It's a beautiful morning; birds are singing; chickens are cackling - a person would almost think it was spring time and of course in this case, at the base of Green Mountain, Fosterville; it just might be. We seem to get 2 months spring, 2 months summer, 2 months autumn and then, dang it all anyway, 6 months winter. And the hell of it is, during those first four months of rather enjoyable weather, the skeeters, black flies and noseeums are so blasted thick, a tender morsel like meself just doesn't care to go outdoors, which of course, regrettably, I just have to do. After my wife and I clambered into bed last night; she, beat from baking, scooping ice cream and jawing with the customers in her little country bistro; me, beat from working on the baby-barn in the heat and were about to shut our eyes, the heavens opened up with such a thunderous down pour, it was difficult to drift off to the world of dreams and occasional nightmares. The sun is just a sparkling away and I know I should be outside working on the baby-barn but before I feel the sweat trickling down my back and filling my jeans, think I'll just have a little down-time and let my fingers do a wee tap dance on the keyboard for awhile.
I've been thinking about my big bro Larry lately and some of the times we've had together over the years. Since quite a few of my readers seem to live on the friendly isle of Newfoundland (which I've never been - that and PEI being the only 2 provinces I haven't trod upon and Labrador - even been to the Yukon, NW Territories and Nunavut), thought I'd write about the time I was living in Calgary; so this blog is for you.
I was a young man then, just a slight tippy-toe over 30, when Larry pulled into my place leading a caravan, which consisted of three vans full of happy hippy-types on a cross-Canada tour. Well, Larry has always had a way of showing up with some new bottle of booze that he just loves to share and on this hot summer day, the bottle of choice was Newfoundland Screech and I believe it was either 80 or 90 proof.
Yee-ha! - talk about a slap your ribs, rattle your tonsils, burn your throat, explode in your guts bottle of hooch that was. Now, I don't know how one is supposed to imbibe a bottle of that type of high-octane booze but in my opinion, there should have been a lable pasted to it saying, "Drink at Your Own Risk". The way we were knocking it back was straight and by the cap full, a Newfie snoot-full-shooter, no less. And of course, just to add a little excitement to our little gathering of bearded-men and our female partners, we set the cap afire - blazing shooters that almost made your eyes roll up into your head every time you knocked one back. Things went well for a short time, until a long-haired hippy with a full black beard that my brother had picked up along the way was so drunk, he was unable to stand or talk in a meaningful fashion any longer, sort of slowly sipped at the blazing cap and set his moustache and beard on fire. I don't know if my brother knocked him cold as he smacked away at his head, trying to put out the fire or if he just passed out; one shot of Newfoundland Screech too many, but he just sort of slid down on the floor and flicked about like a dead snake for a few moments before he began sleeping it off.
I guess we must have had the tunes blazing away as well because sometime during the night, my business workshop being the place of untold entertainment and lies, two constable showed up and wanted to know what we were up to. Luckily, we had just disposed of the hot knives; in those days, LSD, weed and hash being mind-altering stimulants, seeing we weren't really causing any harm and I was the owner of the building, they just asked us to turn down the music before they left. Other than the hippy setting his face on fire, I just don't seem to be able to recollect any more of that evening; I imagine the countless caps of Newfoundland Screech is the reasoning for my lack of memory. However, I do remember it was a fun filled evening and I almost wished I could have accompanied my big bro on his cross-Canada trip because I'm sure it would have been a blast, which he later told me, they had a great time, although. because his hippy hitch-hiker with half his beard burnt off didn't contribute anything to the trip, other than eating their grub and helping himself to their delightful treats, he dropped him off somewhere along the highway, so he could find someone else to mooch off.
On my wedding day, Larry showed up with a bottle of Absinthe but that's another story - cheers, eh!
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
Thursday, July 12, 2012
DAVID SUZUKI'S - THE LEGACY - CONCLUSION
I can hear the monotonous drone of heavy machinery just down the road at our neighbour's place. It is being used to load the logging trucks that have been continually hauling away the trees that were cut down last winter, much of the land near the top of Green Mountain clear-cut. When the contractor has been led to believe he is managing the forests properly by the legal practising standards at hand, it was a hopeless conversation of trying to convince him otherwise. I long to hear the birds in the morning, not the motors of destruction.
For those of you that have been reading my recent blogs regarding David Suzuki's, The Legacy, you might be interested to know that the readership has steadily declined since my first entry and this both saddens and frightens me. This could be telling me that they aren't overly unconcerned about the dilemma we are currently facing - does someone have to break into their house with a loaded gun before they pay attention to the threat against their life. I look at the world as being our home and the threat of losing our lives in numbers not heard of before is just as real.
David Suzuki still see hope for our species and the planet but I'm having a difficult time comprehending his optimism. He states: "What kind of world would we like to have in a generation?
"How about one in which the air is clean and children no longer have epidemic levels of asthma? I can imagine a world that is covered in forests that can be logged forever because it is being done properly according to principles of ecosystem based management in which nature and ecology set the rules.
I can imagine a future in which cities are exquisitely adapted to climate, the surrounding landscape and wildlife, and the natural rhythms of the season, in which every building captures all the sunlight and water falling from the heavens, where food is grown on rooftops, where roads are permeable and allow water to percolate back into the the earth instead of running through gutters and sewers, where a yard becomes a natural landscape and not a monoculture of grass, and where butterflies flit through gardens in every schoolyard. I can picture a city where cars are rarely needed because all of the action and fun are going on in the streets of the neighbourhoods where we live, work and play."
I too have had this very vision but as he goes on to say, "Everyone I've discussed it with is in agreement, that would be wonderful. Economists tell us that we can't realign our economic system to incorporate the kinds of values that people like me hold, that "it's not realistic" to look to a radically different future, that the economy is the bottom line to which everyone and everything must capitulate."
Mr. Suzuki goes on to say, "I will die before my grandchildren become mature adults and have their own children, but I am filled with hope to imagine their future rich in opportunity, beauty, wonder, and companionship with the rest of Creation. All it takes is the imagination to dream it and the will to make the dream reality.
And therein lies the problem I believe, only a handful of people are visionaries and have the aptitudes to develop their dreams - most of the masses are sheep with no imagination - only mindless followers in a mindless world.
And that concludes this series on David Suzuki's, The Legacy - cheers, eh!
For those of you that have been reading my recent blogs regarding David Suzuki's, The Legacy, you might be interested to know that the readership has steadily declined since my first entry and this both saddens and frightens me. This could be telling me that they aren't overly unconcerned about the dilemma we are currently facing - does someone have to break into their house with a loaded gun before they pay attention to the threat against their life. I look at the world as being our home and the threat of losing our lives in numbers not heard of before is just as real.
David Suzuki still see hope for our species and the planet but I'm having a difficult time comprehending his optimism. He states: "What kind of world would we like to have in a generation?
"How about one in which the air is clean and children no longer have epidemic levels of asthma? I can imagine a world that is covered in forests that can be logged forever because it is being done properly according to principles of ecosystem based management in which nature and ecology set the rules.
I can imagine a future in which cities are exquisitely adapted to climate, the surrounding landscape and wildlife, and the natural rhythms of the season, in which every building captures all the sunlight and water falling from the heavens, where food is grown on rooftops, where roads are permeable and allow water to percolate back into the the earth instead of running through gutters and sewers, where a yard becomes a natural landscape and not a monoculture of grass, and where butterflies flit through gardens in every schoolyard. I can picture a city where cars are rarely needed because all of the action and fun are going on in the streets of the neighbourhoods where we live, work and play."
I too have had this very vision but as he goes on to say, "Everyone I've discussed it with is in agreement, that would be wonderful. Economists tell us that we can't realign our economic system to incorporate the kinds of values that people like me hold, that "it's not realistic" to look to a radically different future, that the economy is the bottom line to which everyone and everything must capitulate."
Mr. Suzuki goes on to say, "I will die before my grandchildren become mature adults and have their own children, but I am filled with hope to imagine their future rich in opportunity, beauty, wonder, and companionship with the rest of Creation. All it takes is the imagination to dream it and the will to make the dream reality.
And therein lies the problem I believe, only a handful of people are visionaries and have the aptitudes to develop their dreams - most of the masses are sheep with no imagination - only mindless followers in a mindless world.
And that concludes this series on David Suzuki's, The Legacy - cheers, eh!
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
DAVID SUZUKI'S LEGACY - PART 3
Dang! This being old, although in comparison to an old coot past his 90th year, in comparison, he'd most likely still tell me I'm a spring chicken. But hey, the way my hip has been bugging the bejeezus outta me the past few days and after mucking out the barn, scraping chicken crap out of the coop, then 2 hours pushing a lawn mower, I'm feeling anything but like a spring chicken this morning - even a cannibal wouldn't like gnawing on these old bones, bet the meat is tougher than a chunk of rawhide that's been laying out under the hot sun in the Mojave Desert for a year. Now, I could just go on and on about every little ache and pain I have, and old guys like me can go on jawing for a long time just like a politician and never really have anything important to say - but hey - I've been passing on some of David Suzuki's ramblings from his book, The Legacy; interjected of course with some of my own ramblings, which I consider to be important, maybe not as important as Mr. Suzuki's but still along the same thinking path.
Something Mr. Suzuki wrote, even though I had to re-read his words three times (mathematics not being a strong point) really grabbed me by my short and curlies and got me more than a little bit worried once again. He writes: "Imagine a test tube full of bacterial food. One bacterium is added to the test tube and begins to grow and divide every minute. (The bacterium represents us and the test tube, the planet.) At time zero, there is one cell; at one minute, there are two, two minutes, four, three minutes, eight; and so on. That's expotential growth. At sixty minutes, the test tube is full of bacteria and there is no food left.
When is the test tube half, or 50 percent, full? At fifty-nine minutes, of course; yet one minute later, the test tube will be completely filled. At fifty-eight minutes, it's 25 percent full; at fifty-seven minutes, it's 12.5 percent full. At fifty-five minutes, the test tube is only 3 percent full. If at that moment, one of the bacteria points out they have a population problem, others would jeer. "What have you been smoking? Ninety-seven percent of the test tube is empty, and we've been around for fifty-five minutes!" Yet they would be five minutes from filling it."
Now, I'm not the brightest guy on the block, like I said, math not being one of my stronger points, but I don't have to get hit over the head to realize that if the human population keeps reproducing at its current rate, the 8 billion residents so far on the planet, before long reaching 16 billion, with our maniacal, suicidal manner of harvesting the forests that produce our air, there's a good chance we'll all just suffocate. And what about the water; take a good look at what's going on in Alberta, soon to become the toxic wasteland capital of North America, due to the intolerable, inexcusable manner of extracting oil from the tar sands. Hey, we can't eat, drink or breathe oil - so what is our most important commodities - come on people - doesn't take a scientist, a businessman or a politician to figure that scenario out - CLEAN AIR, PURE WATER, RICH SOIL.
Like the test tube for the bacteria, our home, planet Earth, is finite and fixed - what we have here is all that we have - even if another planet exists somewhere out amongst the countless stars that we could survive on, we cannot travel fast enough through space to reach it. At the moment, the way things are going and I blame my generation the most for our failures, none of us will be leaving a legacy for our children or their children's children, because we are using everything up right now and at a suicidal rate. Never in the history of the human race has extreme ecological reasoning been needed - ECONOMY IS NOT THE ANSWER. If we choose economy over ecology, we, the human species, I believe is doomed and the end will neither be swift nor pleasant.
It's a glorious day and I feel privileged to actually be allowed to step into the sunshine without too many problems lying heavy on my shoulders. I love this Earth and everything about it - it's my home and I feel sad to see it being treated in such a senseless manner - what are jobs and money if the world, our home is unfit for habitation. And on that cheery note - I bid thee cheers, eh! To be continued...
Something Mr. Suzuki wrote, even though I had to re-read his words three times (mathematics not being a strong point) really grabbed me by my short and curlies and got me more than a little bit worried once again. He writes: "Imagine a test tube full of bacterial food. One bacterium is added to the test tube and begins to grow and divide every minute. (The bacterium represents us and the test tube, the planet.) At time zero, there is one cell; at one minute, there are two, two minutes, four, three minutes, eight; and so on. That's expotential growth. At sixty minutes, the test tube is full of bacteria and there is no food left.
When is the test tube half, or 50 percent, full? At fifty-nine minutes, of course; yet one minute later, the test tube will be completely filled. At fifty-eight minutes, it's 25 percent full; at fifty-seven minutes, it's 12.5 percent full. At fifty-five minutes, the test tube is only 3 percent full. If at that moment, one of the bacteria points out they have a population problem, others would jeer. "What have you been smoking? Ninety-seven percent of the test tube is empty, and we've been around for fifty-five minutes!" Yet they would be five minutes from filling it."
Now, I'm not the brightest guy on the block, like I said, math not being one of my stronger points, but I don't have to get hit over the head to realize that if the human population keeps reproducing at its current rate, the 8 billion residents so far on the planet, before long reaching 16 billion, with our maniacal, suicidal manner of harvesting the forests that produce our air, there's a good chance we'll all just suffocate. And what about the water; take a good look at what's going on in Alberta, soon to become the toxic wasteland capital of North America, due to the intolerable, inexcusable manner of extracting oil from the tar sands. Hey, we can't eat, drink or breathe oil - so what is our most important commodities - come on people - doesn't take a scientist, a businessman or a politician to figure that scenario out - CLEAN AIR, PURE WATER, RICH SOIL.
Like the test tube for the bacteria, our home, planet Earth, is finite and fixed - what we have here is all that we have - even if another planet exists somewhere out amongst the countless stars that we could survive on, we cannot travel fast enough through space to reach it. At the moment, the way things are going and I blame my generation the most for our failures, none of us will be leaving a legacy for our children or their children's children, because we are using everything up right now and at a suicidal rate. Never in the history of the human race has extreme ecological reasoning been needed - ECONOMY IS NOT THE ANSWER. If we choose economy over ecology, we, the human species, I believe is doomed and the end will neither be swift nor pleasant.
It's a glorious day and I feel privileged to actually be allowed to step into the sunshine without too many problems lying heavy on my shoulders. I love this Earth and everything about it - it's my home and I feel sad to see it being treated in such a senseless manner - what are jobs and money if the world, our home is unfit for habitation. And on that cheery note - I bid thee cheers, eh! To be continued...
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
DAVID SUZUKI'S LEGACY CONTINUES
Looks like another great summer day, shaping up to be a hot one. Clayton Clark bush-hogged the cleared portion of the 50 acres yesterday; the grass was waist high and the squaw bush was beginning to take over. I'm not sure if I'll ever use the cleared pasture land but for now, I might as well keep it tamed just in case we choose to get a couple cows or a horse one day. Seems like it's time to cut the lawn again and clean out the chicken coop and goat stall; sort of never ending chores on a wee farm.
As stated in the previous blog, this is a continuation of The Legacy, a book I read by David Suzuki, an internationally renowned geneticist and environmentalist. The world has come to a critical crossroads and a serious crisis prevails. Suzuki states: "In 1992, 1,700 senior scientists from 71 countries, including 104 Nobel Prize winners (more than half of all the laureates at the time), signed a document called "World Scientists' Warning to Humanity." They proclaimed, "Human beings and the natural world are on a collision course. Human activities inflict harsh and often irreversible damage on the environment and on critical resources. No more than one or a few decades remain before the chance to avert the threats we now confront will be lost and the prospects for humanity immeasurably diminished." I find these words extremely chilling and it makes me afraid of what lies ahead in the not too distant future if we don't drastically mend our ways immediately. And what I find extremely alarming is that the media, politicians and corporations don't seem to give a damn since they've placed a dollar value on everything. Instead of ecology, which should be the basis and the most important ingredient in the pot, the gravy to their way of thinking is the economy - shame on them.
Our very existence depends on clean air, water and healthy forests if we, as a supposedly intelligent species are to survive. John Fowles (writer) wrote: It is not Christ that is crucified now, it is the tree itself, and on the bitter gallows of human greed and stupidity. Only suicidal morons, in a world already choking with death, would destroy the best natural air conditioner creation affords. Trees, I think, because they appear to be countless are being logged improperly; clear-cutting and especially without planting new and a similar variety of trees in their place is not taking place; the practise completely asinine. We need the forests; besides giving homes to countless other species living within them, they purify our air and produce oxygen, inhibit erosion and help maintain the fresh water as well. Large expanses of greenbelts are needed, without them we will die. So much of our becoming more and more fragile existence depends on pollination and the bee populations are dwindling at an alarming rate. So much depends upon our natural habitat for our survival and for the life of me, it's beyond my comprehension, why leaders like Steven Harper turn their backs on conservation and allow the poisonous practices of big business to have their way - doesn't he have a family and care about their survival?
Instead of bull-headedly bucking Nature and attempting to wrestle her to our understanding as to how the world should be, we should be in sync and realize that the resources she has are far more important than the crap we manufacture for our own pleasures. Like every living creature on this planet, we need healthy nourishment - instead of behaving like we've been lead to believe for generations that money is our basic necessity and the more we have the better off we will be, what good is it if we don't have our health and watch our children die because we've allowed the water and air to be poisoned, the land and forests devastated? Wouldn't it be far better if our legacy to them, instead of a big fancy mansion and a bag full of cash, we left them a better world to live in?
I have to admit, and probably like many others who have similar thoughts to men like David Suzuki and others, I neither fully practise nor teach my children the values I sometimes write about. Of course some of the reasoning behind why I don't discuss these issues with Sarah's kids is because how do you get something across to a teenage girl that applies about a pound of make-up to her face while continually texting and a pre-teen who believes the world revolves around the likes of Justin Bieber; the media and the Internet have far more power than parents and isn't that a bloody shame? I've also noticed when topics such as the one I'm writing about now, when they're brought up in conversation, I'm often looked upon as a cynic, a Mr. Doom and Gloom. In my own little world, this wee bubble that I co-exist in with family, neighbours and friends, I don't have much hope in anything changing to preserve and nourish the immediate surrounding area and if in only a space of a few square miles on this planet, if it is not tended to in a responsible manner by us, what are the chances for the remainder of the planet?
To be continued - Cheers, eh!
As stated in the previous blog, this is a continuation of The Legacy, a book I read by David Suzuki, an internationally renowned geneticist and environmentalist. The world has come to a critical crossroads and a serious crisis prevails. Suzuki states: "In 1992, 1,700 senior scientists from 71 countries, including 104 Nobel Prize winners (more than half of all the laureates at the time), signed a document called "World Scientists' Warning to Humanity." They proclaimed, "Human beings and the natural world are on a collision course. Human activities inflict harsh and often irreversible damage on the environment and on critical resources. No more than one or a few decades remain before the chance to avert the threats we now confront will be lost and the prospects for humanity immeasurably diminished." I find these words extremely chilling and it makes me afraid of what lies ahead in the not too distant future if we don't drastically mend our ways immediately. And what I find extremely alarming is that the media, politicians and corporations don't seem to give a damn since they've placed a dollar value on everything. Instead of ecology, which should be the basis and the most important ingredient in the pot, the gravy to their way of thinking is the economy - shame on them.
Our very existence depends on clean air, water and healthy forests if we, as a supposedly intelligent species are to survive. John Fowles (writer) wrote: It is not Christ that is crucified now, it is the tree itself, and on the bitter gallows of human greed and stupidity. Only suicidal morons, in a world already choking with death, would destroy the best natural air conditioner creation affords. Trees, I think, because they appear to be countless are being logged improperly; clear-cutting and especially without planting new and a similar variety of trees in their place is not taking place; the practise completely asinine. We need the forests; besides giving homes to countless other species living within them, they purify our air and produce oxygen, inhibit erosion and help maintain the fresh water as well. Large expanses of greenbelts are needed, without them we will die. So much of our becoming more and more fragile existence depends on pollination and the bee populations are dwindling at an alarming rate. So much depends upon our natural habitat for our survival and for the life of me, it's beyond my comprehension, why leaders like Steven Harper turn their backs on conservation and allow the poisonous practices of big business to have their way - doesn't he have a family and care about their survival?
Instead of bull-headedly bucking Nature and attempting to wrestle her to our understanding as to how the world should be, we should be in sync and realize that the resources she has are far more important than the crap we manufacture for our own pleasures. Like every living creature on this planet, we need healthy nourishment - instead of behaving like we've been lead to believe for generations that money is our basic necessity and the more we have the better off we will be, what good is it if we don't have our health and watch our children die because we've allowed the water and air to be poisoned, the land and forests devastated? Wouldn't it be far better if our legacy to them, instead of a big fancy mansion and a bag full of cash, we left them a better world to live in?
I have to admit, and probably like many others who have similar thoughts to men like David Suzuki and others, I neither fully practise nor teach my children the values I sometimes write about. Of course some of the reasoning behind why I don't discuss these issues with Sarah's kids is because how do you get something across to a teenage girl that applies about a pound of make-up to her face while continually texting and a pre-teen who believes the world revolves around the likes of Justin Bieber; the media and the Internet have far more power than parents and isn't that a bloody shame? I've also noticed when topics such as the one I'm writing about now, when they're brought up in conversation, I'm often looked upon as a cynic, a Mr. Doom and Gloom. In my own little world, this wee bubble that I co-exist in with family, neighbours and friends, I don't have much hope in anything changing to preserve and nourish the immediate surrounding area and if in only a space of a few square miles on this planet, if it is not tended to in a responsible manner by us, what are the chances for the remainder of the planet?
To be continued - Cheers, eh!
Monday, July 9, 2012
DAVID SUZUKI -THE LEGACY - A MUST READ
It's a great summer day; birds chirruping, rooster crowing and not a cloud in the sky - if only I didn't hear that continual eeeeeeeeeeee-sound buzzing around my ears - the mosquitoes are still here in abundance. I've tried a couple of bug sprays, even swathed my skin down with Bounce, the stuff people use when they're clothes are in the dryer. Nothing seems to work for very long. Oh well, can't let the pesky little insects slow me down; still have a whole lot of work to get accomplished before the snow begins to fly; summer is so dang short!
I've been reading David Suzuki's book, The Legacy; actually read it three times. Although I'm not a scientist like he is and rubbed shoulders with many people who really understand the conundrum of the Earth's delicate biosphere, I was both pleased that his views are quite similar to mine and horror struck with the realization that unless we humans make some immediate drastic changes, we as a species will disappear; go the way of the dinosoar. I may not because of my age, but the immediate generations after me stand a very good chance watching their children and their children's children die; the Earth's condition is that critical. I believe this book should be mandatory reading for everyone and immediately taught in schools worldwide. Mr. Suzuki sees the possibility of a "sustainable future" but only if drastic changes in our lifestyles occur immediately. I wish I had his optimism for the future, but sadly, I don't.
I could be writing about my pastoral existence here at the base of Green Mountain, Fosterville, New Brunswick but when I look out across our wee bit of paradise, I almost begin to weep at my own stupidity, ignorance and my bull-headed egotism during a major portion of my lifetime thus far, when I envision the total devastation, which may occur and I helped occur, before not too many years have gone by. As David Suzuki states: "We have become a force of nature; a super species." At one time hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes and tsunamis were considered forces of God but now, we have the capabilities to influence these natural disasters; the human footprint upon the Earth can easily be seen from outer space; it's become that massive and in a very short period of time. Unfortunately, we have grasped technology and suckle its creations to our breasts like new born babes; turning our backs on Nature.
The human population is rapidly growing, doubling at an outrageous rate; there are more of us than all the other combined mammals currently living on this planet. It's odd, the majority of wild animals are on the endangered list, threatened with complete extinction and we can't see with their disappearance that we will soon become like the passenger pigeons of not so long ago; extinct as well and brought on by our own hands; are we visionaries blinded by our creations or suicidal maniacs?
Imagine: "The biosphere is the layer of air, water, and land where all species live. It is extremely thin. If Earth were shrunk to the size of a basketball, the layer of topsoil on which our food is grown would be a single atom thick. And on that thin organic mix, humanity's survival rests." Earth, air and water are necessary for our existence and what are we doing with our super-thin layer of existence; destroying it with mind-boggling total disregard for Nature. We talk about pigs being filthy animals but in that regard, I think we have them beat all to hell; they only mess up their pens, whereas we are messing up the whole pasture. And not just the pasture, we are polluting everything including poisoning the air and the water.
Not too many people read this blog and as far as that goes, I've been wondering how many of us actually read any more at all? I don't normally ask for this blog to be shared by others but I feel something as important and critical as the meaning David Suzuki is attempting to get across to the masses and my little bit of writing about his views is very important if the human race wants to continue for many generations to come, so if you are just as concerned as I am, please share; it just takes a couple of clicks of the mouse. Also, if you get the chance, pick up a copy of Mr. Suzuki's THE LEGACY - an elder's vision for our sustainable future - foreward by Margaret Atwood I have no idea how the readers of this blog feel towards Nature but there have been times when I've been so completely overcome, awestruck by its beauty and power that I've actually wept and especially when I see how most of us have turned their backs on basically our mother of creation and sustenance - cheers, eh! To be continued -
I've been reading David Suzuki's book, The Legacy; actually read it three times. Although I'm not a scientist like he is and rubbed shoulders with many people who really understand the conundrum of the Earth's delicate biosphere, I was both pleased that his views are quite similar to mine and horror struck with the realization that unless we humans make some immediate drastic changes, we as a species will disappear; go the way of the dinosoar. I may not because of my age, but the immediate generations after me stand a very good chance watching their children and their children's children die; the Earth's condition is that critical. I believe this book should be mandatory reading for everyone and immediately taught in schools worldwide. Mr. Suzuki sees the possibility of a "sustainable future" but only if drastic changes in our lifestyles occur immediately. I wish I had his optimism for the future, but sadly, I don't.
I could be writing about my pastoral existence here at the base of Green Mountain, Fosterville, New Brunswick but when I look out across our wee bit of paradise, I almost begin to weep at my own stupidity, ignorance and my bull-headed egotism during a major portion of my lifetime thus far, when I envision the total devastation, which may occur and I helped occur, before not too many years have gone by. As David Suzuki states: "We have become a force of nature; a super species." At one time hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes and tsunamis were considered forces of God but now, we have the capabilities to influence these natural disasters; the human footprint upon the Earth can easily be seen from outer space; it's become that massive and in a very short period of time. Unfortunately, we have grasped technology and suckle its creations to our breasts like new born babes; turning our backs on Nature.
The human population is rapidly growing, doubling at an outrageous rate; there are more of us than all the other combined mammals currently living on this planet. It's odd, the majority of wild animals are on the endangered list, threatened with complete extinction and we can't see with their disappearance that we will soon become like the passenger pigeons of not so long ago; extinct as well and brought on by our own hands; are we visionaries blinded by our creations or suicidal maniacs?
Imagine: "The biosphere is the layer of air, water, and land where all species live. It is extremely thin. If Earth were shrunk to the size of a basketball, the layer of topsoil on which our food is grown would be a single atom thick. And on that thin organic mix, humanity's survival rests." Earth, air and water are necessary for our existence and what are we doing with our super-thin layer of existence; destroying it with mind-boggling total disregard for Nature. We talk about pigs being filthy animals but in that regard, I think we have them beat all to hell; they only mess up their pens, whereas we are messing up the whole pasture. And not just the pasture, we are polluting everything including poisoning the air and the water.
Not too many people read this blog and as far as that goes, I've been wondering how many of us actually read any more at all? I don't normally ask for this blog to be shared by others but I feel something as important and critical as the meaning David Suzuki is attempting to get across to the masses and my little bit of writing about his views is very important if the human race wants to continue for many generations to come, so if you are just as concerned as I am, please share; it just takes a couple of clicks of the mouse. Also, if you get the chance, pick up a copy of Mr. Suzuki's THE LEGACY - an elder's vision for our sustainable future - foreward by Margaret Atwood I have no idea how the readers of this blog feel towards Nature but there have been times when I've been so completely overcome, awestruck by its beauty and power that I've actually wept and especially when I see how most of us have turned their backs on basically our mother of creation and sustenance - cheers, eh! To be continued -
Wednesday, July 4, 2012
LUKI'S ESCAPE AND ESCAPADE
I'm not quite sure why I'm sitting here sipping a hot cup of java and writing a blog on the computer when I have so many things that need doing. I'd like to be working on the baby-barn's conversion into an art studio today but until I get a suitable window and the stairway to the loft built, which George Probst is thankfully helping me with, plus buy some more materials; it's on hold. I could be working on expanding the chicken coop but I'm holding off on that one until I see how much materials are remaining, when the baby-barn renovations have been completed. Yeah, those are two of my major jobs and I won't go into the other tasks - guess that's what I get for moving out in the boonies on 50 acres of semi-wilderness land - a beautiful piece of property I might add. Despite the hard work, the aches and pains, I really like this bit of paradise at the base of Green Mountain that my wife Sarah and I chose after looking at so many other places in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.
I cut the lawn yesterday, using an old electric lawn mower, which is usually about a 2 hour non-stop job. It was a hot day; I sweat so hard, my shirt was like a second skin; the mosquitoes simply stabbed their long, needle-sharp proboscises right through it and filled up on my high-octane blood. But I didn't care, being the stubborn old macho bastard, even at almost age 71, I sometimes consider myself to be, I swatted a few of the kamikaze flying fiends to a squash and burn death. However, being a hot and sunny day and not feeling the need to work so hard, after about 3/4 of the way mowing, I decided to have an ice cold beer that I'd put in the freezer just for that occasion. So, what could be nicer than sitting in the shade sipping an ice cold beer on a hot day and what could possibly go wrong - it's highly unlikely, although outer space just beyond our fragile biosphere is cluttered with junk, a piece of it would enter our atmosphere and fall on the house or on my head. No, I was in my own little world enjoying myself when I happened to glance over at the barnyard and watched, to my utter amazement, our Great Pyrenees dog Luki (about the same size as me) squeeze through the fence that a chicken barely fits through. When I called to him, he just ambled over, wagging his tail and I thought to myself, I don't think he'll go anywhere, just wander around taking a pee here and there, marking his territory, which is probably a good thing since some of the forest animals at times think we're on their menu, but I was wrong. When I resumed cutting the lawn, I could see him nosing around here and there, his big tale wagging because he was so happy to get out of the pasture, so I just concentrated on the job at hand. Well, with only about 10 minutes remaining to cut the lawn, already looking forward to relaxing and enjoying a second bottle of ice cold beer, a woman drove into our driveway and told me Luki was on the road, almost at the top of Green Mountain. And sure enough, a white dog, the size of a polar bear's cub was not hard to pick out. The first time I called to him, almost yelling my beer-filled guts out, he just kept on ambling up the steep hill. I was about to give up and just wait for my wife to come home in the truck so we could go fetch him, but thought, no, I'll try one more time. Cupping my hands around my mouth and yelling as loud as I could, I was amazed to see him turn around and actually start running towards me at a fast pace. Instead of getting angry at him when he arrived, what was the point; he wouldn't have understood my reasoning; thinking he wouldn't go any where again, I just sat and petted him for a short while. I guess thinking the grass wasn't any greener on the other side of Green Mountain, he decided to check out the road in the other direction and started heading down it; ignoring my frantic calls to return. I immediately sent Sarah's youngest daughter Jessica after him on her bicycle, while I grabbed a long piece of rope and another bicycle. When I caught up to them, three vehicles were stopped on the road; luckily one of them was Sarah's and she was holding onto Luki. Even before finishing mowing the lawn, needless to say, I remedied the hole from which Luki made his escape; I just hope he doesn't figure out that the mesh around the pasture is the same width.
At the moment, it's raining - probably just a wee shower. I'd like to believe it's this cloudy weather that's making me feel a wee touch melancholy but sometimes, like now, at this late in life stage, I wonder why I'm doing what I'm doing. Frustration could be the answer or maybe because I'm quite old, much of my get-up-and-go has fled to parts unknown, I sometimes wonder if I've done and am doing the right thing. In so many ways I feel incompetent and as hard as I may, trying to discourage some of the thoughts that occasionally run rampant through the semi-empty corridors of my mind, like a pot of water, they begin to boil and overflow. Perhaps it's the middle of the week blues I'm experiencing and if that's the case, time to give my skinny ass a good kick and get on with the remainder of the day - cheers, eh!
I cut the lawn yesterday, using an old electric lawn mower, which is usually about a 2 hour non-stop job. It was a hot day; I sweat so hard, my shirt was like a second skin; the mosquitoes simply stabbed their long, needle-sharp proboscises right through it and filled up on my high-octane blood. But I didn't care, being the stubborn old macho bastard, even at almost age 71, I sometimes consider myself to be, I swatted a few of the kamikaze flying fiends to a squash and burn death. However, being a hot and sunny day and not feeling the need to work so hard, after about 3/4 of the way mowing, I decided to have an ice cold beer that I'd put in the freezer just for that occasion. So, what could be nicer than sitting in the shade sipping an ice cold beer on a hot day and what could possibly go wrong - it's highly unlikely, although outer space just beyond our fragile biosphere is cluttered with junk, a piece of it would enter our atmosphere and fall on the house or on my head. No, I was in my own little world enjoying myself when I happened to glance over at the barnyard and watched, to my utter amazement, our Great Pyrenees dog Luki (about the same size as me) squeeze through the fence that a chicken barely fits through. When I called to him, he just ambled over, wagging his tail and I thought to myself, I don't think he'll go anywhere, just wander around taking a pee here and there, marking his territory, which is probably a good thing since some of the forest animals at times think we're on their menu, but I was wrong. When I resumed cutting the lawn, I could see him nosing around here and there, his big tale wagging because he was so happy to get out of the pasture, so I just concentrated on the job at hand. Well, with only about 10 minutes remaining to cut the lawn, already looking forward to relaxing and enjoying a second bottle of ice cold beer, a woman drove into our driveway and told me Luki was on the road, almost at the top of Green Mountain. And sure enough, a white dog, the size of a polar bear's cub was not hard to pick out. The first time I called to him, almost yelling my beer-filled guts out, he just kept on ambling up the steep hill. I was about to give up and just wait for my wife to come home in the truck so we could go fetch him, but thought, no, I'll try one more time. Cupping my hands around my mouth and yelling as loud as I could, I was amazed to see him turn around and actually start running towards me at a fast pace. Instead of getting angry at him when he arrived, what was the point; he wouldn't have understood my reasoning; thinking he wouldn't go any where again, I just sat and petted him for a short while. I guess thinking the grass wasn't any greener on the other side of Green Mountain, he decided to check out the road in the other direction and started heading down it; ignoring my frantic calls to return. I immediately sent Sarah's youngest daughter Jessica after him on her bicycle, while I grabbed a long piece of rope and another bicycle. When I caught up to them, three vehicles were stopped on the road; luckily one of them was Sarah's and she was holding onto Luki. Even before finishing mowing the lawn, needless to say, I remedied the hole from which Luki made his escape; I just hope he doesn't figure out that the mesh around the pasture is the same width.
At the moment, it's raining - probably just a wee shower. I'd like to believe it's this cloudy weather that's making me feel a wee touch melancholy but sometimes, like now, at this late in life stage, I wonder why I'm doing what I'm doing. Frustration could be the answer or maybe because I'm quite old, much of my get-up-and-go has fled to parts unknown, I sometimes wonder if I've done and am doing the right thing. In so many ways I feel incompetent and as hard as I may, trying to discourage some of the thoughts that occasionally run rampant through the semi-empty corridors of my mind, like a pot of water, they begin to boil and overflow. Perhaps it's the middle of the week blues I'm experiencing and if that's the case, time to give my skinny ass a good kick and get on with the remainder of the day - cheers, eh!
Monday, July 2, 2012
TO HAVE OR NOT TO HAVE - LESS IS MUCH BETTER
Not too many years have rushed by since the life expectancy of a man living in Canada was approximately 72-74 years of age and now it's almost 80. Living until age 80 sounds pretty good unless of course you're like me, pushing age 71 or higher - not even 10 years remaining before the weeds and the worms are having a feast at my benefit. Needless to say, I get a little bit nervous every time I walk by a shovel; although death is eminent; a certainty; I'm one of these old coots that will most likely go to their graves kicking and screaming. "I don't want to die!". Like many people my age or older, we've witnessed some spectacular events over the years, some of them good and some of them bad; down right nasty actually; a lot of things the younger generations now take for granted or don't concern themselves with our mistakes. Although the US and our country have a bountiful assortment of millionaires and multi-millionaires, very few of them began with nothing, never actually had to earn that kind of moolah - most of really wealthy people that have an over abundance of the almighty dollar have had it passed down to them through the generations; from one sugar daddy to the next. Besides, a million smackeroos isn't really that much money nowadays - how could it be when game shows give it away for prizes; average and many below average talented celebrities are paid this kind of money. (I get a kick out of listening to some radio host talking to a so called great musician or singer that the music charts show they've sold a million albums - geesh, not even 10% of the population listens to them enough to care to purchase their endeavours.) So the way I see it; life is just one big crap shoot - right from the moment we pop out of our mommy's bellies screaming and demanding that our needs be fed - too bad most of us never shut the fuck up - we need way more for our existence and because of it, our world and every living thing that abides here suffers because of this excessive greedy nature. Slogans like "You deserve the very best" - what a crock of BS - none of us deserve to be outrageously spoiled. Sorry John; as much as I enjoy a John Travolta movie; can you imagine how much fuel he has used for his own personal needs, how much air and water he has polluted by flying around in his 747 - talk about an obscene amount of energy that is totally wasted because of one man's needs and there is countless more just like him.
It's easy for me to pick on wealthy individuals but hey - although I'm just a small fish in a sea of greedy humans, I can't excuse myself from being a part of that group - I'm quite sure my carbon foot print is the size of a Sasquatch's, that is if such a great big hairy creature actually exists. When I look around at all the stuff I own and I can hardly believe I keep accumulating more, especially at this age when my life expectancy is seriously getting shorter by the second - I mean what the hell am I going to do with it - it's not like I can take this shit with me and I'm sure my kids, except for some very personal items, won't want any of it - they'd have to expand their living area just to store this crap. That was one of the things I liked about living on a sail boat - there just wasn't any room for anything except the basic needs for survival - kind of kept my priorities on an even keel so to speak
Even here, living at the base of Green Mountain on 50 acres of semi-wilderness land - we, a family of four, still want more than what we actually need for our existence. It's so easy to get caught up in a net, our little hands and feet poking through tiny holes clutching things that are actually holding us back from escaping and leading a more fulfilling life. The only reason, perhaps the biggest reason the world is in such a precarious state is because we are obsessively manipulating, controlling and obscenely greedy human beings. We have deliberately turned our backs on nature, actually falsely believing that we can bend the world to our objectives; our will; when just the opposite is true. Beside the junk we buy, look at the crap we purchase to nourish our bodies and minds - it's no frickin' wonder the majority of us are total dip-shits, more than half stupid and ignorant, could give a flying leap into a cess pool of man-made toxic waste , actually care about the state of the world - we're so uncaring about ourselves - how could we possibly care for our surroundings. I could go on and on but it's time I got off this addictive computer and actually do something progressive, like pull out a chair, sit in the barnyard and watch the chickens do their thing - absolutely no wastage - I just might learn something from those wee feathered raptors that have evolved and fared better than us humans over the aeons, and besides, my time here on Earth has almost come to an end - cheers, eh!
It's easy for me to pick on wealthy individuals but hey - although I'm just a small fish in a sea of greedy humans, I can't excuse myself from being a part of that group - I'm quite sure my carbon foot print is the size of a Sasquatch's, that is if such a great big hairy creature actually exists. When I look around at all the stuff I own and I can hardly believe I keep accumulating more, especially at this age when my life expectancy is seriously getting shorter by the second - I mean what the hell am I going to do with it - it's not like I can take this shit with me and I'm sure my kids, except for some very personal items, won't want any of it - they'd have to expand their living area just to store this crap. That was one of the things I liked about living on a sail boat - there just wasn't any room for anything except the basic needs for survival - kind of kept my priorities on an even keel so to speak
Even here, living at the base of Green Mountain on 50 acres of semi-wilderness land - we, a family of four, still want more than what we actually need for our existence. It's so easy to get caught up in a net, our little hands and feet poking through tiny holes clutching things that are actually holding us back from escaping and leading a more fulfilling life. The only reason, perhaps the biggest reason the world is in such a precarious state is because we are obsessively manipulating, controlling and obscenely greedy human beings. We have deliberately turned our backs on nature, actually falsely believing that we can bend the world to our objectives; our will; when just the opposite is true. Beside the junk we buy, look at the crap we purchase to nourish our bodies and minds - it's no frickin' wonder the majority of us are total dip-shits, more than half stupid and ignorant, could give a flying leap into a cess pool of man-made toxic waste , actually care about the state of the world - we're so uncaring about ourselves - how could we possibly care for our surroundings. I could go on and on but it's time I got off this addictive computer and actually do something progressive, like pull out a chair, sit in the barnyard and watch the chickens do their thing - absolutely no wastage - I just might learn something from those wee feathered raptors that have evolved and fared better than us humans over the aeons, and besides, my time here on Earth has almost come to an end - cheers, eh!
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