Here is an older article of mine which i have resurrected from a blog on the web.Posted in Dec 2007 on lamarguerite.
So much has changed Casey's has moved uphill, friends moved to country, cars sold, children graduated or married..much of life used and re-purposed, so here is one blog post reused for comparison..
Thought Soup, an Environmental BlogAct by Nadine Sellers
December 3, 2007 by lamarguerite
One day, Nadine surfaced
in my blogging existence, and graced my blog with one of the most poetic
comments I have ever come across. That was a few months ago. Since
then, I have had the privilege of discovering her oh so inspiring poems
and thought provoking pieces of prose. Nadine Sellers
is a French writer… an observer of nature and mankind, a healer by
profession, a teacher by avocation. After years in the desert West she
is now living the writer’s perennial hope, sculpting a novel out of
empiric survival and adventure. As she settles in the plains of the
American Midwest, Nadine is in the process of crystallizing a lifelong
passion for living, into an artful translation of ecological concern.
Nadine brings science and literature into a blend of experimental
exposé. You may find this fledgling project in Greenadine, verdigrass, her new blog, the inspiration for which arose from perusing green blogs and finding La Marguerite. just like that! out of the –green.
Six centuries BC. Lao Tsu wrote a set of basic
principles which would simplify the relationship of man and nature.
Succeeding philosophies have led us to an environmental impasse. Each
moral cycle has spiraled mankind into poorly applied reasoning, and so
man has lost his equilibrium. It will take good will and a lot of
resolve to restore balance. Science has met with resistance ever since
duality fostered a climate of rebellion in the mind of men.
” Knowing ignorance is strength, ignoring knowledge is sickness” from the Tao Te Ching.
As a lifelong amateur naturalist, i have found myself
submerged by mounting evidence dooming personal efforts to irrelevancy.
But wait! Before i drown in a nihilistic ocean of self pity, do allow
me time to shake myself from defeatist complacency. The very nature
which seeds doubt in mind, also offers enough resilience to adapt to
changing conditions. As data streams in faster than laymen can fathom,
the rest of us find the vestiges of old instincts kicking in under more
than a century of industrial indoctrination.
Wherever i live, i seem to meet inveterate negaholics
who refuse to admit there may be a causal factor to climate change. I
have not confronted them publicly, but have met them within the ranks of
family or friends. They question my way of life, very generously
commenting on my apparent miserliness; Why do you save this? Just throw
it out, nobody cares. Why bother, you’ll be dead before it becomes a
problem. The list stretches beyond comprehension. So i use the wall
strategy: when confronted, walk slowly around the bricks, actions speak
louder than arguments. And then i write.
Resistance to change seems to drag the efforts of
many a socio-economic level to adjust their consumption patterns.
According to incoming scientific data, It appears to stem from an
aversion to authority. The teacher, the preacher, the tax collector, and
now some stranger wants them to give up the Trans-Am in the back-yard,
and quit using the dual wheel monster truck to go to get a pack of
cigarettes at the corner store? Clearly a clash of cultures here.
I live in the Midwest and yesterday, i saw the first
cloth bag prominently displayed at the grocery store: “paper or plastic?
Neither” boasted the printed logo. And i knew this tiny town had heard
the drummer of the future. Of course the resident Amish culture slows
the competitive edge of progress, and i appreciate it. Respect for the
horse drawn carriage on the highway teaches necessary patience.
Simplicity and conservatism can be useful attributes in the conflict of
man versus Gia.
There is a symbiotic relationship between spenders
and savers in this, our biosphere. The insurmountable pile of evidence
which dooms our puny efforts, also gives rise to new hope. In the most
mundane of gestures you will find tiny treasures of personal pride. I
write this first draft with a plastic pen, the logo claims “fire and
water damage clean-up”, how relevant. The paper which i use to scratch
out my outlines on, results from an apparent leak in the marketing
strategies of junk-mail zealots. Any blank space is an invitation to
real use, then the paper kindles my fire, added BTU for hearth and home.
No waste in this household. I don’t play games with my conscience, no
carbon trade-off mentality, not even a shade of humor in my staunch
resolve to optimize the use of every resource available to me.
It is a game; a challenge to my imagination. I must
find just one more way to use and re-use each product for which i am
essentially grateful. Of course in the trial and error field of empiric
savings, there have been casualties. Just yesterday, my innovative
soupe-du-jour turned out so blahh, i had to prematurely commit it to the
compost pile, much to my palate’s dismay. What a waste of a perfectly
good Halloween pumpkin! It was the last stringy crop of turnips that ruined it
all.
Out here in the back room of convenience, i ride the
comfort zone. Bicycles parked in the garage for winter. Gas heater
plugged in as nocturnal back-up to the fireplace. Electric appliances at
the ready, though manual versions preferred. I console myself with the
fact that the town council has voted for the installation of a wind farm
upon the hill. How romantic, they’re going to grow some wind; i like
local utilities, i prefer the ones which make responsible choices to
produce energy from sustainable sources. And let me tell you, the winds
around the prairie states are indeed sustained.
Entrenched in semi solid autonomy, i view
governmental leadership as entertaining rather than worthy of worship.
It saddens me to watch the mainstream throng catering to corporate
idealism. When elected officials downplay irrefutable research and steer
their constituency toward run away consumerism, i find my easy chair
much too confining. If ecological concerns are relegated to dishonorable
status beneath the lofty goals of economic growth, we could destroy
entire biomes across the planet. We have. We continue to do so.
Readers, take heed from the Indonesian Government; a
communique from Jakarta informs us that the Bali summit which is to
begin Monday Dec. 3rd will be taking measures to save tons of carbon
emissions. I can envision 190 international ministers and assorted
staffs commuting by bicycle between meetings and workshops. The whole
motley group followed by as many journalists and servants. All are
cautioned to wear light clothing and short sleeves. Representatives of
the United Nations Climate Change Consortium should not mind applying
their own advice.
From this green segment of the map, i wish to extend a
sense of communal spirit. I derive existential satisfaction from
exchanging experience, be it mundane or universal. May the current steer
us away from blind consumption, and toward true appreciation of our
nature. I do believe it is in the acquired taste of a simple glass of
water. Drink up to the new greens and the old ones too!.
02-2015
House sold, new one restored, old garden mowed, new one inspired, old car to new owner, old Casey to parking lot, the horse and buggy remain valid, one more birthday and the wind still blows in Albany!
