Shock of the New!! By Invitation. Comment 2.
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A week or so ago, I wrote about my favourite (endangered) Garry oak meadow. I wasn't very clear. As often happens, I was arguing from more than one place at once. A couple of commenters misunderstood me completely... and I don't blame them. I was pretty muddled. Here's what I was trying to say (and I'll try to be clearer).
Our world has reached a stage where hardly anything is "natural." Think about it. Try to name just one thing. It's nearly impossible, given how much we humans have altered the planet. Even the weather... which would seem the most natural thing of all... is so mucked up because of what we've done to the environment.
Last year, some scientists reported the results of their study of highrise window grime around Toronto. They found significant amounts of chemicals banned in North America for decades... presumably carrried here by atmospheric systems from less developed countries with fewer regulations.
More recently, I listened to a radio doc. in which a young Canadian recounted her experience living in China for a year. She tried to ride a bicycle and couldn't; couldn't breathe. Even walking, she said she sometimes vomited from the sheer thickness of the air pollution.
Tempting, when you hear that, to look around smugly at your own apparently wide-open spaces, and clean air, and pristine wilderness... but, no. It's not pristine. Nothing is any more. Because the whole broader global ecosystem has been altered in presumably irreversable ways.
And here's another anecdote to illustrate the point.
Some years ago, there was a massive fire in Yellowstone Park; it burned for weeks. It stymied all firefighting efforts and, at one point, someone said "Why not let it burn?" That's what would happen in nature, after all. Forest fires were part of the natural order of things... clearing out brush and dead wood and whatnot and making space for rejuvenated habitat.
But that only works within a natural system. And we ain't got one. Not any more. And no... I'm not despairing... just trying (not too successfully I fear) to make my argument that almost NOTHING is natural.
Living in houses? Driving cars? Using computers? Flying in planes? It's all way-out shit when you really stop and think about it.
Which makes rubber masks seem... well... if not natural, then certainly within the range of "normal" in today's world.
But... wait. There IS something natural left.
Love. Long may it reign. And may we some day reach a place where no one is judged or punished or ostracized for who they love. Because that's the most unnatural phenomenon of all.
(Added to the Cream of the Crop pool as most interesting, as judged by Flickr.)
South Canadian River bed, Pittsburg County Oklahoma.... Another shot taken on the river in August.... it was an amazing sunset! Thanks for looking and have a great week!!!
(Cebus cuscinus) B28I6643 Cicra Los Amigos - Peruvian Amazonia
Endemic Tour in Peru : Guide Alex Durand alexdurand8bg@gmail.com
Wheels keep turning
Something's burning
Don't like it but I guess I'm learning
- Peter Gabriel
Street Art Galway, Ireland
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Full Details @ rainbowpixiefarts.blogspot.com/2021/11/purple-shock-1187....
In the cold, everything works not fast. You have to take your! time. Something we have to learn by nature.
For me one of the best songs, which is talking about the same: Everything has his own time
Father and son by Cat Steven alias Yusuf Islam
Agnetha had to sit down. She couldn't believe it. It was true. They were going to publish her haiku!
Photo was taken on Palm Sunday celebrations at the church of the Holy Sepulchre :
The Coptic archbishop, HE Anba Antonios shocked by the terrible news just arrived from Cairo - the massacre at the St. George's Church in Tanta in which 44 Copts were killed. RIP.
Species is a rich chocolate-and-gold bicolor. The chocolatey blooms are brushed with gold. They grow into tall, vigorous plants & produce multiple cuts of 4–6"-wide flowers on 12–24" stems. Beautiful color combination for late-summer and fall bouquets. They are pollenless.
Flower Farm Series 14
Shock-O-Lat 9697