My Little Ecologist

In my youth, I was an activist for many causes. Pro-civil rights, anti-war, pro-women's rights, pro-gay rights, anti-grand-jury abuse...but my first and truest cause, the one that has endured my entire life was, is, and always will be environmentalism.

To me, wandering free through nature was the greatest pleasure of my childhood. I was a lonely child, not because I never had friends, but probably because I was a loner by nature.

My natural love has always been for trees, plants, birds, fish, other animals, the sky, clouds...Of course I love people, too, but my feelings toward people are complicated by the way we, collectively, treat our common planet.

This is why the so-called "debate" over climate change is so offensive. It really doesn't matter how much our role as an obscenely over-populated species has contributed to the indisputable warming of Earth.

What matters is that we have not treated our home with respect.

My youngest child probably knows very little about the earlier stages of my career. I do not show my kids my books or articles, unless they ask. That work occurred a long time ago.

But, in her own powerful way, she is an activist who wants to make an impact on environmental grounds. She's only eleven. She's already a vegetarian. She also likes to use the visual arts to express her beliefs.

So this is the work she did today. It adorns our front fence, as the photos below capture.





Back when there were hippies, stoned on dope but aware of karma, everyone would say, "what goes around, comes around." I hope that is true.

At least in my little world, it feels true tonight.

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