Sixty Years and More

Some well-wishers suggested we spend time remembering our sixty years together on our anniversary, which was last week. A story lasting that long would fill a few books. I will keep this short.

During anniversary week we went for walks in the woods. It was about forty years ago we first walked this path with our dog, Tansy. The breeder insisted on a name beginning with 'H', so our puppy was officially registered as Happy Tansy, which was a good match for our time together walking beside the river. When she was happy, so were we, and I recall finding Tansy flowers (Tanacetum vulgare) growing in the sun on those happy hikes off the leash.

Back then, the seedling trees were just a little taller than the grass, and Tansy would happily jump over them if they were in her way. Since then, Tansy is gone, the trees have grown, the woods are lovely, dark and deep, and the Tansy flowers have been replaced by shade-loving dog-toothed violets (Erythronium dens-canis). Somebody had a good idea, planting this forest. Did they intend that we would be enjoying this shady walk, happily if not so energetically, on our sixtieth anniversary? Probably not, but thank you, tree planters.

On the path leading to the woods, there are various interesting plants, some of whose names we know. One year we noticed a single tall clump of bright pink flowers growing in a damp area some distance from the path in late summer. I recognized them from my time working in the greenhouse as Joe-Pye Weed, a favourite of butterflies.

Joe-Pye Weed,  Eutrochium maculatum

We looked for them again his year and counted five healthy plants around the area, the work of birds looking out for themselves and incidentally scattering seed to decorate our anniversary walk and feed more butterflies. Thank you, birds.

Nothing here is thanks to us. We pass this way without leaving much of a trace, except for maybe a whiff of insect repellant. Sorry insects, but we must obey the zeroth commandment, to take care of ourselves, which means we don't go on walks to feed the bugs. 

Now that I think of it, that is what we normally do. We look after ourselves and trust others to leave the world better than they found it. Not our job. That's something else that has changed since we were busy with career and family. Looking back, it is clear that we have been careless. We had a poorly insulated home, an inefficient furnace, lighting that was more heat than light, a gas-guzzler car which we took on long trips across country. We were so busy taking care of ourselves that looking after the planet was up to somebody else, but almost everybody else was doing the same.

As a consequence, the planet is suffering under the weight of human neglect. For our part, we repent. We have taken steps to reduce our accumulating personal debt to the biosphere. Our home is now well insulated. We installed LED lighting, solar panels on the roof, a heat pump for heating and cooling. When we were still driving, we owned an all-electric vehicle which was a quiet joy to drive. Now we walk or take the bus. We have been writing to government officials at three levels to encourage the transition to clean energy. And this note is the evidence that I frequently nag my friends by writing a blog full of rants about climate change.

It's our job to leave things in better shape than we found them. Let there be happy walks in the woods for another sixty years and more.

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Biomass CO2 Emissions 4X Higher Than Coal: Just Have a Think, August 25, 2024

People Want Climate Action: David Suzuki and Ian Hannington, August 22, 2024

Is It Worth It To Put Solar Panels On Your Home: Emily Chung, CBC, August 28, 2024

Emissions From Canada's Wildfires: Benjamin Shingler, CBC, August 28,2024

What's The Story

 We just finished an audiobook about an author with writer's block. Writer's block is fiction. If you think you have writer's block, you may write about writer's block. So, of course, you are never blocked. You may get tired of writing and take a break; but there is always a story waiting, even if it's just about being tired of writing. Whatever the story, it is a door opening onto experience, understanding, passion, imagination, the being and belonging and becoming that writers and readers share.

So in the last note, I didn't complain about writer's block. I told you what was going on when I was tired of writing, about misplacing my wallet, and how that alerted me to my vulnerability as a user of credit cards and my ineptitude at protecting myself from credit predators. The story is, if you didn't notice, an example of a human dilemma: while taking care of ourselves, we are exposed to unintended dangerous consequences of our actions. Being aware of this, we have options.

(1) Tolerate the danger and continue enjoying the benefits of our choices, like I will not give up my credit cards.

(2) Adapt to the threat, like I check online daily to detect and report fraudulent purchases on my credit cards. 

(3) Mitigate the threat, like I use cash when I can.

I didn't fool you. You are so smart. You knew that I'm just sneaking in another rant about climate change. The credit card dilemma is a metaphor for the irresponsible use of fossil fuels. We pay the minimum, accumulate a carbon dioxide debt, and are charged interest in the form of drought, floods, heat domes, wildfires, monster storms, and so on; but we have no intention of covering the entire cost. We are going to max-out our credit..., because we can. Cheap fuel is more important than an obscure threat in some remote future. And so we are on our way to bankruptcy.

By burning carbon, we have exceeded the capacity of the global ecosystem to recapture carbon through photosynthesis and other mechanisms. The debt goes unpaid, accumulating and altering the climate more rapidly than living things can adapt and evolve. There is still a chance to mitigate (slow or reverse) the damage. Failure to mitigate will result in the collapse of the biosphere. This is not an opinion. It is mathematics.

Just to make it clear (because we may not be as smart as I hope we are), there are three responses to the threat of accumulating carbon dioxide emissions.

(1) Ignore and perish
(2) Adapt and perish more slowly
(3) Mitigate while paying down the debt and perhaps survive awhile longer.

One last thought:
the future is conditional.
We have a say in what happens next.

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Climate Change Demands More Than Thoughts, Prayers and Excuses: Aaron Wherry, CBC, August 17, 2024.

Fossil Fuel Deniers in Politics Hurt Everyone: David Suzuki and Ian Hannington, August 15, 2024

How Governments Are Preparing For Extreme Heat: Julia-Simone Rutgers, The Narwhal, August 2, 2024

Carbon Removal: CTV News, July 26, 2024

Wind Power in Ontario: Mike Crawley, CBC August 19, 2024

The Most Effective Climate Policies: Emily Chung, CBC August 22, 2024

How Smart

 "Where's my wallet?" thought I with my hand in my pocket while approaching the teller at the bank. To make a long story short, Dorothy had to do the banking that day. 

Here's the rest of the story, if you're interested. When we got home, I checked all the usual places: the end tables, the top of the dresser, the cushions in the couch, my desk, the garage, the garden where I had been removing seed pods from the milkweed, my rain jacket, the end tables again just to be sure, the dresser, the couch cushions, my desk, the garage, the garden again... . Third time around, I found it on my desk beside the computer keyboard. What a relief! I was just about to call Visa.

As my pulse returned to normal, I considered the lessons learned.
(1) I'm not as smart as I thought I was.
(2) In a society where the most rapidly growing profession is criminal, one should not carry the keys to the kingdom loose in one's pocket.
(3) Cash would be safer than plastic, because your identity does not appear on it unless you are famous and dead.
(4) I'm not as smart as I thought I was. 
(5) I'm not as smart as I thought I was.

Sometimes, it takes awhile to catch on. I guess I'm not as smart as I thought I was. However, I did guess Canuckle today with only three tries. The answer was 'SMACK', which according to Canuckle is the name applied to a group of jellyfish. How smart is that! 

Better Together

Take a flower tour >> here <<.

Which flowers do you like, yellow rudbeckia and sunflowers or purple echinacea? I like yellow because my old eyes don't notice some of the other colours unless yellow gets me looking in the right direction. But if every flower in the garden were yellow, we would have to find something else to complete the picture. I like purple because it contrasts with yellow. Blue is nearly invisible at a distance but pretty nice up close. Pink is good at any distance.

These wild bergamot (monarda fistulosa) line the path where we walk in August.

And these crown-vetch (securigera veria) were there a few weeks ago.

Ah, but the yellow: these goldenrod (solidego) are just coming into season.

Come to think of it, I like all the colours, and they are better together, like this.

Finish the tour with another moment in the garden 
 >> here <<

Nothing New Here

In the lazy days of summer, looking back, I have been reading notes I wrote over the last four years. If you want to take a look, click open notes from the list in the current Blog Archive on this page. Or open previous blog archives using the links in the profile "About Me". 

Some ideas keep repeating. Like these...

Existence is a miracle.

God is an empty word into which we pour our best understanding of the miracle of existence.

If we imagine we have captured the Truth in words, we ignore what we don't know, which is almost everything; and that is the definition of ignorance. Intelligence is knowing that our words are inadequate and we are missing something.

Knowing that we don't know, we may pay attention to the way things are, imagine how they might be better, make a plan, try something, pay attention to the results, revise the plan, and repeat until it's over. This is how we participate in the miracle of existence.

We have some guidance participating in the miracle. The zeroth commandment is to eat and not be eaten. The first commandment directs us to the Mystery to keep us wondering and rethinking the miracle of existence. A bunch more commandments tell us how to manage better, living the miracle with a little help from our friends. The last commandment (John 13:34) is how to be a friend making the other commandments redundant.

Human activity with limited understanding, poorly restrained appetite, and little concern for others with whom we share the miracle of existence has unintended consequences. 

We have a choice:

try to do better,
or try not and take what's coming. 

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I may have missed something.