The Right Way

Well, I made it up the hill on my x-country skis today. It's only about a 200 feet change in elevation from our home set at about 2,000 feet. And I haven't waxed my skis recently so they are a bit slippery in the powdery snow. But I made it - three stents and all. The last week or so I have finally gotten a bit of exercise after a quick trip to New England. Racquetball, swimming and now pushing snow on my skis. Feels good, but it seems that I have a pretty tranquil life, eh. I learn from my PC Internet sedentary reading position of dolphin slaughters in Japan (from the documentary "The Cove"), deaths in the nation's immigration jails and green issues on a global scale.  And we won't even mention Iraq or Afghanistan.  Yes, there is plenty to keep one's eye on (and these links are but a mix of links and little at that), but at the same time we can count ourselves lucky if we have a decent job, shelter and some food on the table.  Like most of the rest of us I don't really have a prescription for tackling all of this and I really don't have a crystal ball that can foretell what is around the bend.  But I suppose we can chip away at things. You know, sort of like Copenhagen. We can all smile and nod our heads because meetings whether in your own home, at work or on the world stage meetings often times end up with less than what we had hoped for, but if fate is good to us with more than before...

Once on the hill, the dogs and I paused for a few moments to capture the valley scene below. It is a beautiful day with blue sky and white snow. The hard part is doing the herringbone up the hill.  The easy part, albeit more dangerous, is racing downhill. I suppose that is the way I look at society right now.  We are racing downhill without any real and overt means by which we can stop. What we can do though is to use our senses to tell us that there is an end to the downhill slope. In my mind that only works though for those who are true to heart and value. Hmm, you wonder what I mean by that. Aye, it is a naive view of the world that guards a rigid sense of right and wrong. Clarity in action in relying on your instincts and a faith that GTC has made us all with a place in this glorious wide world. Easier said than done for sure, but it takes practice...

I look back up the hill at the trail that I have left behind. Two muffled tracks of soft, powdery snow settle in for a short winter time. It is always fun to do "downhill" in a powder. Yes, I did tip over once halfway down. Kelpie and Griffon stopped by to make sure that I was okay. The final slope though was still fun. That's it I think in terms of reaching that final slope. Just how do we un-corrupt a very, complicated and diverse world in order to reach that right way of living to sustain ourselves and each other. And I wonder how many of us include the each other part of the equation. Because we must...

1 In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah: We have a strong city; God makes salvation its walls and ramparts. 2 Open the gates that the righteous nation may enter, the nation that keeps faith. 3 You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you. 4 Trust in the LORD forever, for the LORD, the LORD, is the Rock eternal. 5 He humbles those who dwell on high, he lays the lofty city low; he levels it to the ground and casts it down to the dust. 6 Feet trample it down—the feet of the oppressed, the footsteps of the poor. 7 The path of the righteous is level; O upright One, you make the way of the righteous smooth. 8 Yes, LORD,

walking in the way of your laws, we wait for you; your name and renown are the desire of our hearts. 9 My soul yearns for you in the night; in the morning my spirit longs for you. When your judgments come upon the earth, the people of the world learn righteousness.

 

up front and a little too human

tonight the raucous weather front is here. the rain is coming down on the bit of remnant snow left behind. the wind is carrying bits and pieces of what has risen from the past. not sure if the waters will reach the bridge deck. it isn't really unusual. and so we have learned to deal with it. 

somehow i don't think we deal or really tolerate humanness vey well. well, it isn't the sort that you hold out front. the clothes we wear, the face we carry, the acts we plot and do behind the scenes. what a fix we are in. because more often than not we just don't seem to have a right way to tackle those difficult issues.

and i guess it begs a question of how do you really contemplate if not actually doing it. you know, starting over. ok a new direction, but with a past.

innovate living and working together and novel ideas in a novel way.

novel ideas, huh.

i like to stand in a stiff wind. to feel the rain pelt against my face. a glance at the sky and either disappear into the grayness or to ride along on the clouds.

a peak of blue can bring a smile and a reminder that there is hope.

the hope of a creator and the courage to face uncertainty and the hard decisions that your (our) times may dictate.

what is it, james said faith and works. and maybe the feather that forest talked about. what is it "light as a feather" jesse talked about. no, not the biblical jesse either. but then again, yes maybe...

i'm listening now.

it's i dreamed a dream. perhaps storms we cannot weather, but yes, storms that will pass by. i suppose we are all dust in the wind. yet, one hopes that copenhagen brings hope. hope that we can work together. i think that real humanness is rising to the real challenge of growing our garden together. with All the Biological World in uniting to make a common future. those that hear this call will understand. it is for those in copenhagen. that they may listen and God may show. show us the path to a common light.

Time for a Nor'easter

This is a blog without a photograph, and thus for me it is an internal blog. The kind you wake up with after a fitful night of sleep and you have been tossing a bit wondering about this and that. You see today was a cold day, with drizzle. The comet's trail so to speak of the Nor'easter off the coast that has matured in the Appalachians and either married the system coming up from the southeast or spawned something altogether new. And behind her, we bundle up and look to the sky and shiver a bit. But you know a day like today makes you feel good to be alive. And I guess it tends to make me contemplate. We were riding to my son's soccer game. I happened to interrupt a great conversation about many things to comment that in an odd way the United States is at a crossroads. We are like a child that hasn't quite grown up yet is poised to make choice(s). One can glance across the globe and acknowledge challenges across the board that in one way or another the United States has some connection to, and hint at decision-making to go with it. That's when I returned home and read Bono's opinion piece in the New York Times today. He talked about America and the need, "...the world needs to believe in America again." I think Bono has it right, to a point. You see America is much more than simply the United States of America. A problem with this America, and what my friend and I talked about, is that our educational system (and maybe the rest of us too) still hasn't quite recognized it yet. The yet is that there is a Canada, a Central America and a South America in this America. That there are other languages rather than simply English and other cultures besides our own. It is a very rich world, diverse at that, for which we still tend to hunker down upon in a bit of a fetal way. Don't get me wrong there is a place and time for a Teddy Roosevelt response with a hammer too. But it is the "ideas" part of Bono's take that I feel an affinity for. We need ideas now - strong ones that equally arise from a strong-value driven system. Our connections flow from our country, and return again. Curiously enough I made it to another year today on my day. My eve of today and today were, gratefully so, connections to my past with individuals that I have encountered over a span of life. Those connections simply convey to me that we as a country owe it to ourselves and to others to promote those connections in our homes, in our schools and through our mosaiced heritage in a relatively new country that can make a difference - and that must.

Roaring Plains West Wilderness Area

One of the Monongahela National Forest's newly designated wilderness areas, over 6,000 acres of high elevation (3,000 feet+) Appalachian forest set in northeastern West Virginia. A beautiful landscape especially photogenic in the fall (photographs courtesy of David Ede)...

The Station Fire



A Sharp Edge

The week has been beautiful, but alas today’s clouds foretell a bit of a change (see photo). I did hear and see a red tail hawk, listen to the crows on chase, and momentarily watch a flicker feed. I was working on the road this morning patching holes here and there. I miss the feel of being outside and it felt so good to be outside. My daily work regimen is normally on the computer exploring geographic data bits and images using Environmental System Research Institute’s ArcGIS software. I do like and follow technology closely albeit at times I wonder how our biological heritage will mix with mechanical makings. Speaking of mechanical makings though, yesterday a friend called and we somehow got on the subject of American-made products and specifically talked of two products from Bradford, Pennsylvania – Zippo lighters and Case knives. I’ve never really owned a Zippo lighter per se, but like a lot of people I’m sure I’ve used them many a time when in need of fire. They were always dependable. As for Case knives that is a different story. I have owned many a Case pocket knife and still do. The story behind the story is that my Father schooled me in the use of knives at a young age starting with Mumblety-peg ( and no I never stuck my foot with a knife although I came close). I’m not real certain of why my Father loved knives, but I’m sure it related to hunting. Interestingly he made sure that I knew how to use (and sharpen) a pocket knife, a two-bladed Case knife, that I would use to field-dress a deer (and other four-legged critters). He always said that you did not need a bowie knife to do the job just a small pocket knife with a blade that could shave the hair on your hand. Although I could handle a knife I never really was the ultimate outdoorsman, but let’s just say I never was at odds with the woods either. And I suppose that why I’ve made it back around to the reason for writing this post. You see we have more than a few deer out our front door now. They are a pretty species that I never tire of watching, but just as humans are impacting the planet, so too are the whitetail deer populations. Therein lays one chapter in a long story about our natural systems being just a bit out of sync – they’ve lost their natural integrity. Now I do not really believe that we can return to the old days, old ways, and old landscapes. But I do feel that there are ecologists and geographers and other natural resource professionals out there that have valid and critical views on the state of the world.
My parochial view for this relatively minor part of the world is that ideally we may need at some point to delineate relatively naturally occurring ecosystems that we can target for insisting that natural populations, to the extent possible, be safeguarded and even re-introduced if necessary, to return to some semblance of a functioning ecosystem. Hunting and fishing, albeit at times their own worst enemy, still remain as viable tools in a toolbox of land management options within that ecological matrix.


Land Ethic
The land ethic simply enlarges the boundaries of the community to include soils, waters, plants, and animals, or collectively: the land.

This sounds simple: do we not already sing our love for and obligation to the land of the free and the home of the brave? Yes, but just what and whom do we love? Certainly not the soil, which we are sending helter-skelter downriver. Certainly not the waters, which we assume have no function except to turn turbines, float barges, and carry off sewage. Certainly not the plants, of which we exterminate whole communities without batting an eye. Certainly not the animals, of which we have already extirpated many of the largest and most beautiful species. A land ethic of course cannot prevent the alteration, management, and use of these 'resources,' but it does affirm their right to continued existence, and, at least in spots, their continued existence in a natural state.

Leopold, Aldo: A Sand County Almanac, and Sketches Here and There, 1948, Oxford University Press, New York, 1987, pg. 204.

For the Glory