Wafted Away

 

(clicking imbiggens)

My dad worked for a paper mill in the 60s, and they had a slogan painted on the wall:  "The Solution to Pollution is Dilution!"

People really believed that.

(But not my dad.)

Zippy the Pinhead is on the web HERE.

Lakota Prayer

Sioux Prayer
by Chief Red Cloud, Oglala Lakota Sioux

Oh Great Spirit, whose voice I hear in the winds;
and whose breath gives life to all the world,
hear me!  

I am small and weak,
I need your strength and wisdom.

Let me walk in beauty, and make my eyes ever behold the  red and purple sunset.

Make my hands respect the things you have made, and my ears sharp to hear Your voice.

Make me wise so that I may understand the things You have taught my people.

Let me learn the lessons you have hidden in every leaf and rock.

I seek strength, not to be greater than my brother, but to fight my greatest enemy- myself.

Make me always ready to come to You with clean hands and straight eyes.

So when life fades, as the fading sunset, my spirit may come to You without shame.

Names and Addresses

 

(Clicking Imbiggens)

"The earth is not dying, it is being killed.  And the people who are killing it have names and addresses."  ~Utah Phillips

Today's Post Was Brought To You By The Letter "R"

"If it can't be reduced, reused, repaired, rebuilt, refurbished, refinished, resold, recycled or composted, then it should be restricted, redesigned or removed from production."  ~Pete Seeger

Symbiotic

Transcribed from a video on Reddit, which you can watch HERE:

Q:  What sort of alternative society and culture…

A:  Oh, one that doesn't make guns and bombs.  One that's not at war with itself constantly.  One that doesn't poison the air, doesn't poison the land, doesn't poison the sea.  One that has enough respect for each other and the planet we live on, and all the other life-forms that share this planet that we live on.  When there is enough respect for all of that, to live in a way that's completely sustainable, that is beneficial to all life, so that mankind becomes a symbiotic life-form that's supporting the life of its host planet, instead of being a parasitic life-form that's devoiding its host planet with its ability to support life.

At the moment I'm sat on a train going to Auschwitz, and I know that there's gas ovens at the end of the line, and I can't think of anything that makes me happy on this journey.  There's nothing to celebrate.

If you want to be depressed, read the comments at the bottom of the post.  One third of the people make fun of him for having a long beard, the other two thirds derided him as unrealistic, saying the world he aspires to goes against "human nature."  The word "utopian" was banded about as a pejorative.

But they're wrong.

It's infantile to suggest that every dark impulse is "human nature" and must be indulged.  A pig may be content to wallow in filth, a human should aspire to more.

But more than that, I would argue that "human nature" is based on cooperation, not competition.  We didn't build cities and new technologies through avarice, sloth, and aggression.   We worked with each other and made amazing things.

It's nihilistic to presume a world based on our better instincts is not possible.

It absolutely is.

Change, Conquer or Exploit

Excerpted from Plain and Simple:  A Woman's Journey to the Amish by Sue Bender, ©1989:

"Why is the Amish land so beautiful?" I asked one evening. "What makes it feel special? I'm a city person, Eli, and I didn't see a cow till I was twelve. I don't know where the sun sets, or how to tell which way the wind blows, or distinguish one crop from another, but I have eyes, and I trust my heart. This land is loved."

"The land is God's," Eli (Yoder) said. "It's my job, and the job of every Amish person to take of it for Him. We mustn't try to change or conquer nature or exploit the land. That would be going against God's way."

When Eli talked about the land, he was happy.