Peek at color

Overnight, each night, more of the chlorophyll in some leaves breaks down. Green disappears; yellows, oranges, maroons, and other colors that had been hidden by the chlorophyll, appear. The development of peak color seems particularly noticeable this year but perhaps that’s just because I’m paying more attention. It looks like each day we get a peek at more and more color until we reach peak color and then they all fall down. Isn’t English a wonderful language?

take a peek at tamaracks in color

Photo by J. Harrington

Up the road from our property there used to be a tamarack-filled wetland. Something has killed those tamaracks and their golden leaves no longer brighten autumn views. That’s an example of a shifting baseline that’s occurred in just the time we’ve owned our house.

A recent article by  Aaron Brown talks about  a different kind of shifting baseline, one that is disturbingly widespread in our country these days. Take a few minutes and go read his Fascism from Italy to Hibbing and back again. We’ll wait. It’s an important read, especially before we decide for whom we’re going to vote next month, and why.

Back already? Did you read all of it? Did it make sense? Does it worry you? Here’s a different perspective on what happens when the folks in charge aren’t willing to accept the outcomes of elections because they didn’t win:

The Calvinball cartoon reminds me of the refusal of the Minnesotae Republican Secretary of State candidate to commit to accepting the outcome of next month’s election, and of how many GQP politicians want to see US function as a government of laws.

Democracy

by Leonard Cohen

It’s coming through a hole in the air,

from those nights in Tiananmen Square.

It’s coming from the feel

that this ain’t exactly real,

or it’s real, but it ain’t exactly there.

From the wars against disorder,

from the sirens night and day,

from the fires of the homeless,

from the ashes of the gay:

Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.

 

It’s coming through a crack in the wall;

on a visionary flood of alcohol;

from the staggering account

of the Sermon on the Mount

which I don’t pretend to understand at all.

It’s coming from the silence

on the dock of the bay,

from the brave, the bold, the battered

heart of Chevrolet:

Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.

 

It’s coming from the sorrow in the street,

the holy places where the races meet;

from the homicidal bitchin’

that goes down in every kitchen

to determine who will serve and who will eat.

From the wells of disappointment

where the women kneel to pray

for the grace of God in the desert here

and the desert far away:

Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.

 

Sail on, sail on

O mighty Ship of State!

To the Shores of Need

Past the Reefs of Greed

Through the Squalls of Hate

Sail on, sail on, sail on, sail on.

 

It’s coming to America first,

the cradle of the best and of the worst.

It’s here they got the range

and the machinery for change

and it’s here they got the spiritual thirst.

It’s here the family’s broken

and it’s here the lonely say

that the heart has got to open

in a fundamental way:

Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.

 

It’s coming from the women and the men.

O baby, we’ll be making love again.

We’ll be going down so deep

the river’s going to weep,

and the mountain’s going to shout Amen!

It’s coming like the tidal flood

beneath the lunar sway,

imperial, mysterious,

in amorous array:

Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.

 

Sail on, sail on ...

 

I’m sentimental, if you know what I mean

I love the country but I can’t stand the scene.

And I’m neither left or right

I’m just staying home tonight,

getting lost in that hopeless little screen.

But I’m stubborn as those garbage bags

that Time cannot decay,

I’m junk but I’m still holding up this little wild bouquet:

Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.

********************************************
Thanks for visiting. Come again when you can.
Please be kind to each other while you can.