Tilling the garden

[MadHound]

Each spring I plant a garden, a seminal event. It forces me to mull on many things, not just about what I'm growing, but the world around me.

This year I mulled about the radioactive particles I was likely tilling into the soil. Though I'm not terribly concerned at this distance and time, I look towards the south, towards the west, and wonder about the two aging reactors nearby. Will their fallout one day make my garden a wasteland, or will we finally wake up and stop this nuclear madness once and for all.

I also mulled about my own future, namely will I get a job in teaching, or will the world simply have one more college educated truck stop cashier? The assault on teachers is expanding around the country, and my nominal allies in the White House have taken up the assault against my profession as well. I ponder the why's of this strategy, do they simply want to eviscerate public education, dooming the populace at large to growing up ignorant and uneducated? Because that is the road we're headed down.

I watch the birds overhead, a hawk on the wing, a flock of sparrows, and realize that I see things out here that are quickly disappearing in this country. When I was a child, even in a small city, it wasn't uncommon to see such large flocks of birds. Now the only ones I see are out here in the country, and since the country is disappearing under man's relentless drive to pave over everything, so are most of the animals.

Which led me to the purple martin house I need to erect. Bats are now infected with a fungus plague, killing them by the thousands and millions. I will miss the bats, wonderful fliers that they are, flitting through the dusk air. I also want to keep down the bug population, hence I'm going to bring in some purple martins, hopefully.

I look at the simple thing I'm doing, planting a garden, and realize that before I harvest, thousands of innocents are going to die due to this country's ongoing, illegal, immoral wars. I am filled with frustration at this thought. I do my duty, I protest, I write, I call, but the war machine rolls on. I understand why so many people have dropped out of the anti-war movement. It was never a strong, sustained movement under Bush, and now with Obama in office, hey, war seems to be OK again, or at least ignored.

A thoughtful, if somewhat melancholy afternoon, tilling the garden. Perhaps it was because the ground was so wet, this winter and spring are really reminding me of the Flood of '93. Perhaps because it is because here I am at fifty, and in my youth I thought that we would have solved some of our major problems by now. Perhaps it is because I recognize the reality of our country, our society, our world.

That reality is that we are riding down that fast slope of a declining empire. Our best days are gone, and the rampant greed of the wealthy and powerful are going to destroy us.

Where will my head be tilling the garden next spring?

[femmocrat]

1. We will all need to learn how to grow our own food before long.

I can't wait to get out into my garden. It not only puts food on the table, it feeds my soul to be out there "playing" in the dirt.

Unlike you, I can block out the world when I'm tilling, planting, weeding, staking, and ultimately harvesting. I look at my accomplishments and I am always amazed that "I grew this"!! :)

[sfwriter]

2. This is excellent... please send it out...

You paper...
CommonDreams...
The Nation...
Newsekk...
Time...
USA Today...


ANYWHERE...

[felix_numinous]

3. K&R

[sad sally]

4. Dear Mr. MoundHound:

Wait until you're 65 - if fate and the abuse inflicted by the human species (us) haven't destroyed this precious little piece of space we're attached to, my hope would be that society will be free of the cynicism at age 65 I have today.

"We travel together, passengers on a little spaceship, dependent on its vulnerable reserves of air and soil, all committed, for our safety, to its security and peace. Preserved from annihilation by the care, the work and love we give our fragile craft." Adlai Stevenson

[nc4bo]

5. These thoughts, the way you portrayed yourself, the nature you've taken notice of

all remind me of myself while tending my garden.

My mind wanders off watching the hawk and crow fly, the bees and butterflies grabbing a snack on the going to seed collards, kale and broccoli, the scent of the dirt and little multi legged critters going about their buggy business down at my feet. I can see my mother's back porch from my garden. She lays down seeds all year round for the finches, wrens, mourning doves and titmouse and I'm sure they're grateful for the free buffet.

And then have all that wonderful peaceful moment ripped right down the middle has a (or half dozen) HUMONGOUS military cargo plane comes screaming and lumbering over my head as it heads to or away from Fort Bragg.

Then all I think about is the death and the mentally destroyed and the wounded and the insanity of endless wars........

I hear ya.

[MadHound]

7. Luckily I don't have any cargo planes coming overhead,

But one thing I have noticed is that my little patch of earth seems to be right under the flyway of some fairly unconventional, and virtually unheard of, planes. The B-2 bomber makes a regular appearance, as do many others. Once in a while I look far up, and see a contrail that looks like beads on a string, supposedly the calling card of the new Aurora spy plane.

However I sympathize about the cargo planes. I used to live in SW MO, and fighter planes from both Scott and Whiteman used to come down to practice overhead. Nothing like getting shook awake at 6:00 am by a couple of jets screaming by at treetop level.

[Luminous Animal]

6. I am so looking forward to doing that tomorrow in my tiny garden in San Francisco.

Hello Soil! Be prepared for tomatoes, lettuce, scallions, radishes, cukes and peppers! And lemons and limes and apples and glorious herbs & edible flowers. I keep finding ways to plant up because down is woefully restricted.

Have fun! I know I will!

[MadHound]

8. Always have fun in the garden,

Though today, not so much. We've been really, really wet here, like I mentioned earlier, it is starting to remind of the Flood of '93. A muddy till indeed.

Have fun yourself, I've got broccoli, lettuce, onions, tomatoes, potatoes, snow peas, sweet corn, and peppers, peppers, peppers.

I got the first fruit off of my apple and pear trees last year, hoping for more this year, not to mention a ton of blackberries.

Enjoy yourself!

[Delphinus]

9. Yours

sounds a lot like mine.

Wonderful thoughts you shared in your original post, MadHound. Your words are mine, although I don't live close to a reactor. Sometimes melancholy is good for the soul - I hope it has helped yours.

[blueamy66]

10. Thank you MadHound

I will be thinking of many OTHER things today as I tend to our raised gardens. Actually, we're planning building a new one this weekend.

Going to a baby shower too. Will think of new life and families. :-)

Thanks again for the very thoughtful post.

[Le Taz Hot]

11. What is it about playing in the dirt

that induces deep thought and introspection and a reminder that we are one with nature? There's something about living things, particularly the things you've started and cultivated and babied, that gives life back to you. I've set up a few "pondering spots" in the back yard in and around the garden where you can literally spend all day, putzing, reading, listening to the birds or the fountains, watch the cats and the hummingbirds and finches . . . it's literally food for the soul.

[AnotherDreamWeaver]

12. I was weed eating thistles, but thinking some of the same thoughts.

Good luck getting a job. We need good teachers.