I write mostly about life here at the base of Green Mountain at Golden Unicorn Farm where I live with my wife Sarah and her two daughters and all is quite well. We have a nice old house, combined studio, garage and barn, plus 50 beautiful acres, much of it forested - nothing like where we had been living in Nanaimo, BC or what we could have had if we had remained there. Our lifestyle has changed slightly but not so much that it is a drastic contrast to the way we had been living. I'm still turning out the odd sign, Sarah is creating the occasional website; like most other people, we're still connected to the world via a transparent umbilical cord to the Internet. Unfortunately, we are still in some ways much like many of our forefathers such as good old Chrissy boy (Christopher Columbus) who first came to the Atlantic shores of North America and just brought all his dirty old laundry and baggage with him from the "old world". Instead of concentrating on a fresh new beginning, we're caught up wasting much of our time on Facebook, Twitter, MSN, etc. or playing games with strangers from a long "Friends" list, thinking or even believing they're actual friends when nothing could be further from the truth. In actuality as one travels through life, one could consider themselves to be very lucky if they have acquired one to three actual good friends along the way, people who genuinely and earnestly care about them.
Many people believe we are in the grasp of the "Great Satan" and he is bringing about the deliberate destruction of our planet, the only place we are able to exist in the known Universe. And some believe that the cure all is God and that He will be our "Great Saviour" and whether or not those two beings exist, I don't really have a clue. However, that being said, being an actual participant as a human being, I know that good and evil exists within me and I have a choice to choose which course to follow. During different periods of my life I have gone down both roads and it wasn't difficult to see, which road was the best one to follow. The road that made me feel good about myself was naturally the "good" road to travel - the "bad" road for the most part made me feel ashamed of myself. And that's the part I don't get about many of us humans but then ignorance, which is a very common denominator in the majority of our species isn't allowing us to see the "good" road from the "bad" road.
Very close to where we are living, the forest is being leveled; the trees being taken, mere twigs of their eventual growth were they allowed to live that long. The men operating the machinery and chain saws, being manipulated by the government and big business, see only a pay check, a way to pay the bills and raise a family - it's sad that they don't see the legal thievery they're committing; the natural legacy for their children or their children's children soon to be gone forever. And, when the trees are gone, which will eventually happen one day because nothing lasts forever, when their annihilation is exploited to such a devastating degree; what will be left to sell on the green rolling hills of New Brunswick? And on the bigger picture, the larger scale in Canada, I understand if the Texans get their way, they will have control of the oil sands and the production will be of such a high scale that the environment and the weather (we all know is declining very drastically) is going to plummet to a level that will most likely be catastrophic not only to the entire human race but to every living inhabitant upon the face of the earth.
This is the only world that can sustain our lives in the entire Universe, even the closest star that we can observe, which is many, many light years away can't sustain life as we know it - just imagine, there may not be another planet in the entire Universe where we can live and with that in mind, why are we so hell-bent on destroying our only real home; is the human race suicidal; that certainly separates us from the animals; doesn't it? They kill for sustenance but not themselves.
For almost the last 30 years, I've tried to leave as little of a footprint as I'm able; giving up driving my motorcycle (actually gave it away one day) forcing myself to walk more and by living on a sailboat in a very small space for almost 25 years, I discovered my needs were not so many as living in a house - I mean where would I put all that crappy-tacky junk from the Dollar Store that China sells us from their child labour resources - my gosh - we white men used to laugh at the Indians for trading their furs and lands for beads and baubles and now it's our turn; who are the biggest fools?
The writing is on the wall, there are signs everywhere, alarm bells sounding our demise - I don't know why we humans, who consider ourselves oh so smart, our own brilliance and egos out-shining the Sun, can't put a stop to our planet's destruction. Instead of breathing crappy air, drinking foul water, eating modified, scientifically manipulated food; why can't we say no to that shit? Are we like dumb sheep following one another over a deep chasm, plunging upon the rocks of despair and then watching our life's blood and our children's blood seeping away? They say, "War is hell" but what is happening now, will soon be worse than any war that's ever occurred upon this Earth! That is, if we don't stand up and say, "No! No dammit! We've had enough; we aren't going to live this way anymore!" Cheers -eh!
It is sad to see the trees cut down. Look at a clearcut patch 5 years later, and you will see many new young trees growing. Consider that many of the treed areas in New Brunswick now are former farms that had been clearcut many years ago and have since been reclaimed by forest. Just go tramping through the bush and see the rock walls that are a testament to what was accomplished with horses and oxen, long before diesel-guzzling tractors and feller-bunchers. Mother Nature will be around long after we have vacated the premises, and will push hard to repair the mess we have made.
ReplyDeleteI realize the trees grow back in time, but it's just not normal for a forest to be clearcut in such a manner - only forest fires are normal or perhaps nature's way of renewing a large forest. Our 50 acres was logged 10 years ago but the stumps that can be seen tells me that it was selectively logged - only the larger trees were cut down. The back end of our property is quite rough, rocky and steep but like you say about the horses and rock piles - the remnants of those logging days of old can still be seen. A friend of mine down the road lives near a spot where trees were planted in rows for later harvesting and he says the birds don't go near them. Also, the forest across the road from us was clearcut a few years before we arrived and still there are no birds living there. I guess the problem with logging these days is that because of the modern equipment used, very large forests dissapear more rapidly than it will take to restore them. I guess what bothers me the most about the logging, fishing and other industries is what happens when they become like the buffalo - will we really have to pay "a buck just to see-um in a tree museum"?
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