Seeds for Thought: an Ecopsychology Blog

Stan Cox: The Lawn Racket

Released May 15, 2006

Now that May is here, perhaps you're looking out at your lawn and thinking it needs mowing. Instead, you might want to think about whether you need that lawn at all.

The problem isn't grass. Humans first lived on the grasslands of Africa, and until not so long ago, grasslands covered far greater swaths of North America than they do now.

But landscapes like those bear little resemblance to the classic American lawn — an industrial, shocking-green carpet whose very survival depends on our polluting the environment and disturbing the peace.

Other kinds of home landscapes can grow pollution-free. A natural-yard movement is showing that combinations of rugged plants, including grasses, can be far more interesting than a standard lawn while requiring little mowing, no spraying or fertilizing, and even no irrigation.

things to do

Denmark has tipped the balance in the IWC's attempts to restore commercial whaling send a protest message and let's organise a boycott of Danish bacon (if we can find anyone who eats it)

read Collapse by Jared Diamond for lots of useful information, some scary and some hopeful

turn off everything on standby. You'll have to get up and power everything up instead of idly flicking a remote so you will only watch TV when you actually want to and your life will be enriched.

If you have previously rejected using any recycled paper products try again, and try more varieties. They really are as good or better now. In fact this goes for everything.

resist buying those exotic fruit flowers and vegatables by thinking about the dry hungry country that has given its precious water to grow them for you.

hedgehogs :: slugs :: courgettes :: protein

Last night two hedgehogs made strange snuffling noises under the front garden bird bush. (Technical name for this bush unknown.)

Meanwhile, a slug had gotten to our northern most courgette plant. Fortunately only nibbling at a young leaf on an otherwise mature plant. But another leaf was coated in slime.

When re-potting 4-5 plants, found a little tiny snail and a much bigger one. Put them side by side to take to the front garden for tonight's hedgehog(s) visit. The small one climbed on to the larger one's shell.

Each day the courgette plant flowers open - one by one - from south to north. One flower had another bud opening directly behind it, attached to the same stem. Is that the embryo fruit? One plant had two buds bitten off it, though. It was probably a slug.

Three of the four carrot plants are coming up. The leeks are fine. The potatoes, in containers, look good, full, green and bushy. Getting quite tall. "We did that!"

www.iamnotafraid.ca

I've been interested in this I am not afraid initiative led by Warren Kinsella.  If I knew Warren personally I might call him "Warrior".  He certainly is a leader.

The "I am not afraid" response to threats of terrorism takes C*O*U*R*A*G*E.  Many peace-seeking citizens of the world have courage and it might just take this kind of "call" to dig out the courage, polish it off, and act accordingly.

So, while the courage is energized, perhaps we could start looking at working on other "threats":  terrorized children in schoolyards who seem to be so unprotected by parents, teachers, school administrators who further empower the bullies by their inaction; terrorized senior citizens in homes (subsidized by governments or otherwise) who are victims of violence by unscrupulous workers and others who have access to them (sometimes their own families); terrorized workers who suffer silently (bullied by either their employers or their unions); people terrorized by domestic violence; and last, but not least, the Planet, terrorized by threats caused by pollution, mindlessness in human activity, inaction by spineless world leaders.

My list is not exhaustive, but you get my drift.  I am not afraid.

Something Beautiful

Here's something incredibly beautiful that happened on the Washington-Idaho border last week...

If you're interested in what the phenomenon is and how it was formed, here's a short article about it.

heat

The Guardian has an article on ecological ethics today
Hue and cry: the differing shades of ecological ethics

I've been thinking about James Lovelock's almost hopeless scenarios

And David Attenborough's determinedly positive if frightening programs on global warming

But I'm quite cheerful, at last we have some lovely hot weather. Ironic isn't it.

The Pedernal

I just got back from a trip to New Mexico (with my women's group - to visit one of our own who moved there a few years ago), truly a land of enchantment filled with art and artists celebrating the spirit of this exquisite land & sky scape.

One of the most famous of these is Georgia O'Keefe, and on this trip I went (with one of my more intrepid friends) to visit her home in Abiqui.

Besides the drop-down-&-praise-creation 360 degree view, one of the things that really stood out for me on this tour was her relationship with a nearby mountain called the Pedernal. It was obviously very important to her - she'd asked that when she died, her ashes be carried to the top and scattered, and they were.

The guide tour quoted her as having said something like this (I'm paraphrasing a bit) "This is my Mountain. God told me if I painted her enough, she would be mine." So paint this lovely mountain she did, in all mediums and through all seasons - dozens and dozens of loving portraits. Here are a couple of them, done in the fall/spring of 1941/42:

May we all (whether or not we identify ourselves as artists) find someplace we love enough to paint over and over again, someplace to make our own.

Earth Religion

For the beauty of the earth
Sing O sing to today
For the glory of the skies,
Sing O sing always
For the love which from our birth
All around us lies.
Lord of All to thee we sing
Grateful hymns of praise.

Karen Armstrong’s new book, “The Great Transformation”, looks at the historical conditions that gave rise to the major faith traditions that emerged in the middle east, India, China and the Mediterranean. She sees the religions that began during the “axial age” (1000 BCE – 1000 CE) as meeting the particular sociological and psychological needs that result from the clash of cultures, the rise and fall of empires and the fortunes of war.