Day lily phen(omen)ology

Neighborhood day lilies have started to bloom. That means it’s time to watch (out) for fawns, goslings and wild turkey poults. A couple of days ago we had two does and four spotted fawns scampering around behind the house. Goslings are down the road at the Sunrise River pools along county road 36. The Better Half has seen poults as she drove to the barn where the Daughter Person’s horse is boarded. I’m hoping to see some in the back yard any day now. Signs of any kind of normalcy are very much appreciated and valued these days.

whitetail fawn in flower-dotted field behind our house

Photo by J. Harrington

This month's weather has been almost as bad as the Washington regime's "governing." It's been wickedly rainy or humidly wet and/or windy and either well above or below normal temperatures. The bad news is: the weather has hindered getting out fishing. The good news is it's hindered yard cleanup and mowing. I think I'd prefer to deal with the tradeoffs created by better weather.

I'm not sure if it's a result of the weather or what, but this summer we've had two, maybe three, male Baltimore orioles at the feeders, together with a mob of male rose-breasted grosbeaks and a flock of male goldfinches. All more than I remember from past years. 

All-in-all, it wouldn't take much to make for a major improvement in folks' lives around here. Then, again, there's the old saying that "Things always look darkest just before they go totally black!" but I much prefer a line I wrote years ago: "It's better to light a candle than curse the darkness!"

Praise the Rain

By Joy Harjo

 

Praise the rain; the seagull dive

The curl of plant, the raven talk—

Praise the hurt, the house slack

The stand of trees, the dignity—

Praise the dark, the moon cradle

The sky fall, the bear sleep—

Praise the mist, the warrior name

The earth eclipse, the fired leap—

Praise the backwards, upward sky

The baby cry, the spirit food—

Praise canoe, the fish rush

The hole for frog, the upside-down—

Praise the day, the cloud cup

The mind flat, forget it all—

Praise crazy. Praise sad.

Praise the path on which we're led.

Praise the roads on earth and water.

Praise the eater and the eaten.

Praise beginnings; praise the end.

Praise the song and praise the singer.

Praise the rain; it brings more rain.

Praise the rain; it brings more rain.

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

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.

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