"Love In The Age Of Virus..."

Tracking North and West from Top of the World Cambria

time to think

    Exile at home. With your calendar mostly scrubbed, have  you had more time to think? That could mean worry, dread, maybe compassion, thankfulness, love, or that you want a new couch, to paint the wall, or rearrange something. Things are different and changing out there, so is our perspective.

     Planet earth is breathing easier, and groaning less. Civilization has slowed and is on the verge of changes, the shape of which we can only imagine. Another nudge in our evolutionary trip. Our minds have been contorted and our thinking pushed to permutations. We have questions, the answers are missing in action.

     Philosophers, never over employed and who make a practice of thinking, that is what they trained to do, will tell you this is a time of inspiration, discovery, emergence. 

     I tell you it is time to pay attention to a tree, this tree.

San Simeon Creek Road, San Luis Obispo County, Ca

tolerance 

or 

endurance

     Not sure which is most appropriate. I think of this tree as a teacher of Tolerance and Endurance.

     Every breathing soul on this planet knows more about tolerance and endurance than we did a month ago. We've watched unimaginable scenes in hospitals, death without family, overworked and under protected medical teams, a system unprepared and overwhelmed. We've been anxious and witnessed fear, loss, new stretches of grief and have seen an heroic sense of duty and selflessness, every day.

     We've also witnessed stupidity, deception, and the perfect illustration of wretched classlessness and incompetence.

 So, this old tree can teach us a thing or two.

              Look at what it has experienced in its lifetime.

    Landowners frequently run barbed wire fences near young trees, and nature runs its course. The wire imbeds in the growing tree.

  If the cosmic recycler tells me I'm not ready for heaven and have another lap to do on the blue planet, I might ask to come back as a tree or elephant. So, I'm one of those who think this must have hurt. This is a living thing, ingesting torturous and never ending barbs, almost to the core.

  The tree grew and stands tall and strong.

  

    For this fine tree, the "new normal must" have taken some getting used to, don't you think?

     

how will change look

    How do you think things will look and work on the other side of this planet closing virus?  No one has been here, so every expectation is valid. Still, there are some who study and calculate the imponderables.  

    Small business owners, working people, school children, and all of us are right to hope a "strong economy" can be reengaged. We are right to expect the federal government to make things better. 

    On the other side of Covid-19, supply chains and dependent retail operators may evolve how they function. Shoppers likely will behave differently.

     Sports, big venue events, concerts, travel, and education will adapt, shudder, and perhaps even shutter. 
     Extended care facilities and nursing homes face hard challenges. 
     Faith groups have adapted with video technology, holding together, while isolated. Zoom, Facebook, YouTube and other streaming could foreshadow a future where maintaining buildings and campuses is costly and a growing challenge.
     A new business sector is likely, specializing in sanitation, storage, and disinfecting. Fashion may respond with safe wear masks, cover ups and the like.

     Creatures of habit, we will accommodate what is required, grump and whine about some of it, but quickly try to find a groove and maybe even a rut again. 

     I'd like to see a change in politics, the disappearance of the professional. As we look for treatment or vaccine, we could look to "heal" politics. 
     If we take money out of the election calculus, some will leave the business and perhaps drag the money hustle of elections with them. Campaigns cost millions, annoy like hell, do little to enlighten, appeal to childish or brutish cues, and we don't need that. We also don't need the ideologues, one issue zealots, business lackeys, or egoists. 
     I'd like people to demand public servants, emphasis on servant, instead of most of what we've got now.

looking around outside

 Iris in Lana's garden, Cambria

 Poppies on the back hill

    Something that has not slowed nor isolated are the hummingbirds, almost drunken with frenzy around the Echium or Pride of Madeira.

     I hope you've had time to think and to pay attention to the signals from nature in the spring. Life returns.
     And pay attention to the trees in your life. 

     See you down the trail.

A VISIT WITH TREES-A SPRING BOUQUET and THE OLD BOY

THE LADIES TAKE THE SUN

     A majestic afternoon promenade of shadows

    with a Pacific breeze.

AMAZING THINGS YOU MAY NOT

KNOW ABOUT TREES

There is no question but you will learn from this!

AN OLD BOY
CAUGHT IN ACTION

    Despite being well retired and doing my best to be lazy,

occasionally it is like the bell for an old fire horse and I get 

pressed into some public speaking. Maybe this will convince the tax man some of those deductions are indeed real. 

PRETTY

  Enjoy your spring.

  See you down the trail.

RESPECTING NATURE'S ELDERS

THEY DESERVE MORE RESPECT

I am, literally, a tree hugger.  Years ago I learned 

 a native practice for young men. Sorry to report I can't recall which tribal nation.

  It requires standing in the spring with your spine aligned  with a tree that is of your relative age. You put your arms behind you, encircle the tree and clasp your hands.  

This is done at a time of year when the sun and damp earth create an awakening and budding in the tree.

The idea is to sense or feel the energy flow along your spine

and to be "one" with the tree. In the practice, the

young brave stood for hours.  I've been a piker by

comparison but it is something I try to do each spring,

though young is no longer an apt description.

I think of trees as a kind of planetary elder.

I am in awe and marvel at the age and size

of redwoods and sequoias.

I've been to this point before.

A story through-line and subtext of my

second book, THE SANIBEL CAYMAN DISC,

deals with development vs. nature

and how civilization interacts with the environment.

Those under pin the surface story, the black market

in chemical and biological weapons.

I tell you this so you know my bias when

I say old trees deserve respect.

These are scenes of a recent cutting of

eucalyptus trees in Cambria.  I understand

 eucalyptus trees are fire hazards. But when a tree, still healthy, gets to this age, what is gained from felling it?  This cutting occurred on public land,

near to a trail and at a great distance from power lines. 

Smaller trees nearby were left standing.  In fact

there are many in the area that should be

pruned.  Thinning also makes sense.  I am not averse

to sound forest management practices and indeed

there are areas of the Central Coast where work needs to be done.  I am left wondering though, why an ancient tree, posing no threat needs to be felled.

I'm sure there is an official rationale.

 I've heard such explanations before and 

often they are narrow minded and usually involve

funding. 

Maybe I'm wrong headed, and overly sentimental

on the value of a tree.  But how many people do you 

know who survive to 150, 300 or even 2,500 years?

See you down the trail.

VISUAL PLEASURE

TREES, SHADOWS AND LIGHT

It's like Yogi Berra said

"you can observe a lot just by watching."

 An appealing virtue of San Luis Obispo

is the beauty of the trees lining

the streets.  Though, as I looked

at the one above, I wondered how the 

trimmer would proceed.

 In the quiet of this early morning, I was 

smitten by the shadow play along Monterey Street.

 The buildings provide a ready palate for the

shadow art.

San Luis Obispo lives up to its reputation of being a

town of Mediterranean temperament.

Rare is the day when the sun is not

a presence in San Luis Obispo. The

official stats indicate 315 days of sun each year.

It seems like more than that.

See you down the trail.