Earthy Matters

My affinity for forests is not a secret. I have spent many, many, many hours in forests - day and night, summer and winter, sunshine and rain. I have played there, worked there, slept there, lain awake there and sometimes just walked - or sat - and looked - and listened. Forests are temples to Life itself. Consider the variations of light, color, texture, materials, elevation, temperature, humidity, turbidity, media, size, scale and interdependence of everything you see. It's all necessary and it's all good - from the standpoint of the Life itself.

A patch of forest could easily be dismissed by the unenlightened as useless or barren simply because he has not the vision to see the panoply of Life right under his nose. "It's just a few trees, and, look, they're even too crooked to saw a board out of, and too small to make much of a fire. And, geez, the ground is pretty mucky, too, what's up with that?" Untold billions of organisms, to start with. From the tiniest microbes that infest the soil to the creepy crawlies, insects, spiders, frogs, salamanders, snakes, rodents, birds, ruminants, carnivores - all the way up to the Man, sentient being, blessed with unmatched self-awareness and cursed with so precious little awareness of anything else. Destined to dominate and destroy, to feed his egocentric mind and propagate his body in profligate comfort. Rampant consumer of resources, Man tends to judge a forest by its utilitarian and measurable attributes. How much can I sell that lumber for? How much will people pay for that building lot by the river? Where can I bag a nice big buck this Fall? Can I get a road built through that low spot or does it have to be drained first?

Admittedly, I have exploited forests at different times in my life, sometimes for the benefit of my family and sometimes for the direct benefit of others; always out of necessity and never egregiously. But exploitation has not been the pattern of my life. Add up my ecological balance sheet and you will find me to have protected and replenished the Forest in far greater measure than I have made it give up for my sake or for others. When the Forest shelters me (and it does) I acknowledge my debt of Life to it. I pay it back. I walk like the Native sons. I live among the trees; I don't knock them down to make way for me. I observe and celebrate the life it harbors; I don't try to kill it so I can take it home and hang it on my wall.

As a species we must learn to walk more softly on this planet and consume it less. Anyone can do it and Everyone should. I'm not saying "don't kill animals" or "don't cut trees". It's about balance and its about discipline. Do we NEED to use so much wood from endangered trees? Do we NEED to hang all those bearskins on the wall? We sure don't wrap ourselves in them for warmth anymore. I want people to think about the choices they make every day of their lives. Those choices affect countless other lives, and not just the dumb animals, mister. Think about your children. Leave them something. Hope, at least.