Birds Returning ... vw

 Must Mean Spring!

Well, the bad news first! I am not so happy to see the homecoming of the ~ dozen Starlings and a few House Sparrows (English Sparrows) but these species remind me of how similar they are to homo sapiens. They are very accomplished survivalists and they like to live concentrated in groups. They breed prolifically and they tolerate, and even benefit, from close proximity to hominids.

My “Home” House Sparrows (though I hate to generalize about species) are not very good nest builders. Their nests look like the dust bunnies under my bed except the building materials are larger. [Peterson’s Field Guide describes their nest as “a bulky mass”! 

My “home” Starlings amass in numbers, perching closely together to gang up on any flicker, blue bird or wren that might happen by looking for a nice cavity in our trees (or my house) in which to shelter themselves and/or their young. Peterson’s also defines them as “garrulous”! My starlings raise two clutches a year! I really don’t know about the sparrows.

Think I'll just leave the mystery be ... Iris Dement, vw

 

            A concept that been reoccurring for me revolves around a question I’ve been thinking about for a time. “Why is it that technology and knowledge have so greatly out- distanced man’s ability to build sustainable ecosystems and human societies?”

 

            Last week I discovered Stephen Hawking’s interesting hypothesis on this question. Believing in evolution, he theorizes that, because evolution is a grindingly slow process, we have progressed (emotionally and intellectually) little beyond our cave men ancestors. While accessible knowledge has grown exponentially, as individuals we can no longer access the “whole” of the knowledge available to us. He asks if we can even imagine reading, much less studying, every book in our own city’s library. It’s incredible that not more than ~300 years ago, people could do so. Thus, he observes that we have, by necessity, come to depend on increasing specialization.

 

Steven’s theorem makes sense. Though we have made astounding strides technologically, we cannot yet cope with the task of applying this knowledge. We are not yet able to cooperate and coordinate effectively to significantly benefit ecological and social sustainability. The progression of knowledge repeatedly shows us the undeniable interrelated complexity of the “known” and the “unknown.” Again, and again, we are returned to the web of inter-connectedness and the realization of how little we know.

 

But I don’t find this situation hopeless. Even though our innate human survival instincts remain dominant in our psyches, i.e., that “me and mine” prevail, I believe we are evolving in the process. [Perhaps we can hope for a widespread beneficial mutation to put us on a fast track! J! Or a worldwide epiphany? Who knows?] As things are, however, I can’t even begin to imagine how we can coordinate an effective global unification process to save ourselves!

There have been attempts ....

The universe came into being

the moment I was born

and all things are one with me.

Since all things are one

how can I put that into words?

But since I just said they are one,

how can I say they are nothing?

The one plus my words make two

and the two plus the one make three.

If we continue this way,

even the greatest mathematician

couldn’t calculate where it will end.

It’s better just to leave things alone.”

 

Chuang-tzu (The Tao)

Scholarly translation by Stephen Mitchell

LandGifts #5vw - "Nature's Food Bank", vw

 Land Gifts vw#5 – Nature’s Food Bank

             Today as I glanced out the kitchen window, a movement caught my eye. There they were, the makers of the tracks I‘d observed on the snow for the last 2 weeks! California Quail, approximately a dozen of them at the top of the lower orchard, running around on the new snow and thrusting their little heads down (while never mussing their curved head plumes) retrieving the food they had come for.

 I suddenly realized what was feeding them. Why, it was last year’s apple harvest which had been so plentiful, so late, and with so many small-sized fruits! I hadn’t picked many; just the biggest ones, disdaining the small ones. I was too busy with other priorities; too hot, too tired.

             Now, as I watched the busy cluster of these beautiful creatures, I felt my heart healing a small weight that I had been carrying since last fall’s abundant harvest (or should I say, my non-harvest?). Having been raised by my parents, both of whom were children of the depression and a pre-social-services government, I am deeply instilled in the moral imperative of not wasting food and fiber. I had been feeling somewhat guilty for leaving so much good food on the old apple tree.

     As I watched the quail families, I understood the lesson. I am forgiven for “wasting” these apples. Nature is compensating for my deficiencies and transforming my neglect into her own bounteous food bank. Our quail families were feasting on the apple seeds, the fallen grass seeds, and maybe even on the remaining shriveled fruit lying under and being softened by the snow.

 Again, the Land Gives!