I Am Not Hamlet

 So, I'm two for two at Front Porch Republic. I sent in four poems to another publication; I'm awaiting a word from that. For now, here's a piece on blessing. https://www.frontporchrepublic.com/2023/05/blessings-to-impart/

Early on in Braiding Sweetgrass author Robin Wall Kimmerer compares the Great Lakes people’s story or Skywoman with the Bible’s account of Eve. She does this to compare how indigenous people viewed the world versus Western ones who had been Christianized. She thinks Eve’s story is unfair. But Kimmerer compares fruit to vegetables as Eve is a created mortal, whereas Skywoman is at least some kind of demigoddess. The comparison is unfair as well because she only focuses on a part of the Biblical story. The Bible has been regarded as a story in four acts: Creation, Fall, Redemption, and Restoration/Glorification. Eve is centerstage only for the Creation and Fall, she doesn’t live to see redemption, though she receives the promise of it. The icon of the Resurrection depicts a risen Jesus pulling Adam and Eve from their tombs as he smashes the gates of Hell and death. This Kimmerer doesn’t mention at all. It should be noted that Kimmerer is Potowatomi. The rest of the book is good. ...

"Science and technology are not sufficient to locate their own significance." --Allen Verhy, Nature and Altering It

Again, this link is a month old.  Yet, I have to say I'm quite proud of this piece and feel the faint rumblings (or is that simply gas?) of a book.  Time will tattle, I suppose.  Anyway, tell me what you think of this piece.  Subscribe to Stand Magazine while you're at it. Love Is Action from the Stand Magazine blog.

Here's the second (and final) post I've written for Ignatian Solidarity Network and their Lenten devotional blog.  Thanks again to Ken Homan. We're more than half-way through Lent.  If you've come this far...you can make it.

     Having children has to be one of life's top three pleasures (also one of life's top five annoyances).  Guiding them as they grow, watching how they navigate the wonder found in the world is a slow-burn of joy.      In addition to one's own children, joy is found in the babies of creatures we share the world with.  If one can combine animal babies with one's own, one may have stumbled upon an alternative energy source that cannot be usurped by corporations.      My children and I have watched infant praying mantids leave the relative safety of their egg case and venture into a world of danger, and for a fortunate few, maturation.  We've set a luna moth free that we observed from caterpillar to cocoon to adult.      Most recently, we've watched Eastern American toad tadpoles ( Bufo americanus americanus ) metamorphose into tiny toadlets. At the toad "delivery room" It's hard to believe these tiny...

It's spring (in the northern hemisphere)--so that means about a billion different things.  One thing it means to me is garlic mustard is sprouting again; soon to stretch to adult heights.  So, on Thursday, 4 April, we trekked off to the Martin Hollow to survey that damned plant.  The bad news?  It's still around.  The good news is, thanks to two years of intensive pulling there is a heck of a lot less on our property this year.  In fact, we weren't very diligent, but we only pulled about a half pound or so of that stinking weed.  One of my areas of concern only had about 20 plants in it--that's good considering each adult can contain about 900-3,000 seeds depending on whom you consult.  Now, we make forays on to the neighbor's land--the person is absentee, so you can grumble about trespassing all you want, but he or she is NOT stewarding the property, and if I don't do it, it'll only be back on my land soon enough. public domain photo This s...

Green frogs calling; birds, birds, birds: goldfinches, sandhill cranes, robins, song sparrows, a scarlet tanager(?); lots of rabbits, and I think I scared a snapping turtle attempting to lay eggs.  She scurried off a sand incline back into a small pond.  There were several shallow holes where she had been.

Last Sunday the Martin family took another step in securing our small homestead: we had a prescribed burn in our woodlot.  The purpose was to kill young exotics, stimulate the nutrient cycle, jump start a natural process, and frankly burn stuff.  Smokey the Bear is a great marketing tool, but he has unwittingly contributed to huge forest fires by creating the idea of a fire regime as some horrible and cruel act of nature (or man) that is to be avoided like taxes.  Perhaps moreso.  Regular burns in natural areas helps to cut down on titanic conflagrations as they burn up combustible fuel that collects regularly in forests and other ecosystems.  Additionally, fire creates a check on invasive, opportunistic species (mostly plants) that are not fire adapted.  All in all, an occasional fire is a good thing.      The first thing the crew did was prep the area.  This is accomplished by a quick survey and then blowing or raking leaf litt...

     What is it about water that draws us to it?  Obviously, there is our biological need, but I'm thinking beyond thirst and cellular replenishment.  I've heard that fire and flowing water are mesmerizing to humans like few other phenomena.  Think of how one stares into the dancing red and orange of a campfire or in a fireplace on a cold evening in midwinter.  Remember the breathy sound of surf, the constant roar of a whitewater river, or even the arrhythmic patter of rainfall on a roof.  Then there's the sight of water: foamy, white highlights on a blustery day, tranquil hues of blue, coffee rivers, black ponds.  Ripples, waves, riffles, the motion of water, its (usually) fresh odor, and the variety of life it attracts; bodies of water supply a nearly inexhaustible supply of beauty and fascination. My daughter at the Gulf of Mexico, Florida      Water is not only necessary to sustain life, but is used in heal...

Out at the Hollow today to discuss a sexy driveway excavation.  While there a pair of sandhill cranes flew south(?).  I suffered hearing loss in the back pond from a barking Canada goose couple and a vibrant battle between wood frogs and chorus frogs.  Insects are out; the ice is gone; spring, she is here.

The classical (and Medieval) learning methodology of Grammar, Logic, and Rhetoric is still sound (not that I know it well enough to comment on it competently) but I'd like to offer a scaled-down version that I think can be worked in into anyone's life--child or not.  I propose that possessing a love of reading, an active imagination, and a love for and time spent outdoors will aid any student in any endeavor. It isn't enough to read, because the majority of Americans can do so.  The trouble is that skill is not exercised enough, is not cultivated, is not turned into a tawdry love affair.  So you can read--BFD!  The more important question is: Do You? Reading and reading regularly (of a variety of books, by the way) leads into and is supported by my next necessity: imagination.  This is a quality that everyone possesses, unlike literacy, but too many have one stunted by TV.  Now, TV in small quantities (how much is small?  Good question) will not stun...