Thoughts on Nature

My run in with The Ecology of Invasion by Animals and Plants by Charles S. Elton has stirred up a lot of sediment in the old brain. I am reminded of Earth Days gone by. I remember protests on the banks of the Houston Ship Channel. I helped remove ligustrums from the park next door. I supported movements to protect animals because a short food chain is an unstable food chain. It's as though I thought the war had been won, only to realize it’s still raging. Thanks, Charlie.

I’d felt sort of lost recently when it came to subject matter.  Grief has been a big topic the last five years, following the death of my wife, and living with her dementia occupied my time before that. But both of those are now simply things that happened, and I don’t really need or want to relive them. The goings on in Washington disturb me, of course, but I’m no expert on international affairs, immigration, or fiscal matters. I’d like a government that treated people with decency and respect, but there are better informed, more erudite people having those discussions. 

That leaves me nature and my little piece of it. And maybe in talking about it, I can come to an understanding of nature at large, and maybe move a few people to think that we should take care of it, and if we’re taking care of nature maybe it will help us understand that humans are part of nature and maybe we should find a way to take care of them. And that doesn’t feel too strident or demanding. And I wish I could say this in a more contemporary format, but this is the best I’ve got. I’m a budding naturalist who can type.

John W Wilson

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Petals on the Ground

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Loving Nature