This morning, already edgy from the endless heat, I read a New York Times opinion piece by Mark Bittman, "Endless Summer." http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/07/18/the-endless-summer/ It brought tears to my eyes and a vision of what climate change will unleash upon us all.
I was fired up to write an appeal to America to wake up and smell the coffee, to make radical changes in our way of life, but then my practical side turned to thoughts of what we individual Americans might do to change course. I couldn't think of any actions we might take to overcome the complete power of big business. How can we as a people insist that we invest in benign forms of energy production, that conservation be encouraged, and that we begin to fulfill our obligations under the Kyoto Treaty, which George Bush reneged on. Business, now a person under rule of our Supreme Court, owns our government. They bought it with permission of the court and the cooperation of our federal government. There was no point in urging my fellow Americans to take action.
So I lay down on my bed, my refuge, to calm down. The ceiling and walls of the room are perfect meditation foci. Their angles and gentle color variations sooth my spirit. I floated.
When I felt restored, I thought of Candide, who roamed the earth finding trouble everywhere. He ended up back at home, tending his garden. When there's no viable course of action on the big stage, I remembered once again that I should do as Voltaire advised, tend my garden.
Unfortunately, there's not much garden to tend this summer, but the onions and shallots had been drying for three weeks and were ready for storage. I went to work, cleaning the shallots and filling a basket with them. Then I braided the onions, which look pretty if I do say so myself. Soon we will move them to the basement's cooler environment.
Next best to tending one's garden is baking, so I made a pie – blueberry with a peach thrown in for variety. By this time I was in a whimsical mood.
Yes, I used an electric oven that draws power from a coal-fired plant north of Lawrence, so I did my bit to further change our climate. And yes, the heat pump was cooling the house. I'm sorry. I'll do the best I can to live modestly and conservatively (in the true sense of the word) and hope others are doing the same. At the same time I hope to live happily in the moment.
I was fired up to write an appeal to America to wake up and smell the coffee, to make radical changes in our way of life, but then my practical side turned to thoughts of what we individual Americans might do to change course. I couldn't think of any actions we might take to overcome the complete power of big business. How can we as a people insist that we invest in benign forms of energy production, that conservation be encouraged, and that we begin to fulfill our obligations under the Kyoto Treaty, which George Bush reneged on. Business, now a person under rule of our Supreme Court, owns our government. They bought it with permission of the court and the cooperation of our federal government. There was no point in urging my fellow Americans to take action.
So I lay down on my bed, my refuge, to calm down. The ceiling and walls of the room are perfect meditation foci. Their angles and gentle color variations sooth my spirit. I floated.
When I felt restored, I thought of Candide, who roamed the earth finding trouble everywhere. He ended up back at home, tending his garden. When there's no viable course of action on the big stage, I remembered once again that I should do as Voltaire advised, tend my garden.
Unfortunately, there's not much garden to tend this summer, but the onions and shallots had been drying for three weeks and were ready for storage. I went to work, cleaning the shallots and filling a basket with them. Then I braided the onions, which look pretty if I do say so myself. Soon we will move them to the basement's cooler environment.
Next best to tending one's garden is baking, so I made a pie – blueberry with a peach thrown in for variety. By this time I was in a whimsical mood.
Yes, I used an electric oven that draws power from a coal-fired plant north of Lawrence, so I did my bit to further change our climate. And yes, the heat pump was cooling the house. I'm sorry. I'll do the best I can to live modestly and conservatively (in the true sense of the word) and hope others are doing the same. At the same time I hope to live happily in the moment.
1 comment:
Love this post, Mother!
Thank you!
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