However, the pain in my back was so bad that I actually begged my wife to kill me. Thank goodness, we do not own a weapon that could easily accomplish such a task. Moreover, while I would be out of my misery, her misery would just begin after a mercy killing like that. But all the sudden I realize that here we have hit a number of issues in this short essay including euthanasia, writing, gun control, sickness, depression; I could really be off to the races with any of these subjects. I could even combine them. I guess that is why the advice was to just start writing and see where you end up.

Sitting at the doctor’s office with this wonderful back of mine, I was confronted with my mortality. There were only three other folks in the waiting room. On one side of me was a young woman, who I overheard, thanks to my newly acquired hearing aids (a sign of old age and lots of rock music), was telling the receptionist that she was born in 1997. A quick calculation told me that she must be 22 or 23, a fresh young green leaf (she did not look ill). Across from me was an older couple, much older than I am, the woman of the couple could hardly walk in, complaining that she was burning up and very sick. She looked like a leaf ready to fall off the tree. This past week I am not sure where I was in the season of leaf development.

One wonders so now and then: at what stage of life are you, and from what angle will the wind blow and how hard will it blow and can you hang on?

Also in the waiting room, I was threatened with a 2013 article in BizNews that had the following headline: “Retire at 55 and live to 80; work till you’re 65 and die at 67. Startling new data shows how work pounds older bodies.” I guess, I already (for the first time in all these years) admitted to being old in this post. Actually, I just turned 66 and if you are a regular reader, you know that I am not retired. Does this mean I have less than a year to live? I hope not. However, if these posts stop all the sudden, you know what happened to me: my time was up. 

Honestly, my mortality does not keep me awake at night. What keeps me up lately are my back and things I am working on at work, like course design. But, death is not one of them. I know it is going to end one of these days, and hopefully I have at least 20 more years. I would like to leave a legacy, with my teaching, my thinking, my writing, and maybe with some of my photographs (sorry, I am not wealthy). I know that I cannot take anything with me; moreover, when I am dead, I am dead. I do not believe in an afterlife, a heaven or a hell. I believe that we better create our heaven here on earth, and leave a livable heavenly earth behind for our children and grandchildren, something a lot of folks seem to forget. One thing is for sure, the earth's environment might be ruined if we don't do anything about it quickly. We cannot just sit, lean back any longer, take a wait and see attitude, wondering what will happen.

Reading the book "Braiding Sweetgrass" by Robin Wall Kimmerer, I came to an interesting passage comparing the Judeo-Christian "Eve" and the Native American "Skywoman." Both are seen as the founding mothers of their respective religions. While Skywoman was sent to plant it and tend to it, creating a wonderful environment for her descendants. Eve, on the other hand, was sent in exile from the Garden of Eden for eating from the forbidden fruit, the fruit of knowledge. I never looked at it that way, I always thought of it more like the attitude of Francis Bacon and man's dominance over the natural world. Instead, according to Kimmerer, for Judeo-Christians it is more like who gives a crap about this world, I want to go back to the Garden of Eden or maybe that's called heaven. Who cares if we fuck up this world, this is exile country, we don’t belong here. An interesting view on religion and environmentalism, isn’t it?

Oh well, here we are back to one of the subjects dear to my heart: protecting the world, the environment, for that 22 or 23 year old "green leaf" in the doctor's office, so she can enjoy it for another 60 years, and for her children after that. But at times it is so hard to see that we are making any headway (two steps back). Having a president who claims we have the best climate and best environment in the world, knowing all too well that the air quality has deteriorated over the past two years thanks to his policies and the EPA turning back environmental regulations.

All I can say my friends is: welcome to my brain (if you ever want to send me a hat to protect it: size extra-large) and my often non-linear way of thinking. This is how I sometimes connect the dots, especially when it is somewhat clouded by muscle relaxants, my mortality and the mortality of others around me.  If you wonder about the time you wasted on reading this blog, don't worry, the next one will be more on subject.