Input

I write this blog for a couple reasons: first, I like recording things as I begin to understand them; second, writing this sort of creative free-form way creates space for me to do the more tedious formulaic writing I do for a living. Writing the blog is like a mini vacation; when I get back to the more technical stuff, I feel invigorated, and ready to tackle the apollonian aspect of my life with energy and a positive attitude.  My output requires brainwork that reaches outside the office, stepping into the garden for a few tender bits to savor.

At times this garden walk is metaphorical, approached in an unexpected way. For instance, this blog has a stats section where I can see how people get to me.  Up until recently it’s been through Facebook or a straight shot on blogger.  I have friends who blog and will cite certain searches that led people to their blog.  I thought they had some sort of extra analysis tool that I was lacking, but recently, I saw that it shows up clear as day.  My stats showed the search line “a poem about rain softening everything.”  They found my post “Beautiful Reign,” and hung out to see what else I had to say.

I’m grateful, because when I did the search myself, I found this poem by Sara Teasdale here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sara_Teasdale

There Will Come Soft Rains

There will come soft rains and the smell of the ground,
And swallows circling with their shimmering sound;

And frogs in the pool singing at night,
And wild plum trees in tremulous white;

Robins will wear their feathery fire,
Whistling their whims on a low fence-wire;

And not one will know of the war, not one
Will care at last when it is done.

Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree,
If mankind perished utterly;

And Spring herself when she woke at dawn
Would scarcely know that we were gone.

Published shortly after WWI, I find it amazing that her words ring true now with the wars we know today; wars against people and their beliefs and wars against all forms of sustainability.  In Teasdale’s poem, there is peace unaltered by human activity.  Written in 1920, this pre factory farming perception speaks assuredly of nature’s power. 

Further towards our modern ways, E.B. White said that mankind’s approach to nature is to beat it into submission.  “...too ingenious for its own good,” he suggested the human race should appreciate nature rather than try to rule it.

But, I can’t quite go down that road because I need to ask first who he meant?  The human race is a big group of people.  Surely not all of us went the dictatorial route, maybe just the ones with the big guns.  Sadly though, that’s been enough to create devastating change.

However, ingenuity coupled with observation that takes in the whole is a completely different matter.  There have been plenty of groups who figured out how to keep things going without trying to rule nature; abundant crops, pest control (not pest destruction), and stable animal populations have been a part of some human existence for ages. Also, various groups have historically understood that natural influences on production are a way of life, and adjusting to these is part of being human.  There’s a process that leads to product; input is the magic that generates output. 

In my opinion, that’s the difference between sustainable practices and agribusiness.  The former respects input, the latter glorifies output at any cost.  Sustainability is all about process; there’s a road one travels where any glance back is met with a beautiful view of a thriving ecology.  Its opposite leaves a scene that’s been stripped and flattened, confused about how it will manage to regain the severed connections.  But, as Teasdale wrote, nature will find a way.  She might not be able to support the humans anymore in the rebuilding, but she’ll rebuild all the same.

A link you may find of interest is attached below.  I found this when I searched “sustainability practices around the world.”  For those interested in seeing what some humans have knows for quite some time now, take a look!

http://insight.glos.ac.uk/sustainability/unescoculture/Pages/default.aspx