Archive for February, 2008

STUFF


Holy mother of _________ (fill in the blank).
Some have tagged me as an “environmentalist,” which is often a surprise when I hear it. Yeah, sure, I’m interested in the health of the environment, but I don’t look at it as necessarily a defining aspect of my character. To me it just seems like not being aware of what’s happening to the world around us would be like putting on a blindfold, lighting an incense and taking a long nap. It can only be avoided in some dream.
I’ve seen a lot of things about the health of the planet, and I’ll admit Al Gore didn’t sneak by me with his hooplah of a film An Inconvenient Truth. It’s hard not to be sceptical when a man like Mr. Gore is telling you the sky is falling (or is it rising…?), but one can’t ignore facts.
What I just saw gave me shivers. I’ve seen probably some of the worst polluting man can accomplish, but it’s so hard to put it all into perspective when you live in such a comfortable country. The Story of Stuff is scary. In fact, it makes Freddy Krueger look like Teddy-Bear Krueger. Take the however many minutes you’ll sit in front of your computer and watch this. It just changed my life.
This image was taken while I was in Oklahoma working on a project. It’s Tar Creek, a river polluted by acid mine drainage.

You’ve Got to Bag It Up

Two bags of leaves await their place in the local landfill.

Somewhere in Middle America

I had to pull over and look at this tree. I was drawn to it. Maybe it’s that I felt, or sometimes feel, as lonely and isolated.
My drive was desolate and treacherous on the way to Baxter Springs, Kansas. I nearly had a head-on collision with a white pick-up truck that slammed into the highway divider in front of me and then layed sideways in the middle of the road and in my way. A few crashes and near disasters in New England trained me well. Never slam on the breaks. Pump them if you don’t have anti-lock breaks, but never over react. At least that’s what ran through my mind at a fraction of a second approximately 135 times in my 14 hour drive.