Dear Fellow Earth Dwellers,
My thoughts are jumbled. (More so than usual? Frequent readers may ask.) Karen’s father, the family patriarch, recently passed. The gathering of family and friends lending support and offering tribute to a life well lived of course evokes a wide range of emotions and thoughts.
His passing occurred as this winter of record-bending warmth draws to a close. At the same time, incredibly, our newly appointed Environmental Protection Agency director publicly contradicts the over-whelming scientific consensus that human-caused global warming is a reality. (Honestly now, does he truly think he has a better understanding of this scientifically technical topic than does every major scientific association worldwide?) Couple all of that with an urge to write about several remarkably encouraging reports detailing the exponential growth of the renewable energy industry including progress right here in Iowa County. So my jumbled thoughts flit from one direction to another in search of a unifying theme for a piece of writing that might have some merit.
Perhaps that theme is buried in words previously shared – those compiled as I’d struggled to find a different sort of guiding anchor. And so I offer this re-visit of a response to the question, “Why bother with the struggle to maintain a sustainably balanced world?”
Why bother? Crystal clear evening walks with the entire universe shining down… a riot of chickadees, juncos, and cardinals dancing around the feeders… the bite of winter winds on your face… a multitude of snow geese winging their way north… springtime’s smell of damp earth released at last from frost’s frozen clasp… an ocean teeming with life – each crashing wave making music with beach pebbles as it recedes… alfalfa and clover’s fresh-cut fragrance… maple leaves showing off an impossible array of colors before answering once again to winter’s call.
These are but a few of the “whys” leading us down a wise pathway. And we breathe in these simple earthy treasures. They are among the soul-filling reasons to work anew so that those who follow can also intimately experience these worldly pleasures. We’re reminded that the only home our children will ever know is right here; there is no other. Our privilege and obligation is to pass on a balanced and genuinely sustainable environment because they will always be forever…Earthbound.
My thoughts are jumbled. (More so than usual? Frequent readers may ask.) Karen’s father, the family patriarch, recently passed. The gathering of family and friends lending support and offering tribute to a life well lived of course evokes a wide range of emotions and thoughts.
His passing occurred as this winter of record-bending warmth draws to a close. At the same time, incredibly, our newly appointed Environmental Protection Agency director publicly contradicts the over-whelming scientific consensus that human-caused global warming is a reality. (Honestly now, does he truly think he has a better understanding of this scientifically technical topic than does every major scientific association worldwide?) Couple all of that with an urge to write about several remarkably encouraging reports detailing the exponential growth of the renewable energy industry including progress right here in Iowa County. So my jumbled thoughts flit from one direction to another in search of a unifying theme for a piece of writing that might have some merit.
Perhaps that theme is buried in words previously shared – those compiled as I’d struggled to find a different sort of guiding anchor. And so I offer this re-visit of a response to the question, “Why bother with the struggle to maintain a sustainably balanced world?”
Why bother? Crystal clear evening walks with the entire universe shining down… a riot of chickadees, juncos, and cardinals dancing around the feeders… the bite of winter winds on your face… a multitude of snow geese winging their way north… springtime’s smell of damp earth released at last from frost’s frozen clasp… an ocean teeming with life – each crashing wave making music with beach pebbles as it recedes… alfalfa and clover’s fresh-cut fragrance… maple leaves showing off an impossible array of colors before answering once again to winter’s call.
These are but a few of the “whys” leading us down a wise pathway. And we breathe in these simple earthy treasures. They are among the soul-filling reasons to work anew so that those who follow can also intimately experience these worldly pleasures. We’re reminded that the only home our children will ever know is right here; there is no other. Our privilege and obligation is to pass on a balanced and genuinely sustainable environment because they will always be forever…Earthbound.
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