In a bubble (10/3/2024)

“Bang, bang, bang ...” “What was that, it sounded like machine gun fire.” We were on our regular evening dog walk. The short pee walk before we go to sleep. “Nah, it is a car back firing on the main road” I replied. The next night, around the same time “bang, bang, bang,” etc. “Again, is that the same car? What has the world come to and where is the police?”

If it isn't that, it is a car or motorcycle trying to drag race down the road. They roar on the main highway by our neighborhood. A highway that is mostly empty around 11 at night, the time we typically walk our dogs. We feel sorry for those folks living closer to the highway. It must be really jarring at times; although there is a sound wall between their backyard and the road, it must be pretty loud of we who live a half mile down the road are bothered by it. Drag racing at 11 pm? At least the cops are asleep, so it is a free-for-all.

What is this world coming to? Where is the consideration for our fellow citizens, chivalry, empathy, class, you name it. Everybody is in there for themselves, stroking their narcissistic tendencies, trying to claim the vehicle with the fastest acceleration title, moreover, which vehicle is the loudest, the most souped up? Fuck that gas mileage, I'll just complain that gas prices are too high, and blame some politician, but keep on spewing it out of that enlarged tailpipe that makes a roaring sound of their monster truck. Who is all powerful and more manly. Or are they compensating for something they lack?

The other day I was driving home from having the van worked on and here came a car that was either a Mustang or a Camaro shoot by me with a big roar. I was on a 3-lane road following the sped of traffic. The dude weaves in and out of lanes trying to pass all kinds of seemingly traffic-law obeying citizens. In essence putting all those folks in harm’s way. A few weeks earlier, some lunatic was passing cars on the shoulder of the 4-lane highway I was on. It is not only Yorktown; it is this country. I saw it in Kansas City, Louisville and even in the mountains of Colorado.

I know, here is another old and decrepit guy who should no longer be driving complaining about the youth or fellow pavement users. No that's not it, I am no slough, and this is not only about drivers and their vehicles. As a country we have become a lot less considerate of other people. We grab them by the pussy, we make them look like idiots, and so on. We have become a society of slaves; slaves to society, corporate America, to our politicians and for some this is the only way they can distinguish themselves in this slave society. In their non-slave hours folks are trying to stand out, become individualized, without regards for others. And what is the remedy? I really do not know, maybe a bit more sense of community and responsibility.

Whenever I am outside, walking, working in the front yard, checking the mail or simply sitting on a park bench, I try to be courteous. Oh, I'll give you the middle finger greeting if you, at night, in the dark, come barreling down the road with your bright lights on and don't dim them when I know you can see me, but you insist on blinding me. Remember asshole, I can see you way earlier than you can see me, you don't have to shine those brights right into my face. I broke an ankle in 2001 when I accidentally stepped in a hole on the curb when some lady refused to dim her lights.

So here you see that I can dish it out as well. Use words that may offend some of you folks, and I am sorry, but I just want to make a point. This attitude that I describe in this post is what is hurting this country, our earth and our survival as species. We need to start thinking more collectively, be more aware of our fellow humans and realize what the results of our actions are on other folks and society. We do not live in a vacuum. Speeding up your or this society's demise is not getting you anywhere except that you drag everyone down with you, you damn narcissistic idiot. Everything we do affects others, even if we don't see it.

Yup, me, me, me and fuck the rest of society

Nomads, days 11 and 12 (9/15/2023)

We are making progress. I am writing this on day 14, but I will get there in my next post. But let’s summarize:

Day 11: Great Falls (MT) – White Sulphur Springs – Three Forks – Dillon

Day 12: Dillon – Lemhi Pass – Tendoy (ID) – Logan (UT)

Boy that looks like two relatively short trips, but they were not. The trip from Great Falls to White Sulphur Springs was absolutely exhilarating. This was most likely the most beautiful landscape we encountered up to that point. It made us want to retire to Montana, were it not for the threat of winter. We traveled through a number of ecosystems leading us to a lodgepole pine forest and a ski area (Showdown).

While it was downhill after that, it really wasn’t from a landscape viewpoint. We again hit extensive grassland areas, had lunch on the road somewhere; however, we hurried up to get to Three Forks and the Missouri Headwaters State Park. This is where the Missouri splits into three fairly equal rivers. Our heroes (Lewis and Clark) had to decide which river to follow. Looking on the map (which they did not have of course), they named the streams from left to right the Jefferson, Madison and Gallatin rivers after the President, Vice President and the Secretary of the Treasury. Albert Gallatin was of course the guy who bankrolled the expedition.

Since the Jefferson River somehow veered to the west, they decided to follow this stream. This was also part of the insistence of Sakakawea their Indian guide who was originally from close to this area. We had a great walk with the doggies in this park. Jasper went wading in the Gallatin and of course, I slipped and went into the river as well (I slipped into the treasurer). There is a nice knoll/hill we climbed up on, which gives you a nice view of the confluence.

Then it was off to Dillon, our destination for the night. I know we would be able to see Beaver rock on the way down there, a hill that Sakakawea recognized as a sign that they had arrived at their original hunting grounds. It lifted the explorer’s mood, knowing they had taken the correct stream and were ready to cross the Rocky Mountains and the continental divide. We had a great stay in Dillon and had pizza delivered to our van in the campground.

After a great night at a great campground, it was our turn to really go into the Rocky Mountains to find the continental divide in Lemhi Pass. Lemhi pass is the same site the explorers crossed and met the Shoshone Indians and Sakakawea’s brother who was the chief. It is slightly more convoluted than that, but you will have to read up on that yourself.

After a short trip on the Interstate highway, we turned on a dirt road and it was 20 or so miles to the pass. We passed some absolutely gorgeous countryside, that made me want to buy a ranch somewhere in these mountains. The ecosystem went from grassland to Rocky Mountain Juniper, to Pondarosa to Lodgepole Pine. As an ecologist it was absolutely great to see and learn. There was a memorial at the summit (7700 feet in elevation) and we had a great walk in the area while being fairly loud to alert any potential Grizzlies to stay away.

The dive down to Tendoy was another exhilarating experience. It was a steep dirt road that is absolutely unsuitable anything larger than what we were driving and absolutely no trailers. We ran into a cross country cyclist on the way down, and a local who couldn’t believe that foreigners from Virginia came all the way up here on vacation. Lunch and gas were in the town of Lemhi, a few miles south from Tendoy, the place we finally hit a hard top road.

Subsequently, it was back in the van and the drive to Logan, UT. We both received our MS degrees from Utah State University in Logan, in the fall of 1981. We had never returned, so this was a homecoming, of sorts. We both felt extremely apprehensive to return, while we had good memories (of hiking), we also had some not-so-good memories having to deal with the culture of the time.

In the past 42 years, Logan has changed a lot, in particular along main street. The town had become like every other town, you would not be able to distinguish it from any other Main Street, USA. In the center of town, it all rushed back, and somehow, we were able to drive to the home we rented 42 years ago. It looked the same, except the day-care and post office next door to us were gone. The home next door where two couples lived until one of the husbands was killed in a car accident was still there. They used to use the brick on the outside of the home as a climbing wall and practice. After they left it was occupied by a lady and 4 to 6-year-old daughter. The lady used to entertain men (for pay) and then she would kick the daughter out who would come it on our porch and cry. At the time, we had moved to an apartment behind our first home (this apartment is gone and is a driveway now), and we would take care of her for an hour or so before the girl was allowed back home. We did this all while finishing our thesis. We were too naïve to call child protected services or any other authority about this situation.

As you can imagine, all these things came rushing back, and even more so while having dinner at the local microbrewery and talking with the waitress. We asked if we could buy a can or two of their beer, but no you could only do this at the state liquor store, another place of bad memories to us.

When we got back to the place where we were camping, some other campers had moved into our spot and we had to relocate. The office was closed until 10 am the next day and we were not waiting for that to complain; we wanted to get the hell out of Dodge. But it all was a good reminder of what living there 41 years ago was like. More about Logan in the next post.

The road to Sulphur Springs

The three forks of the Missouri

And into the Gallatin he went

Beaver Rock, there is so much to write about this.  The ranch at the bottom of the rock is managed by a couple who are ecologically minded and really manage the area for wildlife.  Very impressive!

Camping in Dillon, MT

Clark Lake, ready to go to the pass.

Pronghorn at the start of the dirt road

The start of the climb.  The next few pictures (below) show the pass and the divide)

Our old home in Logan, UT

The Logan Microbrewery, we had to hand over our driver's license to get registered in their (the State's) database of drinkers.  In the old days you had to become a member of an establishment (usually $1.00 per year) before you could order an adult beverage.

A Bud Light please (5/8/2023)

A Bud Light please! I never imagined that I would be saying those words. However, I may actually do that, the next time I order a beer in a restaurant. I even bought a case the other day. It actually looks like water, and it tastes like bad water. The reason why I bought a case of it? Let me explain.

My wife is an inspector for the health department and as part of her job she needs to inspect marinas in the area. As you know I am (or used to be) a sailor, and no she is not allowed to inspect the marina our boat is at. That would be a conflict of interest. We are both retiring on the same day, so she has been tasked to finish all her marinas and swimming pools before we both close the employment door behind us and start the proverbial next chapter of our lives (that is what people call it euphemistically; I call it “getting really old and decrepit”).

Back to the story. Here I get a phone call from an (my) upset wife. She had just finished inspecting one marina in the same creek our boat is in. She mentioned that the marina looked like crap, not well maintained, dirty, you know it. The owner complained that he has not been making a lot (enough) money, and on top of that, no one wants to buy the Bud Light that he stocked up on for his marina store clientele. It seems that he has sunk quite a large investment in this particular beer and this appears to be drinking up his profit.

Now back up. What exactly happened? A few months ago, Bud Light hired an adverting person, or an influencer, or maybe there was an influencer (whatever) whose face appeared on a can of Bud Light. Whether this was real, for fun, meant as advertisement, or photo shopped, who cares. However, this influencer, Dylan Mulvaney, is transgender. This resulted in an uproar in the conservative groups and MAGA folks. They decided to boycott Bud Lights. Hence the slumping sales at the marina which caters to the more conservative levels of society in our county. If you don’t take care of the marina and don’t do maintenance, you cannot expect millionaire boats, classy people and therefore would expect Bud Light drinkers.

Somehow, ever since tRump, the Republican party and conservative movement seem to attract two polar opposites: the super-rich and the people they take advantage off, the lower middleclass and the poor. This is still a conundrum to me, because it is the rich who get richer over the back of these guys. The working class has not caught on that they are being taken advantage off, and I think they never will. They don’t understand that tax cuts for the wealthy don’t work, these folks can buy everything their hearts desire already, while they get shafted. It is the lower middle class and the poor who need higher wages, health insurance and alike. However, the rich have them in their spell and are able to bamboozle them in thinking more conservatively from a financial and social standpoint.

The marina owner in question was telling my wife that his misfortunes were all the fault of this transgender influencer who according to him was the scum of the earth. My wife told him to tone it down, and the guy blew his top telling her that all trans folks were immoral and should die. At this point she moved away from the situation since we state employees should not get in a fight with our clients. Moreover, nowadays you can no longer predict what conservative racists will do when they get angry. They seem to be itching to pull out their AR-15 and start a massacre.

So now you know why I have started a new habit of ordering a Bud Light in restaurants. I do this in support of and solidarity with the trans community, the restaurant owners, and use it as a social statement in public.

Celebrating Cinco de Mayo at home having a Bud Light!

Why I can no longer be a Christian (5/24/2022)

So, we have another mass shooting today. Uvalde, Texas will be etched on our collective minds forever. Innocent children gunned down by a deranged gun man (kid). A few years ago, governors Abbott challenged the Texas citizens to buy more guns, so they were not second on the list of states in the country in weapon’s purchases.

The common thread here seems to be that conservatives send thoughts and prayers, protect the right to right to own and carry guns, call for the death penalty for the killer, and then want to arm teachers or encourage folks to buy more guns. After the El Paso killing carrying guns in Texas was made easier and hence, no surprise Uvalde is next.

This is where I am flummoxed. While being pro-gun and pro death penalty, and somehow being ok in condemning fellow citizens and kids to death, these Christians are vehemently against abortions. They, seem to want to bring to the world, but then they don’t give a shit that they get gunned down in schools, at Walmart, at a church or anywhere else. We’ll just send these innocent lives our thoughts and prayers and murder the killers. Sanctity of life, only the unborn, after that they turn them into fodder to be gun downed in schools and ger our thoughts and prayers; so Christian, my ass!

Sorry, I can’t stand it any longer, these Christian hypocrites. How can they be pro-death penalty, anti-gun control, and obey the commandments?

I am done being a Christian.

My world ethic (3/28/2022)

Reading a book that I was given by the family of our diseased friend (who was very spiritual) I came up to a call for a set of new planetary ethics. An interesting concept indeed. I write a lot about ethics and empathy, which in my eyes are closely linked at times. The book, “The Sacred Depths of Nature” by Ursula Goodenough was published in 1998 and the situation on this planet was somewhat different than it is now. Since then, we have endured tRump, a pandemic, neo-Nazi protests in Charlottesville, Black Lives Matter protests, school shootings, a war in Ukraine, accelerated global warming, you name it.

It made me think, what would my so-called new planetary ethics be? I would like to propose the following: Climate, peace, ethnic cleansing, sustainable fuel sources, habitat preservation, human rights, black lives matter, hunger, infectious disease (pandemic), oceans, pollution, population, mindfulness. Some are borrowed from Ms. Goodenough; some have been added by me. I am struggling with some of these items, in that some bring up a negative emotion while others may engender more neutral or positive feelings. However, they are my key words of items we as society or planet need to focus on by fixing the negatives or enforcing the more positive items. Moreover, the order I put them in is random except maybe the last word: Mindfulness.

I realize, who the hell am I that I have the audacity to even think, propose, or write about a list like this and dare to call for a new planetary ethics? Oh well, this is my blog, and as a regular reader you know I have strong opinions, at times. These are my new planetary ethics. If you want to propose your own, tell me yours in the comment section below. However, these are some of the credos I would want to preach and live by.

Climate, sustainable fuel sources, oceans, pollution, population are all somewhat related. As you my regular reader will know, I have been on a climate change soap box for a long time. I have written a lot about the legacy we are leaving future generations, out children and grandchildren. While a lot of conservatives worry about money and the economic future, they do not appear to care if anyone survives to spend that money. Fuel relates to air pollution and that appears to be the driver to a lot of the environmental issues. Oceans don’t only address sea level rise, but also warmer ocean temperatures which allows less oxygen to dissolve in it, but it also addresses ocean acidification from increased CO2 levels in the atmosphere.

Peace and ethnic cleansings should be clear to you all. The war in Ukraine and the so called claim of Naziism. Putin’s need to cleanse that country. Let’s not talk about what China is doing to its Muslin population in the west. Hey, we are not much better in the white supremacy circles in this country. That is where Black-Lives-Matters comes in and all human rights. Naturally, hunger needs to be included as well.

Now where does population fits in? As I mentioned in a post, while I am not a Malthusian freak, I do believe that the earth has a carrying capacity. What I mean with this is that it can only support a limited number of people. What that will be or is, I have no idea. We are probably there already. I am for population control. Not mandatory, but birth control should be available to all and should be taught in school, so that everyone can make a sensible decision of their own. This includes a woman’s right to choose. Too many rats in a cage makes for wars and pandemics, the other word on my list.

Finally, the last word. The word I throw around a lot: Mindfulness. As regular readers and followers of my Instagram account know, I am a huge proponent of forest bathing or spending mindful time in the woods. I personally think that the interpersonal, health and mental health issues for a lot of people can be taken care of when we spend more time in nature. The world would be a better place. In addition, we would appreciate what is being done to the environment, our senses would calm down and we would become more peaceful. Can you just imagine Putin walking through the woods instead of sitting at one end of a very long table ordering to kill more Ukrainians?

So here you have it. My (not so new, somewhat borrowed) world ethics. I’ll be trying to live by them. Let me know yours, please!

We had a nice walk in Yorktown this weekend.  Spring had started and we enjoyed the spring flowers and the budding green.

I am upset (02/26/2022)

I am upset! Who wouldn’t be? As a lot of you, my readers know, I am politically opinionated when it comes to U.S. politics, but I usually stay quiet when it comes to international issues. But no longer!

This world has been plunged into a war that is completely unjustified and started to stroke someone’s bruised ego. Russia has invaded Ukraine under false pretexts. Supposedly, according to the Russian leader Ukraine is being led by neo-Nazis and that is a bizarre statement to claim of a Jewish president. I am sure there are much deeper reasons for the invasion, and there is no need to go into it in this blog. I just want to register my displeasure and anger with the situation.

I have been glued to the television and the news. I am extremely concerned about the situation in Ukraine. Now, since the publication of my blog, 2% of my readership has been from Ukraine, and they ranked 4th in countries of origin. My thoughts, prayers and solidarity are with you. I have to admit, 15% of my audience is from Russia (you guys ranked 2nd). My thoughts a, prayers and solidarity are with you who oppose this stupid war but are afraid to express yourself. We have heard the reports of arrests of protesters and opposers of the war. I realize you are being ruled by a ruthless dictator. May he rot in hell!!!

Cruel to be Kind (2/4/2022)

Nick Lowe wrote the song with the same title of this post some time ago (1979) and somehow this week I was reminded of at least the title. Then came a poll from George Washington University that I saw on TV where one of the statistics was that Republicans’ (or conservatives) dearest value was freedom while for Democrats (or liberals) it was ethics (and civility). This hits home for me very hard after what transpired this past week, but let me explain.

First, let’s look at Lowe’s lyrics. It starts out with:

“Oh I can't take another heartache
Though you say you're my friend, I'm at my wit's end
You say your love is bonafide, but that don't coincide
With the things that you do
And when I ask you to be nice, you say

You've gotta be cruel to be kind, in the right measure
Cruel to be kind, it's a very good sign
Cruel to be kind, means that I love you, baby”

These first few words of this love song are enough but the words “cruel to be kind“ are repeated over and over. What happened this week? Monday morning when walking my dog Jasper in the woods behind our home, I discovered that someone with 4-wheelers or ATVs had gone into the woods, driven the trails and torn through the Grafton pond that I have been following for the past 20 years, and probably shown you photographs of here in my blog. These ponds are habitat to the endangered Mabee’s salamander, barking tree frog, Harper’s fimbristylis and pond spice. Angrier and angrier looking at all the destruction I walked home. I called the game inspector for the park. She came to inspect the area and she later told me that the vandals destroyed four ponds. By the way, the area is posted; it tells visitors that no motorized vehicles are allowed and that we all need to stay on the trails.

At least the tracks were still visible in the snow that had fallen on Friday night.  You can see how high the water sometime is in the pond by the yellow pollen line near Jasper's tail in the bottom picture.

The inspector tell me that the culprits also went onto Federal (National Park Land) and this has become a Federal, State and local issue. She asked me who I thought it was that did this. Kids three houses down from us have been terrorizing the neighborhood with their ATVs and dirt bikes for the past weeks, I tell her. We were walking the woods on Sunday morning at 11, the woods were pristine, and just before we got home we heard the ATVs start up and the kids were leaving home on them. Around 4 pm when we took the dogs around the block the kids were pressure washing the ATVs in their driveway, the ATVs were covered with mud. I also told the inspector that this could all be circumstantial. She told me that law enforcement would definitely be on their way to check things out and talk to them and their parents.

I put a note with photographs on our development’s Facebook website about what had occured. I called the culprits vandals and called it vandalism. I mentioned that law enforcement was looking into the matter. I wanted to make sure that folks understood that the national park and the city park could easily deny us access to the area. I purposely never mentioned kids or what I told the inspector. I intended my note to be cruel to be kind and let the guilty or at least their parent soul search about what had transpired. I was also afraid that this incident would ruin it for us all and that we would be denied access to the woods. It brought out a few comments that wondered if it were the kids that were terrorizing the neighborhood with their ATVs, but mostly remarks about how terrible it was. But then it started, civility went out the window. Parents started to defend kids:

• They needed to be able to go outdoors
• We have all these natural areas behind our development but we can’t enjoy them (by the way, I enjoy it every day)
• They had no place to play with their ATVs around here
• Who are we to tell them what they can do and cannot do
• This is public land and should be open for all to us they see fit

Some folks became amazingly defensive of their kids, while in my post I deliberate did not accuse anyone and did not even hint at the fact that these kids were suspects. They became uncivil, abusive and in fact fighting for their freedom. This became particularly apparent when I asked the simple question: “so teach them (kids) they can get away with breaking the law and destroying the environment?” Here I saw exactly what I learned just now the difference between Republicans (65% of the electorate in our development) and Democrats (the other 35%), abusive and very vocal about freedom versus ethical, environmental and empathetic, respectively. You also saw whose kids did it; that the parent’s know it, they came out in a hurry and that they were trying to shelter them from the authorities.

At this point, I needed to stop all comments to my post and the administrator of our Facebook page had to remind folks of the rules of civility. Here I was trying to be protective of the environment and of people’s enjoyment of it; however, my post ended up to be too “cruel to be kind” (to some). That is why that song popped up in my head. It seems that we are increasingly loosing civility in our society and more polarized; another example of schismogenesis at work!

Schismogenesis (1/17/2022)

First a note, writing has been a bit more difficult these past few weeks. I broke my wrist, and typing is difficult (my way of breaking in the New Year). Even reading with one hand is tiring. So, I’ll be slowing down these two months but not stopping.

In all my reading, I learned a new word: “Schismogenesis.” The definition of schismogenesis is the creation of division. Interestingly, it was mentioned in a book I am reading where the authors are talking about things that went on in the 1700 and 1800s. But let me get back to the word. In sociolinguistics, a field I know absolutely nothing about, schismogenesis is defined as creating a split in a mutually aggravating way. Wow, isn’t that than the word that encapsule everything that the past year, maybe two, if not the past five years were all about?

How to explain schismogenesis. Let’s assume we are neighbors, and we compare our like and dislike of certain colors. I like blue and you like red. After a friendly discussion of our color preference the discussion gets that heated that we start accusing each other by the political parties that these colors represent, although the discussion was never started out that way, neither did we ever shared our political believe before. It got that bad that it eventually got to communist vs. fascist. The next day you paint the side of your house that faces me red and guess what? I paint my house blue. That is schismogenesis, a simple disagreement gone bad. 

In essence this is the story of our current political climate. We have gotten so polarized that no middle ground is possible. It is democrat against republican, red against blue, liberal against conservative. No compromise is possible any longer. It is disgusting and distressing. We can discuss who is to blame; and I am sure there we go again. In my liberal view it is the red-haired wannabe dictator/loser of the last elections. However, on his side, it is probably us the election stealers. Get the message? We need to ger back to civility and compromise and recognize schismogenisis when it is staring us in the face.

The proof is in the green cast.  I purposely choose a green one in solidarity with the environment and enxpress my concern about climate warming and the future direction that my state (Virginia) seems to be going in. 

I love to change the world (7/27/2020)

When I was young, much younger, I was an idealist with a goal to change the world. Don’t we all at some point have these aspirations. But then we grow up. I listened to tunes from Ten Years After where they sang in their song “I Love to Change the World:”

Tax the rich 
Feed the poor
Till there are no 
Rich no more 

And,

Population 

Keeps on breeding 

Nation bleeding 

Still more feeding, economy 

But then there was this refrain to the song:

I'd love to change the world 

But I don't know what to do 

So I'll leave it up to you 

For many of us it was a difficult thing to do, to change the world. We were flower children, peace, love, but what else?

I protested against the CIA’s involvement in Chile. My wife and I spent almost two years working at a leprosy center in Africa, after an obligatory period in the Dutch Army (I was too chicken to be a conscious objector, although I did my best to be as difficult as possible while serving). Did that change the world? Not in the tiniest bit, but in addition to almost losing our life, it made us feel we might have done something.

Then, after two more international development jobs, it was time to settle in for middleclass life, or as we sometime say in my native language little house, small tree and a small animal (or huisje, boompje, beestje). So here I am 40 to 50 years later, after living a middleclass lifestyle, nothing has changed, or maybe somethings have changed for the worst. I would still love to change the world; although I still am not sure how to do it. Here I sit back in my armchair and I am secretly encouraged to see that a different, younger generation seems to be taking it upon themselves trying to do something about it. Things like gay rights, gender equality, and now black lives matter.

I am far from disappointed with my almost 70 years of existence. Working for the government I have to change the world in a more subtle way, and I do that with my teaching. I have tried to do that a little bit in the blog posts that I have written in the past. While they were intended to be more educational about nature and the environment, a lot of my posts have become more political. Necessarily so, with such a horrible person in the Whitehouse.

I am hoping to have at least another 20 or so productive years to go. Twenty years where I have the freedom not to sit back, but to work on changing the world. Right now, I am wondering which of the causes to pick up. There are so many pressing ones. My first inclination as a biologist is to work fork for the environment. Without a clean environment there will be no future for the next generations. Moreover, environmental justice is a very important issue which touches the environment, children, poverty and racial minorities. Moreover, research by Richard Louv and others has shown that criminal behavior including gang affiliation can be reduced by exposure to the natural environment.

George Floyd or Black Lives Matter (6/1/2020)

I am upset. This country is being torn apart, hijacked by certain people, a noble cause is being drug through the mud, allowing dog whistles to fly.

Let me explain, I am white or Caucasian if you have not figured that one out yet. I was born in the darkest of Africa, the Congo. I often joke that this makes me an African American, although I have a distinct advantage of having a white skin color. I can only imagine what real African Americans go through.  I have actually been subject of reverse discrimination of which I write about here.  I grew up in the Caribbean and had white, brown and black friends. We did not see the difference (and this was in the 1960s). In my adult life, I worked in Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and on a Native American Reservation. Again, it acknowledged to me that we are all the same. We all put on our pants in the morning, one leg at a time. Currently, in front of our home we have a sign that reads “Black Lives Matter.” 

The sign in our front yard.  We got this at our church and we proudly show this in our front yard.  We get people stopping by, who tell us how much they like it.

I have not been blogging much lately, this Covid-19 business has gotten me down, but as you can probable surmise, the George Floyd murder and what is currently happening to this country is really upsetting me. Yes, I am as upset about it as everyone else. While I am against the death penalty, I almost wish the police officer would face a similar penalty: “death by knee strangulation.” What upset me almost as much was the video of one of the police officers quickly looking at the scene and then looking away.

What also upsets me is what followed. I really liked the nationwide demonstrations. They are needed to focus attention on what is happening to the black community and they are needed to bring social and political change. Boy, do we need social and political change (I might write about it later). However, I do not like the looting and the burning of buildings that accompanied it all.

Our church is on the border of a black, somewhat poor neighborhood, and since the outbreak of Covid-19 I think it was burglarized 3 times. In my mind and I have explained it to my wife by telling her that probably these folks cannot or have a hard time getting unemployment or even the stimulus check. To be able to survive they have to go to food pantries, food kitchens or rely on burglary. Case-in-point, the food was stolen out of the fridge at church, in addition to the laptop. So the looting of grocery stores maybe, but fancy sneaker stores, not really. In addition, it seems that there are right-wing agitators in the crowd that maybe egging them on or are really the Molotov cocktail throwers and fire starters. 

It was Dillan Root the white-supremacist Charleston Church killer, who hoped that his killing would “start the revolution.” Other white-supremacists were hoping their action would do the same thing. I am afraid that this is what the agitators are trying to do, assisted by Trump, who is sending dog whistle after dog whistle to his troops and supporters, and the failing Republican Party. We need to go back to peaceful protest and do the following things:

1. Elect Biden as our next president
2. When we do that, make sure that Biden selects a young, dynamic person as vice-president. Because, we all know that Biden will serve for one term and this person will be next. We need a new generation of leaders and thinkers in this country. I am a 66-year-old baby boomer and I realize it is time for new thinkers. Mayor Pete or a younger white or black male or female would be a good choice.  (I used to be a Klobuchar fan, but it seems that she did not prosecute the cop that killed George Floyd for a previous violation when she was the District Attorney).
3. Trow the republicans out of congress and the senate, they are obstructionists and cling to the old ideas of yesterday that don't work and have caused the situation we are in now (the riots and the Corona pandemic).
4. All these protesters should understand what Trump is doing, keep up the demonstrations (peacefully) and they should use the power of their vote to force social and political change. Get people registered and get people to the poles in November. Yes, Trump and his cronies are going to call them socialists or worse communist. Remember, he is in bed with Putin, the real communist dictator.

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.

2019 Here I come (1/9/2019)

It has been somewhat of a New Year's tradition of me to look back at the previous year, and even prognosticate a bit of what the new year may bring. I was not sure if I wanted to do that this year, but I got so many hits on last year's review in the recent days, that I almost felt I needed to do it again.  It seems that my readers are wondering what my thoughts are.

Breaking a little with the tradition, I want to tell you about the famous resolutions that people make at the beginning of the year. Well, I don't believe in them. Having been member of the YMCA in Cincinnati and now an active yoga practitioner at our community center, you see them come right after New Years, and after a month you are there again with the same crew for the remaining eleven months of the year. There may be a slight uptick in May or June, just before beach or pool season, but that's it.

My New Year's resolutions?

1. Not to die this year!
2. To be more active in preserving the environment.

These are my two major goals. That simple!

Goal number one needs little explanation. I hope it is something we all want. I have blogged about death and suicide before and I am not going there this time. I need to live to be able to work on and achieve goal number two! Naturally, I may stray so now and then, so be it!

Like this triple-trunked red maple in the woods behind my home I want to reach for the sky this year and work on fighting for the environment.  Teach folks more about it, talk more about it, before it is too late, and that time is rapidly coming.  This past year there has been an all-out assault on the environment by our political administration, supported by the far right, and industry.  In wetland science, we use this triple trunk is an indicator that the area it is growing in, is most likely a wetland.  Here, I am using it as an indicator that there is something very wrong with our environment.

So how about goal number two? In my eyes, the environment is under siege! As I also mentioned before, I absolutely do not understand those folks who used to scream about the federal budget and our children’s future but then are completely silent or sometimes blatant hostility when it comes to discussions about the environment and those same children. Although in today’s political climate those same folks are awkwardly silent when it comes to the budget and their offspring.

As a provider of environmental workshops I do my best to provide as much basic theoretical information as possible to my students; however, my reach is limited. In addition, with this blog I get between 200 and 400 hits per month. Not bad, but I wonder how many actually read them versus just browse it. I purposely do not advertise. Maybe I should; I wonder if the Googles of this world would send more folks my way, if I did? In addition, I would make a few cents. But for right now I’ll keep writing and trying to educate as many as possible (you all) about the beauty of nature and the importance of preserving and protecting nature. To me telling my readers a little bit about the science behind some of these things I see in nature is so important. I really think that this understanding helps people see the beauty, cultivates the love the love of nature and helps with the motivation to preserve nature.

So what am I going to do about preserving the environment? I hope to intensify my blogging effort about the environment. I will try not to be too political, but I will let the chips fall where they may. Regretfully, it seems that one political party seems to be more cavalier about protecting the environment than the other; I will keep calling them out. So be it! My wife encouraged me to volunteer a newspaper column on the environment. I am not sure if that would conflict with my job, and I am sure I could not make a living writing for the newspaper and from this blog, although that would be the ideal world. An occasional letter to the editor may work.

However, one thing is for sure we all need to roll up our sleeves and do something about our deteriorating environment before it's too late. Reports abound that tell us that our kids and grand-kids will suffer the consequences if we do not it serious and start taking drastic steps to protect the environment within the next few years. I want to be part of protecting this earth for them. It's the only one we they have!

I took this photograph this morning while walking in the woods.  I am lucky, my job allows me to telecommute.  This saves gasoline and saves the environment.  It is also good for my mental health.  The sun had just come up in the woods and I was ready to get to work.  Walks in the woods do a number of things for me: they help me focus on the day's task ahead; they help me think through things I am currently working on (like the course I am developing); the calm me inside and lower my blood pressure; and it is great exercise.  The rising sun against the trunks of the trees symbolize to me the intentions expressed in this post, my New Year's Resolutions.  Bring them on!

Living purposefully (10/20/2018)

Recently I shared the following quote on my Facebook page:

“Life is short. Make sure you spend as much time as possible on the Internet arguing with strangers about politics.” 

I can subtitle this as follows “how to live a life without a purpose.”

While I am personally very upset by the current stage of our politics, I am also at times a casual observer. Being a “first generation” US citizen, of late I could (and have) personally felt offended by the immigration policy of the Trump administration (see this post). Moreover, I have always wondered about the ethics of certain politicians especially their environmental, social and moral ethics. I don’t even want to go into questioning financial ethics. In other words, I am a progressive liberal and proud of it. But then, I often find it much more fun to be a casual outside observer and still have that foreign (“wow, this is fascinating/only in America”) streak. I can assure you that it sometimes frustrates my wife that I can just sit back and be amused by it all, instead of being angered by it.

One of the reasons of course is that some of the arguing is so artificial. We have learned that it was and is being stoked by the Russians, maybe the Chinese and probably other folks who have a stake in influencing what is going on around here. Recently we were told that the mid-term elections are not immune to meddling and the Russians are busy again. On top of that I heard the other day that even during our famous Kavanaugh hearings certain slang words for a favorite party girl of a football team were quickly altered in Wikipedia by his allies after the judge denied that the word really meant what it meant, but that it meant something else. All the sudden Wikipedia showed it also meant something endearing (the poster … a U.S. Republican Congress man … did not know that you actually leave a digital finger print on the site when you change something, with an email address and the date it was changed). In other words, while the Internet is great for certain things, we should take it with a healthy dose of skepticism, in particular when it is used to provoke or rile up the masses.

Why am I going here with this post? I somehow feel there must be some purpose to my life, other than this senseless, empty arguing over the internet about politicians and their chosen vocation. We only have a finite lifespan of give or take 75 years and why spend it on this crap? I am confronted daily by my mortality when I read the obituaries and see that a lot of the dead people are younger than me, and I really wonder: don’t we have anything better to do, like actually improving this world or at least our lives? The purpose of life may remain elusive, but we might as well make the best of it. Some philosophers think we are part of a giant computer simulation built by an alien race. As someone put it, we might be a surrealistic punchline in a cosmic joke. Who knows, but we might as well enjoy it and let it play out (instead of fighting each other on Facebook or Twitter).

So, what is the purpose of my life, or what do I think it is or would hope it is? Oh, so many philosophers have thought and argued about that one and it this is not my place to do this with you. Neither is it to argue with folks over the Internet about who is wrong or right about politics, nor is it my task to tell people how to live their lives, unless it is unethical. The easy way out would be to assume that I am part of that computer simulation, then it does not matter would it? Think about it, we could start over again (or they could start the program over again), if it failed.

Personally, I have always hoped to leave the world intellectually a little richer place when I depart it, hopefully a little longer than three quarters of a century after I came from almost nothing (just two cells that my parents contributed) but I will definitely disappear into nothing. Political arguments over Facebook do not contribute to intellectual enrichment. But like everyone else I stumble so now and then. However, this is the philosophy that has guided my life and career path. Somehow, I felt that I cannot do this by being stuck in an area the size of a few square miles for the rest of my life and fight with a group of ignorant brainwashed folks who believe that a charlatan billionaire who was born with a silver spoon in his mouth is actually looking out for them. I want to absorb life to the fullest and then share these experiences with the people around me, my friends, loved ones and the students I teach; folks that matter. It seems that many of my students appreciate it, which is exactly one of the things that gives purpose to my life. I realize that these things I share are experiences that directly relate to the classes that I teach. The ugly stories such as being held at gunpoint in Uganda can only be shared with friends and loved ones. But still they contribute to who I have become and what I believe in; it has given me a more worldly view and a purpose to fulfill, as opposed escape into opioids, other pain killers such as alcohol, mindless television sit-comes, sport shows, or screaming at the TV while watching news shows on Fox news or even CNN and MSNBC; a life unlived, purposeless.

I paint a picture of a grim life. Boy, I paint with broad brush strokes today my friends, and I sincerely hope you have something that floats your boat. Whether it is politics or another hobby, make sure it gives your life a purpose. Most important to me are my family, my bonsai trees, my sailboat, my ability to bike and nature. As you can see the overriding factor in my life that brings me peace and quiet is being outside, being one with the natural world. 

My escape into the woods and away from all the crap around me.  It was cold this week and the ponds behind our home were giving of a faint mist. Serenely at last!

Remember; however, even for me there are political causes important enough to get excited about. I have participated in the Women’s March on Washington, the March for Science, and the March for our Kids (for gun control). I have canvassed for Obama and for Hillary and will canvass for the mid-terms as well. I have however, mostly given up arguing with strangers or with friends (acquaintances) on the Internet (read Facebook). I even checked out of Facebook for 3 months right after the presidential elections. I still try to overtly preach my love for the natural world, evolution and climate change in my classes even though some roll their eyes. All causes I believe in and will do my utmost for. In the hope to educate and change a mind or two and leave this world a little richer after spending my short little time on it.

Gaslighting (8/3/2018)

Wow, one of those verbs I never thought I would write a blog post about. But is seems to become a more commonly used word. So common that my wife told me the other day: “You are trying to gaslight me.” Thanks goodness she was using it more tongue in cheek, but boy we have come a long way, that we use this in our common intercourse between people.  (Warning for those of you expecting one of my regular blog posts, this one is a bit more political than others, so be forewarned! )

Where does the term come from? Gaslighting comes from a play “Gas Light” which was made into the 1944 movie “Gaslight.” In this movie a husband tries to convince his wife that she is insane by trying to change little things around her and trying to convince her she is just imagining it. He did this trying to save his ass after murdering the lady in the upstairs apartment. Not that I am that old, but I remember watching it. It seems that “gaslighting” came into vogue as a term in the 1960s to describe efforts to manipulate someone's perception of reality. 

From the movie "Gaslight"

And here we are today. The term gaslighting is so commonplace now, it is scary. But let’s look at it in more detail. This is what an online article in Psychology Today that was posted on January 22, 2017, says about people who gaslight:

1. They tell blatant lies,
2. They deny they ever said something, although you have proof,
3. They use what is near and dear to you as ammunition,
4. They wear you down over time,
5. Their actions do not match their words,
6. They throw in positive reinforcement to confuse you,
7. They know confusion weakens people,
8. They project,
9. They try to align people against you,
10. They tell others that you are crazy, and
11. They tell you everyone else is a liar.

That is a lot to digest isn’t it?  It is usually something one person does to another, but I have a feeling we have reached a point where one person can do this to a nation.  Scary, in particular since we just witnessed the use of the majority of these bullets after the meeting of our president with the president of Russia. Truthfully, it is not the first time I have felt gaslighted in the current political climate. For example, terms like fake news and fake press fit in bullets 4, 7, 8, 9 10, and 11.

Some additional observation about gaslighting, (I borrowed the bullets and some of the discussion from this article):

1. Gaslighting does not necessarily has to be deliberate. We see this all the time. For example, when an African American person (read male) was killed by a police man. In the past nobody seemed to care, except his family of course. He was either armed, on drugs, had a record, was deranged, reached for a gun; and society blindly accepted it. We were gaslighted by stereotype. It was the killing of Trayvon Martin and the Black Lives Matter Movement that changed this or at least is trying to change it. It is about time that we are wondering and fighting this apathy when it comes to all those police killing (yes some might have been justified, but a lot of them were not).  The problem is that we are now experiencing push back from people who have been thoroughly gaslighted.  However, remember, as we saw in the Psychology Today list; gaslighting is most often done deliberately. 
2. Gaslighting aims to changes a person character, the trust in them self and experience of reality; while simple manipulation just only changes self-esteem. Scary isn’t it? I am sorry, but you have to look at some of the most recent political rallies and the vicious attacks on what they call the “fake press” or the killing in Charlottesville to see how the character of a group of people has been changed by a gaslighter. 
3. Gaslighting does not always involve anger or intimidation; it can be and often is much subtler. It seems that some gaslighters will shower their victims with special attention but never give them all the attention they need. In bullet 6 of the Psychology Today article the describe it as keeping the victim off-kilter. Other gaslighters will act like they are the victim. Whatever is their modus operando, gaslighters are able to change their victim’s memory, perception of reality and truth (bullets 2, 4, 5 and 7 from above). 
4. It is normal to forget things and gaslighters can easily manipulate your memory. This is what I teach in my classes; I tell my students to “document, document, document.” I tell them I don’t remember what I had for dinner two or three days ago. 
5. There may be three (3) stages to the gaslighting process: 
• You know they are ridiculous, 
• You consider their view, and then 
• You consider their view as normal and lose your ability to make your own judgement.
• Boy, this gets interesting these politically charged days. There was a tweet from our President the other day, telling the attorney general to stop the Russia investigation. This is a direct order and any jury would consider this obstruction of justice. In the past we all thought his tweets were ridiculous, his allies then considered his views, and now his allies don’t even question what he tweeted or even defend him. This is a pure case of gaslighting in my eyes.
• Now I just learned that he told a rally that Putin did not want him to win, while during the press conference Putin said he did (bullets 1 and 2; the first two steps in the process of gaslighting us on a new item or lie isn't it?).
6. Concluding, gaslighters do not give a crap about you, they do not see you. Gaslighters are pure narcissists. 

So what do we do about being gaslighted on a personal level or as a nation?  On a personal level it seems that you don’t win by confrontation; however, you win by ignoring a gaslighter.  Naturally, you need to be strong enough not to be influenced by that person, or not allow him or her to influence you.  

I enjoy watching Morning Joe in MSNBC in the morning  (that is when I have the time).  However, I wonder if Joe and Mika have the right approach.   Naturally they partially sell entertainment, but they desperately try to get under the president's skin.  I wonder what would happen of they completely ignore him for a week and not mention him?  I wonder what would happen if we would do that as a country?  If all the reporters and news networks would not cover him for a week, would he self-destruct?  That would be one way of allowing him not to gaslight us, even only for a week.

Between every two pines is a doorway to a new world (2/21/2018)

It was Henry David Thoreau who wrote: “When I would recreate myself, I seek the darkest wood, the thickest and most impenetrable and to the citizen, most dismal, swamp. I enter a swamp as a sacred place, a sanctum sanctorum… I seemed to have reached a new world, so wild a place…far away from human society. What’s the need of visiting far-off mountains and bogs, if a half-hour’s walk will carry me into such wildness and novelty.” There is such a richness in this phrase that I want to sit back and take it apart.

The words “recreate myself” did he mean recreation as going on vacation or what we do in the present like going for a walk. Or, on the other hand, did he actually wanted to start from scratch and reinvent himself; did he have enough of it all and start all over again? Is this the same concept? 

What did he do? He entered nature; the darkest woods, the thickest, and most impenetrable. Something he calls a sanctum sanctorum that is far away from human society, but only a half hour away.

It seems though, that this is what Thoreau needed to recharge when he needed to get away from the craziness of the world and everything around him. It is in those woods that he had his cabin and spend a year as a monk living and observing and writing about the novelty.

Nina Beth Cardin wrote in the Bay Journal about her changing views of nature, which she calls enchantment. Her love deepened after learning more about what she was actually seeing in her back yard. As she describes it the trees, lichens, fungi, and later on from splitting and burning wood.

The phrase “Knowledge is Power” is often attributed to Francis Bacon, and readers of my blog know that I have quoted him (and this particular phrase) before, but I think Ms. Cardin shows evidence of that. A deeper knowledge and understanding of what you see often enhances the enjoyment. I am sure this is what Thoreau experienced and many others do too when they learn more about a subject. Anyway, this is one of the objectives of my blog. While I do not want to be too school-teacher-like in my blogs, I do hope that I can help some of you understand some of my love for nature, for biology, ecology and the environment in general. The other night in yoga, we had to concentrate on a word on what we wanted to think about ourselves and the first word that came to mind was educator.

Why is this so important to me? I like to mirror what Ms. Cardin quoted the botanist Liberty Hyde Bailey who wrote 100 years ago: “One does not act rightly toward one’s fellows if one does not know how to act rightly toward the earth.” I too strongly believe in the importance of the inner connectedness that we humans have with the earth and nature. When stressed and upset, going into the woods is my way of de-stressing; forest bathing is such an important thing for me. Yes there are the volatile chemicals (phytoncides) breathe in, but there is so much more. John Muir wrote: “Between every two pines is a doorway to a new world.” When I spend time in nature I enter a different place every step I take I enter that new world and I renew, recreate inside; the worries of world slide off my shoulders.

"Between every two pines is a doorway to a new world" (John Muir)

All I can say is: go out and enjoy nature. Yes, it is more fun when you know what you are looking at, but you don’t have to. More important is to let nature come over you. You may need to protect yourself against bugs, but in most cases that is the scariest thing you'll encounter. Go ahead ask me questions about nature, I will try to answer in the hope to increase your enjoyment of nature. But remember, you can enter that new world too and it does not have to be two pines!

2017, so be it! (12/29/2017)

Trying to keep up with my annual tradition of looking back at the past year and forward to the new, I like to reflect it was an interesting one behind me.  Whether it was just from a personal side, my political outlook on things or social.

Kind of my up-your's world photograph.  This branch obviously died but hung on and is slowly being encapsulated by the tree.  We can all criticize our life, the world, etc, but we are here and this is our only life.  We might as well enjoy it and make the best of it.  

Readers of my blog know I am a liberal, I attend a liberal church and most of my friends on my social networking sites are liberal.  A lot of those friends (or acquaintances) are very vocal and my wife and I joke sometimes that at times the stuff they post on their walls must be fake news.  I tend the shy away from expressing myself too strongly on my walls, or even here on my blog.  For a lot of my friends the sky is falling.  For me the glass is still half full, but as I mentioned in my blog, we need to be vigilant.  I am an environmentalist, a forest bather, and a lover of water.  As someone who has lived in Africa, Asia and the Middle East in countries ruled by dictators, I have seen what could happen if the press gets censored by demagogues.  My father fought the Nazis and had PTSD for life.  We need to protect what we have! So be it!

So how was 2017.  Hey, I grew older.  At work I taught more than 55 odd workshops during the past year.  That is more than one a week on average.  I usually do two per week, which means I was on the road, teaching somewhere almost every other week.  I really enjoy teaching, so it is OK.  A male colleague once told me that a successful day of teaching is like having good sex: "you are exhausted after it, but you feel oh-so satisfied."  The growing older comes in with the recovery time after a day of solo teaching and traveling, it takes a lot longer.  A perk is all the hotel points that I am accumulating, that is a nice fringe benefit.  So be it!

2018 does not look much different.  More teaching, but first getting used to cubicle life.  My office moved and I am going from an office with a door into a cubicle.  Which is why I got headphones, Amazon Prime music and Google Music to drown them all out.  But I get a desk that can be turned into a standing desk with a switch, and we learned last year that sitting is the new smoking.   The new location will also impact my lunch walks, but I'll adapt, so be it!

Environmentally we have taking a few steps back this past year.  But that is only as a country.  I learned that other countries are trying to step up to compensate for our regression.  I also know that a lot of individuals are stepping up to the plate.  I for one learned about forest bathing, and if you want to experience that then you'll have to be spiritual but also environmental.  In 2016 I championed the term "Nature Deficit Disorder."  This term encompasses forest bathing, or one way to address the disorder is by getting out there in nature.  We just need to take care of our little piece of nature since our elected government does want to do it right now.  All I can do is try to learn and grow.  So be it!

On the subject of learning.  I discovered a great website.  Aeon.co is a great site with essays about a variety of subjects and even some short video presentations.   I find in refreshing and fun.  I am also listening to a fair number of podcasts.  I know I am scratching the surface here, but it is a great learning experience.  So much better than television or radio.  I particularly enjoy: The Hidden Brain and Reply All.  For the rest my Kindle App is a godsend, I read and write.  I will never stop learning and that will hold true for 2018.  So be it!

I have also really gotten back into my bonsai trees.  Some of them are almost 30 years old and have been ignored for some time.  Getting back into it has been really relaxing for me and it does wonders for my brain.  However, I hate to report that I have not sailed or biked enough.  There is just not enough time in the weekend to get all my hobbies in and mow the lawn.  I live a full life, I hardly have time to watch TV.  So be it!

In my study of trees, I was struck to see how this vine strangled this tree.  In bonsai we use wire to bend branches and we are always concerned about leaving wire marks.  Well this is the ultimate wire mark.  To me it also shows that too much training or restriction is not always the best, we need to go with the flow.  Don't let you preconceived ideas restrict you!

Even politically things are looking up.  I think people are seeing and understanding that civility is important in public discourse.  After a year of twitter barrages many of the voters are saying enough is enough.   I don't care if it is left or right, what I would like to see is compromise and dialogue.  If we need to do that through the ballot box in 2018, so be it!

Finally, at home.  We celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary this year with a trip to Newfoundland.  I wrote a few posts about it in late June and July.  Celebrating those achievements and our friends will be an important item in the future. That is what will keep us young and alive.  So be it!

I do not often show pictures of me and my family on my blog, but this is the happy 40-year married couple at the terracotta warrior exhibit in Richmond this week.

As you can see, my glass is half full.  Yes, it can be better, but I appreciate what I have, and look forward to what is ahead.  So be it!

These are the 9 pictures on my Instagram site that got the most likes in 2017.  As I mentioned in my post 7 had to do with nature,  two with water and boating, two with Newfoundland,  and 6 were taken in the woods behind our home.