Let's not waste this crisis!!!

 Long, long, ago, in a country far, far, away, I seem to recall lending my young daughter my copy of Saul Alinsky's Rules for Radicals. I may need to ask for it back unless one or more of the strongly worded letters from a Democrat actually has an effect. I'm tired of reading extended statements purporting to describe things like "I study the resistance against the Nazis. Here’s what the US left can learn from it," that seem very short on substantive, relevant, strategies and / or tactics.

sunrise, dawn of a new era

Photo by J. Harrington

There's a range of opinion regarding whether the advice "Never let a crisis go to waste" should be attributed to Saul, Winston Churchill, or someone else. Whoever was the source, I think it's advice we should follow these days and do our best to dismantle the neoliberal, global capitalist economy while also establishing the Rights of Nature all over the Earth. Mother Nature seems to have caught on to the ad tag line "You can pay me now or you can pay me later." Meanwhile, governments and regimes in power now are doing their best to toady up to extractive economy corporate donors so owned (or rented) politicians can continue to scam their constituents. (Remember the Howard Beale line from Network: "'I'm as mad as hell and I'm not gonna take this anymore!'")

We don't want to fix a broken system that needs to be replaced, we want to replace it. Here's some options to consider as you think about what we need next:

• Center for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy (CASSE)
  
  
• Schumacher Center For New Economics
  
  
•  Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature (GARN)
  
  
• Green Amendments For The Generations

Since I seem to be on a kick of citing old sayings these days, let's also remember this one: "The best defense is a good offense." It fits nicely with Bucky Fuller's observation: “You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”

On the Fifth Day

By Jane Hirshfield

On the fifth day

the scientists who studied the rivers

were forbidden to speak

or to study the rivers.

The scientists who studied the air

were told not to speak of the air,

and the ones who worked for the farmers

were silenced,

and the ones who worked for the bees.

Someone, from deep in the Badlands,

began posting facts.

The facts were told not to speak

and were taken away.

The facts, surprised to be taken, were silent.

Now it was only the rivers

that spoke of the rivers,

and only the wind that spoke of its bees,

while the unpausing factual buds of the fruit trees

continued to move toward their fruit.

The silence spoke loudly of silence,

and the rivers kept speaking

of rivers, of boulders and air.

Bound to gravity, earless and tongueless,

the untested rivers kept speaking.

Bus drivers, shelf stockers,

code writers, machinists, accountants,

lab techs, cellists kept speaking.

They spoke, the fifth day,

of silence.

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

How b b b bad is it? Let's "Build back better!"

Yes, I'm aware of the current clashes between the American Gestapo [ICE] and local governments and/or protestors. Been there, done that back in the days of the Vietnam war protest days. Watched similar actions on tv during the earlier confrontations at desegregation os southern schools. Have you not seen Santayana's quote: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." It seems our country has a memory as short as it's fuse. Meanwhile, we're doing little to nothing about the dangers of our burning planet and the disruption (by US and others) of the natural life support systems on which we depend for fresh air, clean water and food. If we end up with no future, that will certainly solve the problem of studying history.

One of the advantages we had during civi rights and Vietnam protests is our national leaders were at least semi-rational. Not this time. I wouldn't be surprised to see our situation follow the pattern of England's Charles 1. That seems preferable to a third world war. But enough....

Penstemon grandiflorus with pink blooms

Photo by J. Harrington

The blooms are coming off the lilacs. The deer haven't yet eaten all of my "deer resistant" serviceberries. Penstemon's in bloom. Goslings are growing up. Slowly but surely I'm pacing myself to clean up llast winter and spring's messes, although these days that makes me wonder if I'm rearranging deck chairs on an "unsinkable" ship. Fishing licenses are in our pockets, Father's Day is coming up. The Better Half made a wonderful rhubarb / apple crumble. I'm reading some books that give me some hope and am, once again, determined to find a way to be happy more much of the time.

Once The World Was Perfect

by Joy Harjo

Once the world was perfect, and we were happy in that world.
Then we took it for granted.
Discontent began a small rumble in the earthly mind.
Then Doubt pushed through with its spiked head.
And once Doubt ruptured the web,
All manner of demon thoughts
Jumped through—
We destroyed the world we had been given
For inspiration, for life—
Each stone of jealousy, each stone
Of fear, greed, envy, and hatred, put out the light.
No one was without a stone in his or her hand.
There we were,
Right back where we had started.
We were bumping into each other
In the dark.
And now we had no place to live, since we didn’t know
How to live with each other.
Then one of the stumbling ones took pity on another
And shared a blanket.
A spark of kindness made a light.
The light made an opening in the darkness.
Everyone worked together to make a ladder.
A Wind Clan person climbed out first into the next world,
And then the other clans, the children of those clans, their children,
And their children, all the way through time—
To now, into this morning light to you.

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

Not just meat and ‘taters

Yesterday we picked up another autumn community supported agriculture [CSA] share. This week our box contained:

• RED KURI SQUASH
• RED POTATOES
• APPLES
• BELL PEPPERS
• LUNCHBOX PEPPERS
• SPINACH, and
• BULB ONIONS

Now that we are into serious autumn weather, food seems more significant than during summer. Maintaining body core temperatures requires more than lightweight summer salads. The Better Half did something deliciously creative, or maybe it was creatively delicious, when she cooked up a bunch of root vegetables the other day. She splashed a taste of maple syrup into the pan with the veggies and stirred. I don’t recall ever tasting anything quite like it. She may yet convince me that eating veggies isn’t just a punishment for naughty adults.

Amador Hill Orchard

Photo by J. Harrington

I’m noticing that there appears to be a growing number of local, small, family farms following regenerative or similar practices. The latest that’s been brought to my attention is just up the road in Lindstrom, the Abdi-Mayfield Farm. I’m intrigued by their claim to offer “edible flowers,” among other fare. We’ll have to learn more and possibly try some of their products. One of the potential disadvantages we’ve discovered in purchasing whole, half, or quarter animals from local sources, rather than packaged meat from a big box, is that sometimes the cuts may be less than prime, like the need to turn a roast into stew meat because it’s a little to chewy when simply roasted. Back when the food system was through-putting “dairy herd buyout” products, a similar issue cropped up. We’ve not yet purchased and eaten enough local meat to have a sense of how widespread and/or frequent the question of “mislabeled” meat may be, but my aversion to confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs) is strong enough that the problem will have to be much worse than we’ve experienced so far to deter me from eating local as much as possible.

The Farm

By Joyce Sutphen

My father’s farm is an apple blossomer.

He keeps his hills in dandelion carpet

and weaves a lane of lilacs between the rose

and the jack-in-the-pulpits.

His sleek cows ripple in the pastures.

The dog and purple iris

keep watch at the garden’s end.

His farm is rolling thunder,

a lightning bolt on the horizon.

His crops suck rain from the sky

and swallow the smoldering sun.

His fields are oceans of heat,

where waves of gold

beat the burning shore.

A red fox

pauses under the birch trees,

a shadow is in the river’s bend.

When the hawk circles the land,

my father’s grainfields whirl beneath it.

Owls gather together to sing in his woods,

and the deer run his golden meadow.

My father’s farm is an icicle,

a hillside of white powder.

He parts the snowy sea,

and smooths away the valleys.

He cultivates his rows of starlight

and drags the crescent moon

through dark unfurrowed fields.

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

Nature's rights are human rights!

I haven’t yet had my fill of watermelon or ripe peaches. I have reached my limit on humidity, temperatures of more than 89℉, drought, and cloudy days. Sounds like we’re in a late August phase and matching mood. Tired of summer, not quite ready for autumn. The good news is we hadn’t retired to Maui or southern California or British Columbia. Meanwhile, the foot-dragging and minimal response to reducing greenhouse gas emissions continues. There are too many folks engage in magical thinking and that’s dangerous for the rest of us. There is an alternative to magical thinking.

Minnesota isn’t immune from wildfires

Photo by J. Harrington

Earlier today I was pondering which might be a better approach: advocating for the adoption of a green amendment to Minnesota’s constitution, along the lines being followed by members of the NCEL, or advocating for the legal establishment of nature’s rights and personhood. It didn’t take too long for me to realize that the question isn’t an either / or choice, it’s a both / and effort. States, including nation states, that wish to demonstrate environmental leadership need to incorporate into their Bill of Rights language that guarantees a healthy environment. They also need to establish legal personhood for their ecosystems. There are no markets on a dead planet. Our entire gross domestic product can’t be “health care.” We’re better off making our environment healthy than repairing all the damage an unhealthy environment does to our bodies, minds and souls.

At a local level, and a more immediate time frame, you might want to consider adding your voice in favor of the removal of both dams on the Kinnickinnic River in River Falls. The Kiap-Tu-Wish chapter of Trout Unlimited has on their web site a nice summary of the recent open house held by the Corps of Engineers and the city of River Falls. Take a look and share your thoughts. If you have questions, feel free to drop them in the comments and I’ll do my best to post an answer.

Remember, all of this is done--

For the Children

The rising hills, the slopes,
of statistics
lie before us.
the steep climb
of everything, going up,
up, as we all
go down.

In the next century
or the one beyond that,
they say,
are valleys, pastures,
we can meet there in peace
if we make it.

To climb these coming crests
one word to you, to
you and your children:

stay together
learn the flowers
go light

Gary Snyder
From: Turtle Island

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

Returning to flow state

We dodged several bullets yesterday, almost literally. There were thunderstorms all around us and we were caught, briefly, in a torrential downpour, but we avoided, through pure luck or something, the hail that shattered windshields and dented sheet metal elsewhere in the Twin Cities area. Strangely enough, we also had a brief dry spell while we picked up our CSA share box and again later while we were unloading bags and boxes of items for a yard sale. It looks as though I’m going to have to forego my “poor me” complaints for at least a week or two.

Upon arrival home, the mail contained a package of pamphlets from the Order of Bards, Ovates & Druids, including several on the role of water in Celtic and Druid spirituality. Those nicely complement the Kimberly Blaeser paper I’m currently reading, A Cosmology of Nibi. I’m more and more delighted by the correspondence I find between Celtic and Native American cultures. The likelihood that what passes for culture in colonial America will ever give earth and water and air the respect they deserve is not great, but I keep hoping to find ways to move the needle in the right direction. I think that’s something elders are supposed to do, isn’t it?

(upper) Kinnickinnic River

Photo by J. Harrington

As long as we’re on the theme of moving needles, I want to share a recently distributed notice from the Twin Cities chapter of Trout Unlimited, of which I’m a long time member, that may be of interest.

Regular newsletter readers are aware that we have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to remove two dams on the Kinnickinnic River, an iconic trout stream that is the home water for much of our membership.  This year, the US Army Corps of Engineers is conducting a feasibility study on the removal of the dams and restoration of the river corridor.  This feasibility study is the first big step in developing a firm plan for the restoration of the river, and can bring up to $10 million in federal funding to the project. TCTU members have provided critical seed money to get this project going.  
The Corps will be hosting an open house on Tuesday August 15th from 6 pm to 8 pm at the River Falls Public Library.  Corps officials will provide a detailed overview of the feasibility study, and welcome the public to join and provide comment. River Falls City Officials will also be present.  The Corps' press release announcing the Open House is here.
This is a great opportunity for us to show our support for the restoration, provide comments, and get our questions answered.  I plan to attend, and I hope that you can join, too! A strong contingent of TU members at this meeting will demonstrate to the Corps and the City just how important this project is to us.
If you would like to read more about the Kinni Restoration project, please check out this page on our website. 

It is a very pleasant surprise to find the Corps actively engaged in river restoration as well as their normal efforts at river industrialization. We look forward to a positive outcome of the feasibility study and, ultimately, the removal of two dams in River Falls. We’ll check for press coverage late next week and will post here anything we find.

Navigation

Jeanetta Calhoun Mish

Nervous-system tracings of rivers before dams—
to map watercourses is to diagram human hands
running in fingers to deltas. Neosho, Kaw,
Cimarron, Verdigris, Arkansas, Chickaskia.
Flood flow in spring, summer languid. Call
their names—conjure those whose language
they carry. Memory exists in nerves, lives in
rivers like silver-scaled great-horned serpent,
basilisk who admonishes our failures. Metaphor
reminds us that humans subsisted along rivers
immemorial. Recall, then, those dead metaphors,
breathe them back to life—river of time, river
of memory, river of life, river of blood, river of
song, river of death. River of contempt. Not the
same river, not the same woman—Heraclitus’
axiom along cattail-encumbered bank. Honor
rivers’ meanders, their currents our late-night
reveries that roar, crawl along, rush downstream,
and overflow, leaving mica scales behind. How
rivers sometimes get lost. How we all get lost.

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

This is only a test

The universe is estimated to be almost 15 billion years old; the Earth about 4.5 billion; humans (Homo sapiens) less than a million. I need to remind myself of this so I can keep in perspective that we are, literally, not only "a child of the universe,” but children on a universal timescale. Is it any wonder that we continue to make monumental mistakes? Plus, there are indications that this whole existence thing is just an experiment, to see if it works. Maybe, by the time time has run its course, everything will just disappear into a last singularity, a mega black hole.

Meanwhile, I don’t give a damn about a cage match between X-man and Zuckface. I do need to do more to break my current pattern of awakening in the morning, walking dogs, getting coffee, checking local and international news, watch my mood go to hell again, check social media, watch my mood worsen. If I reframe life as an experiment in which I (and you) are involuntary participants, and realize how many failed experiments often precede any kind of success, it doesn’t all seem as bad.

Leopold shack and pines

Photo by J. Harrington

An example? from Estella Leopold’s Stories from the Leopold Shack, 

“The first phase of the family’s annual pine planting ran from spring 1936 until spring 1939. Those were the dust bowl years, and during the first droughty summer of 1936 almost all the little pines died....

We continued to plant thousands of pines the next year, and most of those died, ...” 

These days, the pines that finally made it are being thinned so the mature trees can be replaced with seedlings.

There are also stories about Edison and his inventions that highlight the nature of experiments: “‘Results! Why, man, I have gotten a lot of results! I know several thousand things that won’t work.’” I think you get the picture.

So, much as I find it challenging to accept, henceforth, I shall spend less time doom-scrolling and more time rereading this:

Desiderata: Original Text

This is the original text from the book where Desiderata was first published.

Go placidly amid the noise and the haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence. As far as possible, without surrender, be on good terms with all persons.

Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even to the dull and the ignorant; they too have their story.

Avoid loud and aggressive persons; they are vexatious to the spirit. If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain or bitter, for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.

Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans. Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.

Exercise caution in your business affairs, for the world is full of trickery. But let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals, and everywhere life is full of heroism.

Be yourself. Especially do not feign affection. Neither be cynical about love; for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment, it is as perennial as the grass.

Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth.

Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.

Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here.

And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should. Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be. And whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace in your soul. With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.

by Max Ehrmann ©1927

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

Mine, all mine

There’s an article in the Star Tribune that misses several significant points relative to its purported subject. The head states: Minnesota locked in global dilemma: More copper and nickel are needed, but mine development slow. That’s slightly off the mark, but not as misleading as the lede: “There's a not-in-my-backyard mentality surrounding new hardrock mine projects.” 

If the reporters had thought a bit, they might have noted that the global dilemma could have been avoided if the oil and gas industry had been honest and more forthcoming decades ago about the implications of consuming their products. Of course, the world leaders have been less than dynamic in responding to the scientific evidence and reports about the effects of greenhouse gasses and climate weirding. The real “not in my backyard” issue is global population growth accompanied by a capitalist economy dependent on quantitative rather than qualitative growth to provide return on investment.

There’s another aspect though that is more germane to Minnesota, and the rest of US. Some years ago the Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance (IRMA) was begun. It has now reached the point where their standards form the basis against which mining activities can be audited. According to the IRMA web site, none of the audits completed or underway at this writing is in Minnesota or the United States. This is perhaps not surprising since the  lack of systems planning we are pursuing results in a national approach of building renewable generating capacity far from the centers of consumption and lack the transmission capacity to get the product to market, so to speak. We’re as likely to insist mining projects in this country meet stringent international standards as we are to place lots more emphasis on roof-top solar and micro-grids. Either would seem to be a better approach but would upset some of the major players, no doubt.

mining leaves many scars on the earth

Photo by J. Harrington

Aaron Brown, someone much closer to the Iron Range mining issues than I, recently had this and more to say:

Since the dawn of capitalism on this continent, people of northern Minnesota contended with challenging economic conditions. This is true whether we live in Eveleth or Onigum. Up and down. Boom and bust. We share these experiences.

We should be rightly concerned that the powerful deem the people of northern Minnesota less valuable than the logs and ore that define our manufactured regional identity. When companies are denied logs and ore, the powerful speak out. When people are denied health care, affordable housing and dignity, the powerful suddenly show remarkable restraint of tongue and pen. 

Since the evidence is growing daily that the climate scientists who try to inform and warn us of what we’re doing to ourselves, actually, allowing the global corporations to do to us, are telling the truth, maybe it’s time to focus more on working together to bring the corporatocracy, including its political toadies, to heal and spend less energy pointing fingers at various elements of the people who do the work and/or suffer the most while the profits continue to accrue to the 1%.

Love in a Time of Climate Change

By Craig Santos Perez

recycling Pablo Neruda's "Sonnet XVII"

I don't love you as if you were rare earth metals,

conflict diamonds, or reserves of crude oil that cause

war. I love you as one loves the most vulnerable

species: urgently, between the habitat and its loss.

I love you as one loves the last seed saved

within a vault, gestating the heritage of our roots,

and thanks to your body, the taste that ripens

from its fruit still lives sweetly on my tongue.

I love you without knowing how or when this world

will end. I love you organically, without pesticides.

I love you like this because we'll only survive

in the nitrogen rich compost of our embrace,

so close that your emissions of carbon are mine,

so close that your sea rises with my heat. 

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

Debt ceiling? What debt ceiling?

The following is from Stop the Charade: The Federal Budget Is Its Own ‘Debt-Ceiling’ in a recent Forbes. I am not a lawyer, so I don’t know how well the reasoning would hold up in court, especially today’s courts. On the other  hand, there’s the planning dictum that “More of the same never solved a problem." Read the whole thing by following the preceding link.

If President Biden, like Presidents Clinton and Obama before him, wishes to give would-be financial hostage-takers in Congress more rope to hang themselves with, he can of course play up the present pseudo-conflict, say that he ‘will not negotiate with terrorists’ or ‘cut Social Security or national defense,’ thank them for the de facto line item veto they’ve unconstitutionally conferred on him in the form of Secretary Yellen’s ‘extraordinary measures,’ and enjoy yet another public backlash against Republican House clown-shows.

If, on the other hand, the President decides that it is long since time to pull the plug on this farce so the nation can address real problems, he should simply inform Congressional Republicans that there is no debt ceiling apart from the budget that they themselves have enacted, then watch them either drop their latest hijack attempt or sue him and be told the same thing by the courts. 

In case you haven’t noticed (how could you miss), we’re all living in interesting times and have about 90 seconds to fix them. Wouldn’t it be nice if we were wise enough to elect political leaders who actuallly focus on the existential issues we’re facing?

That’s (almost) all for today.

The Second Coming

By William Butler Yeats

Turning and turning in the widening gyre   

The falcon cannot hear the falconer;

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,

The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere   

The ceremony of innocence is drowned;

The best lack all conviction, while the worst   

Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;

Surely the Second Coming is at hand.   

The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out   

When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi

Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert   

A shape with lion body and the head of a man,   

A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,   

Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it   

Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.   

The darkness drops again; but now I know   

That twenty centuries of stony sleep

Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,   

And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,   

Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

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

Refreshing thaws and paws in the winter’s season

These above freezing temperatures have me almost giddy. The dogs are enjoying our walks and spending much more time sniffing their way around. Neither has hobbled back to the house for the past couple of days. May all of next year’s weather be at least as pleasant as the last few days.

looks that say “do we have to go out?"

Photo by J. Harrington

The tactic of taking down the bird houses so the birds won’t congregate and attract a hawk seems to be working. At least we’ve seen few songbirds and no hawks so far today. I’m thinking New Year’s Day will be a good time to return the feeders to their hangers.

I’m starting to think of the “good old days” as the times when life had a more not less stable rhythm to it, one that lasted for more than ten minutes or so; when seasonal weather was predominantly seasonal; when your chances of arriving on time, or close to it, taking an airline flight were more than random. I have very strong doubts that human evolution has prepared us for the degree of volatility we’ve injected into daily life. I’m also deeply concerned by the inadequacy our institutional and governmental responses. So, in accord with my efforts to be more positive than not in my recent postings, I want to close out this year with a recommendation that we all seriously consider the arguments made by David Whyte in Ecocide – Kill The Corporation Before It Kills Us. You can read a more detailed review here.

Once the holiday season has passed, I intend to read the book and, if it’s as telling as I expect, devote some time and postings here to exploring how to do what the title calls for. I’m positive that allowing thieves and charlatans to hide behind corporate shields is not the way to restorative development or a sustainable future.

Revolutionary Letter #3

Diane di Prima - 1934-2020

store water; make a point of filling your bathtub
at the first news of trouble: they turned off the water
in the 4th ward for a whole day during the Newark riots;
or better yet make a habit
of keeping the tub clean and full when not in use
change this once a day, it should be good enough
for washing, flushing toilets when necessary
and cooking, in a pinch, but it’s a good idea
to keep some bottled water handy too
get a couple of five gallon jugs and keep them full
for cooking

//

store food—dry stuff like rice and beans stores best
goes farthest. SALT VERY IMPORTANT: it’s health and energy
healing too, keep a couple pounds
sea salt around, and, because we’re spoiled, some tins
tuna, etc. to keep up morale—keep up the sense
of ‘balanced diet’ ‘protein intake’ remember
the stores may be closed for quite some time, the trucks
may not enter your section of the city for weeks, you can cool it indefinitely

//

with 20 lb brown rice
20 lb whole wheat flour
10 lb cornmeal
10 lb good beans—kidney or soy
5 lb sea salt
2 qts good oil
dried fruit and nuts
add nutrients and a sense of luxury
to this diet, a squash or coconut
in a cool place in your pad will keep six months.

//

remember we are all used to eating less
than the ‘average American’ and take it easy
before we
ever notice we’re hungry the rest of the folk will be starving
used as they are to meat and fresh milk daily
and help will arrive, until the day no help arrives
and then you’re on your own.

//

hoard matches, we aren’t good
at rubbing sticks together any more
a tinder box is useful, if you can work it
don’t count on gas stove, gas heater
electric light
keep hibachi and charcoal, CHARCOAL STARTER a help
kerosene lamp and candles, learn to keep warm
with breathing
remember the blessed American habit of bundling

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

A hopeful sign, or two

The election results could have been worse. Mainstream media expected a “red wave.”  Democrats largely held their own and, in Minnesota, made some important gains. Unfortunately, those gains were made in areas other than my own state house district, senate district and congressional district. I’m “represented” by a Republican in each case. The Star Tribune has an interesting, if depressing, election outcome map. (Blue=Democrats; Red=Republican, click link below map to bigify and for full article.)

how Minnesota voted for Governor

The vote for governor shows a strong urban-rural split. That makes it hard to serve “One Minnesota,” but at least the legislature and the executive branches are now controlled by one party. Let’s hope the are no Minnesota DINOs-in-wating like Sinema and Manchin. The Iron Range candidates are no longer serving in the legislature.

Yesterday I came across another small sign of hope. I’m sharing it here because it may be of interest and I think it deserves lots of support. At COP27, the Biden Administration unveiled A Roadmap for Climate Progress, Thriving Nature, Equity, and Prosperity.

The Biden-Harris Administration is committed to maximizing nature-based solutions as critical tools in its toolbox to confront climate change and other major challenges. This report provides a roadmap with five strategic areas of change needed to unleash nature’s full potential: Update Polices; Unlock Funding; Lead with Federal Facilities and Assets; Train the Workforce; and Prioritize Research, Innovation, Knowledge, and Adaptive Learning. This is a starting point, an initial framework for action. The steps we collectively take now to drive the integration of nature-based solutions and make them a priority for investments and infrastructure will, in part, determine the success of our fights against climate change, nature loss, and inequity. We call on you to lead with us in advancing these policies and practices to meaningfully improve the lives of Americans and people around the world.

There are local efforts that can benefit from increased emphasis on nature-based solutions, particularly if Traditional Ecological Knowledge is included. In fact, we can benefit from greater use of traditional knowledge in more than ecological efforts. As N. Scott Momaday reminds us in When The Light of The World Was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through, words have meaning:

Prayer for Words

N. Scott Momaday - 1934-

         My voice restore for me.
                           Navajo
 

Here is the wind bending the reeds westward,
The patchwork of morning on gray moraine:

 

Had I words I could tell of origin,
Of God’s hands bloody with birth at first light,
Of my thin squeals in the heat of his breath,
Of the taste of being, the bitterness,
And scents of camas root and chokecherries.

And, God, if my mute heart expresses me,
I am the rolling thunder and the bursts
Of torrents upon rock, the whispering
Of old leaves, the silence of deep canyons.
I am the rattle of mortality.

I could tell of the splintered sun. I could
Articulate the night sky, had I words.

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

How can you tell a healthy stream or lake?

I did not know until this morning that there’s an organization devoted to “PROTECT, PRESERVE, AND RESTORE WILD NATIVE FISH POPULATIONS THROUGH STEWARDSHIP OF THE FISH AND THEIR HABITATS.” It’s the Native Fish Coalition and it has chapters in a number of states, mostly along the east coast with a few southern chapters. No chapters yet in Minnesota or Wisconsin which I find surprising since brook trout are native to both of those states and are facing significant challenges related to the effects of climate change.

It is the belief of Native Fish Coalition that no stream, river, pond or lake is truly healthy or “restored” until its full complement of native species is intact and it is devoid of nonnative species and hatchery-raised fish.  While clean water and healthy riparian zones are a necessary foundation for establishing healthy aquatic ecosystems, they are not an absolute indication of overall ecological health.

 

Northern Minnesota brook trout water?

Photo by J. Harrington

If you read this posting and are interested in exploring the establishment of a Minnesota Chapter of the NFC, please add a comment so we can get in touch. I happened to come across the NFC web site while I was checking out the Sea Run Brook Trout coalition web site. The watershed association of my home waters in Massachusetts is working on the restoration of native fishes in the North and South Rivers. That’s a wonderful improvement over the situation when I lived there decades ago. Perhaps there are reasons to be hopeful.

The Disappearance of the Duwamish Salmon

By Duane Niatum

How long have they laid buried

in the sludge and grime of industry

erasing the river's breath

and almost erasing the Duwamish people

who once paddled their canoes down

its current swift as the wing of kingfisher?

Walking beside the river in 2009 you can

still hear the dreams and laughter

of children picking serviceberry

with their grandmother teasing a crow

stealing berries from her basket.

You might glimpse ancestral villages,

longhouses yards from the riverbank

before settlers burned them to the ground ,

drove the small tribe to the city's outskirts.

Seattle, too easily the age slipped a false-face

mask on you, a glass and concrete fashion cone

to give roaches the run of skyscrapers.

Although an alien in Salish country,

you were destined to become Raven's cousin,

Killer Whale's distant, ambivalent friend,

the many-mountains'-on-both-sides

adopted daughter when just an agate cut

from volcano and sea.

Seattle, my old salmonberry moon under a sky

as light as a tossed net, who remains,

leaping with salmon for old emotions?

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

Who’s teaching whom?

Today’s posting is short and, I hope, sweet. There’s a new report from the United Nations that’s written about in The Guardian: Humans need to value nature as well as profits to survive, UN report finds. Now, it’s as obvious to me as not eating the seed corn that nature provides our life support systems and that the economy is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the environment, but apparently the report’s findings will come as news to a number of folks. (By the way, please note that the report is prominently linked above. The Guardian’s story failed to include a link to the report. Too many newspapers are not providing online links these days. Including links to reports that are the subject of the story should be mandatory in all journalism style guides.)

I’ve not read the UN report yet, but the reason you’re reading about it here is it talks about incorporating multiple systems of values in decision making. We need, I believe, lots more education and training in how to do that. Too much of the focus we have is on doing things efficiently with too little emphasis on doing effective things. Holistic decision making has become critical if humans are to thrive over the long term on a habitable planet.

shared resource, many users

Photo by J. Harrington

One example of more holistic decision making probably not cited in the UN report is from a local school. That report was recently published on the Agate web site: Creating a buzz at Chisago Lakes Middle School. Much of the report is about planting pollinator gardens.  The report’s author is a teacher at the school and “His students are known in Minnesota for fully funding an effort to put 44 solar panels on their school in 2008 with zero financial support from the school district. That project (Project Independence) morphed into the school owning or leasing 15,000 solar panels and saving 3-6 million dollars over the course of 30 years.” Apparently not all the local families are wearers of red seed caps stitched MAGA.

I’m embarrassed to admit that I had read about the solar panel project years ago and then forgot about it. It’s heartening and encouraging to see that students can and do exercise leadership on important things. They also set examples more (and more, and more) of our politicians should follow.

My Wisdom

By Naomi Shihab Nye

When people have a lot

they want more

 

When people have nothing

they will happily share it

 

*

 

Some people say

never getting your way

builds character

By now our character must be

deep and wide as a continent

Africa, Australia

giant cascade of stars

spilling over our huge night

 

*

 

Where did the power go?

Did it enjoy its break?

Is power exhausted?

What is real power?

Who really has power?

Did the generator break?

Do we imagine silence

more powerful because

it might contain everything?

Quiet always lives

inside noise.

But does it get much done?

 

*

 

Silence waits

for truth to break it

 

*

 

Calendars can weep too

They want us to have better days

 

*

 

Welcome to every minute

Feel lucky you’re still in it

 

*

 

No bird builds a wall

 

*

 

Sky purse

     jingling

           change

 

*

 

Won’t give up

our hopes

            for anything!

 

*

 

Not your fault

You didn’t make the world

 

*

 

How dare this go on and on?

cried the person who believed in praying

God willing     God willing        God willing

There were others who prayed

   to ruins & stumps

 

*

 

Open palms

     hold more

 

*

 

Refuse to give

   mistakes

      too much power

 

 

*

Annoying person?

Person who told me to stay home

and do what other girls do?

If you disappeared

I still might miss you

 

*

 

Babies want to help us

They laugh

for no reason

 

*

 

Pay close attention to

a drop of water

on the kitchen table

 

*

 

You cannot say one word about religion

and exclude Ahmad

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

Do you know how to get to...?

Many of the north-south routes in our neck of the woods are impaired by road construction. Interstate 35 is backed up at least from Stacy south to Highway 97 near the Columbus / Forest Lake boundary. Old Highway 61 has some sort of construction around Stacy and much further south in Hugo. Traffic bailing from I-35 has impacted Forest Lake and jammed the round-a-bouts. If this were Scowhegan, ME, we’d be living the punch line: “Can’t get they-ahh from hee-yahhh!” or something like that.

North Country winters can tear up roads

Photo by J. Harrington

I suspect that I may have blogged previously about our seasonal alternative to North Country winters, road construction season. In all seriousness, I’d like to propose a piece of legislation, if we can ever get the Minnesota Legislature to do something for us citizens instead of just taking care of their corporate donors. For at least the seven county Twin Cities metropolitan area, and, preferably, for the thirteen county standard metropolitan statistical area, we need a road construction coordination czar who can prevent the detours from detouring drivers into yet more road construction. That’s it. That’s all. But it would significantly improve the quality of life for almost half the year and might even save money, let alone tempers and fenders.

To prove that we’re not entirely unreasonable, the coordination would not apply initially to gravel roads, even though the other day we were trapped for a mile or more behind a township road grader doing no more than 5 mph. The driver wouldn’t stop to let us and the vehicles behind us pass so we took our chances at a slightly wider spot where a driveway intersected. Obviously, we succeeded.

The Spring

by Gary Snyder

Beating asphalt into highway potholes
pickup truck we'd loaded
road repair stock shed & yard
a day so hot the asphalt went in soft.
pipe and steel plate tamper
took turns at by hand
then drive the truck rear wheel
a few times back and forth across the fill–
finish it off with bitchmo around the edge.

the foreman said let's get a drink
& drove through the woods and flower fields
shovels clattering in back
into a black grove by a cliff
a rocked in pool
feeding a fern ravine
tin can to drink
numbing the hand and cramping in the gut
surging through the fingers from below
& dark here–
let's get back to the truck
get back on the job.

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

Saving the world a backyard at a time

I spent early this morning on World Environment Day as usual, drinking coffee and reading poetry. Then I started up the tractor and mowed the grass in the back yard. I’m slowly, very slowly, learning about recycling nutrients in place. The mower deck was set on high to compensate for this being the first mowing/mulching of the year, thanks to No Mow May. Later, we did see one bumblebee in our reseeded, unmown, front yard. A transition from a fairly typical exurban middle class American lifestyle to one that is much more sustainable presents a number of interesting challenges. Adjusting aesthetics is one of them. Piles of fallen leaves may not always be attractive, but they serve a number of purposes that help support a healthier ecosystem. Figuring out how best to apply permaculture principles to our own property, which is neither farm nor woodlot, is a whole packet of such challenges. One of the bigger ones facing the Better Half and I is we don’t really know what we want to do with the place. Shortly after we moved in we tried serious gardening. Since each of us commuted to jobs and we were raising a family, the level of efforts required didn’t balance well. Plus, we didn’t do a good enough job fending off whitetail deer, pocket gophers, rabbits and other critters that found our plantings quite tasty. That all became a classic live and learn sequence.

“back yard” before mowing

Photo by J. Harrington

Today, after the grass was shortened, I took a break. Learning to pace myself is another transition I’m working on. Once rested, I grabbed the electric leaf blower and the push mower and cleaned up some more of our accumulated oak leaves to be used as mulch in the replanted day lily bed. In the process, while taking my break, I had read that mown leaves will decompose in about a year and that they help build humus, but not so much if they’re overlaid on landscaping cloth, which is precisely what we’ve done. Live and learn strikes again!

Part of the issue is the world, and life, don’t stop while you and I learn all we need to about what to do, what not to do, how to best do what needs doing and then get it done. Combine that with my long-time identity based on being a hunter, a fisher, and a forager more than a gardener or suburbanite and the complexities become clearer. It’s a case of both learning and unlearning. From what I read on a daily basis, there’s a lot of that kind of adjustment going on nearly everywhere.

We live; do our best (most of us); make mistakes and try again. The real problems arise when governments and corporate persons keep acting as if exercising their rights doesn’t also involve honoring responsibilities to the Earth and her other inhabitants. If we carefully think about it, the Earth is the commons that belongs to all of us and we need the other inhabitants to maintain a livable planet. As capable as humans are, we can’t do photosynthesis. In fact, we haven’t even been able to accomplish our own Green New Deal.

Earth Day

By Jane Yolen

I am the Earth

And the Earth is me.

Each blade of grass,

Each honey tree,

Each bit of mud,

And stick and stone

Is blood and muscle,

Skin and bone.

And just as I

Need every bit

Of me to make

My body fit,

So Earth needs

Grass and stone and tree

And things that grow here

Naturally.

That’s why we

Celebrate this day.

That’s why across

The world we say:

As long as life,

As dear, as free,

I am the Earth

And the Earth is me. 

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

Promises made, promises broken, and here we are

 In 1990, the Blandin Foundation published a book with text by Paul Gruchow and photos by Jim Brandenburg. Its title: Minnesota: Images of Home. The Preface begins with an observation that “our state faces a special challenge: the struggle to hold to a common purpose in the face of economic realities that threaten to divide and polarize us.” It goes on to note that “So both urban and rural Minnesota are caught up in the tensions of enormous change. At the same time, a growing economic gap threatens to divide rural Minnesotans from their urban cousins, and the wealthiest urbanites from their neighbors, who have not shared in recent income gains. It will take discipline, imagination, and determined leadership to keep us working together as a community of communities toward what is good for all Minnesotans.” 

Minnesota: Images of Home

Meanwhile, in my opinion, our political leaders have spent the past 30+ years focused on opposing the other party rather than working together for the good of the country. Plus, I believe the preface missed the significant, going back at least to Earl Butz, political emphasis in agriculture for farms and farmers to “get big or get out.” Congress has failed to rein in, let alone curb, industrial agriculture. Consequently, the number of farms decreases, the size of farms increases, the number of Confined Animal Feed Operations [CAFOs] increases, the agricultural nonpoint source water pollution grows horribly and the “farm population” declines.

Do you really think that the solution to an urban-rural divide is to have only half a dozen farms in all of Minnesota’s agricultural regions; plowed by unmanned tractors using GIS; spreading fertilizer on eroded soils to grow commodity row crops not for food, but as feed for biofuels, which produce more greenhouse gases than they save? I hope not. Agriculture has become too much an extractive industry, extracting life from rural America.

Once upon a time, Minnesota had a state planning agency. It also had a citizen board that ran the Pollution Control Agency. Regional Planning Agencies once served all of the state. No more. We have confused efficiency with effectiveness. We have focused on cost rather than value. We have become too much a “beggar my neighbor” culture. We have grown to ask not what we can do for our community, but what our community can do for us. We are not alone in making these mistakes.

Climate change due to greenhouse gas emissions has been known for decades. We have failed to act adequately that entire time and continue to do so. In the 1949 Housing Act, Congress established, “as soon as feasible, the goal of a decent home and a suitable living environment for every American family. “ Are we any closer to attaining that goal? I doubt it. I know, we know, that we’re far from attaining the 1983 objective of “fishable-swimmable waters” set in the Clean Water Act of 1972. Half or more of the waters tested fail to meet the fishable-swimmable standards.

The Mad Farmer Poems

One of the rural poets I read with some regularity is Wendell Berry. He farms in Kentucky. (I’ve never read his opinion of Mitch McConnell or Rand Paul. Time for an internet search.) He speaks meaningfully about farming and how to do it. I wonder how many urbanites have read today’s poem and agree with it. In fact, I wish more urban and suburbanites would read or listen to the Mad Farmer Poems in their entirety.

  Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front

   by Wendell Berry

 

Love the quick profit, the annual raise,

vacation with pay. Want more

of everything ready-made. Be afraid

to know your neighbors and to die.

And you will have a window in your head.

Not even your future will be a mystery

any more. Your mind will be punched in a card

and shut away in a little drawer.

When they want you to buy something

they will call you. When they want you

to die for profit they will let you know.

So, friends, every day do something

that won’t compute. Love the Lord.

Love the world. Work for nothing.

Take all that you have and be poor.

Love someone who does not deserve it.

Denounce the government and embrace

the flag. Hope to live in that free

republic for which it stands.

Give your approval to all you cannot

understand. Praise ignorance, for what man

has not encountered he has not destroyed.

Ask the questions that have no answers.

Invest in the millennium. Plant sequoias.

Say that your main crop is the forest

that you did not plant,

that you will not live to harvest.

Say that the leaves are harvested

when they have rotted into the mold.

Call that profit. Prophesy such returns.

Put your faith in the two inches of humus

that will build under the trees

every thousand years.

Listen to carrion — put your ear

close, and hear the faint chattering

of the songs that are to come.

Expect the end of the world. Laugh.

Laughter is immeasurable. Be joyful

though you have considered all the facts.

So long as women do not go cheap

for power, please women more than men.

Ask yourself: Will this satisfy

a woman satisfied to bear a child?

Will this disturb the sleep

of a woman near to giving birth?

Go with your love to the fields.

Lie easy in the shade. Rest your head

in her lap. Swear allegiance

to what is nighest your thoughts.

As soon as the generals and the politicos

can predict the motions of your mind,

lose it. Leave it as a sign

to mark the false trail, the way

you didn’t go. Be like the fox

who makes more tracks than necessary,

some in the wrong direction.

Practice resurrection.

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