a view through the trees
I like this photograph.
It is different from most of my other Monhegan photos — no stunning cliffs rising from the sea, no waves exploding on the rocks guarding the shoreline, no colorful lilies or picturesque lighthouses or interesting people — just this view through the trees.
Is it a photograph of the sea or is the sea just the background? Is our attention drawn by the dead tree in the foreground or do we see past the tree? Is it the dark lines of the dead tree or the bold greens of the living trees or orange of the lichen-covered rocks, the expansive sea in the distance or the intimate path in the near corner, that makes this photograph beautiful?
It is all these things. It is the way all the pieces of the photograph “fit” together and don’t fit together. It is the juxtaposition of life and death, of soft and hard, of light and dark, of sharp and smooth, of intimacy and immensity, that makes this photograph engaging … and beautiful. It is beautiful because it shows something real, this particular piece of earth as it is, as it has become, not something put together or composed by the artist, but something already there. Here is the artistry … of God: death and life, immediacy and transcendence, something that exists wholly oblivious to and careless of me, and yet of which, when I am present and when I pay attention, I am a part.
This is what we are like, too — products of God’s artistry, a strange juxtaposition of the heavenly and the mundane, full of contradictions, but beautiful as we are, beautiful because we are, beautiful because we are from God.
arctic national wildlife refuge under siege
Once again the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is under threat. Some people just don’t understand “No!” No, it is not worth it to us to add a few more gallons to our oil reserves if it means the sacrifice of this precious piece of wilderness.
a tank full of gas: $60
drilling a new oil well: $5 million
preserving the home of the caribou, the black bear, the moose, the Dall mountain sheep, the Gwich’in Indian: priceless
In the words of the our own government (from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife website):
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge was established to preserve unique wildlife, wilderness and recreational values; to conserve caribou herds, polar bears, grizzly bears, muskox, dall sheep, wolves, snow geese, peregrine falcons, other migratory birds, dolly varden, and grayling; to fulfill international treaty obligations; to provide opportunities for continued subsistence uses; and to ensure necessary water quality and quantity.
a beautiful place, a beautiful moment
an inconvenient truth
We saw Al Gore’s film, An Inconvenient Truth tonight. It is a clear and thorough, sobering and hopeful, account of the looming crisis of global warming and our capacity as a human race to address its dangers.
It should be seen, because the problem of global warming needs to be understood and faced. As one of my college classmates has stated, global warming is no more or less a theory than gravity is a theory! The scientific community is in agreement: the planet is warming at an unprecedented rate and the cause is the increased level of carbon dioxide in the earth’s atmosphere. And the consequences of uncurbed warming at the current levels would be disastrous, globally disastrous.
The facts are there to be seen, but we are often good at ignoring the facts when such ignorance lets us avoid a change in personal behavior. Gore is right: global warming is not a political issue; it is a moral issue. Ignorance is not an option. Hopelessness is not an option. Apathy is not an option … unless we wish to bring the guilt of causing the suffering of future generations down on our heads.
See the movie. And check out the website: http://www.climatecrisis.net/. I wish the film had been less politically self-serving — Gore very much promotes himself throughout the film — but this distraction takes nothing away from the power and timeliness and persuasiveness and may I say, the righteousness, of his message.
a step in the right direction
I was glad to hear the news of the reaffirmation of conservation of natural lands and resources as the top priority of the National Park system. It’s a step in the right direction. May there be many more such steps to come!
Read the Los Angeles Times editorial: Restoring sanity to the Interior
one small step for the earth
Get your TerraPass!
I discovered a link to this website while reading an article about global warming. TerraPass is a program that provides a way to offset the global warming impact of your vehicle’s CO2 emissions by investing in clean energy projects that reduce industrial carbon emissions. They call it cleaning up after your car.
I bought my TerraPass. Visit the TerraPass website and clean up after your car!
(And read a May 3 article by Andrew Revkin of the New York Times: Federal Study Finds Accord on Warming.)
mike nobel
I had the privilege yesterday of meeting Mike Nobel and the privilege of hearing a group of talented and enthusiastic elementary school students perform some of his songs. Mike Nobel is a singer/songwriter/composer from Gorham, Maine, near the place in Maine we used to call home. When we still lived in Maine, my wife used his stuff with her primary students and my daughter grew fond of singing his songs at home.
Mike Nobel has produced a number of different collections of songs for school children: songs about smoking prevention, songs about abuse prevention. But the songs I know and love, the songs my daughter still sings are the songs from Color Me Green, a collection of songs about environmental awareness and environmental activism. Here’s an excerpt:
Come on people all around the world
Mommas and daddies, boys and girls
This old planet’s in a terrible state
Getting more polluted day by dayIn every city, in every town
You gotta stand up (Stand up!) and look around
The earth is in trouble, you know that it’s true
Well this is the future talkin’ to youYou got to stand up (Stand up!) for mother nature
Stand up (Stand up!) for a greener future
Got to stand up! (Stand up!) Stand up! (Stand up!)
And help the world to be pollution free (Pollution free) Pollution free!For the birds and the bees, for the fish in the sea
For the fuzzy little animals hiding in the trees
For the earth and the water, for the air we breathe
Don’t wait ’till we face an emergencyHand to hand, and brain to brain
Little by little we can make a change
Across the nation, around the globe
Workin’ together, ’till everybody knows ….You got to stand up (Stand up!) for mother nature
Stand up (Stand up!) for a greener future
Got to stand up! (Stand up!) Stand up! (Stand up!)
And help the world to be pollution free (Pollution free) Pollution free!
The music is fun and often exquisite; the message is powerful and passionate; and the subject matter — this beautiful earth, God’s good creation — is a subject near and dear to my heart! Thank you, Mike, for sharing your passion for the earth with us through your music. Thank you, Lynne, for bringing him to Iowa. Thank you, children of Price Lab School, for making the songs (and I hope the passion for the earth they express) your own!
You may find out more about Mike Nobel and his music at http://www.freewebs.com/mikenobel/.