More signs of Spring awakening! #phenology #ClimateStrike

More signs of Spring are starting to appear on this Ides of March/School Strike for Climate day. Goldfinches are definitely showing more color. Snow wells have appeared around some of the trees in our wood lot. Melting and puddling continues. By this time next week, we should be experiencing temperatures in the range of 50℉+. Perhaps that will trigger the return of purple finches, at least as they pass through, headed North again.

gold (top) and purple finches: a colorful, diverse mixture at the feeder

Photo by J. Harrington

Nature supports and thrives on diversity. And yet, terrorists of all stripes would remake the world in their image? Today we send our condolences to Muslims, New Zealanders, and others who have suffered terroristic violence and attacks. We note that the suspected perpetrator(s?) in New Zealand, unlike many unarmed suspects in the US, were captured alive by police. We think there's a lesson there to be learned, along with increasing our lack of tolerance for intolerance. Is that what we need to do? How would that work? We are faced with increasing amounts of false information, lies, propaganda and skewed, biased data and statistics, much of it made up on the spot. And yet, the system in the US just allowed a creature who is a strong proponent of such measures to become president. He has been aided and abetted by a Republican Senate, especially the Majority Leader, which has shown essentially no inclination to put country ahead of party, nor people ahead of maintaining power. And we the people continue to put up with this kind of governance? Why?

There are, we believe, many worthwhile lessons we can learn about cultural survival from Native Americans. Other beneficial lessons are taught by Buddhists about our need to show and feel compassion for all sentient beings. In fact, the alleged adults, worldwide, are being educated by the generation still in school, about the need to confront and do something everything about out climate disruption crises. Meanwhile, the "world leaders" diddle and dabble about, accomplishing essentially nothing. The Titanic will go down with the deck chairs neatly arranged and properly color coded. We need to elect and select much more carefully those we honor with the opportunity to represent us. How many of you are truly proud of your government's behavior these days. Does it represent you and your values? Did you vote in the last election or abstain in protest? Did you participate in the selection process for candidates? Will you do better net time, if there is a next time? Have we reached the point where we need to celebrate a "Western Spring?"

Blood

By Naomi Shihab Nye

“A true Arab knows how to catch a fly in his hands,”

my father would say. And he’d prove it,

cupping the buzzer instantly

while the host with the swatter stared.

In the spring our palms peeled like snakes.

True Arabs believed watermelon could heal fifty ways.

I changed these to fit the occasion.

Years before, a girl knocked,

wanted to see the Arab.

I said we didn’t have one.

After that, my father told me who he was,

“Shihab”—“shooting star”—

a good name, borrowed from the sky.

Once I said, “When we die, we give it back?”

He said that’s what a true Arab would say.

Today the headlines clot in my blood.

A little Palestinian dangles a truck on the front page.

Homeless fig, this tragedy with a terrible root

is too big for us. What flag can we wave?

I wave the flag of stone and seed,

table mat stitched in blue.

I call my father, we talk around the news.

It is too much for him,

neither of his two languages can reach it.

I drive into the country to find sheep, cows,

to plead with the air:

Who calls anyone civilized? 

Where can the crying heart graze?

What does a true Arab do now?

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