Serenity please (5/8/2025)

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

I have a friend whose adult son is addicted to fentanyl. He has been kicked out from rehab clinics for the stupidest things such as giving (selling?) cigarettes at the clinic he was in for rehab (yes, he was stupid). His son now lives out of his car in Richmond; he refuses help from his father and is still using drugs whenever he can. My friend was told that he is essentially helpless and just must wait till his son either dies or genuinely asks his father for help and to put him in rehab again. In the meantime, my friend’s counselor told him to pray. The problem is that he does not believe in a god, and we had a long discussion on prayer. We concluded that the best would be to recite the serenity prayer that I started out with in this post.

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

My wife and I are extremely upset by what the current occupier of the White House is doing. So much so that when we watch some of the comics making fun of tRump or mUsk and accomplices, she gets even more upset. We refuse to watch the national news shows any longer, although we do read the New York Times and the Washington Past. She is getting more and more distressed. I told her to recite the serenity prayer:

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

I have adopted a more Buddhist attitude: you cannot do anything about the past (or dwell on it), you cannot impact or be worried about the future (or get upset about it). However, best is to try to live in the present and enjoy the shit show!

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

Maybe a strange way of living; and yes, I get pissed about what these people and the republican house and senate are doing. The only thing that I can do about it is to contact my elected officials, to demonstrate, and to advertise my displeasure in my writings, postings and interaction with people.

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

As I promised in my latest post, I will continue writing and let you know where my heart is and what’s going on in my mind and heart. We are living in difficult times; USAID, the EPA, NOAA, Social Security, health and money items more are being assailed by these nuts, they want the clearcut and mine our national parks and monuments. They are going after art and education, planning to turn museums into prisons. This all feels very much like what happened in the 1920s and 30s in Germany; and we know what that led to. They built their first concentration camp in Poland, the republicans built one in El Salvador. Nicely out of the way of the public in both cases (the 30s and now). So don’t get me wrong, I am angry and upset; however, I keep reminding myself to “enjoy the shit show.”

One more time: 

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

Last week we spent some time at James River State Park near Gladstone, VA.  It was so nice to be off the grid and enjoy the night sky in this dark sky park,

Are we part of a holobiont? (7/29/2023)

If you haven’t been living in a hole in the ground, you must have heard about the word or concept called microbiome. Microbiome is defined as the community of microorganisms that exists in a particular environment. These can include fungi, bacteria, other singular cellular organisms and even viruses. When we look at us humans these are our gut bacteria and everything else that is down or better in there. Moreover, it seems that even our hands, our body and every other part of our body have a unique microbiome. The microbiome on our left hand might even differ from that on our right hand. Being a baker, I listened to a podcast on sourdough breads and it seems that every sourdough baker has a microbiome on their hands that is unique to the sourdough starter they use.

The microbiome seems to be responsible for a lot of things in our life including gut health; our resistance to diseases; dementia at older age; and even our mental health. It appears we have more (micro)organisms in our gut microbiome than cells in our body. We are what is considered by some scientists a holobiont.

A holobiont is defined as an assemblage of a host and the many other species living in or around it, which together form a discrete ecological unit. In other words, we as individual humans and our microbiome together are holobionts. There is still some controversy about this concept of holobiont and even my spell checker does not know the word yet.

What medical science is slowly telling us is that if our microbiome is off, we get in all kinds of trouble. The simple issue maybe diarrhea or other stomach upset. It may include weight loss or conversely in folks who suffer from obesity. As I mentioned above, it seems that Alzheimer can even be linked to our microbiome being out of balance, or at least it can excel the mental decline or onset of dementia in some. We can change our microbiome with the food we eat, and this is where the concept of not “not every calorie is the same” comes from. We are hopefully also all learning about probiotics (fermented foods rule), prebiotics, and now even post-biotics. All parts of a healthy nutrition that is good for gut health. Folks with CDIF (or Clostridium difficilus), a very virulent bacterial infection may even require a fecal or poop transplant to get a healthy microbiome from someone else implanted in their gut. Which might be the only way to shake this disease.

Anyway, I want to stop here, and write more about the concept of holobiont. This idea, an assemblage of a host and other species living together in some form of harmony is interesting to me and to a lot of scientists. I think this is what makes it so darn controversial. One of the reasons is that if we look at it on a large scale, we can look at an island or even the Earth as a holobiont as well, and that everything living on this earth are part of that assemblage. Ah, we are quickly entering the world of Gaia and I think this is where the whole concept of holobiont runs into trouble. Gaia is more metaphysical; it seems to be more the believe in the divine personification of the Earth and the matriarch of all things in existence. Modern pagans believe Gaia is the Earth and she is the spiritual embodiment of the Earth. In other words, scientist that consider the Earth a holobiont are skating on thin ice and can be accused of being pagans or some other form of religious heretics.

However, the concept is an interesting one. Like our gut with diarrhea, the earth can also get or be out of balance when the assemblage of species gets out of balance. An interesting concept isn’t it? It is somewhat Malthusian, but I am beginning to believe that we are exceeding the carrying capacity of the earth; the carrying capacity is the number of individual humans the earth can safely handle before things go awry. In my eyes, we humans could be considered the E. coli of even CDIF of the Earth. There are just too many of us, and the Earth is sick! That is what I think we are seeing, global warming, the weather is going bonkers; everything seems out of balance. Even today there was a report that the gulf stream that keeps western Europe warm may be diminishing and put Europe in an eventual deep freeze. Strange days indeed! Have we reached the point of no return? I don’t know, only time will tell.

During our hike last week we encountered communities like this.  Although not a holobiont, the lichen on the rock are a perfect union of algae and fungi living together in perfect harmony.  In addition I just loved the community of plants.  This was in Grayson Highland State Park. 

 

New Year's Resolutions (1/13/2023)

It is already halfway into the first month of the New Year, and I am wondering how many of you have failed your resolutions already. I have decided that I don’t like to participate in this fad. Why the hell do I have to clean the (my) slate only once a year and resolve to do better? Maybe I should do this every morning when I wake up or Monday morning at the beginning of the work week? How about the first of the month?

Sorry, here I am pontificating that I am perfect and don’t need to better myself. Far from it. This chubby, or at least slightly overweight guy (actually, my BMI chart tells me that I am borderline obese), who, I gladly admit has numerous flaws? However, this is not a confession booth, sorry! Moreover, I am not Catholic.

I just hate all these people with good intentions that obviously will fall by the wayside. Sorry folks! I was a member of the YMCA, when I lived in Cincinnati in the 90s. I used to go to the gym at least once a week on Saturdays. When I was not traveling for work, I would go at least one additional evening during the week. After we moved to the Tidewater, I worked out briefly at the Jewish Community Center in Virginia Beach, which was next door to my office at the time. Later, in Williamsburg we went to Ironbound Gym in Newtown (Williamsburg). I never was fanatic, but I did enjoy the rowing machines and the weight machines. The past seven or so years before COVID we did yoga every Monday evening at our community center. Did I lose any weight? I don’t think so, but I do think my body looked a bit better proportioned. It just definitely made me feel good and science tells me it might allow me to live a better longer life.

Why am I telling you all this? Well, regardless of what activity I participated in, every January there was an influx of folks with good intentions. There were lines at the weight machines, at the rowing machines, and you had to come early to get a good spot in yoga so this guy, who is hard of hearing, could hear the instructor. Thank goodness after about four weeks the crowds were gone, and things returned to normal for the rest of the year; the resolutions were forgotten. People were disillusioned. I really think that if you try to change a habit once a year it will be difficult to make it stick!

Science tells us that in order to make something a habit you need to do it at least 4 to 6 weeks or so in a row. I googled “Making Habits Stick” and got recipes to do it in 3, 5 or 18 steps. For example, Nike gave me the following three steps: habit stacking (or connect it to an already existing habit you have); make incremental changes (start slow); and turn inwards (figure out why you want to do it, or what is your motivation). Nike also tells me not to be disappointed if you miss a day, or two, or three. Get back on that proverbial horse. I looked at others from CNN, Forbes, and a guy from lifehacks. I agree with some of their prescriptions and hate others. They just get too complicated or just plain dumb. Lifehack is stupid in my eyes 18 point, now keep track of that, it would need to become a brand-new habit.

I particularly like Nike’s step two. I think all these New Year’s resolutions make you take the “big leap” and I think that is what sets a lot of people up for failure. Let’s go all in on the New Year! Nope. That is not the right way to approach it and that is one reason why I hate them; even the dry (no alcohol) January (or whatever they call it). I admit it, I love a good microbrew or a glass of good wine.

OK friends, while I am not discouraging resolutions, now you know why I don’t make any. Yes, I have already made an appointment with and gone to my dermatologist for my first annual skin test after COVID. I missed two years, and I am glad to report that all is well. As you see, I keep working on myself and hope you all do as well.

Happy 2023.

One thing I'll keep doing in the new year is walking and enjoying nature.

Women are to be bred! (5/8/2022)

Women are to be bred! Women have been put on earth to make babies and that is it! Good news, men; stack up on the Viagra that is what appears to be coming down from the Supreme Court. Women, when and if you are of a fertile age, get on you back and open wide.

Oops, hold on, maybe stack up on those pills so you can go a few times in one evening but that will be it for a few years. Soon, sex will only be for procreation. Only those few times a year when your woman is fertile, because soon sex will only be for procreation and not for fun; only to make babies. God forbid when she gets pregnant when it is not wanted, what do you do then? So, for the rest of the year, you better take pills that suppress your sexual drive or needs and she better takes some too. You can take those Viagras once a month to get her pregnant and once it hits, that’s it! When you have enough kids you might as well have them cut off; sterilization does not reduce the sex drive (I am told). One solution would be polygamy!

Oh well, if you have been following the news, you know what I am referring to. The Supreme Court seems to be on the cusp to give the right to make abortion illegal, or in other words take the rights away from women (and their men and doctors) to decide that it might be wise not to continue a pregnancy at times. It is insane.

If this all comes to pass, some states will make all types of pregnancy termination illegal. Word is that the state of Louisiana wants to make and pregnancy termination a crime. My wife and my sister both had tubal pregnancies. These pregnancies would have killed them if they were not terminated. In fact, my wife almost died, and my sister’s ex husband tried to stop the termination of the pregnancy. Even these types of terminations would be illegal in some states which would result in the death of the mother and the already non-viable fetus.

You get the idea, this is ridiculous. Therefore, in this very brief post, I just want to log my dismay with the news and hope you all do not take it laying down!

I borrowed this picture from the editorial page of the Washington Post (if the Post or author of the cartoon reads my blog and does not want me to publish it let me know and I will remove it).  However; it speaks to everything I and my blog believe in!

The Debate Du-Jour (12/02/2021)

Ok, here I am getting into the debate du-jour and telling you nothing, that you have not heard, and that has not been said before. However, just for the sake of history and since I see this blog as a reflection of what I see that is going on in society and my opinion of it, I feel I need to chime in. The abortion issue, that is now in front of the Supreme Court.

So let me put it out there: Essentially, I am anti-abortion, but pro-choice. What, how is that possible. Well in my ideal world, abortion would not often be needed. There would be perfect family planning, without hiccups, there would be no rape or incest, we would have great healthcare and the mother’s health would never be in danger, and we would have done free genetic testing before hand to know whether a pregnancy would result in an abnormal fetus.  However, we do not live in utopia, do we?

The problem is that too many conservative men and yes, also women want to control the lives of others. They believe in less government when it comes to healthcare, gun control, taxes, what you can do on your property, vaccinations, you name it; however, they do want the government to control what you do in your bedroom. It is just like what the mother of the latest mass murderer of the Oxford high school wrote in an open letter to then president elect tRump. I am paraphrasing here, she wrote that she was looking forward to him cleaning up Washington from those politicians who are fucking her in the ass, because as a middleclass working mom she would “rather be grabbed in the pussy.”

I am personally so sick and tired of hearing these folks being pro death penalty and then turn around and talking about the sanctity of life. Wanting to save blobs of tissue in a womb that were put there by a rapist, an abusive uncle, stepfather, boyfriend of their mother, you name it. Then when it is brought to term, the mother and baby can rot in hell. They are not given any support, because the pro-lifers do not believe in healthcare for all. Remember how they fought Obamacare? They are too poor to feed the child and let us make sure to cut food assistance programs, and fight all other welfare programs. That child does not need three meals a day or a coat on cold days, that makes them weak! We definitely have to cut education and not raise minimum wages.

Many of these folks have a nice story to tell (life is sacred, etc.), but they simply do not care. They may wish to adopt one of these babies if it is the correct race and mother did not use drugs. But, for the rest, stick them in a ghetto, loosen the gun control rules and have them kill each other, get a drug overdose or stick them in jail. That is a way of getting rid of them while still feeling good about ourselves and being pro-life. It is simply callus what they are doing, and why? Just to make themselves feel good, because of some internal frustration or guilt, because of some false deity they believe in? Who knows? Maybe it is because they want to control us.

The problem is, the way the conservatives have stacked the Supreme Court, they are going to win and society is going to lose. Remember the latest opinion poll shows that something like 63% of the U.S. population is pro-choice and our religious Taliban is increasingly trying to control us. We need to fight back and that is what I am trying to do here in this post!

Musings on getting old (10/30/2021)

One thing I am starting to realize more and more is that the saying: “Old age is not for the faint of heart” or maybe the way Betty Davis put it: “Old age ain’t for sissies” is real. So here I was checking out at the pharmacy after buying medicine for our 15-year-old dog Jake, who is still on his last legs, when I got the call that my 94-years-old father-in-law had fallen for the umpteenth time and was on his way to the emergency room. This was all after complaining a day earlier on our daily walk that my back, hip and knees hurt and that I am getting slower.

Oh well, who am I to complain. My wife comes back from the emergency room with the story that the doctor there tells my father-in-law, that since he is close to the end he might as well enjoy what is left instead of trying to prolong it as much as possible with drugs that have side effects that make life miserable. The nurse tells him he looks great, and when he says: “hell no” she tells him: “you don’t get to see what I get to see here in the emergency room.” My wife and I came to the conclusion that when you suffer you become selfish, and you have it worse than everyone else in this world; and yes, so do I.

I have written a few posts about getting old or getting older. But never about one of my major complaints with age: peeing! When I was young, we had peeing contests, who could pee the furthest. Now, especially in the morning, you wake up and lay in bed and boy you have to go and it comes slowly and not much. But at least it takes the pressure off the bladder, and then after walking around for five or ten minutes, all the sudden it hits again, and finally there is release or is it relief? I wonder what it will be like 10 or maybe 20 years from now.

My symbol of being able to pee a good distance!

But hopefully I will keep my mind, if not for me, at least for my wife. I think it would be the hardest for a spouse to watch their husband or wife lose their mind to Alzheimer or some other form of dementia. My father-in-law went through that, and it devastated him. It was his second wife, and they were married only seven years or so. She was obviously not my wife’s mother. In other words, while it was terrible watching her and my father-in-law go through it, it would have been worse if it was your own mother, and you would have known her all your life instead of only about ten years. I hope I never do this to my wife and daughter.

Wow, I better quit. The past post was about politics in our county, this one is introspective. What a difference a few days make. But it is important to think about: quality of life, enjoy it while you still can, enjoy others. Especially when you are young; however, even this old guy or my 94-year-old father-in-law can and should fight depression and enjoy life to the fullest. We only have one life to live and after that? Who knows.

A New Car! (06/03/2021)

Sitting at the car dealer waiting for a few things to be done to the new vehicle we bought feeling again that we probably have been had and paid too much. Why does one always have that feeling, when buying a car or buying a home, you feel like you just paid too much?

We needed to buy a different vehicle. The one we replaced was a 2001 Honda CRV, one of those with the tire on the back and a picnic table in the trunk. The tire in the back actually had a wren nesting in it and I am sorry but the brood went once a week for a day to the office and grocery shopping at times. It makes you wonder if the eggs were still viable when we discovered them. That CRV had 270,000 or so miles on it. The other car we own is a Honda Accord from 2007 with 330,000 miles on it. So you can see, we do not have a terribly reliable vehicle for extended road trips. On top of that, the newspaper reported on the skyrocketing car rental prices, so that did not seem to be an option either.

And here it happened. My 94 year-old father-in-law was at the dentist to have a tooth extracted and when he got back into his car, yes he still drives, he started bleeding profusely. He is not very ambulatory and called the dentist on his phone. The dentist came running out to the car and fixed him up, not before my father-in-law had blood all over himself. As a result, he did not feel well enough to drive and my wife needed to go out to get him in her 20 year-old CRV. On the way home her car broke down, a hose broke. It was a rare 90-degree (30+ degree Celsius) spring day. Here my father-in-law gets out of the car in the parking lot of a grocery store covered in blood with my wife standing next to her. The only thing missing is a big butcher knife or a hatched.

I realize that buying a new car is foolish. You lose value the minute you drive it off the lot and that is it. We understand that. However, we tend to maintain our cars and keep them for a long time. Since our return to the U.S. from our overseas assignments we have owned a Honda Civic 4WD wagon, which one stayed with us for 15 years; a Toyota Pickup with we had for 25 years, and the two vehicles about which I have been writing above, 20 and 14 years, respectively. We tend to drive until they fall apart. At least we know who drives them and takes care of them. I am not sure if that is a good thing or not, but we think so.

We have been talking about going more environmentally friendly, and I told my wife that my next car would be a Tesla. The compromise was a CRV hybrid. I am happy to say that the first tank of gas is about half-way done and the gas millage is 38 miles to the gallon or more than 16 kilometers per liter. Not bad at all. We really wanted something that used less gas, but my wife was still weary of all electric. However, the time will come that we will make that switch.

The new and the old; left to right.  Of course with the old and the young in the middle.

So here I am sitting at the dealer having a roof rack installed, and having a little buyer’s remorse or should I call it just wondering if we have been had; paid too much. I am still not sure why car sales folks do this to you, but darn that feeling. However, I am sure that 10 or 15 years from now we will not remember this, maybe only when looking back at this blog post. I am sure we will have fun with this vehicle while being a little protective of the environment.

Is age really just a number? (12/13/2018)

I have been feeling my mortality lately. Not that I am sick or have been diagnosed with anything, but just because I am getting older. But then aren’t we all getting older? Every day we are getting a day older; a day closer to death. The newspaper obituaries are replete with folks younger than me. I brush them aside as accidents, suicides and unhealthy people. Having turned the magical six five or better 65 earlier this year, it feels different. We really downplayed the event, no big parties; my wife or family did not even throw me a surprise birthday party. The day passed like any other day; I even went to work on my birthday. However, eventually, the Friday evening after my birthday, my father-in-law treated me to a fancy dinner to our favorite restaurant where we had a great dinner for three. The day after my birthday I was 65 and 1 day; I did not even have a hangover. One of the problems always is that my birthday falls on or around Father’s Day weekend. It is more a family weekend, not conducive to big parties, I guess.

Oh well, enough belly aching. Why now? Coming out of a day-long workshop I gave this week I had a car crash. Yes, it was my fault; I pulled away from a stop sign (after a full stop), obviously did not see the car coming from the left (there was a snow bank that was obscuring my view and the lady that hit me was obviously speeding); however, I do not think that ten years ago when I started this gig I was this exhausted after a full day of teaching. I solo teach, and standing on my legs for six hours, being on all the time, thinking, talking and answering questions is a lot of work. It takes a lot out of me. I have noticed that I am more tired the older I get and that my recovery time is getting longer. I am often still tired the day after teaching a full day or often two days in a row. Also knowing that my parents did not make it much past their mid 70-s, makes you wonder if your days are numbered and what the hell you are doing still working and putting yourself out there on the road, after a full day of teaching, increasingly in danger of getting hurt in an accident.

A google search tells me the following about the age at which we humans peak at certain things:

• The ability to learn a second language: 7 to 8 
• Sexually: Men 17, Women 35 
• Brain processing: 18 
• Remembering names: 22 
• Life satisfaction: 23 and again at 69 
• Strength: 25 
• Metabolism and heart rate: Early adulthood 
• Fastest marathon: 28 
• Bone and bone structure: 30 to 35 
• Remembering faces: 32 
• Focus: 43 
• Arithmetic skills: 50 
• Understanding people’s emotions: 51 
• Vocabulary skills: 71 
• Happiness with your body: 74 
• Psychological wellbeing: 82 

Looking at the list, my ability to focus has been going down since I was 43; and let’s not talk about my sex life (peaked at 17? I wish I realized that back then and capitalized on it). Moreover, based on my genetics, I may never reach nirvana or psychological wellbeing. Although, maybe finally I’ll be happy with my body before I die. So be it! But age is only a number, and as you see, these are only numbers. 

This is what makes me happy: Forest bathing.  Being out in the woods, exploring, visiting some of my favorite trees.  This is where I find solace with life, with my age and the world.

My mortality was brought even more to the foreground by the accident. It all happened in a flash, I never saw the car coming, I did not even saw it when it hit me, maybe just a flash. Yes, she obviously drove very fast. But still, I get the blame and I will keep wondering if my age contributed to it; am I loosing my ability to focus? Maybe. The statistics tell me I am, but then I learned you can also lie with statistics (what was that about something peaking at 17?). 

I often wish there was a way to slow down the aging process. There are so many things I want to experience, explore and to see or do in this world. Many have tried to slow aging down, no one has succeeded. This blog post has no solutions, I am sorry. Accept aging gracefully? I’ve always thought: “Hell no!” Some folks say calorie deprivation will allow you to live to the biological predestined age of humans which is around 120. They even claim that living this way of eating very few calories and starving yourself can be fun and enjoyable. I am not sure what planet they come from, but torture is not my way of having fun. Others say slightly overweight is good. Now I like that!

On the other hand, the problem is that my skeleton is slowly starting to refuse to cooperate; my knees hurt, my back is stiff, I get tired quicker and my recovery time is longer. They call it the regular wear and tear on the body. I feel like I am becoming that middle-aged lump of coal on the couch. This is also torture and I know that my weight and lack of exercise will only make this worse in the long run. Folks around me have (early) Alzheimer or other forms of dementia. They are older than me, but I realize I have less of a focus, sometimes more difficulty remembering names. That makes me wonder and it bothers me too. 

I use this picture in my classes as an example that old guys can be strong, or old ideas can still be valid.

Sorry for bitching about my age young readers of mine. Hopefully you too will hit it one of these days. It will creep up and all the sudden it will hit you right smack in the face, as with me. You are getting old! Then you will try the excuse “age is just a number” while your colleagues at work announce: “you are older than my father” (or my mother/parents)!

Dog-hairs in the woods (3/16/2017)

Walking in the woods behind our house this past Friday, I realized that I wasn't exactly "forest bathing."  Daily life and politics came rushing back to me while I was still looking and trying to enjoy nature (truthfully I will always enjoy nature, even when distracted), but this time I did not gently push these thoughts back as I am supposed to do; I did not tell it “some other time please.” 

I found this word on wordables.com and it really describes who I am, the essence of me (at least when I am not on the water on my kayak or my sailboat) 

Why didn’t I?  I was walking my regular trail with the dogs; on one side was a “dog-hair” stand of pines on the other side a more mature forest.  What does that mean, a "dog-hair" stand?  

When we moved into our neighborhood, now 17 years ago, and we walked that area, the trees were freshly planted.  At that time we could literally look over the tree canopy to the other side.  They were very dense, so dense that you could barely move through them.  That became increasingly clear when the trees got bigger.  The trunks were so close together that you had to move sideways between the trees to get through the stand of trees.  They were as close together as the hair on the back of a dog, hence the words "dog-hair" stand!

Slowly some of the trees started to die off; they died from the lack of light and room for their roots and branches to grow.  Now the trees are relatively large; I would think at least 30 feet.  They are still dense and the trunks are thin and spindly.  A forester would say that the stand is ready for a thinning cut.  They thin the forest out to reduce the competition, reduce the number of trunks per acre (or hectare) and this allows the remaining trunks to thicken and the trees to thrive.  It is called forest management.

The "dog hair" stand of trees in the woods behind our home.  This stand is maybe 20 years old and ready to get thinned.

If foresters do not thin the forest, forests and all types of vegetation in general, does this on its own.  We ecologists know this as the self-thinning rule, and we even have a fancy mathematical formula for it that I will not bother you with.  But what happens is we get a lot of mediocre plans first a lot of trees dying, spreading of diseases in the woods, maybe even a higher likelihood of forest fires, all together a potentially unhealthy situation.

Actually we ecologists may find it more natural, but for foresters it is a terrible situation.  Foresters want to produce board-feet, poles and wood that can be used to make lumber, paper, and other useful things.  Herein lays the rub and this brought me back to daily life and politics: this whole conflict between two philosophies in the management of these woods.  The trees are marked up by a forester and ready to get their first thinning cut.  Walking by there made me think about these foresters imposing rules on the forests and only by imposing their forestry rules can they make them grow quickly, create a more prosperous forest and probably a more diverse forest.  While if we ecologists stand back and let things go without human-imposed (management) rules, nature may eventually get there too, but who knows with how many casualties in the meantime, and probably less useful lumber for the foresters.

The trees in this "dog-hair" stand are all fighting to capture the light and not really investing in infrastructure (or the trunk) to support them (and us).  If left unchecked there will be many casualties and those remaining will produce mediocre wood.

So what is good and what is bad?  In the old days I would have said that any human intervention in nature was necessarily a bad idea.  However, things have changed.  We humans have impacted nature so tremendously, that most philosophers, scientists, biologists and ecologists now tell us that we have entered the Anthropocene or the geological period during which we humans impact the earth’s geology and ecosystem more than they impact the humans.  The Wikipedia article I reference here is fascinating to read, it tells me how future geologists will be able to read the rocks and tell what went on in our time.  In other words, we have impacted nature so much by bringing in exotic plant species, encroaching the area and living right next to them, having removed all the predators that would hunt the deer, suppressed the wildfires, that we probably need to manage these woods, otherwise we really do not know what the results will be.

But back to my walk; I was really upset about what is going on at the EPA, the Department of the Interior, NOAA, the Department of Education and so many other government agencies at the moment.  I like to compare it with the "dog-hair" stand that I was walking by (and really, that's what I was thinking about).  Without management (read regulations) that "dog-hair" stand will develop into a forest, I am not worried about that.  First very poorly, without any understory, it will be very susceptible to fire, a lot of small trees will die and only a very few big ones will survive, and the quality of the wood of those trees maybe very poor.  Kind of like a society without regulations, the rich and the powerful will get richer and damn the poor and the weak.  With management (regulations) we thin the forest sensibly and it will thrive (oh my god, birth control), the remaining trees will grow good and create good wood that we humans can use to build our homes, furniture and make our paper products from (now he is preaching socialism). 

I strongly feel that like that forest that need management our country needs sensible regulations, health care and education.  The cutting of programs and deregulation is not going to work for everyone, just like that "dog-hair" stand,  In 1798 Malthus wrote about an eventual over-population that would result in famine and disease that would cause the end of human civilization.  Many conservatives have always counter-argued that human inventiveness would keep up with the population explosion (I am oversimplifying here).  I don't know, but why even argue?  Some scientists say we are close to reaching the carrying capacity of the earth or the number of people that the earth can support.  Why turn our future generations into that human "dog-hair" stand on earth and put them all at risk?  I believe we can avoid this, but not in the spirit of less regulations and everybody for themselves, but instead with more education, better healthcare for everyone, science, a cleaner environment and empathy.

And that is what I sometimes do when I walk in the woods, I think and brood, and then I ramble.

Forest bathing (2/22/2017)

Wow, I learned a new phrase this week: “Forest-Bathing”.  So, now some of you have also.  It has nothing to do with taking a bath or a shower in the woods, although I have always wanted to build an outdoor shower and in our case the shower would look out into the forest, so technically it could be forest bathing.  No, it is spending time in the woods and letting the woods come over you and improve your health. 

Readers of my blog know that I frequently write about "Nature Deficit Disorder", in fact there are 31 posts (32 with this one ... check the "labels" section) by now in which I mention it or at least somehow write that at times I need to reconnect with nature; just to get my sanity back.  Well, it seems that forest-bathing or shinrin-yoku as it is called in Japan is real!  Shinrin-yoku is a very important national public health program that was started there in 1982.  Now research is showing that regular bathers have lower cortisol (stress hormone) levels, lower blood pressure, lower pulse rates, and less variability in their heart rates.  A Japanese study even showed that it increased the activity of the natural killer cells in the human immune system.  These cells appear to fight off viruses and tumor formation and they seem to be associated with cancer prevention according to an article written by Ephrat Livni in 2016. 

Walking through the woods this past weekend it was so warm that even this early in February the turtles were out sunning.  I wonder what they could find to eat.

A much more detailed article was written in 2012 in the Outside magazine, and it seems that an aromatic volatile substance called phytoncides may be involved.  Trees give off these substances and Dr. Qing Li from the Nippon Medical School in Tokyo found that when he locked up subjects overnight into a hotel room with this substance piped in the air they also had high levels of the killer cell versus subjects who were locked up without the substance in the air.  Moreover, the killer cells levels stayed elevated in the subjects' systems for a few weeks.  Just breathing the extract from a tree under laboratory conditions gave the author of the article an instant 12 point drop in blood pressure.

But what does forest bathing or Shinrin-yoku entail?  In my eyes it is kind of what you make it.  From what I understand it is a combination of spirituality, meditation, and at the same time a form of aromatherapy.  The phytoncides that the plants give off is a chemical that seems to have a lot of, yet to understand functions.  However, one thing it is sure, it seems to be good for our well-being when we breath it in.  You may not smell it, but it is there.  It is the fresh smell of the forest.  That together with living in the moment the shedding of all your daily worries and concentrating on the beauty around you and being one with nature is what forest bathing is.  It does sound a lot like taking care of the nature deficit disorder, isn't it?

Believe it or not there is actually an organization that teaches you to become a Shinrin-yoku or Forest Therapy Guide.  I would love to do this, but of course it is in California and probably too expensive for my pockets (I really need to start advertising on this blog).  However, I feel I can probably do it without the "formal" seven session training, but it would be nice.  Monica Schwartz took the course and this is the link to her blog about the course.

In her blog about the course Monica details a lot about the spiritual and personal aspects of the program, and her growth as a teacher.  Her website/blog (which is titled Life out of Bounds) is a wonderful place to visit anyway.  The course appears to be on seven Saturdays near the San Francisco area.  It starts with a ritual where people collect a piece of nature (in her case it was a rock from a creek) and put it in a circle, symbolically leaving their worries or baggage behind before spending 20 or 30 minutes just lingering in the woods.  They are called back, share their discoveries and feelings, maybe have a reading and then they go out again for another 20 or so minutes.  Monica brought a camera (she is a photographer) and took photographs, others did other things.  After a third session there was another discussion and that week's session was done.  All very simple and very spiritual.  The leader in her session made tea from the local herbs which they all tasted but I do not think a tea ceremony is a requirement.  One of the members of Monica's group just meditated in a place and played a native American flute.  Wonderful, everybody can experience it in her or his own way.

There is even beauty in this fallen tree.  It amazed me how well distributed the roots were.  I follow a bonsai webcast and this gentleman always talks about raking out the roots to get an even distribution in the pots.  What a gorgeous example and what a shame for the tree.

Forest bathing is really a way to recharge, a way to meditate, and a the breath in those phytoncides.  I need to do it more often, now I know there is real scientific evidence for its benefits.  Come and join me.