Will the Solstice bring US solace?

We ended what was left of Spring and started Summer with an almost Solstice time power outage that began a little before 3 am and lasted until almost 11 am. A morning without coffee has left me in a snarly mood. (Our stove and coffee maker are both electric.) My hyper-sensitive to thunder demons yellow Lab rescue dog cross hid under my reassuring hand for more than an hour while the storms passed early this morning. Then all of us napped while we waited for the return of electricity and what passes for normalcy these days.

We are a society and economy that’s becoming more and more dependent on regenerative-sourced (wind and solar) electricity instead of fossil fuels, but we have to put up with those who resist enhancing the security of the electric grid or oppose decentralized, clustered generation. Many of our economic and political institutions are failing US. Putin doesn’t have to do much of anything except wait for US to destroy ourselves and each other.

will wind and solar supplant corn and beans?

Photo by J. Harrington

We could be building a better, more just and fair and sustainable world, and responding more effectively to the multitude of challenges facing US were it not for the time, energy and resources expended battling the opposition. We’ve deteriorated to the point that NPR is reporting “Democrats are buying ads supporting far-right GOP primary candidates, in the hopes of facing them in the general election...”. I suppose, if you’re not good at gerrymandering, and believe you only have to be better than the opposition, that might seem like a way to go. Some of US heartily disagree.

I keep being brought back to the idea we need more ethics than laws and more tolerance than power. Would we be better off if we redesigned our society and communities so that we were much less reliant on politicians, laws, cops and lawyers and could depend on each other more and more? I’m going to be thinking about those ideas and expect to point out more about Elinor Ostrum’s ways of managing the commons and the way fly-fishing includes lots of techniques and styles and water types and kinds of fish and still finds lots in common among its practicioners. I’ll probably [once again] expound here on some of my thoughts about that. But first, I think I need to get away from what’s not working and go fishing, if the climate-weirded weather cooperates. Remember, if we don’t take care of ourselves, we’re in no shape to fight the good fight.

Solstice

Tess Taylor

How again today our patron star
whose ancient vista is the long view

turns its wide brightness now and here:
Below, we loll outdoors, sing & make fire.

We build no henge
but after our swim, linger

by the pond. Dapples flicker
pine trunks by the water.

Buzz & hum & wing & song combine.
Light builds a monument to its passing.

Frogs content themselves in bullish chirps,
hoopskirt blossoms

on thimbleberries fall, peeper toads
hop, lazy—

            Apex. The throaty world sings ripen.
Our grove slips past the sun’s long kiss.

We dress.
We head home in other starlight. 

Our earthly time is sweetening from this.

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Please be kind to each other while you can.